family ties

There's still hardly any snow (we're at a historical low for the date, as H keeps reminding me) but that didn't stop my cousin E and 849 of her closest Northwestern University friends (and another 200+ from some Ohio school) from descending upon Park City Mountain Resort for the week.  Since skier traffic is always sparse before Christmas - even in good snow years - the students got a crazy-good deal for a 6-night stay/4-day lift ticket package.  They were housed in condos right up at the resort, which was ideal since they could go grocery shopping for breakfasts and lunches, making it an even better deal.  E reported that PCMR had about 17 trails open and the skiing was pretty good, if entirely Eastern (i.e., no powder).

We drove out to Park City Wednesday night to see E, picking her up at the condo and then heading into the Old Town for dinner at the Blue Iguana (not the Red Iguana: more Tex-Mex and less mole).  Old Town was packed and we had to park several streets over and walk back in 17 F temperatures, but the restaurant itself was pretty quiet so we were able to get caught up over dinner.  For the record: I had pork tamales with mole verde and enchilada sauce; E had chicken fajitas; and H had a chile verde burrito.  I decided against the $14 margarita - crazy Park City prices!

We only kept E out for a couple of hours before delivering her back to her friends (I'm 20+ years older than she is and didn't want to test her patience ... plus we old folks had to drive all the way back home).  It was really nice to see her and hear all about school; I didn't really like the first half of my freshman year but clearly she is not having that problem.  Hopefully next time she comes out this way we'll have better snow for her.