Deer Valley, Utah
January 2008
"Table for Fourteen Please?"
It had been 2 years since we skied! While I missed shushing down the slopes with great
speed (well, with medium speed… well, I guess comparatively slow speed when you think
about how fast the other skiers are going), I didn’t miss stuffing myself into the
bulky clothing and clunky boots and carrying the awkward equipment to and from the car. But, when a ski trip was suggested by the same
group we skied with twice before, I mostly remembered the great time we had sharing a
great big house, eating breakfast & dinner together, laughing, playing cards and just
enjoying each other’s company. I signed
us up right away!
In the past, we had rented a house in
My friends have really embraced the
evite, www.evite.com, which I also like because if you
forget the details of an invitation, you can just log in and not only see the details, but
see who is coming as well! The evite for this
trip just showed the dates, no details about the accommodations, but I later learned that
one of our friends from the previous trips had very generously volunteered his newly
acquired rental property in
Things at work had really started to
heat up since Travelport had acquired Worldspan so I wasn’t sure if I would be
afforded the time to go on this trip. I
changed our response to “maybe” and then immediately changed it back to
“yes” and decided that we WOULD go even if it was just for a few days.
As the time drew closer, I learned
that I would be needed for some Travelport meetings at our
The next big challenge was packing. Those same moths that had gotten into our closet
and stitched up the seams of our bibs, making them fit a little tighter two years ago had
been hard at work again. This time their
stitching had made both of our bibs uncomfortably tight, so we decided that it was time to
buy some “Big Girl and Big Boy” bibs. Not
wishing to take a chance, I bought some “Huge Girl” bibs that I can use for
several years, even if those pesky moths get hold of them again.
I packed for my business trip in my
roll-aboard suitcase and my ski trip in a duffle bag, both of them small enough to carry
on if it was necessary. I decided to go ahead
and check the ski bag on my way out, since weekday business travel usually means competing
for overhead space with a lot of inconsiderate businessmen who put their laptops and
jackets in overheads that were clearly meant for roll-aboards and duffle bags!
Since the evite showed the trip
starting on Saturday, we decided that Tony should join me in
Tony and I pow-wowed over
the phone and decided that instead of the Denver overnight Friday night we would just meet
in Salt Lake City Friday night. The flights
worked out perfectly. There was a non-stop
from
I found a great deal on a
rental car with
Both of our flights
arrived within 10 minutes of each other. I
picked up my luggage and met Tony at the
Tony familiarized himself
with all of the controls while I mounted Jill (the GPS) on the windshield and plugged in
the address of the house in
We pulled into the
driveway and were able to see that we were at the right house! The gang was surprised to see us, expecting us to
call for directions. We told them to check
their cell phones and they sheepishly admitted that they had missed calls. Thank goodness for Jill!
One of the benefits of
being one of the first to arrive on a trip like this is that you get dibs on the best
bedroom! Ours was the main level master (there
was also a master suite upstairs). We
had our own flat panel TV and plenty of closet space. Our bathroom opened onto the
entry hall.
This house was AMAZING. It was HUGE, but unlike our last ski rental, this
one was REALLY, REALLY NICE! We dropped our
bags and took the tour. The place just went on
and on.
The upstairs master had a
closet that was as big as the other bedrooms. It
had a private bathroom with separate tub and shower. The
upstairs master also had its own flat panel TV.
Back on the main level,
there was a living area with a fireplace that opened onto the dining area.
Off of the living area
was an office with its own sitting area and a flat panel TV.
Wow, we were starting to think that this place had more (and nicer –
not difficult to do) TV’s than we do!
Continuing the tour
downstairs, we found another living area with a fireplace and a flat panel TV.
The bunk room was next. It would sleep 10 people if it needed to! The two bunk beds had a double bed on the bottom, a
single bed on top, and there was a double trundle bed under the bottom bunk! This room had its own TV too!
There was a community
bathroom and closet area for the bunk room residents.
We made a detour outside
to see the hot tub. There was a heated mat on
the walkway leading to the tub!
At the end of a long
hallway, was a private suite which was designated for the couple that would be bringing
their baby. They had a private bathroom. Oh, and their room had a TV too! I lost count!
With the tour almost
over, we returned to the main level to finish the tour with a glass of wine from the wine
rack which was above the wine refrigerator. Next
to the wine center, we found the best feature of the place.
The Dining Room Table! It sits
kitty-cornered on the main level and seats 14 comfortably.
There was a little
reading nook tucked in next to the dining area.
The kitchen was bright
and cheery and arranged so that it had
multiple preparation areas for our competing chefs, which as it turned out on this trip, were mostly males!
They had laid out an
appetizer buffet of chips, salsa, crackers and homemade pimento cheese. While we noshed on the appetizers, Jim prepared
prime rib and John grilled broccoli for our meal. Thank
goodness we had not stopped for dinner on the way!
After dinner, Mark
entertained us with his juggling. He needs to
brush up a bit before he performs publicly.
We slept well and awoke
to a winter wonderland and the smell of sausage!
Jim and I had a little
work to do, but since the house had wi-fi, it was no problem to answer a few emails over
breakfast.
Soon, we heard the sound
of the snowplow clearing our driveway. What a
nice service! I remembered the running start
we had to use to get up the driveway of our last snowy rental house!
Jim, Lyn, John and Mark
declared that they would ski that day. They
were going to take a van and drop it in
We headed for Canyon Sports so we
could rent our equipment. Tony and I told the
salesman that we were only planning to ski for 2 days.
He advised that it would probably be cheaper to rent our equipment at the
slopes for 2 days rather than renting for 3 days in town.
Since there was precious little room in the car, we decided to take his
advice.
When we got back to the
house, we found Mark and John had decided not to go skiing after all. They had been busy taste testing some cocktails. There was still grocery shopping to be done so
Sherry and I left Baby Ryen with the eight questionably capable baby-sitters and headed
out. A chair was placed on its side at the top
of the stairs in lieu of a baby gate. We were
going to pick one up at Wal-Mart but when we got there, we discovered that they
didn’t have any wide enough for the opening.
When we got home, we
heard in great detail about the incredibly dirty diaper that had to be changed. I think they contemplated putting the baby in the
dishwasher until Sherry got back, but ultimately I think Kirsten managed to get it all
cleaned up. Ryen was very happy to see her
mom.
Dinner that night was
Pork Roast with fingerling potatoes, roasted green beans, and garlic toast. A 5 star restaurant has never made a lovelier or
more delicious presentation!
Over dinner, John and Jim
told us how they had bought the house. They
said they looked at 55 properties in one weekend, but when John saw the dining room table
in this house, he had to hide his delight from the sellers.
Loading the dishwasher
was a bit of a puzzle. If the plates stood on
edge, they interfered with rotating sprinkler head thingy.
As has become customary with this
crowd, Texas Hold-Em was the evening’s activity.
Mark, the Poker Nazi, was the table captain.
He won. I think it was because
everyone else went all in just to get away from him! Kidding! He does run a tight ship though at his poker table. But don’t worry about remembering the rules,
if you break one, he’ll be sure to remind you.
Sunday, the skiers had decided to go
to
The snow-boarders (Mark, Mike and
Brian) decided to wait for Kristi’s flight to arrive and then drive over to
Baby Ryen got dressed to go out and enjoy the snow, but she didn’t like it very much. Sherry thinks Ryen is going to be a beach girl like her mom.
At
It was pretty and sunny on the lower
slopes. After a few runs we decided to head up
top.
The higher we got, the foggier and
snowier it got. By the time we got off the
lift, we had a hard time seeing the trail markings.
A little further down, it cleared up
a bit, but it was still kind of gray.
We were glad when we got the call
from the group that we were meeting for lunch at the mid-mountain Silver Lake Lodge. We split a few slices of pizza and enjoyed some of
the locally brewed beer.
After lunch, Tony said he wanted to make one more run and then head back to the house. We went back up to the top and posed for a group picture.
Tony left me with Scott for the
afternoon. I think Scott was relieved to ski
with me after spending the morning with the reckless daredevils. After a few more runs, we found Tony in the lodge
at the bottom and headed back to the house. John was making his signature
quesadillas for our afternoon snack!
We had lasagna for dinner. The after dinner Poker game went on well past
Monday’s breakfast was sausage, grits and eggs. The bartendress was serving Bloody Marys and Screwdrivers.
Before we left for the slopes, I decided to go out and take some pictures of the little playhouse in the front yard. It was hard to negotiate my way through the thigh high snow, and I was starting to think it might have been a mistake not letting anyone know where I was going. If I got stuck out there, at least it was a comfortable little house.
We went to
Tony was finished skiing after lunch
so he volunteered to do our grocery shopping. I
decided to explore some more of the mountain on my own.
I turned on my MP3 player and worked my way across the mountain, taking
various lifts and runs. When I had gotten just
about as far away from the base as I could get, my phone rang. It was Tony, wanting to know where I was. The rest of the group was at the base. I looked at my watch and was surprised to find that
it was
Tony and I left them there and drove
back over to
By the time we got back to the Pig
Pen to pick up our friends, they had enjoyed quite a few beverages. They were very entertaining! We poured them into the car and took them back to the house.
We had planned to take the
We found the
In
We thought we might get first class
on the next leg as well, but no such luck. This
time we got coach seats right in front of a screaming baby.
To make things worse, we had a good bit of turbulence so the seatbelt light
never went out. This only really became a
problem when the mom behind us couldn’t take Baby Big Lungs to the bathroom for a
diaper change. Peuw!
We landed at
BJ and Tony
bjandtony@bjandtony.com