Feb 17 -22 I travelled out to Utah to see my family and get in some snowboarding. Had a blast and thought I would give a day by day recall for my memory as much as anything else.

Day 1 (Feb 17-18): I have a friend who works at the Little Rock airport who hooks me up with buddy passes when I travel for personal reasons. This made my round trip airfare to Dublin last year $250 (on 4 days notice). I paid $150 to go from Little Rock to Charlotte to Phoenix to Salt Lake City. The “exciting” part is flying standby and out of all standby passengers I rank last to get on the flight. I woke up at 4am CST to make my 6:05 flight from Little Rock to Charlotte. Woke myself up once on the flight with the sound of my own snoring. Yeah, I have become that guy on the flight who sleeps and whose snoring keeps the other passengers awake. With a tight connection in Charlotte, I made it to Phoenix OK. Once in Phoenix, every flight to SLC was oversold. Looking at the prospect of spending the night at an airport (keep in mind it was about 1:30 in the afternoon), I decided to rent a car and see a bit of the West. Phoenix to Salt Lake is a beautiful drive … when the sun is out. Once nightfall came, I found myself rolling down my car window, sticking my hand out until it was as cold as possible and then slapping my face with it just to stay awake. Around midnight I found myself at Zion National Park driving on curvy mountain roads. That was a bit more excitement than I wanted. Once I made it to my aunt’s, the roads in SLC are on a very confusing Cartesian Coordinate system and I ended up on South 2100 East instead of East 2100 South. I finally made it in around 3 am CST. A very long 23 hour day.

Day 2 (Monday Feb 18): Pretty laid back considering how tired I was. Went to the airport to get my luggage and return the rental. One way cost me $160 or more than the airfare round trip. Ate at the red iguana and a great seafood place called Broilers. My aunt’s Jeep Grand Cherokee battery died and we got the manager and a couple of employees to help us push it uphill to get a jump. Mormons are extremely nice people.

Day 3 (Tuesday Feb 19): My aunt had vacation (Monday she was off for President’s Day) and we went and toured the city. She showed me how to get to the ski resorts, we went downtown and toured Temple Square. Very interesting tour. You can’t go in the temple but the convention center and surrounding building are fantastic. No matter what you think of the L.D.S Church, there are so many common themes of martyrdom, persecution, and travel in different religions. Very interesting stuff from a sociological perspective. We then went downtown and ate. Coming out, we were offered free tickets to the Utah Jazz/Golden State Warriors game. We were in the nosebleed section but was fun to see a pro team play since Arkansas does not have any to offer.

Day 4 (Wednesday Feb 20): I went to Brighton to get my board on. I picked up passes through the University of Utah (where my aunt works) and headed out. The resorts are about 20 min outside of SLC and a gorgeous drive. Brighton is really just a couple of lodges, lifts, and a parking lot. I suspect this is where the locals come. Powder was great but I had to come to the sad realization that the past 5 years have taken a toll on me. Could not do nearly as much as I could when I lived in Denver. Hell, I could not even buckle up without getting winded. I know some of it is the altitude but not all of it. Anyway, I highly recommend Brighton. More affordable and far less people than Park City.

Day 5 (Thursday Feb 21): I hurt like a sonuvabitch. I think I am still aching from it. I did as little as possible. Went to Park City but passed on boarding and toured the city. A lot of money and has an Aspen snooty feel about it. Last time I was there was 2001 and it has completely changed. I then drove to the Olympic Village and toured their museum. I passed on the $200 bobsled lessons but was very tempted. We then watched the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Practice and they tore the roof off!

Day 6 (Friday Feb 22): Woke up and hit the slopes at Park City. It was packed, about 60% more expensive than Brighton and I still hurt. I boarded until about 3, went and picked up my aunt, met her boss and then we got my stuff together and had sushi. I went to Ichiban’s which was very good but still not as good as Igibon’s in Little Rock. Got dropped off at the airport. Flew to Las Vegas after the flight from SLC was delayed. By the time I got to Vegas it said both red-eye connections to Charlotte had left. I checked to see if I could get on the Baltimore flight (at least I would be on the east coast) but that was full. I stopped by the gate for the latter flight to Charlotte and they allowed me to board. From there to Little Rock was not too bad except in LR where the airline personnel were extremely unhelpful in helping me find my luggage. 24 hours after I arrived, I got my bags.

So that was the trip. More pics are posted to my flickr site.