Like my pun for a title? I’m such a nerd! Ha ha ha! For the second year in a row I headed from my mum’s place in Washington state to Utah to stay with my brother Bruce and his wife Lauren for Utah Adventures to ring in the New Years. Last year was such a blast and I couldn’t wait to see what was in store this year.
I’ll do an overview today and then will do more detailed posts on each activity. First off, the 10 hour drive from the Tricities, Washington to SLC is one of the most boring drives ever!! You drive through the Blue Mountains in Eastern Oregon and then it is flat nothingness for hours and hours and hours. Thank god for podcasts because they kept my mind occupied.
I was so happy when I finally came upon the Wasatch mountain range and saw the beautiful colours from the setting sun shining on them. It was such a nice welcome to the state.
I come from a family of early risers so New Year’s Eve is not a huge deal for us. For the second year in a row, we hung out, ate good food (Bruce and Lauren prepared ribs for the occasion), and we were in bed by 12:20 a.m.
The next morning we had a big breakfast and headed to Ogden for indoor surfing at Flowrider Utah (the same place we went rock climbing at last year).
I thought this would be easy to catch on to because I snowboard and have surfed a couple times before but this was a whole new ball game and I took some hard falls. My friend Caroline took a few major head hits and actually had a mild concussion afterward and we all had some neck pain. This isn’t to scare you, flowriding was amazing but if i could do it again I would opt for the helmet we had the option to wear, even if it did make me look like a goof.
After an hour of surfing we showered and headed south to downtown SLC for a late lunch. The thai restaurant Sawadee that Bruce loves was closed until 4 p.m. so we stopped at a cheap and tasty place called the Red Mermaid.
We headed to Park City which is only 30 minutes from Salt lake City. This is what I love about this city, it is pretty much IN the mountains.
Our first stop was the Utah Olympic Park where there is a free museum with displays about the history of skiing in Utah and a floor dedicated to the 2002 SLC Olympics. Being the Olympic nerd I am, I had a blast!
One of the first snowboards ever
Next stop was downtown Park City where we braved the -17C weather walking through the downtown and popping into the galleries we found interesting. I commented on one piece that had thick chunky paint globs and how my OCD wanted to pick the chunks off and the gallery curator heard and started to laugh. Maybe I’ll start a career as an art comedian.
We headed for home to pack and prepare for our next activity which was a day of snowboarding at the Snowbird Resort!
This place was the largest ski hill I have ever visited and I’ll go into details about the runs in a later post. Besides the amazing amount of runs, the space available, and the lack of a huge crowd the day was perfect because it was SO WARM!!! +6C! I have never been snowboarding when it was that warm out and I absolutely loved it. Your body is warm under your layers and your skin is warm in the sun, it felt like summer time.
Bruce and I agreed that it was our best snowboard day ever and we almost made it to closing time before our legs gave out.
On the way down Bruce commented on how you could see the pollution in the Salt lake Valley. I thought it was fog but he said they have bad pollution because the beautiful mountains on each side trap pollution in the valley and there are a lot of factories.
We made a quick stop to see the Great Salt Lake since I had never seen it despite four previous visits to the area. The pollution covered a lot of it and made it underwhelming but it was interesting to learn how there is no life in that salty lake except small shrimp.
After the lake, we made it to Sawadee to get that thai food we tried for the day before. We looked a sight because bruce and I both had major wind burn/goggle lines and my hair was a rats nest. It was a great way to finish off a whirlwind weekend.
Now, if you noticed my sister in law Lauren didn’t join us in the board activities and that’s because she’s pregnant!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 So in June or July my entire family is heading to SLC to see the newest addition to our family. I am also trying to talk folks into bashing down to Zion’s National Park to hike Angel’s Landing.
Anyway, another great New Year’s is in the books and I’m ready for 2016!
That looks like so much fun! i really want to try snowboarding in Utah.
Looks like a fun trip. Angel’s Landing is AMAZING!!