Category Archives: Adventures

The End Of An Era

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Let it Ride

Talking about this post for weeks (after thinking about it for months) didn’t make it any easier to start. The ski community is qute possibly the raddest clique. #squadgoals. The Greatest Friends on Earth.

The ski culture is unlike any community I’ve ever experienced. It was easy to embrace, but hard to infiltrate. I had a different blog written – all about me, about my four years, about my goodbye. But you are The Greatest Fans on Earth of The Greatest Snow on Earth. So this is all about you, not me. Thank you for following my journey. Thank you for letting me becoming part of the clique.

What I realized, mainly, is I’m not saying goodbye. It will never end. I love skiing. My passion won’t be shared like it used to be, here, but I still will find a way. And we’ve had some slow seasons. So this one isn’t ending for me. I consciously decided to not attend a single closing day. So it doesn’t count. I’m gonna let it ride. 🙂

Looking back – the first year I worked with Ski Utah (2010) every day was a powder day. It never stopped. And to be honest I was a newbie powderhound. I’d JUST fallen in love. I went over 100 days. I learned how to ski that year.

Your Takeaway: What makes you better? Laps down the hill. Time on the snow. One more run.

Little did I know when writing the script for my Ski Utah video that I (and Matt) would land the most coveted gigs in Utah. We were similar, hailing from the East Coast, choosing Park City as home because of the skiing. We were different because he had that life going already. I got accepted into it. By him and his friends. By skiers I’d meet on chairlifts. By everyone that saw the Ski Utah coat.

Your Takeaway: Everyone is accepted in the Ski Utah clique.

Our approach differed, but we had the same end goal. We both got after it in different ways. Matt crafts better and better videos each season. I chose to experience every single event, opportunity, spa day, dinner on the hills. Both of us simply trying to show you what Utah really is like, how incredible it is. Most of Utah doesn’t ski and most of the US doesn’t know it is the absolute best.

Your Takeaway: Tell the secret to your dearest friends.

You can go from bunny hill to big lines in 4 years. Green to black. I’m proof. In even less if you push it. No matter where you start. Find someone better, make them take you. Thank you Matt, Jeff, Christina, Mike, Missy, Steve, Tricia, Annie, Jared, Emily, oh there’s too many to name. I love you all. You helped me find myself. To John. Not a day goes by I don’t miss you. RIP.

Your Takeaway: This ski family is your family and will become your whole life. It’s more than a sport. The culture becomes the lifestyle becomes the family.

Utah has hidden gems across its regions of skiing and none can afford to be missed. I wrote passionately from day one about how Park City was grand but down south was unique and Ogden was blissful. I tried to convey through words and photos that just because you’ve seen one doesn’t mean you’ve seen them all.

Your Takeaway: Even if you think you know Utah, try something new. Never stop exploring.

Well, I learned more than that. This is the cliff notes version on my incredible and exciting experience. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever written, but like I started out – it isn’t goodbye. Continue to send me your questions and comments. My entire life will revolve around ways to get back to Utah in the winter. I’m not saying goodbye. I’m looking forward to the next season. And the next. Thanks to YOU – I anxiously await our shared memories.

No matter how you found Ski Utah, or what point in your journey you’re on, I hope you can relate to my content over the years. I hope we drew you in and painted a decent picture. I hope you could envision yourself in the powder, flying down the run, high fiving and celebrating a sport/hobby/life you love. I know I will be showing future fans Ski Utah as a resource and raving about the state no matter where I end up. That’s MY Takeaway.

*Let it snow*

Powderhound Cat

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Staying Is Settling: Why You Need To Move At Least 5 Times In Your Life

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Original Article here. Reposting as affirmation. I just did this and have done it many times. The sentiment in this read captures it completely for me. I’ve never felt so alive as when I’ve begun again, started over, challenged myself to try something that scared me.

 

 

Time to leave now, get out of this room, go somewhere, anywhere, sharpen this feeling of happiness and freedom, stretch your limbs, fill your eyes, be awake, wider awake, vividly awake in every sense and every pore.  – Stefan Zweig

 

Turn around, look at your life and decide right now if this moment, this place makes your pulse race and your heart bend. If there’s not a fluttering feeling in the deepest part of your soul, questioning and absorbing everything around you, get out right now.

If you feel comfortable, content and unchallenged… stand up and walk away. Make plans or don’t make plans, but whatever you do, leave this place and find somewhere new.

There’s a reason the word “leaving” sounds so nice. Like saying “see you later” instead of “goodbye,” it puts you at ease. It signifies a fresh start, a departure from the old and overrun. Because leaving is just the precursor to arriving, and there’s nothing better than a fresh start.

Whether it’s a new apartment or a new city, starting over isn’t about changing your scene, but the way you’re living in it. It’s about opening your eyes again, walking to the ledge and looking up, down and across, once again comprehending the vastness of life that sits openly waiting for you.

Life has a tendency to get stale. Like your favorite food, it loses its edge after a while, that special quality that made you love it so much in the first place. We, like the places we confine ourselves to, become as dull and boring as our surroundings.

New experiences are the reason we live. They are the reason we get up every day, the reason we carry on. While we enjoy comfort, we crave experience. The point of living is not to resign yourself to one part of life, but to continually redefine yourself. It’s to baptize yourself, over and over again, in new waters and new experiences.

You have your entire life to be comfortable, to sit in your house and bask in the familiarity of it. But right now, while you’re young and uncomfortable, keep going, keep challenging yourself. Keep making yourself uncomfortable. Because it’s only when we’re uncomfortable that we are growing and learning.

To truly understand yourself, your purpose and those around you, you must keep moving. You must move at least five times; five times to open your heart and dip your toes into something new, fresh and life changing.

1. To get away from what you know

Your first move is like taking flight for the first time. Like learning to fly, you realize the only thing stopping you from the world is yourself. You don’t have wings, you have legs, airplanes and trains. You have buses, cars and ocean liners. You have the world in front of you, with nothing but open sky and limitless possibilities.

But first you must leave the nest. You must say goodbye to everything you grew up with, the small world you once considered enough. You must unlatch yourself from the comforts of the familiar and place yourself in the middle of chaos.

This first move is the hardest. It’s the moment you willingly decide to be uncomfortable, scared and alone. It’s making the decision to become a foreigner, an outsider, a refugee. It’s abandoning everything you once cherished for the idea that there’s something better out there.

2. To find new experiences

The second move you make should be one of restlessness. You should be tired of the same flavors of your now comfortable surroundings. This move is about feeling again. It’s about accepting that you can’t possibly know everything, but you are going to try.

You are going to have experiences, adventures and an unforeseen future. You don’t know who you’ll meet, what you’ll find or how you’ll get there, but you will do it. You will jump into it blindly and openly.

You will make new friends, find new flavors and reignite that passion for life that came with your first move. You will not rest until your hungry soul is placated. You will leave your old friends for new ones, your first language for another and that idea that you’re home for that invigorating feeling of homesick.

3. To chase love

To chase love is to chase happinesses. It’s to decide that you will throw yourself into the swirling, maddening and restless chase we’re all trying to enter. Because love is the ultimate destination, is it not? It’s the reason we move, every day.

It’s the reason we get up and fight through the bad. It’s the reason we keep going, trudging on, meeting person after person. It’s the last goal, the final frontier and the only thing worth moving for.

If you think you’ve found it… in a person, a city, a job, you must move for it. If your dream job awaits in Spain, you must move there. If your heart yearns for the pink beaches of Bermuda, you must go there.

If you fall in love on the dunes of the Cape with a man you barely know, you must follow him. Chasing love is not irresponsible, it’s honest. It’s admitting that there is no greater chase, nothing more important. Because if you’re not chasing love, what are you running after?

4. To escape that love

Love isn’t infinite. It can be found in a moment, a single dose or a fleeting romance. It can be a year of perfect love with someone who isn’t supposed to stay in your life. It can be in beaches that bring you peace until your heart years for something new. It can be in the first bite of pasta and over with its last.

Love isn’t defined by its length but its capacity to touch you and change you. Just because it doesn’t last doesn’t mean it wasn’t real. You must leave for love but you also must realize when that love no longer remains.

You must be strong enough to walk away from finished love to find new love. You must flee the suffocation that comes from stifled love and keep your heart open for more.

You must never settle, never give in to the idea that you can’t have another one. Because the world is full of things to throw your heart into, things to make you weep and realize (yet again) why you’re alive.

 5. To begin all over again

You must resist the confines of comfort. You must defy the idea of settled. You must never resign yourself to the ordinary or the easy. You must challenge tranquility for the promise of something greater.

To live is to be born and to continually live is to be reborn, again and again. As a new person, new lover, new friend, you must willingly evolve and transform into new versions of yourself.

You must never allow the new place you’ve created to become the final place. You must consistently defy the idea of comfort for the idea that you’ll never be fully satisfied unless you’re exploring, changing and moving.

Let It Marinate

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Sometimes it can take a while to reflect on a big adventure. I hardly know where to start. My mind is somewhere between the feeling of my feet in the sandy beach and reminiscing over giant noodle bowls.

Last month, I left Park City and drove to Sedona and saw a ton of family: grandparents, parents, brothers, and uncles. One of my brothers was a complete surprise that my whole family actually managed to keep the lid on!

It was a wonderful trip. The family took my Meme to the Grand Canyon and spent some really great time together. My Daddy spoils us ❤ and everyone had the perfect time. And Cowboy Club steak dinner, of course.

From there, I went to San Diego and saw a bunch of friends. I got to surprise some of them and celebrate a dear friends birthday.

Then I flew to China for two weeks.

What can I even say? The food, the culture, the sights…the whole thing was so much to take in. My brain is almost as full as the camera SD cards, haha.

After returning home (via San Diego again), I can’t believe the month that was.

I saw so much, experienced even more, maybe even grew up a little. Time will tell on the last one.

So I’m letting everything marinate for a while. I kept a diary and plan on doing a little daily update to share my China experience, like I did when I went to New Zealand forever ago.

Stay tuned. 🙂

I’m excited to have something to write about and share. I hope I can do it justice! Giving myself some time to unwind from travel should help.

In the meantime, here are some photos from the first part of my trip, to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. Enjoy!

Amazing

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There’s no way for any picture to do the Grand Canyon justice. We took 1000 anyway. I’m so happy my parents invited us to AZ and we made the drive out. Getting to see it with my own eyes and experience it with them yesterday was remarkable. The white line you see at the top rim is 800 feet wide, 12 miles away from us.

Can’t Sleep

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I have to wait two more weeks to learn my fate.

I put a video entry in to a contest for a season pass at all the Utah resorts. It was hard to do, and harder to watch. As I mentioned Friday, it was nuts to see myself ‘acting’. I tried to be cute, funny, charming, and all I came out with was nerdy. It was nerve-racking!

It’s also hard to wonder what the people in charge think. Or think about what I could have done better, or differently. But we had a great time, knnocked it out, and I have to say MH made me look good! At least that whole deal was good.

Get Motivated

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So when we met up with MH she invited me to a seminar with motivational speakers she was going to for work. I had to say yes since I knew that MK thought I couldn’t get up that early the next morning after our crazy night out.

I really don’t think I have been up at 6am in four years. But I did it. And showered and was ready by 6:30.  I rule. I got a coffee in the car, and a water when we sat down. Energy Solutions Arena was packed. I got to hear Gen. Colin Powell, Rudy Guliani, John Walsh, and Mitt Romney speak. It was interesting. As long as you take what you hear with a grain of salt, those things can serve the purpose of a little reminder to pump you up about life or work or whatever goal you’re trying to achieve.

On the other hand, the thing was super religious (perhaps because of where we were), super patriotic, and super sales pitchy. Fine for me, but I was hoping the other people there didn’t put all their eggs in the basket of the guy promising to make them rich with stock or real estate investments.

Also, in spite of Rudy Guliani telling people to get with it technologically, no one was tweeting. I kept checking searches to see what people were saying. Like I mentioned, there were tens of thousands of people there. I thought it was strange that there were maybe three people tweeting their thoughts. Totally gave MK proof it’s not as major a resource as I keep trying to tell him.

It was a big adventure for me to be out all day, people watching and remembering what it was like to be all done up in business attire. Reminded me of lots of good times in Austin. Almost made me want to get back to a career and busy business stuff. Almost. 🙂

Taco Tuesday Torture

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You know we are big old fans of Taco Tuesday. We don’t eat out all the time, and when we do it’s virtually impossible for me to finish a huge serving size of anything. So we end up doing small snacky things and appetizers. Taco Tuesday is a cheap way for me to get a little snack and MK to eat as much as he can. We went on the prowl for some yummy cheap eats on Tuesday night. We started at Windy Ridge. I had one 2$ taco, MK had 2$ taquitos, but the margaritas were 4.75. MK remembered Davanza’s did tacos, so we went there, and were told they DON’T do tacos. Pfft.

We had a drink at Easy Street, which was DELICIOUS and NOT CHEAP. MK wanted more food so we tried a new place called Reyes Adobe. They didn’t have a bar. The call themselves a restaurant and margarteria or some crap and didn’t have a bar. In Utah that means you HAVE to order food to get a drink. We should have left. The taco MK got was gross, the tortilla soup I had to get was gross, and the drinks were even more gross.

The soup was like pureed rice in tomato broth. I gagged it was so bad. Kind of a bust, we won’t be going back there! We learned we should have just stayed where we were.

In other news of the day, I thought Momm would like to see what the mountains look like:

And we ran in to TB and the kids and went back to their place with them to visit for a bit. It was super exciting because I forcibly got MK to hold the baby:

We went to O’Shucks and had a drink with MH and watched the Celtics suck. It was kind of a 45 hour day.

Life Is Blurry

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Since JB was nice enough to let us do our laundry, and we heard it was still SNOWING in Park City, we decided not to go home. MK surprised us all by leaving super early in the am (sorry for all the goodbyes we missed) and driving me up to Dana Point. We had a nice breakfast and got on the Catalina Express over to the island. It was pretty choppy (read: hubby close to puking) but thankfully after he sat still while I had a coffee he was all better.

 Catalina Island is really beautiful, we picked the perfect day too. It was warm and sunny. We played mini golf on the cutest little course. We rented a golf cart – which the entire island uses as a main mode of transportation.

Have you ever driven a golf cart? It was the best part of the day. MK drove up to the botanical gardens and I drove from there to a few view points and around the theatre (they just need to stop calling it a casino) to see the divers. I could’ve been happy just driving around all day.

We ate some expensive pizza and looked in the cheesy shops. All there is to do on islands is buy terrible souvenirs and eat ice cream, and we don’t do either of those things. MK let me play photographer with the nice camera so I look forward to sharing those pictures with you.

The boat ride back was much more calm, and we enjoyed the scenic drive up the Pacific Coast Highway through Newport, Laguna, and Huntington, where we spent the night. The drive and the sunset were so amazing.

The only thing is, I could live like this forever. My blog, my daily mom call, even keeping up with friends, would suffer. But I am evil and selfish and would sacrifice all that to be able to have these long random vacations. Who wouldn’t?