Twenty-five years of stays produce more stories than any single blog post can hold. When we first opened our guest submissions to the world, the response was overwhelming, and we could only share a handful of the memories we received. This installment turns to the ones we had not yet told: a proposal born from a running joke, a life reshaped by a single elevator ride, a family who has returned every year on a budget for nearly two decades, and a woman whose family's story stretches from Kabul to the Salt Lake Valley.

These are their words, and their moments.

The Joke That Became a Proposal

Nick had bought his girlfriend concert tickets before the pandemic, and the show was postponed for three years. When it finally happened, Nick joked that they would be staying in a dumpy hotel for the weekend. As they pulled up to The Grand America, she looked at him and said, "We are staying here?" That night, in the room, he proposed.

The couple has returned a dozen times since. "We have stayed a dozen times since, because of the feel and memories of the Grand," Nick wrote.

An Elevator, a Lifetime

Michelle's story began in an elevator at The Grand America in August 2001. A man she had once disliked kissed her there, and she fell in love with him on the spot. They married a year later. Seventeen years after that first kiss, she held his hand as he passed away.

Before he left, he asked her to write down their love story. When she finished the book in August 2019, she returned to The Grand America and rode that same elevator once more. "I am a married widow," she wrote, "as he promised to come get me when it is my time. Once in a while, life gives you a fairy tale."

Common People, an Uncommon Tradition

Nearly twenty years ago, Allen and his wife received a gift: a stay at The Grand America for their anniversary. They were, in his words, common people of average means, but the visit left such an impression that they resolved to save each year enough to return. They have been coming back every January 26th ever since, now closing in on forty-seven years of marriage.

"Although we are common people, it makes us feel a little special to stay there," Allen wrote. "We love it and hope and pray to be there again this year."

A New Home, an Old Story

Naima's family came to Utah as refugees from Kabul, Afghanistan, before she was two years old. Growing up, she heard her mother describe Hotel Kabul as a gathering place, full of coffee, tea, and wedding celebrations, and her grandfather taking her mother to watch the moon landing. When The Grand America opened in 2001, the same year Naima met her husband, it became the place where her family built new memories in their new home.

"To describe the Grand America as a memory is difficult for me," she wrote, "because a memory implies that it is in the past, whereas I feel the Grand as an active, present feeling in my life." She has celebrated birthdays in the gardens, admired the Holiday Window Stroll each winter, and watched her children grow up within these walls. "The context and feeling the Grand America embodies is love, celebration, pause, joy, and gratitude," she wrote. "Cheers to another twenty-five years, to us, and to life being grand."

A Standing Reservation

Jack has visited The Grand America more times than he can count, but each visit has always been shaped by the occasion. Mother's Day Brunch, followed by an afternoon in the gardens. Anniversaries. Holidays. A yearly business conference that somehow always feels like more than business.

"We have celebrated anniversaries, holidays, and a business conference once a year," Jack wrote of his many returns. For his family, The Grand America has become the place where every occasion, large or small, is properly marked.

A Home Away From Home, Twice a Year

For Robbi, The Grand America is not a vacation destination but a professional home base. Twice each year since 2024, she has brought the Society of Utah Medical Oncologists to the hotel for their conferences, guided by a team she credits with making a demanding job easier.

"The care the team provides to help plan the conferences has been amazing," she wrote, adding that even her personal trips through Salt Lake City now include a stay at The Grand. Her one indulgence: a massage to recover from the flight before the conference begins.

A Christmas Tradition in the Making

Sheila has returned to the Gibson Lounge three times over the past few years, drawn back each time by Bridget and Derek's cabaret performances. Christmas is when the hotel calls her most.

"I especially love coming during Christmas because the hotel is so beautiful," Sheila wrote. She is already planning her next visit, this time bringing her grandchildren along to experience the holiday traditions for themselves.

Twenty-five years in, the stories keep arriving, each one a little different, each one certain that this hotel belongs to them as much as it belongs to us. We are grateful to everyone, and we are still listening.

The Summer Celebration Series continues through August 2026. Share your memory here .