My Winter Break: Part II.

Well, as you can see by the first image, travel adventure part deux this break was of the winter sport variety. Thanks to friends living in cool places, I was off to picture postcard Park City, Utah for a mini-week of amazing west skiing and catching up with a buddy. What began as primarily a chance to hang out with an old bud, hit a few brew pubs, and check out his new life (he just got a job with the ultra-hip company, Skull Candy.), quickly transformed into an amazing mini-ski vacation. If you've ever been to the Salt Lake City area, you know how stunningly beautiful it is, how much light fluffy snow they get, and how cool the downtown is.

Needless to say, I was grinning like a kid on Christmas from the first turn.

Conditions were great, packed powder top to bottom, unlimited sunshine, and 37 degrees. No lift lines either. And the view didn't suck.

Didn't come home with one, but I did get to check these out at the 2002 Utah Winter Olympic museum and skiing jump center in Park City.

You may have noticed the lack of other skiiers on the slopes of Canyons Resort. Seems many of the tourists were watching movies instead...

Speaking of Sundance, we just had to play the wide-eyed star hunting tourist after the lifts shut down for the night.

Here's me pretending to be famous at the Ray Ban hospitality tent.

From what I've read, the stars were out in full force over the two week festival, but it seems most were hunkered away in private parties while being showered by fancy gift bags full of free stuff.

My buddy saw Denise Richards the day before I got there. The closest I got to a star sighting was Phil Vassar, who sang a few tunes in one of the hospitality tents we wandered into. Can't say I've ever heard of him either.

I did, however, manage a shot with a couple local celebrities...

In any event, it was a sweet little getaway, even if I didn't have my picture taken with Kevin Bacon or Paris Hilton, we didn't get any fresh powder (of course it's snowing like crazy there now, a point my buddy didn't hesititate to call me about...from the lift), and the beer was only 3.2% (seems Utah has all these crazy LDS-influenced rules on alcohol). LDS is Latter Day Saints (Mormons), by the way.

Thanks to Marissa, Mark, Mallory (shown here), & Whitney for letting me set up camp in your living room, and to my buddy Mark for the sweet ski day, the shop tour, and the couple of 3.2's we enjoyed at Wasach Brewery and the like. A great time had by me.

Been a long time since I strapped on the boards, and with the help of those fancy new shaped skiis, it came back to me pretty well. So, needless to say, skiing is back in my blood, although after skiing in warm sunshine on the 7000 foot peaks of Utah, New England skiing might just not be the same. If you've ever skiied out there, I'm sure you know what I mean. Here's to hoping my buddy continues to enjoy his new life in Park City for many more winter breaks to come...

Then again, it looks like our own snowstorm is heading our way for Wednesday...

Which is, by the way, reopen date for season 2009! Ice cream making all day tomorrow (tuesday), then game on. Been a nice break in the action, but feels like it's time to make ice cream again. I hope to see you soon!

Jim