As I mentioned we lived in Park City for some dozen years, watching it grow from a sleepy summer town to an all-year resort. Much of the old charm was lost as the town grew, but the fundamental character of the town, its allure, the beauty of the mountains will never be lost.
Park Meadows was a community of homes surrounding a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course where the seniors used to stop in August of every year for a tournament.
Some of the iconic places that have withstood the test of time…
Dolly’s Bookstore
The Easting Establishment
St. Mary’s Catholic Church – the original.
We were skiers first, summer fun lovers second and by the end of our time there it was a year round fun fest. One of the first locals we met was Gene Gautieri and his wife Rene. The ski resort used to have a week-long ski orientation every November which was called Ski College Week, or something like that, where you could gather a group together and be taught by one of the ski instructors from the resort. The idea was to take you through a series of progressions with the goal of getting you to be a better skier than when you started. Gene was assigned to my class and we hit it off immediately. Gene had already been teaching at Park City for some 15 years and was quite the senior instructor when we met and we had a great week exploring the mountain. Our group had a myriad of talent levels, but he managed to keep everyone interested the whole day, not an easy task with such a diverse group. We did the week every year thereafter, always with Gene, until the resort stopped offering it, perhaps realizing that it was the cheapest ski lesson in the world.
Gene is still at the resort, now 35 years into that career and I think the most senior and the most requested instructor there. He has definite ideas about how a ski school should run, and management listens to him. But he never went into the management side because unless he could do it his way he didn’t want the bureaucrats meddling. Good move on his part. He also is a fly fishing guide in the summer up in Dutch John where he’ll take clients on the Green River fishing for trout and bass, very successfully I might add. His wife, Rene, has been there at his side for some 35 years, working at a myriad of jobs in the town including waitressing at numerous restaurants in town, and being a great mom to the twins she and Gene have. We were so fortunate to get to know them and still count them among our closest friends.
Jan left for China to visit the kids in Beijing around the 18th of June, leaving me to solo for 3 ½ weeks when I would meet up with her in Sacramento. The day after she left I took off for Dutch John to spend a couple of days with Gene and Rene and to do a little exploring around the Flaming Gorge National Park.
Like most of Utah, Flaming Gorge has beautiful red rocks, deep caverns and wide vistas. The waters of the lake are crystal clear, and the Green River starts out from the dam with a burst of energy and meanders through three sections of fishing to a more gentle flow of water. This is outdoors living at its best.
A little close to the edge here…
We found the most delicious corn this summer, most of it from local farms that we stopped at along the way. Sweet and tender,we boiled it, grilled it, roasted it, we went full Bubba Gump on it. This recipe is nice and light with a little zing to it. Perfect for those warm summer nights when we ate outside, but totally appropriate for this time of year as well when you can still find fresh corn in the markets. Enjoy!
the wooden spoon - a travel/photo blog 