31 December, 2016

Skiing and fireworks, a fine end to 2016

Today was our first full day at the resort.  We got off to a very late start; we got up late and took our time with breakfast and prep.

Wed decided that the first thing to do was to get some skiing lessons.  it was the kiddos' first time, and it had been a long while for me, so we decided to all take a beginners class together.  We got kitted up at the rental shop and we're out in time for the early afternoon lessons.






Our instructor, Bryan, was a nice guy.  Not fantastic at explaining the fundamentals to a bunch of total newbies, but he got his points across eventually and we were soon in our skis and ready to start plows and vees and J turns. Except for my poor baby girl; the art of defying friction on a declined plane proved too much for her definition of a well-behaved reality, and she had to call it a day early.  Skiing, she stated quite firmly, was not for her.  Fair enough!  My son, on the other hand, took to it like a duck to water, enjoying himself tremendously and vowing to return with me the next day.

The day was absolutely perfect for it, too.  The sun was out and shining brightly, not a cloud in the sky.  Too warm for a coat for me,  so I skiid in a (non-water-repellent) pullover.  Fortunately I managed to stay dry!





All too soon, it was time to leave the slopes and return to our lodge and get ready for the evening.  The resort was alleged to have a truly magnificent fireworks display for New Year's Eve, as well as some excellent live music out on the snow.

it did not disappoint, in the end.  While Jen and Elena went to get champagne and wine for later, Gareth and I relaxed at a restaurant, sipping coffee and hot chocolate and enjoying the music and the crowd.  At first we thought we'd missed the fireworks, but as we trudged back to the bus stop to return to the other side of the resort, we heard the tremendous booms of fireworks.  Rushing back uphill to find a better vantage point, we got to watch one of the absolute best fireworks displays I've ever seen.  They were enormous as well as extraordinary close, perhaps only a couple hundred feet over the resort rooftop.  As a family, we sat and watched together.




What a wonderful way to end the year: Enjoying the snow and music and fireworks with the people that matter most.

30 December, 2016

Park City

My kids have never really seen snow.  Real snow, measured in feet rather than inches, powdery and fine.  Central Texas "snow" is an affair that lasts a few hours and comes once every few years at best.

We'd talked, Jen and I, about taking a snow holiday for awhile now, with the kiddos. Take them into the mountains to ski, snowboard, and generally frolic in the cold.  Ruidoso, maybe Breckenridge.  One place we hadn't considered was Utah.  it wasn't until someone else suggested it that we started looking into places.  Park City was, in hindsight, an obvious choice.  Olympic Village, two huge (now one enormous) ski park, and tons of other things to do (tubing, zip lines, dog sledding, etc. etc.). Also, it is significantly less expensive than most Colorado destinations.

So, here we are.  At the time of this writing, I'm in our condo at the Lift Lodge Resort, just off the slopes. I rather missed the boat on writing the lead - in for this trip.  This is a crazy time of year at the best of times, much less with kids coming home from Uni, a holiday masquerade ball to prepare for, crunch time at the office... it completely slipped my mind to write up the preface for this trip ahead of time.



But better late than never, right?  We've no set schedule for this trip, really, just a list of activities that we'd like to do.  So far it's been a bit rough; the flight was very early, folks didn't get a lot of rest, and Gareth is not feeling well.  I hope he's just feeling a bit airlock and fatigue from the day and that a good night's sleep will see him back to normal.  It didn't help that our rooms weren't ready yet when we arrived (not really the resorts fault as we were early) and that getting seated for lunch took a very long time.  We were all ready for a nap once we got back.








After that, Jen, Elena and I explored Park City for a bit while Gareth continued resting, and eventually found a place for dinner.  This was after being rebuffed at several places by hour-long wait times; tourism is clearly booming here this holiday season.

Finally, after hiking back up the mountain to our rooms, we've settled in for the night.  Park City is a very pretty place, and there is ample snow on the ground (though none has yet fallen in our presence) to supply the winter magic we were hoping for.

Next, E, G, and I will hopefully be doing some skiing!