Week o' Vacationing 2009: Day 4

Our first full day in Park City was just that. Full. :) We started out with a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy breakfast courtesy of Natalie. From there, we headed over to check out the Utah Olympic Park, which I'd never actually been to. There is a museum there with stuff from the 2002 Winter Olympics. Costumes from the opening and closing ceremonies, gear from the athletes, pins, and videos recapping highlights of the games. It was fun to remember some of the stories from when the Olympics were here.


Buffalo mask from opening ceremonies

In addition to the museum, the bobsled run and ski jump hills are there, but nothing was really going on on those at the time. They also have a training facility for aerial freestyle skiing, with a variety of ramps that launch skiers into a swimming pool, so they can work on their technique safely, and without a need for snow. There was a group training while we were there, most of whom were fairly novice, but there was one guy going off the big ramp and doing some impressive stuff.









After leaving the Olympic Park, we hit up Cafe Rio for lunch.


Elise showing off her fork skills

Then, it was up into town to the Park City Mountain Resort, where most of us (minus grandpa and the babies) took a run on the Alpine slide, and then Ben, Natalie, and I tried out the new(ish) Alpine Coaster. It's a variation on the Alpine slide, where the sled is attached to the track like a rollercoaster would be, but still with rider controls for braking. The ride attendant told me that because the sled was attached to the track, and I was attached to the sled (via my seatbelt), I should go as fast as I could. So for the first few stretches I kept the handle pushed all the way down. Until I went around a turn that nearly threw me out of the sled. The seatbelt wasn't really snug enough to make me feel like I would be safe doing that any more, so I backed off a tad after that. Still, it was a fun ride, and based solely on the thrill aspect, I would choose the coaster over the slide. The slide does include a relaxing chairlift ride, so that might influence your choice.




Heading up on the alpine coaster


Further up the coaster

We then left the resort and headed back to our condo. Ben and I were in charge of dinner, and had chosen shish kabobs as our dinner of choice. I'm really loving kabobs this summer. We cut up steak and chicken in the morning and put it in marinade all day long. Then at dinner time, we cut up peppers and onions, and had mushrooms that could also be added to the kabobs. Then we cooked them on the grill out on the deck. I have to say I think they turned out pretty great. I especially like the caribben jerk chicken (shout out to Julie-ann for introducing me to that earlier this summer).



After dinner, the kids went to bed, and the adults watched Chariots of Fire, a great film full of inspirational messages and great music, that seemed to fit in well with our day at the Olympic Park.