"Romantic" Getaway

Now here is a fun story. When Amber and I went to the State Fair, we totally lucked out! See, the first day of the fair they had a vendor tent where people were handing out free samples of their local wares. We totally made the rounds through the tent, trying everything from garlic olive oil dip (pretty awesome on peaches), ice cream sandwiches, local honey, meat, granola, salsa, apples.... to cheese and cake and all sorts of yummy stuff! As we were heading out to see the actual fair, we passed a KSL booth with a drawing for.. well I'm not sure I paid much attention to what it was.... but it was for a weekend getaway to Park City. Amber and I both put our names in, just for the fun of it. We said we'd take each other if one of us actually got drawn.

Guess who won?

ME!

It took a few weeks to get it scheduled up, but we went up to, not Park City, but Deer Valley! It's the swanky ski area. And we were at the fancy Austrian-themed hotel, the Goldener Hirsch Inn. David Duchovny stayed there during Sundance last year! Amber totally got a kick out of that. We had a three-course meal our first evening there and were so stuffed we practically rolled upstairs to our room! I wish I had taken my camera down that night.... actually I also wish I had taken extra batteries on the whole trip, because I ran out during our day out! Thank goodness for my iPod. So here is my romantic getaway to Deer Valley with Amber.

Quaking aspens along the lift ride

Red rose in front of our intricately carved mirror

The sign to our hotel/inn. It's modeled after a much larger space in Salzburg, Austria. I loved the charm of the interior!

The front facade with beautiful wood decks. You can see our deck from here! Top.. middle?  Somewhere on the top. 

With Franz, the famous bear!! 

We are close. And happy. He's on Main Street in Park City, which is where we spent our day Saturday. It was so fun to see such an old-style town and just wander the ritzy streets. (Because it's very old-style, but most shops cater to the Sundance crowd). 

View along Main Street. We were up there during the peak off-season, which I really enjoyed. I'm not a huge crowd person. The weather was also super fantastic! A little cool, but the most perfect fall day ever. 

Loosey the Moose! They have some fun random art up there. 

If I had written this post after I got back, I could tell you some smart fact about just how old this theater is.  So I went and looked it up for you! The original Opera House was built in 1888, but a fire burned a lot of the town, including the original building. This version opened in 1926, highly influenced from the discoveries at King Tut's Tomb. Maybe next time I'll go inside and give you a better description. 

Statue of a miner. Park City more or less got going through silver mining in the mountains. Had the city museum actually been free, I could also share more details you don't exactly care about. Sadly for us all, the museum cost money so I didn't get a great history lesson beyond what I saw along the streets. 

Still, the streets have some great pieces of history. This building was not a hotel anymore, but it still had the original (?) glass work in the pediment space above the doors. Oh, did I mention there were several art venues there? It was great to go see the works of local artists, along with a few works by famous deceased artists. Oh, and they had some stunning sculptural pieces. Loved the natural stone and organic design. 

I saw this cute store front and just had to get a picture! Seriously, Park City Main Street has so much character along that strip of road. Tons of charm. 

We rode the lift up the mountain for some nice scenery. They're probably resort homes, but talk about cute and charming! 

Fall leaves and ski runs.

Probably my favorite picture. I love the look of quaking aspens (thanks mom!) and these ones just looked fabulous with the blue sky behind them. No editing done. Lol, do I ever edit pictures? Umm.. not too often. 

Awesome "closet" at the Inn. I think this one was in the hallways, but it's super cute. I love the hand-painted wood  and the European charm. Some of these had names over each door, kind of like a his and hers. Cute. 

Hand-painted chest with old butter-churn  on top. 

They had lights in the trees!! I love lights. 

There is a hilarious story relating to Amber and I going out and taking pictures. It was a little chilly outside. She had already used the jetted tub (while I was gone at a dance performance). I had probably too much make-up on and both of us were in a state of dress... well that you don't usually go out to meet company in. Especially if it's cold. And then as we dropped the key off with the front desk, I made a brilliant comment about pants. We were wearing them. Flannel ones, even. However, I sort of did not use an adjective with the  pants comment. Rather than saying, "That's why we're wearing long pants, or warm pants," I simply said that to combat the cold: "That's why we're wearing pants."

Did I mention they thought we were a couple when we checked in?? Lesbians that wear no pants. Awesome impression. For what it's worth, I did some damage control for the pants comment once we got inside again to pick up our key. We talked to the front desk guy for like 40 minutes, so I think we effectively removed any ill effects of my awesome comment. It was in that conversation that we learned how expensive our room is during Sundance ($1200+ per night), that David Duchovny stayed in the hotel last year, and that if we come back during Sundance, he might give us some tips for star-spottings.

Old trestle downtown. 

More trees from the lift ride

Us on the lift! It was chilly in the shade. Sorry for the picture on the side...  I clearly didn't figure out how to import from my iPod very well. 

We stopped at this restaurant for a late lunch. I got some great pizza and lunch was fun... until I took an entire glass of water to the lap!! Their tables aren't very stable. Pretty much everyone in the restaurant saw it happen... haha at least they told me that it didn't look too bad and that I was rocking it. 

Two cool things: jetted tub and fluffy robe. You bet I rocked that out, complete with bubbles!!

And that was our romantic trip to Deer Valley! I wish I had food pictures and spa night pictures to share... well... I may have spa night pictures :) But I don't think you really want to see my face with goo on it. If I get the food pics though, I will definitely update! That meal was to DIE for.

Perfect weekend to kick off fall. I've decided this year to embrace the fall season and so far, so good.