FAMILY OUTING June 14, 2014

Our family recently took a day trip that was full of fun, adventure, a little fighting and good food…all the essentials of a family outing.  We headed up to The Canyons Resort in Park City with the intent of getting out of the valley heat and enjoy some cool mountain fun.  In spite of it being summer, the high temperature for the day ended up being about 67 degrees down in Farmington and about 10 to 15 degrees cooler up in Park City.  The kids thought I was crazy to make them throw a jacket in the car but we were all glad once we arrived at the resort’s parking lot because the wind was blowing and it was cold.  At the parking lot, there is a Cabriolet lift, or an open gondola type of ski lift, that takes you from the parking lot up to the main resort area.  Since the Cabriolet lift is open to the elements we suffered through what felt like freezing temperatures and wind to blow your socks off.  Luckily by the time the ride was over we only had pink cheeks and noses and didn’t lose any body parts.  Even though I kept reminding the kids that this was part of the adventure and we would warm up soon, spirits dropped a bit and the mood needed to change quickly. 

Next we hopped on the Red Pine Gondola, which is fully enclosed and we could sit down, and enjoyed the ride over tops of trees and what seemed like several death drops over ravines.  While I kept my head up ignoring our rising elevation, the kids enjoyed being high off the ground and being able to see for at least a mile. 

We arrived at the Red Pine Lodge which is at about 8,000 feet and surprisingly a little warmer than down at the resort.  Once we bumbled around a little we found the Nature Trail head and set off to the Lookout.  Miles’ elected himself the leader for the day so once his walking stick was found we enjoyed a leisurely hike to lookout point.  

Once there, Max’s bottomless pit of a stomach was ready for the next round and we dug into the lunch we made.  Have you ever packed a salad and not had a fork?  Well, Mikaela and I both made a salad and once all the food was handed out we realized I forgot the forks.  Since the nearest fork was a 20 minute hike away we decided our fingers were good enough.  (I doubt I will ever forget the forks again.)  

The view from the point is incredible, you can see for miles and the landscape never gets boring.  As we ate, we enjoyed the sounds of the forest and the peacefulness it brings.  Well, aside from Miles jumping off every rock he could climb.  Luckily Miles only scrapped his hand and thanks to Paul’s foresight we had first aid spray to clean him up.

Since we had more on the agenda, we hiked back to the gondola and zipped down to the car.  Little did we know our next adventure would be so complicated.  

When I was planning the day I knew I wanted to find a place that we could miniature golf.  Initially I was going to leisurely research options at home on the internet but I forgot.  So while sitting in the parking lot and with Blackberry in hand I typed in mini golf to my search engine and came up with several addresses…the closest being in Heber City.  We drove 25 minutes to the first address and what stood before us was an office building and not a golf ball in site.  So then we started calling phone numbers on the list and talked to two gas stations.  Obviously my search skilled failed so Paul mentioned he knew of a place in Lehi.  We drove another 45 minutes and finally found what we were looking for…miniature golf.

Once getting our clubs and balls, we headed off to start our 18 holes.  Since the kids had never been miniature golfing, we explained the basic concepts and began.  Miles was up first and got the ball in the hole in two strokes.  We were all surprised because it was a 3-par hole.  Next up was Mikaela who made it in 3 strokes; Max made it in 4 strokes; Paul ended up with 3 strokes and I struggled to get that freaking ball in the hole in 9 strokes.  The group behind us scowled at me and we quickly moved on to the next hole trying to get done with it before being assaulted with another group of scowls.  

At the next hole Paul got a hole in one and I got par so things were improving overall.  As we went along we tried to have fun and enjoy our time together but groups kept crowding us and two of them jumped ahead of us because they got tired of waiting.  I didn’t realize that an element of miniature golf was to get through the hole as fast as possible and frown and impatiently wait for the group ahead of you to get done.  In spite of feeling like everyone hated us, we ended up with everyone getting a hole in one at some point and having some fun.  After adding up the scores Paul came in first with a 50; I hit a 58; Max got 68; Mikaela ended up with 72; and Miles had a 77.  It is kind of funny that our scores mirror our birth order. 

After promising to do this again sometime at a less busy miniature golf place, we hopped back in the car and headed out to find pizza.  I wanted brick oven or some good old fashion pizza.  After risking another search with my phone, I found a five star rated pizza place up by the U of U.  Thirty minutes later we found The Pie Pizzeria.  As we walked in we thought it was a loud, funky little dive so we ordered and were seated at a table for four crammed next to an older couple and a family of eight.  I was kind of shocked at the number of people crammed in like sardines waiting for pizza.  After waiting about 45 minutes our pizzas were done and thankfully the older couple let us put a few things on their table so we could fit the two pizzas on our table.  After tasting the first bite we all realized why at 4:30pm the place was packed.  The pizza was the best I have ever had!

To round out our day of fun, we stopped by Baskin Robbins and got a cone.  It boggles my mind why the kids want super sweet, tongue coloring ice cream.  My usual is rocky road or something else chocolate, but the kids get stuff like bubble gum, spider man, rock ‘n pop, or cotton candy.  Is it a kid thing to want to look like you’ve eaten an ice cream cone long after consuming it? I don’t understand it. 

Finally back at home we figured we drove about three hours and 150 miles that day.  That was a fun outing and one we would all remember.  Since it was still relatively early, Mikaela was invited down to a friend’s house so Mikaela and I jumped back in the car and zipped down the hill toward her friend and once we hit Main Street my car, the car we had been driving all day long, DIED.  After calling Paul and trying for two hours to get it started we towed my car home.  I felt so lucky that the car didn’t die as we were out and about.  We could have been stuck in Park City, Lehi or Salt Lake.  Turns out my fuel pump had to be replaced but that didn’t get done until Monday.  Whew, we were lucky!