This post is sponsored by the lovely Park City Chamber of Commerce/Convention & Visitors Bureau. Thanks to our seriously awesome new friends there who showed us a fun time in Park City and helped us break out of the bloggy computer rut to be true outdoor winter adventurers!
Friends! Today is Friday.
Last day of the week.
Day before Valentine’s Day.
Bjork’s 29th birthday <– for real! Part-eee!
How are we feeling about all of that?
Since Friday is my most forever favorite day of the week, I’m making today Vacation Pictures Day. I ♡ VACATION PICTURES. And so do you, I think. I’m not even making this up that there have been a handful of readers over the last year or so that must have gotten the hint (somehow, I mean, gosh, how would that happen?) that I love vacation pictures, so they went so far as to directly email me attachments of their own vacation pictures — while currently on vacation. WHAT IS MY LIFE. This is so weird and cool and I’m so glad we can love vacation pictures together.
And I promise I won’t say “vacation pictures” anymore times in this post.
First order of business: I got glasses! All that computer work, yaknow?
And then I wore them on the plane on the way to beautiful Park City, Utah.
So the SparkNotes version of our trip was that we spent five days in Park City skiing at three of the most beautiful ski resorts in all the land. I know this because of my extensive skiing experience, most of which took place between ages 10-12.
Kidding sort of.
Park City is a historic little mining town in the mountains of Utah that has been transformed over the years to become a sort of mecca for winter sports enthusiasts. Or just outdoor enthusiasts in general, because I hear summers in Park City are the bomb dot com. PS. SUN! WARMTH! COME BACK TO US!
There are three world-class ski resorts with a combined total of more than 400 ski and snowboard runs all within a 15 minute drive of each other in the Park City area. And all three resorts are just a 30 minute drive from Salt Lake City, which happens to be within a 2 hour direct flight from Minneapolis. Boom. Snap. That’s the kind of travel efficiency we like.
Neither Bjork or I had skied for, like, a while (that’s being a tad generous), but after hearing for so long about the glory of this little mountain ski town, we could not pass up the opportunity to travel, work remotely, and experience the famed Park City and all it has to offer for outdoor winter sports enthusiasts.
Mostly what I was looking forward to on this trip, if I’m being honest, was the food.
Park City is known for its growing culinary scene of which we took great pride in supporting each day through mass orders of waffles, eggs benedict, and all the coffees.
We ate at a handful of ski resort and non-ski-resort restaurants, and obviously I am going to list them out at the bottom of this post for you along with exactly what I ordered (and what Bjork ordered), because I can’t not.
This is how we work, you and me.
Even though the food was really what captured my heart in the beginning, the skiing ended up surprising both of us.
Meaning: we loved it. WE LOVED IT!
It probably helped that we really looked the part. Very cool, very ski-bum, very natural…
….ehhh, well, there are other pictures.
It might have been more like we scraped together ski outfits made of mismatched pieces of outdoor winter gear from my parents and siblings the night before we left, and it might have been more like we were (THANK GOODNESS) escorted around each of the mountains by a guide slash coach slash orange-jacket-wearing rescuer on skis.
But I think there’s a hint of cool in there somewhere.
To be honest, I was a little hesitant about basically having anyone even WATCH me ski, much less guide me or coach me or rescue me, but our guided ski tours with these fantastic mountain hosts were absolutely out of this world. The hosts took us to all the best views, showed us where we were in relation to the other parks, pointed out which mountain tops we had already been on and where we were going, and most importantly always led us back to the green runs.
The tours were the highlight of the trip for both of us. There is just SO much to see on these mountains.
I mean, gosh. UTAH?! Who even knew.
The Trip Details
For more information on any and all of this, you can either 1) email me because I love to talk about vacations almost as much as I love looking at vacation pictures, or 2) check out Park City’s website which is your one-stop shop for info on this adorable little ski town.
Where We Stayed:
The Lodges at Deer Valley: beautiful, comfortable, great breakfasts, perfect location.
Where We Ate:
Fireside Dining at Empire Canyon Lodge: There is no ordering here – it’s just a mass attack of eating all the pots of food placed throughout the restaurant in front of fireplaces, including blocks of cheese that just melt off onto plates which you then eat FOREAL.
Snow Park Lodge: I got eggs benedict, Bjork got the best waffle with banana butter and I was jealous.
Royal Street Cafe: I got the turkey chili, Bjork got the burger, we both demolished the crab towel appetizer.
The Brass Tag: We jointly polished off the homemade chips with chimicurri sauce, I got a curry chorizo and shrimp skillet with roasted brussels sprouts, Bjork got the grilled mahi mahi with roasted vegetables.
Legends Cafe at Park City Mountain Resort: I got a chicken sandwich with fries, Bjork got the bison chili, and we tried so hard to share an ahi tuna wonton nacho appetizer which ended in a fist fight. Just kidding – it ended with me eating everything.
Sammy’s Bistro: I got the grilled romaine salad and the grilled fish tacos with mango salsa, Bjork got the lettuce wraps (two thumbs up) and the steak with mushroom sauce. I’m seriously getting full just writing these all out again.
The Farm: I got the roasted cauliflower soup and the beet and kale salad because I was feeling trendy, Bjork got the bison burger with fries of which I ate exactly zero. <– Lies.
Reefs: Where to start? Hummus. Tahini. Falafel. Pita Bread. Cardamom Tea. Jerusalem Artichoke Soup. I got the macadamia crusted monkfish and scallops, Bjork got a steak of some sort. BOTH SO GOOD.
Eating Establishment: I got the eggs benedict because I’m trapped in a cycle, and Bjork got the multigrain waffles.
Atticus Coffee: I rounded out my trip with a mango spinach smoothie, Bjork sipped on a chai latte + espresso.
Where We Skied:
Deer Valley Ski Resort
Park City Mountain Resort
Canyons Ski Resort
And that was our trip! God bless Utah.
Anybody ever been to Park City? Let’s talk.
I have so much to say that I can’t even comment… Except that you said that you “ate all the restaurants” instead of “are AT all the restaurants” and I almost laughed loud enough to draw attention to the sneaky cellphone POY reading I was doing during my meeting! 🙂
Grammar policing! Reason #539 why I need you in my life.
The cheese plate thing has me totally confused. Are they edible plates or do you just scoop up spoonfuls of melted cheese… or is it like a fondue? I can’t wrap my brain around it.
I love skiing! We like to go to Wolf Creek in Colorado. However, a quad chair lift is the largest we’ve ridden…..and that’s as big as I can handle. LOL
Yeah – the 6 person chair lift was both awesome and freaked me out. 🙂
I was JUST in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival two weeks ago! I loved it! I stayed in Deer Valley too. I didn’t ski because I’m not a skiier, but my sister and some of our group did and they loved it! Such a fun little town, I’ll definitely be back!
It’s so funny to read this because i used to live there, as a ski bum, for about 3 years. Which was interesting and the summers are gorgeous!
Utah is seriously one of the most beautiful states, we have been on many a road trip with our kids, and Utah takes the cake! Park City has some serious good eats too, looks like you found a few!! Great pics!
Those blue skies! Gorgeous. And I love your glasses! Very cute. Thanks so much for sharing these pics with us. We are trapped in a negative-20-with-wind-chill weekend here in Upstate NY, and it’s so darn good to see the sun, and places where people can walk outside without giant coats and rubber boots. I love your vacation photos just as much as your food photos 🙂
oh man! sounds brutal 🙁 hope you at least got some good cozy cooking out of the deal!
This vacation looks beautiful. We don’t ski but I keep thinking we should. Hibernating for 3 months is a little boring. I would love to eat a block of cheese!
Looks really beautiful! Would love to go there sometime for sure. Keep up the awesome blog, I heard about you guys over at SPI and now am addicted to your website. Beautiful stuff, definitely inspired!
How fun! We really enjoyed doing the podcast with Pat – thanks for listening!
I’ve been meaning to head out there or the longest time to do some quality snowboarding. I typically frequent Wolf Creek in CO but I need a change of scenery.
Maybe I can squeeze in a trip here next month! Anyways, great pictures and it looks like you guys had a blast!
Cute glasses (yes, they are saying that so much screen time is affecting peoples vision) AND I’m so glad to see that Bjork owns another sweat shirt (other than the blue one) 🙂
Great pics. Love the weather. Wish is was clear and cold here. Just wet. Typical Oregon weather.
he does! it’s a new sweatshirt – and this may become the sweatshirt of 2015 …
All of your pictures are beautiful! I love your travel posts, they are so fun to read and the pictures just make me wanna goooo. Glad you had fun skiing, don’t winter sports rule?!
I went to Park City last year for the Sundance Film festival, and I remember the food almost more than I remember the films. All the restaurants were.so.good. I am gutted though that you didn’t eat at my favorite place, Bangkok Thai on Main. Their thai dumplings are out of this world! And the pad thai is the best I’ve ever had. If there’s a next time, you’ve gotta try it!
I have always wanted to go here. I suck at skiing though so I would be all about everything else! Mostly the eating aspect though.
Blue skies, sunshine and white snow! Refreshing! So glad you both had a wonderful time! Now I have to find something to munch on after those seriously, delicious looking food pictures!
have I ever been to Park City? I LIVED in Utah for 16 years! Of COURSE I’ve been to Park City! And it’s just as beautiful and entertaining in the summer as it is in the winter!
Cold? Snow? Skiing? Whatever. I don’t want to hear about it…I’m so jealous. Here in Orange County we have been in the high 80’s all dang week with no sign of letting up anytime soon. 🙁 87 today?!? It’s February and I would give anything to be somewhere I could shiver in the cold!! 🙂
Wow – These are some gorgeous gorgeous views! Love that 6th picture where it looks like you and Bjork are standing on your skis – almost perpendicular to the ground! And ooh the food! And ooh -that one heck of a lens your are shooting those hanging meats with!
Ah yes! That’s actually our ski instructor – and he is literally off the ground, standing only on the tips of his skis and holding himself up with his poles. We’re not that advanced yet 😉
Yes! Yes! I’m from Salt Lake City! My husb is one of the map workers at Park City Mountain Resort on Saturdays, so I go up skiing once or twice every winter in my mismatched fool clothes. I mostly go so we can eat in the Lodge, to be honest. It is a really fun little town. Grub Steak has really good food, including gigantic hamburgers. Oh, this was fun to see your beautiful pictures and your food rundown, which is absolutely critical vacation information. Glad you guys had fun!
Lindsay – you have the prettiest/clearest skin!
That kitchen is like my dream kitchen!
& beautiful travel photos, too!
Beautiful scenery! And that kitchen looks awesomely rustic (of course I’d be the one to notice the kitchen in the midst of all those delicious food photos; oh well, there’s always that one friend haha) 🙂
SLC is great as a gateway to Utah’s magnificent country. From the airport it’s not such a formidable drive from there to your resort as others. We live two hours from the Lake Tahoe area, and despite poor conditions the past two years (sad….extreme drought, warm temps…will have MAJOR impact on all the produce and agriculture here and across the US.) we still head up the hill every week. There’s something to be said about the freedom to ski midweek with few c rowds. Two weeks ago we skied every morning and either snowshoed (is that a verb?) or rode bikes along the lake in the afternoons. Sunsets over the lake are awesome. Most mountains are just as pretty in the summer for hiking and biking. Deer Valley Resort is suh a decadent, luxurious place. Love all your pics and am getting hungry with the descriptions/pics of the food. Isn’t one of the reasons we work out to eat what we wish especially on vacation, with no shame or guilt.
Hmm, perhaps we’ll have eggs benedict tomorrow with in-season fresh CA asparagus and crab (eggs oscar.)
Love the vacation posts. If I can’t go I’ll still be an armchair traveller and drool over the posts.
So beautiful! Makes me wanna take a trip to the snow 🙂 Also – makes me want to bite down on a juicy bison burger. Nom nom!!
Glad you had a nice vacay! I used to live in the house pictured towards the bottom of the photos you posted (the house with the American Flag) just two short years ago. Still in PC today.
WHAT?! Bjork and I are dying over here. SMALL WORLD!!!!
Girl, I’m from Utah and I was so excited to see you came! I have a whole list of restaurants that you would love, so next time you’re in the area I can make sure you will never go hungry! All over the Wasatch Front we are finally getting some amazing places to eat!!! I’m so glad you made it to some of the best and most beautiful places we have!
We’ll have to come back! 🙂
Well you guys had a blast and the photographs prove it. An amazing trip with food to die for.
Glad you had a good time and I enjoyed reading about .
Happy Weekend
Love Park City and Deer Valley. The turkey chili at Deer Valley is out of this world! Have you had it? OMG!
Elaine @ OMG Lifestyle Blog
Park City is great. I was there this time last year and have been a few times. 18″ of powder fell over the three days we were there. Canyons is my favorite ski resort.
There was a really good sushi restaurant in Park City called Yuki Yama. It was very good, I highly recommend. Yeah, I know, good sushi in UT? There were some good beers at Wasatch Brewery too. Glad you enjoyed my favorite ski destination.
No way! They were a little short on snow when we were there, but Canyons was also my favorite ski resort! 🙂
We got very lucky as they didn’t have much snow at all the month leading up to our trip. It was knee deep at the canyons and Park City. Fresh tracks everywhere.
Try the other resorts next time. Snowbird, Alta, and Brighton are great as well.