“It’s SPRING BREAK!!” shout the kids and with Mexico already scratched off the list, there was only one destination on the menu: the mountains! The real question was “which mountains?” We were pretty set on going back to Tahoe but decided late in the fall to instead make a reconnaissance pass on another western mountain town. Park City (and the Salt Lake area) had 2025 written on it. As luck would have it, our great friends were able to join us for the fun.

We snagged an early but direct flight out of DC and were in Salt Lake City before noon local. Plenty of time for dad to marvel at the one-of-a-kind ski bag luggage carousel. Basically a vending machine for skis. So cool. First stop after the airport was… you guessed it… In-N-Out. You don’t mess with tradition. It’s always the first stop. A quick drive into the hills, a stop at the grocery store, and we were settled in to our place at the Canyons, ready to cut first tracks the following morning.

Day one was all about getting our ski legs back and mapping out the mountain. The slopes were largely empty so we ran ourselves (and Trey and Jess) ragged! Temps were in the high 40s most days so while there was plenty of snow coverage, by mid-day most of the south facing slopes were slushed out. Temps still dropped into the 20s overnight so things got frozen (and fast). It ended up being a good lesson for the kids on watching conditions and adjusting throughout the day.

Mere kept herself occupied (still off the slopes… for now) with afternoon hikes and a day in the village with Jess. The rest of the skiers kept putting up big stats and big smiles. All told, the Garmin read 41,014 vertical feet and 43.96 miles of slopes over the three day period. Park City is huge! On departure day, we bummed around Salt Lake City and some of the surrounding towns trying to answer that nagging question, “where should we live?” Regardless of the exact answer, I promise it won’t be some place that we can only ski once a year by flying half-way across the country!