Fall Break in Park City

The children had a rather extensive fall break this year, being out of school from Thursday to Tuesday.  Because of our financial situation, we had made no plans to go away.  But a few weeks ago, Janie Rasmussen called and asked if we would like to use some of their Marriott timeshare points and go away for a few days, at no cost to us.  How could we pass up an offer like that?  While we had three or four options of places to go--Colorado, Tahoe, Las Vegas, Park City--Kent opted for the closest option and Janie made us reservations in Park City.  Initially, Kent wanted to only go for two nights, but I managed to gently persuade him that three nights would be better.

We were home for the first two days of fall break, and that suited the children nicely.  They played with friends on Thursday and Friday, with a movie thrown in on Friday afternoon which we saw with cousins.  Then on Saturday afternoon, we loaded the car and headed for Park City.

We had reservations at the Marriott Summit Watch, at the base of Main Street, and for a two bedroom suite.  It was quite lovely.  Kent and I had a big bedroom, with a large shower, a soaker tub, and a king size bed, which always feels incredibly spacious considering we normally sleep in a queen.  The kids had a good size bedroom with a fold out couch they alternated sleeping on.  Their room had a large bathroom and a small kitchenette which they didn't really use.  In between the two rooms was a large living space, with couches, a dining table that seated six, and a good size, fully outfitted kitchen.  This gave us the option of eating in, which we did all day Sunday and Monday evening.  It was probably the nicest hotel we've ever stayed in and was very comfortable.  I felt somewhat spoiled and even asked Kent if we could look into getting a timeshare ourselves.

Blythe's buddy Addie Lepinski and her family were staying in Park City, too, and Addie asked if Blythe could swim with her on Saturday when we arrived.  We dropped both Brandt and Blythe off at the other Marriott in Park City, and Kent and I checked in and then settled into the room while the kids swam.  They had a great time, and Kent and I enjoyed the quiet.  Brandt and Blythe gave the other Marriott pool a five-star rating, while our hotel's pool only got about three stars.  They really enjoyed playing with other kids, and even saw some kids from school.

We walked up Main Street for dinner on Saturday night.  We ate at Main Street Pizza and Noodles, and brought home yummy pizza the children ate the next night for dinner, too.  The kids were enthralled with the room, hiding in a side table that looked like a trunk and opened in the front.  They jumped on the beds, opened all the cupboards and the fridge, sat on every piece of furniture just to check it out, and watched the TV.  Blythe was jealous of our large shower and huge tub and both children thought it unfair that Kent and I got the bigger bedroom.

Sunday we woke early and headed off to church.  The building wasn't too far from our hotel, and the ward was great.  There were two speakers in sacrament meeting, a sister going on a mission to Texas, and Brandon Flowers, the lead singer of The Killers, a popular rock band.  Both of them gave excellent talks about the Savior's love.  Their talks were personal, sweet, and in the case of Brother Flowers, very real.  It was a very inspiring, touching meeting.  I was so impressed with Brandon Flowers who is legitimately famous (I think) but very faithful and active in the Church.  He was sustained as the second counselor in the Young Men's presidency and bore a strong testimony of Christ.  The kids had a good time, got treats from their classes, and Brandt even led the singing in priesthood.  None of the other deacons would agree to conduct, so Brandt volunteered.  He's such a good boy!

Because it was the sabbath, we had a quiet Sunday.  We had chicken noodle soup for lunch, we played some games, the kids both took baths in our soaker tub, and we went for a nice walk about town.  We stopped and read about some historic homes and buildings, walked along the Crescent Tram walkway, and checked out real estate.  It was a beautiful day, funny and in the low sixties, and we had a nice, quiet day.  Housing prices in Park City are ridiculous, but the children each picked out houses they wanted to live in, with Blythe surprising us by wanting to live in a bright teal house with purple trim.  We also stopped by the activity center and played air hockey for a bit, which didn't seem terribly outrageous as a sabbath activity.  Blythe wanted to swim and didn't understand why swimming wasn't a Sunday activity.  We finished up our wanderings with a bit of a sit by the outdoor firepit. 

It's fairly obvious from the picture documentation from Sunday, that the children might have been just a bit bored.  Well, Brandt mostly.  He took lots of pictures on my phone. 

He took 9 selfies.  Here are two.

No shirt in any of them.

He took a 30 picture photo burst of Kent coming out of the bedroom.

None of them is in focus.

He took a 30 picture photo burst of Kent's hand and a chair.

Again, none in focus.

He took a 30 picture photo burst of Kent coming out of his bedroom,

and an additional 10 of him walking past Brandt.

All at a weird angle, and all out of focus.

 There was another set of 30 pictures of Kent sitting down to read his scriptures,

and another 30 of him sitting there.

This is sort of in focus.

And finally, there were 30 pictures of me napping on a window seat.

These were mostly in focus, but only because I, the subject, was lying there, still in slumber.

As a side note, the window seat was a lovely place to nap. 

11 more selfies and five and a half minutes of video, none of which I'm likely to keep.

At least he's got a shirt on in these pictures.

An early Halloween pic!

We tried to make the most of Monday, the only full play day we had while there.  I went and swam first thing, during the adult's only lap swimming time.  I got back to the room and Kent went down with the children so they could swim.  As I went to meet them, they were headed back to the room.  The activity center was offering bank or magnet painting, and Blythe couldn't pass that up.  They got dressed, then went back to paint; Blythe did a cupcake bank, and Brandt did a super hero which he painted half black and half red.

It was once again a beautiful day, and we walked up Main Street with the goal of getting a chocolate and stopping at the bookstore.  I stopped us to read a historic building plaque, and we discovered we were standing at the Park City Museum.  We went in to check it out and found that the museum is free on Mondays.  Free is a very good price, Brandt was very interested in going through, so we did.  It was a fun museum.  We learned about the mining industry, life in the city in the early days of its existence, we saw the dungeon that was the former jail, heard stories of infamous people who had been jailed there, learned about the ski industry, and read about the great fire of 1898 that destroyed most of the town.  We all loved it.

This is an old hardward cabinet.  

I think it is an incredibly cool piece.

I want one for my very own.

I found one on ebay for only $3,900, but it's local pickup only,

and I couldn't convince Kent to drive to Mississippi to collect it.

Kent and Brandt are standing in a shaft elevator.

Mining is super dangerous. Many men were injured just riding up for down in the elevator,

and if they weren't careful, they could fall out and plunge to their deaths.

Blythe is sitting in a ski subway car.

For a three year period, there was a mining shaft used as a way to get to the top of a ski slope.

It took 30 minutes inside the earth, was dark and wet, and most people arrived at the top soaked.

If someone rode the subway, they only did it once.

The novelty quickly wore off.

Here are Blythe and Brandt behind bars in the "dungeon" jail in the basement of the building.

After our museum-ing, we stopped for a piece of chocolate half-way up Main Street, then continued to climb to the Wasatch Brew Pub where we had lunch, but no brew.  We strolled back down Main Street, window shopping and ogling the pricey goods and art on display in windows.  We went and saw a movie, Goosebumps 2, a rather silly scary movie aimed at a younger audience.  It was ridiculous, but both the kids liked it.  They had watched the first movie (on DVD) in the morning while I was swimming and were both keen to see the second film.

The kids returned to the activity center to play air hockey and video games while I made dinner and Kent and I talked.  Having a kitchen was really nice.  We only ate out two meals, making the food portion of the trip very affordable.  It's nice that the children are old enough to head out to a safe and supervised place, without our needing to be there.  We wouldn't let them go swim alone, but to play in the center was great.  They stayed until dinner, then after we ate, we played a few more games and then they watched more TV.  Hotel TV is so appealing.

This morning we had to check out by 10:00am, so there wasn't really time to do anything but pack up.  I did go down to the fitness center, and the kids went down to the activity center again, after packing up their stuff.  I think we could have easily spent another couple of days in Park City.  I would have liked to hike a bit, and there were other parts of the city we might have wandered around.  But the time we spent was good.  The children were only excessively irritating a bit, they didn't fight, and we had quality time just the four of us.  We're very grateful to the Rasmussens who helped make all that happen for us.