2 hours before we left, I fell on the stairs and twisted my ankle pretty badly. I could walk on it, so I thought it was fine. We left Oakland at 9pm, got to Salt Lake City around midnight and went straight to the hotel. My ankle was pretty swollen from walking on it so much, so I iced it down.
Saturday December 27, 2008
I was limping on my ankle, so no skiing for me today. My dad went out on the slopes, and my mom and I walked around in downtown Park City. Waited for the bus for a LONG time and almost froze, but made it back to the hotel. We ate dinner at an Italian place nearby. It was OK.
Sunday December 28, 2008
My dad and I walked over the Stein Eriksen Lodge to check it out and were pretty unimpressed. Here's the front of the Stein Eriksen:
My ankle was feeling better, so we decided to ski for a bit. Found a run called Little Kate, and tried to have my mom take pictures, but they came out blurry.
After a few runs, my mom and I were both feeling depressed, so we decided to call it a day. We ate at Jean Louis, supposedly French, but we started noticing patterns on all of the local menus (namely: Wedge Salad, Osso Bucco, Fondue, etc).
Monday December 29, 2008
We woke up late and decided not to ski because it looked pretty cold outside. I don't really remember what we did. I think just walked around and then came back for Cheese Fondue. We went to dinner at a local cafe. After, we decided to go barhopping downtown. We met a nice gay guy from San Deigo who shared our distaste for the generic menus. Here's a photo of downtown Park City:
Tuesday December 30, 2008
We decided to wake up early and get in some good skiing. The day was beautiful - and we skied quite a bit. Here are some photos of the view from the top of the Mountain:
I don't know who this woman is, she wouldn't get out of my picture, so I decided to take it anyway:
Here's my mom and dad, halfway down Tycoon with the beautiful view:
I ditched my parents and got a better picture of my run, then met them for lunch and back up for a couple runs. Here's my run:
Under it, it says More Difficult. Haha Ain't that the truth! The run was a little icy and bumpy. I almost fell once, but overall, it was short and sweet. My mom got a manicure/pedicure and I got a mini facial in the spa across the street from our hotel. We had dinner reservations at the River Horse, supposedly the best restaurant, but since the reservations were late, we went downtown for drinks beforehand. We met a nice, big family from Missouri with some cousins my age. Then dinner, which they tried to stuff us into a bar table, but after we complained, they accommodated us to a booth. The food was excellent, then we went back to the bar for live entertainment, which now had a cover charge. We almost got stuck downtown because our hotel's shuttle driver was off duty and we missed the last bus. But, we got a taxi ride instead.
Wednesday December 31, 2008
Woke up moderately early and skied for a while. Again, it was a gorgeous day and the slopes were perfect. I split from my parents again and decided to try a Black Diamond (Stein's Way), but was severely disappointed that, like all of the Intermediates, it was pretty easy. I went in early and my mom and I tried to have lunch at our hotel (it's the most popular place on the hill). The service was so slow that they did not charge us for lunch. My mom did a few last runs on her own, then we went to the hot tub, and relaxed before dinner. We had a very late dinner at the Stein Eriksen, which was more show than quality. The other people around were fairly tacky. One guy, with his daughter and trophy wife, called the black truffle shavings on his steak "roasted coconut"!! At least if you are going to have that much money, you should be sophisticated enough to know what truffles are! It makes me sick. Dessert came and we had to rush out for the count-down. Mr. Stein Eriksen sang a Norwegian ballad, then we counted down the new year. They had fireworks right off the back deck, and this was the closest fireworks show I've ever seen. They were literally RIGHT above our heads, raining down on us. A few exploded on the ground and everyone screamed expecting the trees to ignite. I couldn't tell if they were cheers or screams. There was dancing inside, but most people were coupled up, so it was pretty lame. My mom and I realized this was our one and only opportunity to say that we had kissed Mr. Stein Eriksen, so we dared each other to go up and wish him a happy new year. She made me go first, so I kissed him on the cheek. He was a little shocked. Then my mom chickened out and I'm not going to let her live it down for a while. Here is Olympic Gold Medalist Stein Eriksen in his prime:
He did NOT look like this now! This photo was taken over 50 years ago, so add another 50+ years, and THAT'S what I kissed. Yuck. We walked back to our hotel and fell asleep before California entered 2009!Thursday January 1, 2009
Our original plan was to leave on the 31st, so we could all spend New Year's Eve with our respective friends. My plan had been to stop in Vegas for Cirque's Love show, but seeing as how our worlds fell apart over the last few months, we decided to stay until after New Year's. We ended up catching an earlier flight, packed up and headed to the airport. We were home by 4pm, so we ate dinner here and caught a movie.
Overall, we loved skiing in Deer Valley - all runs are intermediate level, so there is no fear to get lost and stuck on a run you can't do. The service all over Park City and Deer Valley was superb! And, we loved staying at the Goldener Hirsch. It was walking distance to the base of the lift (we didn't even have to cross a street!!) and the hotel was quaint and beautiful. Here are some pictures of our hotel room:
Here's a picture of the outside of the Goldener Hirsch (at night):
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