Friday, August 19, 2011

Slides & Sun Dials

One of the things I wanted to do for my birthday was go to Park City and do the Alpine Slides! (For my Lancaster friends, Park City is not the mall, it's a ski town in Utah.) We didn't have enough time to get up there on my actual birthday, but we did make a trip the very next weekend.




The experience begins with a long wait in the hot sun (long enough that I went and bought sun glasses and sunscreen while Hylan stood in line) to get on the ski lift, but it's followed by a relaxing scenic ride up to the top. Ski lifts or gondola rides in the summertime will never get old to me. I love it!


Once you get off the lift, you drag your heavy awkward sled on a pebbled path to the slides about a quarter mile away. Then you listen to a quick safety lesson by the slide monitor before she lets you go. Each slide is equipped with a hand break that allows you to control your speed, so you can go as fast or slow as you like. Hylan and I went down side-by-side, but we did not race, because it is discouraged, and because I don't need competition to enjoy my experience.


It's quite fun and quite expensive and was something I hadn't yet done in the 11 years I've lived in Utah. Holy smokes, Batman, have I really lived here that long?


Anyway, next time, I want to "buck up" and do the Alpine Coaster (click for video), which is quite a bit more expensive, but most likely worth it.

Later, we took a drive over to a shopping plaza where Hylan showed me a project he worked on several years ago when he was involved in the granite business. I kind of remembered him talking about it, but it was like 3+ years ago...


Let me be clear that he did not build the sun dial, but he did help place the granite on it with a couple of his business partners at the time. The red granite is called "Red Dragon" and it would be beautiful in a theater room!


I think the whole thing is actually very cool. See how the shadow points to a plate on the ground.



Maybe you can't see it very well, but it says, "July 1 3:30." It wasn't July 1st, but it was about 3:30. I don't think they had plates for every day of the year, just the first day of the month and the time in 15 minute increments.



I was impressed. It really is quite a beautiful piece and I'm glad Hylan showed it to me.



Good times. I wish I could say we've done lots more fun stuff like this all summer long, but we are work slaves, which is why I am still so pasty white. *sigh.

4 comments:

Bridget said...

That sun dial is awesome! So cool that people come up with stuff like that.
I hadn't ever seen the Alpine Coaster... it looks like so much fun!

Caroline said...

The coaster is WAY fun!

Ginny said...

That sun dial is pretty cool. Where is it exactly?

LadyEm said...

Ginny, I believe it's called Newpark Town Center--where Cafe Rio is and right behind Kneaders. Does that help?