Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO -- After the website Portfolio.com listed Provo as the least fun city in America, Provo residents want the world to know their city is actually a lot of fun.
Friday, Provo's mayor tried to do a little bit of everything he says makes Provo an exciting place to live.
Some people, like those at Portfolio.com, would say it only takes a few minutes to do everything that's fun in Provo. Mayor John Curtis disagrees.
Friday was Curtis's 50th birthday, and as a fun day he wanted to show others how many fun things there are in his town.
Provo boasts unique restaurants, tree-lined sidewalks to run on, good old-fashioned yard sales and even plenty of downtown shopping.
"There's always something going on," resident Carie Vaughn said about Provo.
Resident Kelsy Clark agrees. "I love it," she said. "I wouldn't go anywhere else."
Just whatever you do, don't call Provo boring.
Curtis says boring isn't even in Provo's vocabulary. He set out to prove it today but doing as many fun things in the city as possible, like ice hockey at the Seven Peaks Arena and arm wrestling BYU mascot Cosmo, challenging him to a push-up contest, then throwing a flat football around -- until somebody found an inflated one.
Curtis also planned to do a little sky-bungee jumping at the Provo mall, only to find out it was closed. However, he did go skiing, waterskiing and even rode a motorcycle -- all things, he says, make Provo a pretty fun place, no matter what some website says.
"You have to be able to laugh at yourself," Curtis said. "We know they're using bars and gambling as criteria. Part of what we're doing today is to show what true fun is."
Curtis says it takes more than one day to do all the fun that's available in Provo, though some people might disagree. Honestly, that debate is kind of the fun involved in almost any ranking.
E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com
