Carving up the Powder

I've been MIA... out in Utah skiing with my handsome husband!  And, I got to see my Utah family, which was definitely the highlight of my trip, although not enough time (there never is!).  They were wonderful hosts (must run in the family, as my Gram is "the hostess with the mostest") and even had special paleo food for me!  Looooved it.  (As a side note, it's amazing how people will go out of their way to support your dietary choices and lifestyle).  I didn't take any photos with the family, but photos were taken, so I'll have to get those (hint hint to those of you reading).  :)  We did, however, take lots of photos on the slopes.

We arrived in SLC on Saturday and stayed that night with the family.  On Sunday, we spent our first of three days skiing Deer Valley.  Wow.  The service there is impeccable.  It was great skiing, but not our favorite (Breckenridge wins of the places we've visited), but everyone is just so nice, including the clientele.  We even shared a bench with Weird Al Yankovic in the locker area (besides the hair, not so weird and quite nice).  Random!  They have maps and tissues as you get on each lift, mountain hosts everywhere, and even the lift operators were super friendly.  The grooming was awesome, especially in the morning.  We found some great runs, and I did several blacks.  Matt is much more adventurous than I, and he even conquered a bowl.  I think we did pretty much every blue run they had, many of the double blues, and a few blacks (no moguls for me).  I tried moguls once and I wasn't feeling it (I've done them before), so that was the end of that.  I prefer flat surfaces or a few bumps where you can catch a little air, but I'm just not good enough in my turns for tight moguls, not to mention my ski set up wasn't great for them either.  In hindsight, we should've skied two days at Deer Valley and a day at Park City, because we'd done everything we wanted to in two days at Deer Valley, but still enjoyed our last day there (must have because we skied from open to close!).  My favorite runs were Tycoon (I did the whole thing without stopping once and it's a long double blue, so my legs were feeling it at the bottom!), Jordanelle, Magnet and Big Stick.  I like long runs, and those were all pretty long and challenging.

We haven't been skiing in three years, and last time we skied we decided that we wouldn't do it again without a helmet.  It's just not worth it, especially when you like to get into the trees like we do (and when you witness a friend take a bad fall... thankfully, he was okay but he smacked his head pretty hard on the snow).  Well, three years ago, I'd say less than half of the skiers had helmets.  This trip, I'd say at least 90% were wearing helmets!  I thought that was awesome.  Even if you're a safe or accomplished skier, you just never know what could happen or if someone else could take you out.  I also found the helmet to be very comfortable and warm (we bought our own).  Matt even got one with the audio set up, so he jammed out very comfortably.  I also listened to my iPod, but it's not as comfortable with earbuds.

We kept it pretty low key as far as food.  Our condo (free thanks to an attorney I used to do a lot of work with) was in Kimball Junction, so we grabbed quick Mexican one night and Whole Foods another.  We had sushi at Oishi, which was pretty good, and met my aunt and uncle at Davanza's for some decidedly non-paleo grub our last night.  I had pizza and it was good.  :)  I was able to eat mostly paleo (plus dairy) while there (minus drinking), but I didn't focus too much on it.  It's amazing how I naturally gravitate toward paleo dishes though.  When I didn't eat paleo, I tried to stay away from gluten (except the pizza and bread pudding we had for dessert one night).  On the mountain, we had chili and cappuccino lunches at Cushing's Cabin.  We spent one day walking around PC and visiting the Olympic Training Center/Museum and had lunch that day at Bar Boheme, under Easy Street Brasserie.  I had a salmon BLT+A (avocado) with no bread and sauteed spinach, and it was delicious. Matt had French onion soup and a salad, and we both had delicious Bloody Marys.  I would definitely recommend lunch or dinner there.  I also bought the dogs some ridiculously overpriced venison and turkey jerky from a pet boutique, but I missed them and figured I'd have to buy their love after leaving them for that long.  Needless to say, they were VERY excited to see us and go home.

We had a great time, and on our way home, Matt asked where we were going on our next vacation.  Ha!  I need to generate some income before we start thinking about that.  Talk about working to live, right?  We're definitely not folks that live to work.