the helen update: March 2019

When I was younger, I was a terrible skier. Then when my oldest son was 13 years old, I took snowboarding lessons with him. I never put skis on again. (Thanks Tommy!) Until about 2 weeks ago. I decided it was time to give skiing another try since the snowboarding experience involves a full body boot camp type of workout between pushups to get up and down, really good balance to ride those long straight-aways, a lot of hobbling along on the catwalks, stress every time you get off a ski lift, and the head banging falls when you simply catch an edge. So I went to MountainCreek by myself and took a ski lesson which took me from the bunny slope to the big mountain in 2 hours. (Another thanks to Tommy who suggested it since he has also switched over to skiing) Next stop…. PARK CITY.

Best part of skiing are the VIEWS!

My ski-mates on this trip were my daughter Juli, my husband’s twin brother Bill, and cousin Christoper. We rented a 2-bedroom condo right near a shuttle bus which was one stop to the lift. Pretty darn convenient. Also, it was across the street from a big grocery store where, on the first night, we got our food supplies and were able to push the shopping cart all the way to our front door AND (bonus) use the cart to transport our skis and boots to the shuttle bus stop on day one! Once we got to the mountain, we paid $7 per night for ski storage so we did not have to lug the skis to the mountain every day. Genius. PS. we returned the shopping cart after use because we are not rude #wegotstyle

Grocery Cart action

Park Avenue Condos where we stayed has a clubhouse area with 2 big hot tubs and a heated pool which Juli and I took advantage of each day apres ski. It was so helpful in eliminating the pain of sore ski muscles. No matter how much you work out, it’s a new muscle group that is taking over for the long days on the mountain. Even “Mr. Fit” Christopher was taking nightly Advil!

Hot Tub action

We got into a rhythm pretty quickly as we each found our own ‘zone’ in the condo for hanging out: Bill - dining room table dealing with house sale stuff, phone calls, emails. Christopher was at the kitchen counter working working working on and off - seemed like more on than off, but never once seemed stressed. Juli - couch west and my couch spot was east (near power outlet for laptop). Also, I’m making up the east/west because I have no idea which way the couch was facing in terms of compass points. We also had a pretty good morning routine going off the bat - up at 7 am, Bill on coffee making, each on our own breakfast scene, yogurt, oatmeal or whatever, no cooking here, and I did the morning PB&J sandwich-making for the our lunch on the mountain. Of course we added one shared hot chocolate and one shared fries because ‘skiing is werk’, but man that smushed sandwich was everything when lunchtime rolled around.

Our little ski crew

Gondola morning

Always smiling

Here a quick list of notes, links, and tips:

Awesome Condo (link here) for 4-6 people - John was a pleasure to deal with in every way! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Ski Valet aka Storage at Aloha Ski Rental - Ski Rental and Overnight Ski Storage

Great restaurant walkable from the condo - Squatters Roadhouse Grill Open Table link to Squatters

Here's a helpful blog post from a local foodie who reviews some of the restaurants we enjoyed: Park City Restaurant Reviews and another helpful list: List of Restaurants in Park City

Free shuttles to mountain, Main Street, Deer Valley, Canyons - track on line or on app: MyStop App

Most of the restaurants on Main Street seem to have good reviews. There is no lacking in places to drink beer. In terms of planning, you really want to make reservations for dinner (well ahead of time if possible) because no matter if it’s the weekend or midweek, everything is usually very booked up. The 3 we enjoyed were:

Handle - a new spot we tried the first night. Location was a little odd in a building which had other store in it reminding me of a type of mini-mall setting, but good food and very hip.

(link to website) Also, this is the night Bill learned to use LYFT and was so amazed by the whole thing "this is so great, you don't even need to take out any money". yup, welcome to the 21st century.

Bill loving LYFT

Wahso - easy to find on Main Street with all the red lights, more of a classy setting, not for the rowdy crowd - we were seated in a cute booth with a privacy curtain (cute), but we had the BEST waitress of all time. Friendly, informative and patient with Bill and his million questions about the menu. (and that is not an exaggeration)

(link to website)

Cool lighting

Private dining

High West Distillery - a hot spot that does not take reservations, NOR can you seem to find a phone number to call them. You best bet is to show up 1-2 hours before you want to eat, put your name down and hit the shops while waiting for a text which allows you 15 minutes to get back to claim your table. The hot pretzel appetizer alone is worth the trouble.

(link to website)

Bill's Park City photo tradition

Park City Museum - as strange as it sounds, it is worth a peek! It gives the history of Park City with unique video and audio presentations which are motion-triggered. Sit in an old train seat and enjoy a video about the town, step into an old mine car to watch a video about how it went from a mine car to the first ski subway car to get folks to the mountain (amazing!!) walk into an old solitary confinement jail cell and imagine what it might have been like to have the door shut and locked. Yikes.

(link to website)

Subway to mountain anyone....???

Solitary confinement cell

Cute store named "Cake" where we purchased magic dust :)

Best store in Park City :)

Finding a Banksy during our walk down Main Street

#banksy

Some funny things I want to remember for laughs:

One night, Juli was lying in bed looking at her Apple Watch and she was 10 calories away from closing her rings. So I popped up and said ‘give it to me” and started jumping jacks, burpies and high knees - she started laughing so hard and we both laughed until we cried and could not stop.

Why is the mountain lodge hot chocolate SOOOO GOOOOOD?????

yummmmmm

Having been a snowboarder, I was not really used to managing the ski poles on the chairlift. So while pulling out the map, I dropped a pole - down it went to a black diamond trail and I was about to say good riddance because we were not skiing down a black diamond. Luckily there was a skier down below willing to pick it up and bring it up the lift to the top of the mountain.

"Hold on to those poles Helen"

Thinking I would avoid this from happening again by WEARING the poles on my wrist while boarding the chairlift so that I would not accidentally let one slip away on the lift (which I believe is covered in the first ski lesson as something NOT to do)....However on the next lift ride, my pole which was now attached to my wrist, got caught in the gate as it opened for us to board the lift. I struggled as I finally got it ‘unstuck’ and ended up with crossed skis and then fell and all I heard was the lift attendant shouting “LAY FLAT” at the top of her lungs, and since I’m very good at taking direction, I just slammed my body down like a pancake waiting for the chair to run me over like a bus which was scary as hell let me tell you. My thoughts were racing -Was the chair going to FIT OVER ME as it passes or drag me along? Was the chair going to rip my nose off my face if I don’t turn my head? (I think I did turn my head to avoid that actually but it all happened very fast) and then I could not get UP once she stopped the lift from moving!!! omg…. Embarrassingggggggggg

Me on the lift ALONE after the fall

In general, skiing was great and Juli is the BEST mountain guide - shout out to @designtoexplore on instagram and designtoexplore.com because she knows how to plan it all, trails, bathroom stops, lunch stops and how to get back to home base EXACTLY when our legs are about to give out! woo! Juli for the win!

Christopher taught us about ‘squatting’ and I don’t mean living in an apartment without paying rent, I mean LITERALLY squatting for 30 minutes per day for health benefits. Feel free to check that out here: All about Squatting for good health

Christopher was the king of healthy eating with his apre ski smelly pea soup every day. Ewwwwwww (sorry cousin, it may be healthy, but it smells bad)

Bill wanted to eat at his hot spot High West Distillery, so finally Juli and I make it happen by heading out early, putting our name on the wait list and then shopping until the text arrived (oh the torture lol)

Took the guys shopping after dinner which lasted about 5 minutes.

Juli and I recorded our first podcast for Design to Explore and we could not stop laughing for the first 10 minutes. And I have the audio evidence to prove it. oh boy.

The morning we checked out, the guys wanted to leave their bags in the clubhouse and ski for the day since they were taking the red eye. But when I went to return the keys upon checkout, the club house was closed. oops. They had to put their bags in the condo ski locker and hope for the best. Luckily the bags were still there when they returned from the mountain.

Juli and I called an uber with what we THOUGHT was plenty of time, but it took 30 minutes for our ride to appear and it was cutting it way too tight for my flight which was at 10:30. (Hers was at noon). We were not even in the car until 9:20 with a 30 min drive to the airport…and then magically I got a text that my flight was delayed 30 minutes! whoosh! #helenkarma

When I arrived in Newark and took the shuttle to long term parking aka P6, low and behold I realized I was NOT parked in that lot, but I had no idea where I was parked! I didn’t realize that there are many privately owned ‘long term parking’ lots which are all called just that, so I did not know which one had my car! It was a few minutes of mystery, until I remembered that I left a set of car keys locked in the car under the mat ‘just in case’ and it just so happens, we have TILE chips on all our keys!!! So I was able to look on the app and see exactly where my car was parked, so I called an uber to pick me up and take me to it. Amazing. I’m wondering if I’d still be roaming around P6 with my bags now if it were not for TILE????? I’m guessing Tom would have come to save the day, but get yourself some Tiles NOW!!!!