Activities in Salt Lake City

Marine Products is a purveyor of wakeboards, water skis, boating equipment, and all the apparel and accessories required for stylish water sporting. Board shorts from brands including Billabong and O'Neill ($41.99–$62.00) look best balancing atop a wakeboard ($240–$1,000) or dearly holding onto a Hornet Tube ($75). To ensure safety, supply life vests for valuable family members ($25–$135), priceless family pets ($29.99), and laminated issues of Tiger Beat. Brands including Liquid Force, Ronix, Byerly, and Oakley make puppy eyes at patrons, while an experienced and knowledgeable staff of wake lovers and water otters stands at the ready to provide individual assistance.

At Level Nine Sports' new, eco-friendly, 12,000-square-foot store, knowledgeable staffers outfit snow walkers of all skills with gear by brands such as Atomic, Salomon, and Under Armour. Keep noggins intact while sliding down the slopes or head butting yetis with a black Lucky Bums helmet, or slip on adult wide-framed Scott Strike goggles ($29), which boast chrome amplifier lenses with rose-tinting inside. Renowned Rossignol 2012 S7 twin-tip powder skis ($699) send male and female skiers flying down powdered mountains, carving the snow into ribbons and marriage proposals. Level Nine Sports also assists novice riders in sizing and gear education.

The diving gurus at this PADI five-star diving center train fledgling underwater explorers and practiced deep-sea divers alike with an array of diving courses. Spend 30 minutes learning the scuba basics in the classroom before practicing your newfound underwater knowledge for an hour in the heated diving pool. Under the instruction of Scuba Utah's hard-working, helpful staff, divers should be able to clear their mask and regulator as well venture into the 12-foot deep-end of the facility's pool. Scuba Utah provides all necessary diving gear, freeing equipment-less divers from their recurring nightmares of ridicule at the hands of goggle-wearing sea turtles.

Designed to highlight the different ways children learn, Discovery Gateway's exhibits are colorful and kid-friendly. Around every corner is something to touch, investigate, or explore.

• Size: 60,000 square feet

• Eye-Catcher: Kids enter The Garden through a 30-foot beehive to learn about how life grows.

• Don't Miss: At Kid's Eye View, everything's scaled down to help kids learn about the world on their own scale; here, kids explore a farm, a market, a construction site, and a water play area.

• Hands-On Experiences: At the Saving Lives exhibit, kids role-play and learn in a number of activities, coordinating a life flight launch, caring for patients in an interactive treatment area in a helicopter, and using a gurney track to transport patients from the helicopter to the emergency department.

• Special Programs: The museum hosts a wide selection of art and science classes, plus activities and workshops for kids.

• Celebrations: A charming room hosts birthday parties with themed activities, such as a superhero obstacle course and a musical parade.

Black Diamond Store's roots stretch back to 1957, when 18-year-old Yvon Chouinard began pounding out mountain-climbing gear with a hammer and an anvil. Chouinard's gear was a quick hit within the climbing community, and today, some 50 years and a name change later, his backyard operation has prospered into a global corporation with offices on three continents.

Despite such profound growth, the company holds true to the values that helped it thrive. Its climbing and skiing products undergo rigorous testing to sustain the highest possible quality while utilizing the latest technologies to keep users one step ahead of the game. And, rather than testing gear on trembling, acrophobic mannequins, the company's employees try out Black Diamond products themselves—like the company's customers, they're climbers, skiers, and adventurists, too.

2,270. That's how many 2011 Utah Undie Run attendees broke the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people wearing only underwear. These days, the annual 5k opens with a count to see if it can beat its 2011 milestone. Then, runners—whose shed clothing is donated to the homeless—sprint toward the finish line donning bras, boxers, and swimwear. In lieu of athletic clothes, they cover themselves in body paint that express things they'd like to see change in Utah, such as adding pepper to the state's notoriously salty lake.

Those messages might earn participants top prize in the body painting category of Utah Undie Run's costume contests, whose other categories include biggest undies and best wild card. The contests take place at the race's after party, a freewheeling festival of bounce houses, mechanical bull riding, and live DJs.