Our Vacation Part 4

After leaving Arches National Park, we drove north to the mountains of Utah. We spent the next 3 days in a condo that belongs to my cousin Beverly.  The condo is in a ski resort in the Wasatch Mountains.  It is located in Big Cottonwood Canyon, northeast of Salt Lake City and west of Park City. 

It was cold at night.  The first night we arrived it had just rained.  The air smelled like pine needles and rain and was chilly.  It was a welcome change from the heat of the Moab area.

We ate dinner down the road at a restaurant called the Silver Fork Lodge.  It was the perfect ending to a long day.  We sat outside among colorful flowers and hummingbirds flitting about.  The sunset was spectacular.  They lit heaters and brought us blankets to wrap around our legs and shoulders.

When we arrived and saw all the hummingbirds, Emma Jane jumped up and put her hand out.  I said "sweetheart, you are not going to be able to pet a hummingbird...it just doesn't happen."

The waiters started calling her the "hummingbird whisperer"  because it happened more than once.  It happened the next morning when we went back for breakfast and after I said "sweetheart, that will never happen again..."

It was magical.  In fact the entire place was magical.  We heard an eagle cry at breakfast one morning.  We saw an eagle.  We saw moose and deer and chipmunks.  I loved being up in the high mountains with so few people.  The resort was desolate and the wilderness was everywhere.  We went hiking and swimming and watched the olympics and slept with the cool air coming in the windows.

We drove over the mountain on a dirt road to Park City and walked around the ski town. 

We rode the chair lift up to the top of the mountain above Park City.  This was another magical moment of our trip.

Because we did not have any coffee in the condo, and because there was free Starbucks coffee in the resort front office, I walked to the office every morning to get coffee for Mike and me.  Every morning I would put on my fleece jacket and leave as my family was barely stirring to walk the cobblestone paths through the blooming flowers to get steaming hot Starbucks.  It was a magical walk in the cool morning air listening to eagles cry and watching chipmunks scurry.  

I told Mike I felt like a hunter-gatherer out to forage for sustenance for my family.  It was funny how I would return home triumphant presenting my "game" to my husband.  He started calling me his "grinder-brewer"  It was a tough job walking to get Starbucks every morning...

This was a magical place.  As we were getting ready to leave the condo on Friday morning, Lucy was looking out the window and said "mama, I hope we can come back here when it is snowy".  Yes, Lucy, I bet the place is beautiful when it is "snowy".

We left on Friday morning and drove back over the mountain to Park City.  We visited an art studio and had lunch and then drove through northern Utah and southern Wyoming and back to Boulder for the night.

As we were heading across the Wyoming border the sun was setting behind me.

The next night as we were driving through Kansas and so close to home, we got into an incredible lightning storm.  

Between the hummingbirds, the lightning, the sunsets, the moose, the changing landscapes, the eagle, the cold nights and the memorable quotes from my kids, it was a magical vacation.

Thank you babe...