Day 14
I’m sitting at the table in the RV at the moment. Mark is to my right, writing postcards. Grandma is sitting across the table from me, changing channels on the TV. Grandpa is sitting on the couch, reading a book. James, who we picked up from the airport this morning, is snoozing on the couch.
So today has been a fun day! It started early, as Mark and I left around 7:15 with Aunt Jane, in order to bring her to Salt Lake City International Airport, where she was set to catch a flight back east to Lambert Field in St. Louis. James was scheduled to arrive in Salt Lake City shortly before noon.
After we dropped off Aunt Jane, Mark and I came back to the campsite. After straightening up a couple of things, we drove back to the airport in order to meet up wiht James. I mentioned this in a previous entry, but this was the first time any of us Arndt “kids” have flown, so I was anxious to hear about it. Turns out he had a really easy flight, and he seemed to enjoy it.
It’s weird to think that it took Mark and I two weeks to get to Salt Lake City, and it took James just two-and-a-half hours or so. Flight is amazing!
This afternoon, us trio of Arndts left to grab lunch and then to do some exploring. We ate at nearby Denny’s, and we discussed the different places in this area that we would like to visit. We finally decided on heading towards Olympic Park and Park City, which are spots where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held.
Once we arrived at Olympic Park, we immediately saw the different ski jump ramps, the bobsled course, and even what I think was the luge course. It was a bit off in the distance, but that’s what I would have guess it was.
It was really cool to see the spot that was the center of attention some three-and-a-half years ago. I tried to visualize how things looked on TV and how official everything was, and then I look at this park that is very nice, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just off of a state highway, and it’s not exceptionally huge or fancy. But it was really neat to just get to see that stuff.
From there, we went to Park City. Evidently, it’s a very popular ski destination in the right seasons. It’s not surprising, though, since it’s basically built on a mountain, and it’s a very hilly city.
After driving through Park City for a bit, we spotted a chairlift, starting at Main Street and ascending the mountain. We decided to check it out, and we ended up buying tickets to ride this chairlift, which took us up the mountain — quite a height, let me tell you — and then back down. It was really cool — and kind of scary! I have never been on a chairlift before, so I was a little nervous. But it was a lot of fun, and we got quite a view of the surrounding area. We saw many bike trails, ski slopes, and we got almost an aerial view of Park City. It was lots of fun!
So that about does it! We had a really good day. I’m not exactly sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but I know there are a couple of things we’ve been talking about. For one, Mark and I have quite a bit of work to do, so we’ll hopefully get a lot accomplished tomorrow. Secondly, there is the Utah State Fair going on just a half-mile or so from this campsite. We’ll probably try to check that out sometime tomorrow.