By day number three in Utah, and two days going nonstop, we cancelled plans for Saturday and enjoyed a relaxing day instead. We slept in, indulged in more pastries from The Bakery at Zermatt (and got extras for our early morning flight the next day), visited the Olympica Park and Museum in Park City, went shopping in the historic district, spent a couple of hours in the outdoor hot tub at the resort, and took one last drive from Midway to Provo for stunning views at sunset. This also worked in our favor because we got one more In n Out visit in once we reached Provo. I had big plans to go snow tubing on the Olympic ski jump and soak in The Crater, but relaxing won out completely.
Our morning walk around the resort grounds as we sipped our coffee and ate scones, revealed a carousel. It was covered when we first arrived, but they opened it up on the weekend.
Mountains surrounded our resort. The air felt so clean and cool.
The higher we got in the moutains, the cloudier and colder is became. In Midway, it was close to 50 degrees, but a good 20 degrees colder in the mountains. The Olympic Park grounds were gorgeous and well maintained, as they now use the facility as a training center.
The Museum had a lot of facts and pictures I didn't know or had seen before. For example, I had no idea that the Olympics ran on 23,000 volunteers.
The very large puppets that were used in the open ceremony.
The ski area was awesome to see, especially because we got to see people practicing. There's also an adventure course that looks so much fun (and is only open in the summer months).
A map of the area. Most of the Park is actually blocked off for outside visitors. We drove as far as we could until we were met with a gate in front of us. ere met with a gate in front of us.
On to Park City. We shopped, ate lunch at Main Street Pizza and Noodle, grabbed tea from Atticus, and enjoyed people watching. I enjoyed Park City much more during the day than I did during our previous night visit. Next time I would like to try skiing and some of the other outdoor winter activities in the area. Since this day was all about relaxing, we didn't bother doing any of it.
People watching from our table. Much less Patagonia-land from here.
My treat for the afternoon: a CBD Matcha from Atticus. This place was hopping so we didn't get to stay and enjoy the atmosphere, but it was definitely my kind of place.
An afternoon in the hot tub (and pool). We made it to ourselves for most of the afternoon. It was glorious.
We made a plan sitting in the hot tub to grab In n Out in Provo so we could take in the views on our favorite drive. We just so happened to go at sunset. We pulled over whenever we could to take pictures and simply enjoy the beautiful mountains.
The mountains as we drove back after the sun had set (pictured above). Here's the real kicker about the day: we had a 5 a.m. flight to catch the next day, which means we had to be at the airport by 3 a.m. so we could drop the rental vehicle off too. We were an hour away in the mountains, so we needed to leave by 2 a.m., which made wake up time 1:15 a.m. Of course, we had relaxed all day and weren't tired in the least. We wound up with one hour of sleep before driving to the airport. I may have fallen asleep waiting to board our flight. It was a rough morning, but it also felt like our day never really ended.
Park City was a fun ski town and had a lot to offer as far as restaurants and bars go. I am happy we decided to stay in Midway, which was a lot less hustle and bustle (not to mention crowded). Overall, Park City still isn't my favorite, but I do feel it has a lot of outdoor activities at your finger tips any time of the year. I won't rule it out for another quick getaway in the future!