My wife and I just spent three days in the winter wonderland of Park City, about thirty minutes East of Salt Lake City. Despite living in Utah for the past five years, neither of us skis; we set aside this week to start. Last Friday, however, my wife sprained her back so skiing was out. We had non-refundable reservations and my wife said she could live with a sprained back in Park City as well as home so we borrowed a wheel chair and headed out.

It was nice to be a lodge bum, relaxing in the hot tub, and meeting people who’ve come from around the world to ski Utah. While not a skier (I am an avid outdoorsman otherwise), I think Utah has plenty to offer the skiing world. In addition to three resorts in Park City there are four others close by: Brighton, Alta, Snowbird, and Solitude. You can get to any of them within an hour of arriving at the Salt Lake City Airport. Closer to my residence is Snowbasin, Powder Mountain, and Wolf Mountain (still within sixty miles of the airport).

Park city boasts an outlet mall for those not skiing and we spent one day wandering among the stores. These malls mainly cater to women – there are more clothing stores than one can shake a stick at. I wondered what an outlet mall would look like if it catered to men and figured there would just be a Home Depot, Sportsman’s Warehouse, and a Circuit City lined up. We did swing by Cabela’s, in American Fork, before heading home.

Utah is experiencing a boom and it was noticeable at the hotel, stores and restaurants we visited. Unemployment here is an unheard of 2.5 percent. Many establishments were shorthanded and had help wanted signs displayed. I spoke with some of the staff at our hotel and learned several were university students from Peru taking their summer break working here (it is summer in Peru now – school there runs from April to December). With two exceptions, Spanish was the common language spoken by restaurant staffs in the eating establishments we visited; this, however, could be a subject for another blog.