Off to Utah once more and to the Canyons ski area again.
Drove to the ski area in a blizzard, very scary with lots of sliding around the road at 65mph close to big trucks. The drive is up a long and winding climb through the mountains that is literally uphill for more than 11 miles. Made it safely in the end and settled into our condo which was great, a little more basic than the one last year but right on the slopes which more than made up for it.
Sunday
First day of skiing and boarding, glad to be back in Utah for all this
Tuesday
Had a day off from the slopes and decided to do something a little different, like swim in a natural hot pool inside a cave. So off we went to the Homestead Spaand being mid-week we almost had the place to ourselves.
A bit of daylight came in from the roof (above) and here's the kids on the outside of the dome
They have ice-sculptures, long since eroded but still quite cool
After our relaxing swim it was off to Park City which we really like, even though there always seems to be a biting wind that chases us around the town and forces us into shops.
Where cakes and hot chocolate are often consumed. This was a great coffee shop that did a mean eclair.
And a book shop where Dan is happy just sitting a reading
Friday
Work sadly intervened on Friday and I had to make a 24-hour trip to San Jose. Andy and the kids watched the world downhill
Saturday
Up, packed and out by 8:30am which was good going, then off towards Solitude for our final skiing day of our American adventure. We picked Solitude for it's reputation for great snow and short lines as there really hadn't been much fresh snow since we got to Utah and it wasn't bad. Certainly very short lines, the resort itself is much, much smaller than Canyons but much more accessible and with a nice village too. One let down though was the geologically slow service at one of the restaurants with no apology. This is extremely unusual and un-American, contrast if you will with what happened at Famous Dave's when Martin and Margaret visited recently. We ordered and about 15 minutes the manager came over and apologized for the late arrival of the food and offered to take 30% off of the bill and give us a free desert and 'is that OK?'. We hadn't even noticed the food was late! So our meal for 6 including full rack of ribs, deserts all round and beers etc.. came to about $9 each - ridiculous. Give the level of service we'd eat there more often if it wouldn't kill us. The mid-western hospitality had obviously skidded off of the road and down the side of a mountain somewhere as we got nothing at all for the 50 minute wait for our food, it was so bad that a neighbouring table gave us some of theirs which we shared with the table next to us in turn. It fostered quite a blitz-like spirit which is an upside I suppose.
Drove to the ski area in a blizzard, very scary with lots of sliding around the road at 65mph close to big trucks. The drive is up a long and winding climb through the mountains that is literally uphill for more than 11 miles. Made it safely in the end and settled into our condo which was great, a little more basic than the one last year but right on the slopes which more than made up for it.
Sunday
First day of skiing and boarding, glad to be back in Utah for all this
Tuesday
Had a day off from the slopes and decided to do something a little different, like swim in a natural hot pool inside a cave. So off we went to the Homestead Spaand being mid-week we almost had the place to ourselves.
And a book shop where Dan is happy just sitting a reading
Friday
Work sadly intervened on Friday and I had to make a 24-hour trip to San Jose. Andy and the kids watched the world downhill
Saturday
Up, packed and out by 8:30am which was good going, then off towards Solitude for our final skiing day of our American adventure. We picked Solitude for it's reputation for great snow and short lines as there really hadn't been much fresh snow since we got to Utah and it wasn't bad. Certainly very short lines, the resort itself is much, much smaller than Canyons but much more accessible and with a nice village too. One let down though was the geologically slow service at one of the restaurants with no apology. This is extremely unusual and un-American, contrast if you will with what happened at Famous Dave's when Martin and Margaret visited recently. We ordered and about 15 minutes the manager came over and apologized for the late arrival of the food and offered to take 30% off of the bill and give us a free desert and 'is that OK?'. We hadn't even noticed the food was late! So our meal for 6 including full rack of ribs, deserts all round and beers etc.. came to about $9 each - ridiculous. Give the level of service we'd eat there more often if it wouldn't kill us. The mid-western hospitality had obviously skidded off of the road and down the side of a mountain somewhere as we got nothing at all for the 50 minute wait for our food, it was so bad that a neighbouring table gave us some of theirs which we shared with the table next to us in turn. It fostered quite a blitz-like spirit which is an upside I suppose.
