After settling in and enjoying a delicious meal the night before, it was time to work off the food with a little activity. But first, more food!

My mom and I enjoyed a lovely outdoor breakfast at Deer Valley Grocery Café with the mountains in the distance.

The best dishes are:

The Lox Toast with smoked salmon, baby heirloom tomatoes, capers, lemon herb cream cheese, micro greens and fresh lemon on toasted homemade wild rice harvest bread.

The Irish Oatmeal served with brown sugar, pecans, almonds, golden raisins, craisins, cherries and honey.

And the Avocado and Beet Toast with beet hummus, avocado, shepherds dairy goat cheese, micro greens and black hawaiian sea salt on toasted homemade wild rice harvest bread.

After breakfast, it was time to experience some of the outdoor summer activities that Park City is known for!

As a quick lesson on Park City, the town has two main ski resorts: Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain Resort (which combined with Canyons Resort earlier this summer to form the largest ski area in the U.S.). These two resorts then have dozens of hotels scattered on their property. It took me much too long to figure out that “resort” in Park City refers to ski areas, not hotels!

We spent the morning hiking Deer Valley Resort. Our amazing guides, Mike and Howard, led us along beautiful trails that wound around the mountains. It was wonderful to be outside after escaping the smog, dirt and grime of NYC!

Gorgeous, isn’t it?

My favorite part about the hike was walking under chair lifts along the way. It was a fun reminder of Park City’s prominence as a ski town.

Many of the lifts run in the summer, and take you to hiking and mountain biking paths high up in the mountains. We, however, did it the hard way, and hiked the entire way ourselves!

Another thing that I loved about our hike was seeing the ski trails carved into the hills. They don’t look as scary when they’re not covered in snow!

It was such a beautiful hike, and Howard and Mike shared wonderful stories of Park City’s history.

This picture of my mom and me belongs in our family Christmas card, don’t you think?!

After our hike, Howard emailed the results (4 miles with a 17 minute-per-mile average) with a “nice effort” that made me laugh. It’s tough going from sea level to 8,000 feet!

We had lunch at Royal Street Café, a delicious restaurant located at the foot of the mountains in the center of Deer Valley Resort.

When you go there you have to order the Fresh Dungeness Crab Tower with layers of avocado and tomato served with pea sprouts, crispy spiced won tons and wasabi, soy and sweet chili sauces.

It is so good!

I also recommend the Tuna Tacos, with grilled fresh ahi, mango avocado salsa, southwest slaw and smoked habañero mayonnaise served with grilled corn tortillas.

The Niman Ranch Beef Short Rib Tacos are also very good, and are filled with grilled pineapple salsa, picked red onions, shredded cabbage, red chile mayonnaise, scallions, cilantro, tomatoes and guacamole in white corn tortillas.

After lunch, the adventure continued with zip lining at Park City Mountain Resort. Don’t we look sporty?

We began with a few easy, introductory zips where we were only 15 to 20 feet above the ground.

Then it was time for the scariest and most exhilarating zip lining experience of my life! Our last zip took us thousands* of feet above the mountain valleys, which we zoomed over at Mach speeds*.

*Ok, I may have exaggerated the numbers slightly. But that is certainly how it felt!

Scary, right?!

But once we began, it was amazing! The air was cool, the views were stunning, and the adrenaline rush made us feel invincible. Here are my mom and me nearing the end of the zip line (We Are the Champions should have been playing in the background!):

We did it!

I can definitely see why people love Park City in the summer. There are so many ways to stay active and enjoy the outdoors. Just don’t be intimidated by all of the current and former olympians that live in town!

We finished our day with dinner at Shabu, an Asian restaurant at the heart of downtown Park City. We sat on the beautiful rooftop patio, and to reach it you had to walk through the kitchen. I assumed that the chef, Bob Valaika, would be annoyed that we were invading his space. Instead, every time that we walked by (the restroom is in the main dining area) he would say hello and ask how we were enjoying the meal and the dishes that he had just sent out.

We really enjoyed the Yellowtail Jalapeño, which is a sashimi pinwheel topped with jalapeños and served in a yuzu soy sauce.

One of my favorite dishes is the Firecracker Shrimp, which is tempura rock shrimp in a creamy-spicy sauce served with tobiko and green onion.

The Samurai Scallops are also delicious, and are composed of crispy wonton chips topped with spicy tuna, pan-seared scallops, sweet and spicy miso butter, avocado, tobiko and sprouts.

I laughed out loud when I saw the beer that was served with dinner. Who said Mormons don’t have a sense of humor?!

My mom and I ordered sushi for our main course, and the rolls arrived beautifully displayed.

The Funky Popper was my favorite sushi roll (and not just because the name is awesome!). The tempura-fried bites are composed of spicy tuna, avocado and cream cheese served with spicy mayo and teriyaki sauce. It is served warm, and is absolutely delicious! I was supposed to be sharing with my mom, but I may have had a few more than half. Sorry mom!

We finished the meal with unique desserts, such as the Japanese Mochi, which is sticky rice wrapped around green tea and mango ice cream.

The Tempura Fried Ice Cream is my favorite dessert, and consists of homemade ice cream wrapped in a pound cake and tempura fried.

Basically, our meals counteracted any positive effects of our exercise that day. Oh well, that’s what vacation is for, right?!

~A

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