One of the things that surprised me most about Park City is the number of cultural events and activities that the town hosts in addition to the world-famous Sundance Film Festival. I always pictured small-town living as a bit monotonous, but instead Park City always seems to have something going on.

The weekend that my mom and I were there, Park City was hosting its annual Kimball Arts Festival. Every year, over 220 artists from around the world congregate to show off their work, sell their pieces, and enter competitions in the hopes of being awarded best in show.

The festival begins with outdoor morning yoga, which my mom and I found especially relaxing (possibly because we were watching and not doing!).

Then we wandered around the booths which spring up in Park City’s streets, enjoying the art and picking out our dream pieces for when we both have a bigger art budget!

This painting by Sandra Meyer is one of my favorites, because it beautifully captures the movement of a dancer without needing to show the actual body.

Afterwards, my mom and I headed to High West Distillery, which has a unique western saloon vibe that you can’t find in NYC.

Clearly we’re not the only ones that love it!

We had lunch in the gorgeous dining room.

The restaurant has the most delicious lemonade that I’ve ever had! The High West Lemonade has a nice spice added to it that makes it taste like lemonade and pumpkin spiced latte’s love child. My mom had the same with High West whiskey, so it was just as good, but just a little more naughty.

The appetizers are my favorite. The Pretzel and Beer Cheese is good, and I love that the cheese has whiskey whipped into it. This is a distillery after all!

The Deviled Eggs are also good, and are topped with candied bacon, which is genius.

The desserts are crazy, in the best possible way! The Grillswith is a grilled cinnamon-dusted Krispy Kreme donut covered with double rye whiskey-laced ice cream, because Krispy Kremes aren’t dangerous enough already!

The S’more is fun too, and has homemade vanilla marshmallow sandwiched between molasses graham crackers and toped with dark chocolate stamped with High West’s logo.

After lunch, we took a tour of High West Distillery, and found out the secret to making great whiskey. Here’s all that you need to know (easy, right?):

After the tour, it was time to taste!

The High West Whiskey Campfire® is the world’s only blend of Scotch, bourbon and rye whiskeys, so we made sure to try that along with a few more of their specialties.

The Campfire was… strong. With a hint of… very strong. Clearly I’m not a big whiskey person, but we couldn’t visit and not try any! When in Rome, right?

My mom brought a bottle of the Campfire home to my whiskey-drinking dad, and he said that it was delicious and had a great smoky flavor to it. So there you have it, from an expert!

That evening was one of my favorites in Park City. We headed back to Deer Valley Resort to listen to Ozomatli perform with the Utah Symphony. Deer Valley offers outdoor concerts all summer, and tourists and locals alike gather their picnic baskets and blankets to enjoy the music and the fresh mountain air.

For those of you who wish to completely relax and not worry about anything, Deer Valley offers gourmet picnic baskets filled with delicious fresh food prepared by the resort’s top chefs. I highly recommend the salmon!

As is a tradition in Park City, the meal contains local ingredients, like this artisan cheese made right here at the resort.

I don’t know which I loved watching more: the concert, or the beautiful sky as the sun set.

The performance was a lot of fun, and had much of the crowd on their feet.

Listening to live music under the stars was a perfect way to spend the last night of the trip.

The next morning, we had one final Park City meal at Riverhorse on Main. Their brunch is delicious, and you should absolutely order the Apple Fritters when you go!

The Classic Eggs Benedict is also very good, especially the polenta bites.

And the Grilled Lobster Salad is beautiful.

Riverhorse on Main’s outdoor terrace has gorgeous views of Park City’s historic main street, so it was the perfect place to say goodbye to such a wonderful town.

But it’s not goodbye for long. Park City, I will see you again soon, I guarantee it!

~A