I recently took a job working for a company in Salt Lake City, and while I work from home, I do occasionally visit the office in SLC. I’m so excited to explore this gorgeous area…once it warms up! I can’t stop goggling out the window at the beautiful mountains, and can’t wait until spring when I can go hiking.
Lucky for me, my cousin, Genevieve, lives nearby in Park City. I spent the weekend with her, and am already ready to return.
A Snowy Saunter
Genevieve had lured me with the possibility of snowshoeing, but when we woke up on Saturday, the inversion (read: smog) made visibility pretty bad in pockets in the valleys, and she said the snow wasn’t right for snowshoeing (don’t ask me!).
So instead, we went for a walk around a park. Given the fact that Park City is 7,000 feet above the altitude I’m accustomed to (sea level), even a flat walk made me pant a little. I’d never walked in the snow for exercise and kept marveling at the glistening white all around.
When we reached this sculpture, we thought it was a recycling receptacle.
“Where do you put the bottles,” she wondered.
“His butt?” I asked. We burst into giggles. Not much has changed since we were kids running around our Memon’s house.
Turned out, it wasn’t a receptacle. Just a sculpture illuminating the fact that wildlife can consume our waste.
Olympic Flips
Genevieve is a great tour guide. I’d done surprisingly little research on Park City beforehand, preferring to let her shuttle me around. We made a quick stop at the Utah Olympic Park to watch skiers do flips coming down the mountain. I didn’t even know that was a thing!
Wait til the very end of the video to see a flip!
Après Without the Ski
When I knew I’d be visiting Utah in winter, I thought, what the hell can I do in winter? I’m not a skier. But I am all about the après-ski, which, to me anyway, is about cozying up with a good drink and a fireplace.
We headed to Montage, a resort in Deer Valley, to lunch while watching skiers (none did flips). The restaurant, Apex, is known for its wagyu nachos…for good reason!
Celebrity-Watching at Sundance
I happened to be in town the weekend of the Sundance Film Festival, and though we had no desire to watch movies there, we did opt to look for celebrities on Main Street.
The non-famous people were pretty fun to watch. Lots of women with botox wearing fur boots for some reason.
And we did see a celebrity! Diane Guerrero, who played Lina on Jane the Virgin and Maritza on Orange is the New Black walked right in front of our car! Unfortunately, she turned her head and I couldn’t get a photo.
Despite there being some great highlights of us out and about in Park City, the highlight was being cozy on her couch, chatting. She’s promised me snowmobiling on my next trip!