Park City Ski Trip 2018: Day 3

Alta

For the first time in several years, we headed to Alta Mountain, where snowboarders are not allowed. Ethan was due for another day of lessons so Carol and Kim stayed with him while Christina and I ventured up Sugarloaf Lift.

Strike a pose.

Early in the day, the snow was fairly icy, which eventually precipitated a nasty fall down the mountain for Alex and Christina - especially Christina. She bounced back pretty quickly, however, and we kept on.

Alta. Is good.

We stopped for lunch at Alf's Restaurant mid-mountain and had a reuben and beers. For the second straight day, it was nice enough to eat outside!

Nothing helps one recover like beer.

Still on our own, we did a few more hours of runs off of the Collins lift. The snow improved later in the day and we managed to pack in 8 or 9 total runs.

Tragically, Truman was blocked from view by the camera.

After skiing our tails off, we met up with Carol, Kim, and Ethan. Ethan impressed us all with his major improvement, after just two days of instruction. He's going to be real good, real soon.

Après-Ski

After thoroughly skiing ourselves to exhaustion, we headed home for some homemade pizzas and the Kansas-Villanova Final Four matchup. The former were fantastic (so fantastic we ate them before thinking to take a picture) and the latter was a Wildcat rout. That's all we'll say about that.

Park City Ski Trip 2018: Day 2

Carol, Christina, and Kim from the top of Brighton Ski Resort

Avant-Ski

Christina and I woke up at 6:30, still on Central Daylight Time, drank an entire pot of coffee and psyched ourselves up for the day. When Carol texted us at about 9 AM we left immediately. Carol was having furniture delivered between 10 and 2 so we were making arrangements for the rest of the day when the delivery men surprised us all by arriving right at 10. After an hour of moving couches around, we got dressed and decided to leave, because it was time to get our skis!

Ethan and Kim at Breeze, being super patient

We stopped at Breeze to outfit ourselves, which took a long time due in part to the guy who was trying to impress us all with his ski knowledge, for whatever reason. We discussed it later and agreed he was kinda jerky. But we threw everything in the minivan and headed to Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Ski

After lunch at the Brighton Center, we dropped Ethan off at ski school until 3:30 PM. Brighton was all ours for a half day of skiing. We started on Crest Express before heading on to Snake Creek Express, where we spent most of the day.

Carol and Kim (and a stranger) on a lift at Brighton

 The snow was good, not great (maybe a 6.5/10) but we still had a blast. Everyone acquired their “ski legs” quickly, although Christina surprised us all by faceplanting in the snow! No injuries, happily.

Nothing hurt but her pride. Actually, her pride is just fine.

After finishing up with skiing at 3:30, we headed down to Ethan’s ski school, where we saw him on skis for the first time! He had a great time and wants to keep skiing.

Ethan, Kim, and Carol hung out at the Center while Christina and I caught two more runs before the 4:00 PM shut-off time. We hopped on Crest Express and did some woodsy adventuring. Total blast.

Truman the Snake, of course, was along for the ride.

Après-ski

After skiing we hopped in the van, drove home, dropped Carol, Kim, and Ethan off at their place so Christina and I could head to the store. Back at the condo, Christina suggested Ethan help with the cooking. He chopped up bell peppers, though weirdly had some hang-ups about touching bell pepper seeds, and then helped Alex carve the rotisserie chicken. He did a great job.

Ethan rolled up his sleeves and harvested some chicken meat.

We dined on fajitas, a nice easy meal for us to prepare, drank wine and beer, and watched some GoPro footage and interesting YouTube videos while discussing the events of the day and making plans for Saturday, Day 3! Great trip so far. Tomorrow, we head to Alta, where Ethan will take some more lessons and the grown-ups will enjoy (hopefully) sparsely populated slopes. After that, it’s the Kansas-Villanova Final Four matchup. 

Park City Ski Trip 2018: Day 1

Alex and Christina in Park City, UT

Getting Ready

Christina and I departed our home in Wichita at 12:40 PM on a slightly delayed Southwest flight on our way to Salt Lake City through Phoenix. I had dropped Ava off at Peter and Tracy’s earlier in the day and Christina arranged care for the cats. We both missed the animals very much.

Before we could relax we had to do some work, so after breezing through security thanks to TSA Pre, we arranged our laptops across a table in River City Brewing for emails and 44 ounces of pre-flight beer.

Flights

The best part about the flight(s) was when I spotted the Grand Canyon out of the east-facing window and took a picture:

The Grand Canyon, as viewed from 40,000 ft

In 2013, Carol and Kim took Benjamin and I to hike the Grand Canyon (Christina could not attend due to medical school), which was an incredible trip. Looking out the window, I spotted the campground where we spent the night at the base of the trail, the suspension bridge we had used to cross the Colorado River, and the lodge where we had begun the hike. I found the same view via Google Earth satellite imagery and confirmed my observations:

The Grand Canyon, as viewed from space

I was also able to zoom in and follow the North Rim trail all the way out of the Canyon. Memories!

Park City

After an enjoyable and uneventful flight, we picked up our rental car and headed east from Salt Lake City International to Park City. Feeling wrung out from the airports, but excited to be in town, we headed downtown for food and drinks at Boneyard Saloon and Wine Dive, where we enjoyed:

• Local beers (Moab Deadhorse Amber for Alex, Schöfferhofer Grapefruit for Christina) 

Grapefruit

• Cocktails, for which we invoked “Dealers Choice”, a discounted ($9 ea.) option wherein the bartender improvises you up a cocktail. I got a “tequila old fashioned” which was outstanding, and Christina got “blue, with vodka” which tasted of blue.  

Blue

• Small plates, including an Amish Friendship Pretzel, an Ahi Poke tower, and roasted Brussels sprouts. 

Everything was just great, and we discussed plans for the upcoming trip. Finally, it was a few stops for groceries and beverages, and then to bed. Definitely an enjoyable first day, especially for a travel day.