Road trippin'

These past couple of days, my daughter is on the road, driving almost 800 miles solo, from sunny California all the way to sunny Utah and Park City. Thinking of it made me reminisce the magic side of all the road trips I also took alone when I was a young man, a few stood out in my mind.

I particularly remembered that month of June 1973 when I drove less than 400 miles, that is half of my daughter drove in two days, from my hometown of Montriond, in the French Alps all the way to Murnau, in Bavaria. On the way, I stopped in Wolfurt, Austria, the home of Doppelmayr skilifts, where I met Walter Frois, one of the two Mount Buller ski school directors in Australia.

I eventually landed in Murnau where I found a job as waiter for a while at a local restaurant. My goal was to learn German, which I did, but this first stint didn't quite suffice as I hit the road alone two more times to Tübingen, Germany where I polished a bit more that particular linguistic skill...

Hurricane power

In spite of all of its destructive power, super-storm Sandy has given us yesterday and today the most positive days on the airwaves and the entire media, as our two presidential candidates have been literally shut-up by the raging weather.

So for a very short while we've been spared all the negativity from both campaign as well as all the lies (a Romney's specialty). This will have given us a well-deserved break from the relentless mud-throwing.

Will this surprise hurricane help Obama? Probably... Can Obama still win? Probably too, thanks the that crazy Electoral College...
 

Training for Halloween?

Yesterday, my wife read somewhere that it's not a great idea to purchase Halloween candies in advance. I responded by asking if the candies held for too long might eventually lose their taste, become rancid or just pass their expiration date for optimum freshness.

She told me that it was simply that people who see an ample supply of sugar treats laying around their house for an extended period of time can't generally resist the temptation. I should have thought of that, as I am a typical offender who can't help but help myself when I happen to stand than 10 feet away from our household candy storage area that we have strategically located next to my office.

I shrug off any suggestion that I have an addiction by countering that sampling the supplies is a proper way to make sure that the stuff we give-away is delicious and also to train myself gradually for the upcoming candy overdose. I don't usually get spooked by too much sugar, at least not around Halloween!

We've got a ski champ in town! Really?

Today, Ted Ligety, like the rest of his fellow racers was using his new "2 x 4s," and in the worst of possible conditions, he managed to triumph at the season's opening ski World Cup in Sölden with a historic 2.75 second lead. There is no question that the skier from Park City is a true champion and if you have seen his recent training videos, you can appreciate that he's got the “right stuff.”

Yet if he were to stroll down Main Street, Park City, at any time of the year most people would not recognize him. He's got no fan club and no one to cheer for him loudly at any of the World Cup venues This morning, as he had already won, I was on my way to Deer Valley to pick up some fresh croissants and I turned on the local radio, hoping to hear from that race. Nothing.

As you can see, ski racing is not popular in Park City. At least, Ted doesn't have to worry about paparazzi when he happens to be in town...

Where in the world is Yves Bocquet?

A few days ago, I called Mychel Blanc, a friend from France. After catching up on current news and events, he immediately asked me if I have heard a mutual friend, Yves, who normally lives in New York. I told him that I had not, and presumed he was touring Normandy on his Harley-Davidson, which I thought was the last I heard about him.

As Mychel sounded distraught and appeared to be insisting so much that I dropped everything I was doing to search for the “disappeared,” I obliged. After a few phone calls and one text-message, “Bill,” as we call him, re-surfaced and said not to worry as he had just returned from a six week trip touring the Alps and the Dolomites on his bike, and upon coming home, he had been super busy moving himself into a larger apartment in mid-town Manhattan.

I couldn't immediately get the hold of Mychel who, to forget about his presumed loss, had gone to Paris to see the Edward Hopper exhibit, hoping - I guess - to find our friend Bill, as we call him, miraculously captured by the famous artist into one of his pricey canvass!

How I manage my expectations

Yesterday, it snowed, boy did it snow! We got close to 9 inches at our home in Park City and this morning, it was winter-wonderland... Does that mean that I'm bullish about snow this winter? Not at all.

Over the years I have (painfully) learned how to manage my expectations. I have set two categories: Things I control (even marginally) and things I don't. Mid and long-term weather expectations happen to fall into the latter category, which means that I have no expectation whatsoever in this area.

I only can be positively surprised and this is a wonderful thing. Anything I can control a tiny bit, I will try to influence if it happens to interest me. For the rest, I take a fatalistic – not religious - attitude and I say Insha'Allah (you probably know what this one means...)

Sport, drugs and entertainment

I've never been a good and steady sport fan; instead of “watching” sport, I vastly prefer “doing” it. This said, I have followed the unraveling of the Tour de France's credibility and the fall of Lance Armstrong, its seven-time winner.

What I've come to understand is that in order to have a chance to participate, all these “top athletes” must take performance-enhancing drugs. Not just in cycling, but also, I'm told, in tennis and in a wide range of other sports; not just in endurance contests, but virtually everywhere.

Every famous sport individual's “cleanliness” can and should be questioned, including even that of famous characters like Reinhold Messner, the renowned mountain climber. So, with Lance's demise, any athlete's credibility has now become questionable.

Does that mean that I will stop watching the Tour de France? Probably not; I love the way it's filmed and I see entertainment value in it. Same thing for skiing and for a marathon race, but I will see all of it as a form of entertainment; no, a circus act.

On the other end, I'll keep on doing the few sports that I call my own. I can feel the pain when I'm doing them and I can guarantee you that, except for the beer and wine I drank the night before, I remain totally “clean.”

Plan, journey and destination

I'm currently working diligently at planning a long road trip that we will take before winter. We intend to drive from Utah over to the East Coast and take a southern route, as we had done the same in reverse, more than 27 years ago by driving north on Interstate 80.

We plan to cover more than 2,500 miles. I've been told that most of the excitement of traveling comes from the planning process. I'm not quite sure this is true, but at any rate, it's probably a good way to wet one's appetite, perk-up interest for what lays ahead, search for ideas and plan the unforeseeable; all this put together can only make the trip more pleasurable.

For the time being, simply be patient while the project takes shape!

Time to vote!

Now that the last presidential debate is over and before Romney changes his mind again, I've decided it was time to cast my vote in this hotly contested 2012 election. Who knows? Mitt Romney could now say that he wants to include the “public option” into Obamacare or announce that he has switched his spiritual allegiance to Catholicism!

I won't wait; I'll go today, as it is the first day early voting is possible in the state of Utah. The weather is also gray and snowy which makes it a perfect setting for picking leaders that stand out. That way, if I were to die tomorrow, I would have cast my ballot and could go in total peace. As for you, dear reader, if you haven't already done it, don't forget to express your choice...

The ideal mountain-biking trail

Yesterday was our first-time riding on the new Jenny trail, that opened this summer and meanders up over Park City Mountain Resort.

The trail, a 10 mile round-trip circuit, begins at the resort's parking lot (6,900 ft) and ends at the top of the Payday chairlift (8,254 ft), but with lots of ups and down along the way, the elevation gain is 1,649 ft.

The trail is smooth, comfortably wide, most of the turns are extremely well designed, the slope stays between 5 and 6%, except for a short, steep section that borrows an old trail, where we had to walk our bikes since we weren't familiar with this particular spot.

Variety of scenery, changing vegetation and views are also contributing to making that path one-of-a-kind and a real pleasure to ride or hike! If the number of users we saw is a testimony to the user-friendliness of that trail, it's also a clear indication that it stands as the model by which mountain-bike trails should be planned and built. We'll do it again!

The power of passion

Earlier this week, Émile Allais, a great French ski personality passed away at more than 100 years of age. Beside an impressive sporting and professional legacy, he had something few mentioned in the various memorial pieces I read. I was inhabited by a burning passion for everything “ski”.

That's right, passion, the high-octane fuel for supercharged life and achievement. After hearing of his passing, my second thought was to think, how many young women and men still have that burning fire within them to achieve an exceptional existence and are our busy, chaotic lives still allowing for that magic ingredient to survive and thrive inside ourselves?

I'm convinced that whoever we are, passion can live inside us all; weather we are pastry chef, software engineer, second-grade teacher, helicopter pilot or brick-layer. Have we ever taken the time to look for it? Have we been fortunate enough to find it? More importantly, if we have, what have done with it?

Have we neglected it and let it whither, or instead, have we continuously nurtured it and invigorated it throughout our lives? I wish I could answer that question by the later...

Time to ski your age!

Recently, I was explaining that for the first time in eight years, I “rode my age” on a mountain bike. This of course came directly from most ski town resident's goal that consists at skiing as many time as one's age during the course of one season.

While this lofty goal might totally be out of reach for a mature person who needs to work and lives far away from the slopes, it is in fact accessible to many more people than you might first think. To illustrate my point, I am sharing a chart that displays the number of ski days in a year and my age during my ski life. I only began to ski when I was 7 years old, and what comes immediately to mind is that it's significantly easier to “ski one's age” as we're still young.

Let's do some basic arithmetic first. If generally, depending on location, a ski season lasts 4 to 5 month, we can hope to ski a maximum of 120 to 150 days, right? Of course this would be if we had nothing else to do or where a “lifty”, ski-patrol or instructor spending every day on the mountain.

More realistically, if we only skied during weekends and a few holidays in between, say 35 to 45 times, not counting extra time-off, sick days (whether legitimate or not) and severe-blizzard-road-closure days (those do happen!) the days could seriously add up. All this means that from birth to the ages of 35 to 45, a skier has absolutely no excuse (barring of course real sickness, accident or jail-time) not to be skiing.

Where the exercise become trickier, is during what we could call the “ski-doughnut-hole” between the ages of 35-45 and retirement age, whenever this time would be. There's always the option to ski in the evening it's available at one's own local spot or go to a resort that offers this type of amenity.

Then, there's always the possibility to spend the summer vacations in the Southern Hemisphere and add more time on the snow. The 10 to 20 extra days gained while being making turns "down-under" could make a significant difference and, in many cases, bring the number close to these 50 or 60 days that are badly needed!

There's yet some more radical existential changes at an avid skier's disposal, if telecommuting can be arranged with one's employer, like working from your mountain home and logging a daily series of lunch-time runs, alternatively working early in the morning or late at night.

Have I forgotten anything? Yes, of course, there's also the possibility of changing careers that would also entail year-round mountain living, like becoming a free-lancer, joining full-time the local ski patrol, becoming a ski instructor, a lift operator or better even, driving a snow cat, becoming a night-snowmaker, waitressing or becoming a bar tender.

Now, I've said enough for today; time for me to go for a hike in the mountain while you finally take your own pledge to ski no less than your age this upcoming winter season. Good luck!

Chaos, passion and creativity

Today's question is “can we have passion when our lives are consumed with complexity, hyperactivity and clutter?” My first reaction would be to say no. Yet, it's quite possible to be incredibly passionate and be so deeply involved into what drives us, that we pay little attention to the surrounding mess, noise and clutter.

Maybe it's just myself, but I would say that the more outside distractions we have and the more difficult it seems to be to stay focused and fully engage in our passions.

From that point, there's only one step to link passion with creative endeavors; not just creative thoughts, concepts or designs, but also creation of all kinds like new business models, companies or organizations.

Again, it would seem to me that some quiet space and a simpler life environment are required for focusing on passion and the breeding ground it provides for creativity. What are your thoughts on this matter?

The last perfect turn...

We all dream of that perfect turn and many of us like to claim a few of them; at least we that's what we believe and in the end, that's what counts...

Last night, Émile Allais, the champion, the ski instructor, the resort planner and the unstoppable ski-biz whiz, carved one last turn in his rich career, just after reaching 100, and disappeared into blue yonder, leaving a cloud of iridescent powder in the horizon.

Émile invented French skiing, at a time when the only choice was Austrian, and triggered a revolution that created a home-grown industry, multifaceted business expertise, gave many young folks an entry into the international world of skiing and, for a few of us, a shot at the American Dream.

As the magic powder cloud settles and its myriad of crystals vaporize, from the bottom of my heart, I say, merci, Émile!

 

Women hold the key

Obama returned from the dead last night and gave Romney a run for his money. The Mormon candidate couldn't get most traction and should have succeeded at ticking off women by his trademark patronizing and patriarchal comments.

Since most voters don't understand basic arithmetic, they won't understand that Mitt Romney's budget is a hoax and that it certainly doesn't add up, but women are precisely the group that holds the key to this election.

If they want to preserve their right and not fall into the Mormon definition of their existential “best and highest use,” they better wake up, reject the GOP ideology and embrace president Obama. I still believe they're too smart to miss this opportunity!

Park City and Ski mag rankings

Ski Magazine bases its annual ski resort ranking on votes from its readership. This is a tricky endeavor for a publication, as it never fails to irritate most of the resorts that don't see their rankings go up, or God forbid, that watch them go down!

Yet, the magazine keeps doing it for better or for worse, and this year, while Deer Valley Resort failed to clinch what would have been an incredible six years running #1 position, it settled for #2 and not far behind, Park City Mountain Resort upped its ranking to #4 while Canyons finally made it to the top ten!

That Whistler-Blackcomb, our distant neighbor to the north, would capitalize one their good snow year was fully expected, while California, Utah and Colorado, had to settle for a thin cover and make the best of it. This said, what helped Park City in its record placement of three of its ski areas in the top ten position is, without a doubt, it's proximity to Salt Lake City airport and its unmatched ease of access.

As the average lengths of stay have been plummeting over the years (a week was the norm 30 years ago, today we're down to a long week-end), time has never been more precious, and today, a vacation that maximizes the available time allocated is what puts Utah skiing in general, and Park City in particular, as the obvious first choice.

A view into Romney's doctrine

This morning, journalist Chrystia Freeland was interviewed on the radio about her new book: “Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else”. Her work chronicles the super-rich who've reach the pinnacle of the business world, many of whom having gained their fortunes not from some inheritance, but from their actual work.

In a nutshell she found that these people have very little sympathy for the 99.9% who haven't done as well as them, and they also think that they are not just smarter than the rest, they're much more moral too. Yet, they'd like to cut essential government services like education and all the rest of the infrastructure that may have helped them along the way. In a way, they'd like to burn the bridges that have led them to their golden, privileged island.

A hedge-fund manager was quoted to say: “low paid American workers are the most overpaid in the world...” while a CFO of some high-tech company suggested: “If they want to live 10 times better than the Chinese, they need to be 10 times more productive. And if they’re not, they need to take a pay cut.”

These snippets alone are symptomatic of the abysmal gap that separate the new elite from the rest of the people in the country and offers a vivid x-ray of what lays inside Romney's heart.

A lesson in negotiation

I thought I was a top-notch negotiator, just up until a few days ago, when in the middle of a business discussion, I was shown, by a smart attorney, that there was a much better way to get to my goal. Had it not been for that “second-opinion,” I would have followed my instinct and failed.

The morale of that story is incredibly limpid: No matter old we are, and experienced we think we might be, we don't know everything and can always count on the views of others. Something to always keep in mind as we keep on maturing!

A chairlift is born!

It seems like it was just yesterday when the old towers of the Deer Crest chairlift were plucked away by a powerful helicopter and in less than two hours nothing of the old infrastructure remained in sight. The older and slower equipment had been taken out to make room for the Mountaineer Express, the latest high-speed quad chair added to Deer Valley Resort.

On October 3rd, a similar scene took place, when that time, another K-Max helicopter began to drop towers on the concrete footings that were still peppering the long opening going from the bottom the hill to the top of Little Baldy amidst trees and brush. The weather was perfect and a windy cold front had not settled in yet, so the powerful helicopter wasn't too hindered in its task of picking up and dropping off its heavy loads.

Upon arriving at the scene, the helicopter pilot and the working crew held an all-important briefing to choreograph what would be a intense, three-hour operation. Soon thereafter, the work began in earnest and to an observer like me, appeared to be executed totally seamlessly as if it had been rehearsed for weeks. The crew of about15 and the pilot are experts at this kind of construction. They've been doing it in the most adverse conditions, high altitude, bad weather and even snow, and all fully appreciate the danger and pitfalls inherent with this type of work and are trained to leave nothing to chance.

Because of their elevation, the top towers, and particularly the 5,000 pound cross-arms and sheave assemblies, the heaviest components, proved too ponderous at times for the specialized aircraft. In two instances, the sheave assemblies had to be removed from the cross-arms and both elements had to be dropped separately onto the towers. Sometime, the pilot had to hover a bit longer, burn some more fuel in order to pick-up that extra air-lift that the load would require.

Of course, taking down towers is a lot faster than putting them back in, as the crew had to precisely wrestle super-heavy towers and cross-arms in place, and almost simultaneously, run bolts into them to secure everything in place. On two occasions, the chopper had to refuel to get the job done, but by morning end, a brand new set of towers had taken roots on Little Baldy Mountain at Deer Valley.

In just a few weeks from now, we'll all be experiencing a brand new, comfortable high-speed quad and we won't even remember how skiing was on that side of the mountain before this new Mountaineer Express!

Ladies, beware of Romney-Ryan!

I won't return to the issue of who was good, who was bad and who won the VP Debate last night. If there is one portion of the animated exchange that got my attention, it was the last question about abortion. Clearly, Ryan who had to answer first was either caught off-guard or did not how to handle it too well.

Too bad Biden didn't add that, in spite of what himself and Paul Ryan think, a vast majority of catholics believe that life begins in the delivery-room, but he had already performed much better than expected!  What Paul Ryan said however “that a Romney-Ryan administration will oppose abortion except in the case or rape, incest or danger to the mother...” was a clear signal that Roe vs Wade would be severely restricted, if not rescinded altogether.

In fact, the largest danger lurking with the pair at the helm, is by proxy, through the appointment of one or two more supreme court judges that would swipe a woman's right to chose under the rug for good. Ladies, please think twice before you vote!

Riding my age...

In our western ski towns, it's very customary to talk about “skiing one's age” as a way to link age with the number of days skied during the course of a given season. For instance, if you've skied 42 days in a season and are also 42 years old, you've skied your age.  In my case I'm far away from just being 42 and while I've skied around 100 days in recent years, this, thank goodness, doesn't make me a centenarian yet!

From that leisure-oriented way of keeping score, I'm making the same parallel with mountain biking. As some of you may have read, we've been into that sport for the past eight seasons and while I hit 49 days last year, which by far was my best season, I still remained many days away from “riding my age...” This past Tuesday, I finally hit that milestone and while it was far under100, it was significantly above last year's number.

Since our riding season isn't over yet, I plan to do better than that. Break another record would probably in terms of total distance for the season: I've already hit the 1,000 km mark, but the 1,000 mile barrier might be quite a stretch!

Forget and forgive

These two powerful words that so often get used together in different order and sometime with one or both preceded by a “don't” can have a huge impact on our lives. The most costly scenario is “Don't forget and don't forgive”, a situation that can keep you up at night for as long as you stick to that poisonous recipe. It's a high-maintenance state of mind that continually burns inside, darkens one's life, and seldom brings something good.

Then there are the two symmetrical pairing of the two terms; first, “Don't forget and forgive” which is something that has always puzzled me and that I find totally unmanageable, if not unpractical. A lot of people mention it as a way to manage hurt or bad experience, but I personally don't see much benefit to it and frankly almost never uses it, as I find it to be almost as poisonous as the first expression we discussed. It might help as a mean to leverage experience, but I even doubt it.

The remaining one in that group is “Forget and don't forgive” and I must confess that I often find myself in that particular situation. I forget most things quickly and re-discover them randomly sometime. Generally when that happens, the hurt vanishes very quickly or is long gone and I move on.

As I love to do, I saved the best for last. “Forget and forgive.” This is the equivalent of starting anew, leaving the heavy baggage, shedding the old skin. It's a form of true liberation and an embrace of greater maturity. I like to “forget and forgive” a lot, but I'm not yet as good with it as I would like to. A great goal to work on!

Looking forward to something good

When we're younger, we always seem to be looking forward to “something good.” Then, years go by, we get kicked in the face, in the back and somewhere in between, and soon, we become disenchanted, disillusioned and above all cynical. We quit looking forward to tomorrow and start losing our sparks and our general lust for life.

I've recently discovered that this state of grace is up for grabs when we're willing to let ourselves go and “relapse” into looking forward to new situations, new circumstances and new people with anticipation, curiosity and enthusiasm. It makes all the difference in our lives. It's like begin born again.

So, please, heed my advice, bring some good, new staff, in the forefront of your life and start actively make it happen!

Better the devil you know...

That's it, even after watching his dismal debate performance on TV the other night, we'll stand behind Barack Obama in this upcoming election. Of course, our support is qualified and since the choice is so bad, we must apply the age-old maxim: “Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.”  The later devil is not really enticing as it is getting known a bona-fide liar and master flip-flopper... Go, Obama!

The omen...

More than 40 years ago, in October of 1971, I discovered the United States while riding across the country in the iconic Greyhound buses. I had bought one of the legendary passes, like American kids purchase Euro-Rail passes these day.

The deal was $99 for 21 days of travel inside the USA an Canada. I boarded the bus in Santa Monica and stepped out of that incredible transit system in Montreal, Canada after crossing the entire United States, including New York City and Niagara Falls.

I remember that I traveled between Salt Lake City and Cheyenne at night and that, as I was fast asleep on my bus seat, I had a peculiar dream that I couldn't quite understand back then and that was somehow hinting that I had “found the place!”  The bust must have been traveling just a few miles away from Park City at that very moment...

How can government spur the economy?

On countless occasions, I've expressed my profound doubt about our Government's ability to positively spur the economy. Yet, past events, and the past four year of Obama's presidency have shown that if the legislative systematically obstructs the executive branch, it can prolong recession, maintain stagnation, and above all, create a nagging sense of uncertainty that will paralyze the entire country and its economy.

In that sense, by dealing positively with each others, accepting compromises and seeing beyond their reelection or disabling pledges, our lawmakers can have a huge impact on the economic health of the entire nation. More so in fact, than the president. So why are we turning so much of our attention on the presidential contest, when in fact, most everything happens – or not – inside both houses of congress?

Political accounting...

During Tuesday's presidential debate, trillions of dollars were tossed around as if they were mere $100 bills. Yet, for all the discussions going back and forth between the two candidates, no one even mentioned that when they were talking of some $5 trillion unfunded tax cuts, these were on a 10 year period, just like the Simpson-Bowles plan called for $3.8 trillion in spending cuts and $1 trillion in more tax revenue by 2020; yeah, another time frame altogether!

This, of course, is utterly confusing and I doubt that many Americans knew that, yet alone could fathom the difference between billions and trillions of dollars! This mixing apples and oranges and not telling anybody is confusing and has of course become the new “lingua franca” of our politicians.

Without mixing the rest of the basket of fruits, I know that our GDP in 2011 was $15 trillion and is estimated to grow by 1 to 2% in 2012. Yet, at the same time, our federal government's debt now stands at $16.0 trillion; that's right, a tad bigger than our GDP, but don't feel too bad, Japan is twice that compared to their own GDP!

Of course the press is notoriously bad in keeping these numbers into perspective for the public's benefit and someone should, once and for all, call a spade a spade, and provide us a simple yet sobering display of how these number stack up over the next decade or so, so we finally can be reassured that we all sit at the bottom of a deep, deep hole!

Two bad presidential candidates

Last night, we followed the presidential debate of the candidates for President of the United States. The two individuals were at their worst as they were making their case. Romney, a real bulldog, always aggressive and constantly on the attack, with little concern about what he said was factual or was just to show that he was the know-it-all executive Americans should see in him.

I must say that Mormons have a religion so absurd that it perfectly confuses myths and realities and these folks won't hesitate to make statements that are totally irrational while staring you in the eyes. Romney did the same by just telling plain lies. As for Obama, he was totally “absent” and just took the blows his opponent was throwing at him without responding as he should have and could have. I'm not even talking about Jim Lehrer, the moderator who was totally useless.

Obviously, Romney was incredibly well prepared and had perfectly rehearsed his little number while Obama was either manifestly under the weather or had simply not done his homework as he should, grossly underestimating his opponent. Obama better wake up and be up to the task for the other two remaining debates and show what he is capable of, in terms of courage and leadership. If he doesn't, he just will be - as Steve Jobs once predicted – a one-term President!

Doing vs. Undoing

Early this morning, and for the second time this season, I had the chance to watch a helicopter at work. This time, the aircraft was installing 14 chairlift towers in Deer Valley. Before that, it was removing 13 of them.

Today's operation was scheduled to take about the same time as the previous one, but ended up taking twice as much. No wonder; undoing things is significantly easier, less fraught with unforeseen issues and other surprised.

Just like a tooth extraction compared to the installation of a replacement implant and crown... Something to remember!

The meaning of birthdays...

Birthdays take a different meaning whether the individual is four, twenty, forty or sixty years old! As we roll into maturity, these yearly events become more a matter of appreciating the energy, the motivation, the lust for life and the health we continue to enjoy than a way to keep the score...

At that point, we feel very lucky to be participating in the game of life and each new birthday is a reminder that we should focus on staying well, and with all our might, taking full advantage of the exciting world that surrounds us!

Rediscovering local beauties

When we first moved to Park City, we explored our immediate surroundings and after the first years of settling in, we hardly ever took a drive around that wasn't needed has we never had much time for aimless driving in the countryside.

Yesterday, I remembered how beautiful Fall foliage can be on a small stretch of road that goes from Empire Pass, at the top of Deer Valley Resort and winds down into Bonanza Flat before plunging all the way down into Pine Creek Canyon.

The scenery was just fantastic with aspen groves varying from green to yellow and even orange and still most of the oak trees radiating hues of red. A “must-drive” every year from now on!