Last weekend we went to Park City, Utah, for my friend’s wedding. The wedding was on Saturday night so we decided to make it a four day weekend, without the kids, for a little vacation. It was freakin great. No joke, GREAT. No kids, 4 days of hanging out in a 4 star resort that was pretty cheap because its their off season, in a cottage, long runs in the morning, mountain biking down a 9,400 foot mountain, bob sledding, swimming and of course the wedding. Couple of things about the trip.
- Park City Utah is a ski resort community, but...
- Park City Utah is a ski resort community, but it has great summer activities. But since the majority of the money is made during the winter, the town is pretty reasonable when it comes to prices during the summer months. We had a cottage with 3 fire places, a jacuzzi, kitchen, washer dryer, 2 flat screen TVs and all of the other stuff for much less than a crappy room in NY City. And really only slightly more expensive than a decent hotel in any city, where we stayed at the high end of places there.
- The Sundance Film festival takes place in Park City so it has a funky kind of feel to it.
- Everyone is really into outdoor, fitness type stuff. And they are not arrogant about it. Patti and I rented mountain bikes and went down one of the largest ski resorts in the area, which took two ski lifts to get to the top, and never once felt out of place. Of course my goal was to get to the bottom as fast as possible, forget safety, and Patti’s goal was to not go to the hospital.
- I thought that after running out there in the thin air, I would be in better shape when I ran back here. But dealing with thin air but no humidity is easier than sea level air with crazy humidity. I still found it stifling to run with New England humidity.
- I made jokes about going to Utah, like that Patti would have to wear a burka, but there was nothing unusual about it. I read Under the Banner of Heaven and know that while there are crazy Mormons, that 99% of them are normal people who have a different religion, no different than being a Catholic or Lutheran. You can buy beer, wine and liquor from a store and there is no issue with buying drinks at a bar. A lot of places have private clubs you pay to join, but that is just a unique aspect of Utah, not something that has anything to do with religion. And the clubs are usually a room above the general restaurant and only cost a few bucks to join. It might be different in Salt Lake, but Park City is no different than Quincy or Queens.
- There are still remnants of the 2002 Olympics, where some of the outdoor events were held in Park City. For example, the running trail we used had really cool Olympic statues and information plaques along the way.
- Some of the scenes from Dumb and Dumber were shot there. Not sure where, but I found this out somehow.
- When we were there, Salt Lake had record breaking heat. But Park City, about 35 miles east of SLC, was in the upper 80s with no humidity. Locals were complaining about the heat but to Patti and me it felt much cooler since there was no humidity. Apparently no one has air conditioners since it very rarely gets above the upper 70s.
- One of the more popular ski mountains has all this crap for families. Two things we did were a bobsled ride down the mountain, once on something that ran on a track and another time on a sled that ran down a chute type thing. Both good times.
Overall it was a great trip and we would definitely go back. It’s got a ton of things to do, has plenty of options for eating and going out for drinks, is easy to get to from Salt Lake, and is breathtakingly beautiful. Next time we might bring the kids, or at least some of them. Maybe.
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