Logan offers summertime activities, charm

LOGAN — For the past seven summers, Tom and Pat Lundregan of Chandler, Ariz., have been "sunbirds," spending a dozen pleasant weeks in and around Logan, their home away from home.

Unlike "snowbirds," who head south to escape winter, retired "sunbirds" like the Lundregans — he's originally from Illinois, while she hails from Oklahoma — live in the sunny Southwest most of the year and migrate north to escape the harsh midsummer desert heat.

"They've got it good up here," Lundregan notes during a stop with his wife for an update and a bit of souvenir-shopping at the Cache Valley Visitor Center, in the historic county courthouse downtown.

"Want to know what's going on? Stop here," says Ann Egland, working the welcome counter. "On any given day, there's lots of things going on."

And during summer, she says, "I think Logan shines."

Indeed, Logan is entering its tourist-magnet peak.

The marquee Utah Festival Opera season begins July 8 and continues through Aug. 8. Founded and headed by opera singer Michael Ballam, this year's lineup includes Gilbert and Sullivan's whimsical fantasy of old Japan, "The Mikado"; the Broadway favorite "Camelot"; George Bizet's "Carmen"; and the Italian classics "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "I Pagliacci."

Already under way downtown is Old Lyric Repertory Company's theater season, with performances in Utah State University's Caine Lyric Theatre through Aug. 1. The rotating plays are Larry Shue's comedy "The Foreigner"; "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown," the musical based on Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" characters; Oscar Wilde's witty "The Importance of Being Earnest"; and the more recent mystery "Ghosts of Ocean House."

And Cache Valley's venerable Festival of the American West has evolved to a year-round venue, the American West Heritage Center, just off U.S. 89-91 in Wellsville, southwest of Logan. Besides the longtime exhibits at the 1917 Jensen Historical Farm, the site now includes a new museum, a "pioneer settlement," a mountain man "fur trade encampment" and an area dedicated to the region's native Shoshone Nation. The "Spirit of '47 Pioneer Jubilee" will celebrate Pioneer Day on July 24.

And those are just the headliners.

Options galore

The courthouse tourism office has shelves and shelves of brochures and ideas for those looking to supplement the festivals with other activities, including a Cache Valley arts calendar; a self-guided tour of birding trails, a hiking trail guide for the Logan Ranger District — and of course the Cache Valley food tour.