Utah Proving Grounds

Chrysa and I have discovered that moving from place to place is an excellent opportunity to catch up with friends and family that you have not seen in a while. During the course of life people change jobs, or move, or you just fall out of touch. I have not seen my friend Julie and her husband for a long time. Fortunately they were on the way to California, and they were willing to extend their hospitality.

Julie and Hunter and their spectacular daughter Emerson live in the scenic town of Park City, UT. Chrysa and I rolled into town, towed the trailer up the winding road to their house, backed that puppy in, and immediately started catching up. Neither Chrysa nor I had met Emerson so it was immediately apparent that Julie’s life had changed. It was wonderful to see how family life suited her and Hunter. I knew Julie from my time working at a tough job in Durham, NC. Now I know, family life Julie. It’s a wonderful transition to see.

While in Utah Chrysa and I really wanted to stay active. We had spent a lot of time in cars and we were both feeling a little cooped up. Getting out gave us a way to get out of Julie’s hair as well. She works from home and had to get work done while we were in town.

After being shown the surrounding area a bit, Chrysa and I went on a hike. Now, I’m a big baby when it comes to altitude changes. While being shown around earlier in the day, I had developed a nice altitude hangover. I had a headache, and was feeling nauseous. Predictably, Chrysa was fine. I’m glad we did the hike. It felt good to be out of the cars and moving around. It was also a crash course on altitude adjustment. My head, lungs, and stomach all felt better after moving around. I even managed to eat dinner. So far on this visit I managed to conquer altitude sickness. That’s one point for the big guy!

After dinner, and after Emerson went to bed, we had a little more sit and visit time over some beer and wine. All of us share a love of books and art so we got lost in conversation pretty easily. It was a great way to wrap up a great day, and it set the pattern for the rest of the visit.

The following day we did another hike and went into downtown Park City for a discovery walk and some lunch. Park City is a cute town with a bunch of main street shops and dining. Chrysa has come to crave Mexican food regularly so picking a lunch spot was a no brainer. The food and the afternoon was a lot of fun.

We also took some time to check out the Olympic Park that is in Park City. The park is very interactive and is certainly worth the visit. We would love to come back another time and really do it up right. This time we just got the quick experience. Our short time there did yield some important information. THEY HAVE A NINJA WARRIOR COURSE! Plans went into effect immediately to go back the next day to try our skills.

We decided to do a full physically fit day on Ninja Day. We didn’t drive to the course, we hiked. We thought it would be a good warm up for the main event. The course is located at the top of a mountain set back into the woods. It’s free and you can spend as much time as you like playing around. Chrysa and I were not too bad. Cargo net, nailed it. Rings, yep. Warped Wall, you bet. I did have an epic fail on the rope swing, but I got back up and did it on the second try. We really had a blast! Mt. Midoriyama, we are coming for you.

They have a bunch of other daredevil activities that you can do at the Olympic Park. Like I said, we would love to go back someday, but we did have to get all the way back to the car. We were pretty much out of water, so we decided to take the free shuttle down to the main parking lot, and then finish the hike to our car. That night we went out and met some of Julie and Hunter’s friends. It was great to meet some new friends while polishing off a pizza.

The visit ended all too soon. We had to drive to Las Vegas to spend some time with my Aunt Debbie. She doesn’t get visitors all that often so she was next on our list. The road west was calling.

FYI…If you want to see some ninja vids check out our Instagram page!

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