Dear Everyone,
Yes, this letter is late, and I don’t have any illness to
blame, but I have been pretty busy. Last
Thursday I took the boys to Park City, Utah, for three days of skiing. Our flight left about 30 minutes late, but
the direct flight was smooth, and our car was upgraded to a Chevrolet Equinox, a nice mid-sized SUV. We drove without incident up to Park City,
with a pit stop at a 7-11 to pick up some milk and rolled tortilla chips (Takis
fajita taco flavor. I couldn’t get
anyone to agree on beef jerky though.). We were staying at the Lodge on
Mountain Village. This is a group of
condos right at the lift ticket area, so we were about 100 yards away from the
ski lifts. The room left a little to be
desired, but about all I did there was read or sleep.
The next morning we had our personalized rental service, Ski
Butlers, deliver our boots and skis to us.
This is a great idea when you are staying off site, but we probably
could have saved some money and rented equipment right at the Mountain Village
- - there must have been 5 or 6 (or more) rental shops steps away. Also, Ski Butlers used our old data from
years past, and Jasper probably should have gotten longer skis.
Anyway, we right up on the slopes. Park City has had a dearth of snow this year
- - not even 200 inches, and you could see lots of bare and icy patches on the
slopes. Even slopes that are usually
difficult to ski on because of the number of moguls were relatively easy to go
down this year. We skied until about 3
PM, and then headed back to the room for a rest. For dinner the first night we went to Kimball
Junction for our traditional meal of shabu shabu at the Shabu Shabu House. This is a good way to make sure you are
hydrated. Saturday morning, Jasper was
feeling some altitude effects, so Lucas and I skied on our own in the morning,
and then came down the mountain to have lunch with Jasper at the base, and then
we skied until they started closing off runs at 4 PM. During the day we got stuck on a lift for 20
minutes because a chair got jammed against a ski patrol toboggan (and all of us got sunburnt noses!). We also saw a
pair of Golden Eagles flying together, maybe a courtship ritual at this time of
year. Lucas and Jasper were both willing to tackle advanced slopes as long as
they weren’t too bumpy, and they have come a far way from Alpine Valley. Lucas could probably use some work on his
form, while Jasper could be a bit more aggressive.
Sunday it was finally snowing, too late for us, alas. We went up the mountain to ski in the
morning. It was nice to have fresh snow,
but we were right in the middle of the cloud, and couldn’t see more than about
thirty feet ahead. This made the slopes
more of an adventure. The snow was also
pretty wet, and we were getting soaked, so we stopped about an hour earlier
than we had intended. We checked out
successfully and drove to the airport.
When we got there, we found an internal glitch with our boarding passes
– we weren’t assigned a place in the Southwest line. When we went to customer service we were told
that the issue was that Southwest had booked a simultaneous flight to Chicago
because they needed an extra one at Midway for a charter. We ended up leaving twenty minutes early on a
flight that was only half full! One of the plusses for me on this trip was
using my Kindle. I didn’t have to pack a
bunch of books! If I ran out of material
I could buy more right there! I don’t know why I was resistant to getting one
of these devices for so long. I wouldn’t
use it for every day reading, but it is great on a trip.
Cindy got to spend the weekend alone…something she did not
complain about.
The boys at the top of the Silverlode lift.
Love, H.
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