Every day should be relaxation day

Spitfire and I had Monday (Veteran's Day) off, so we decided to commemorate the sacrifices of veterans everywhere by treating ourselves to a day of debauchery. We grabbed Jenny and drove up to Park City in order to temporarily escape from our lives. Not that our lives are bad, because they're not, but we're pretty much all going through crazy stressful times and we figured a bit of a Hen Night was preferable to one day snapping and buying some kind of high-powered rifle and climbing the nearest building with it. I'm sure you agree.

At the hotel we sat in the hot tub, did pedicures and manicures, gave each other back rubs, and ate dangerous amounts of Brie, focaccia bread, apples, hot chocolate, and no-bake cookies. I told Jen before the trip that even though I love her nobakes, I always get a gastrointestinal complaint when I eat them. Her response: That's because you're not supposed to eat seven at a time.

She's a jerk.

Her solution was for me to only eat two and see how my gastrointestinal system dealt with it. Only this did not seem a good plan to me because it would mean I only got two cookies. So I tried to cut back but apparently I failed. And it turns out that the windows in our hotel room don't open. Which is too bad.

During the pedicures the three of us wedged ourselves onto the side of the bathtub so we could keep our feet in the tub for the rinsing. It was kind of precarious, and I'm sure from the back we resembled three hippos at the watering hole.

The next morning (after the alarm on my cell phone went off, which Jenny says is one of the worst things she's ever heard and which I claim is the reason why I'm in a bad mood every day--if anyone knows of any precious, gentle, kind alarms do let me know) we hit the Outlet Mall, World Market, and downtown Park City. The weather was sunny and beautiful and everything was just relaxed and perfect.




At the World Market I got holiday crackers for Christmas dinner, real Whole Nut Cadbury bars, a bag of French lavender for cooking, two vanilla beans for $2.99, and two more sets of chopsticks to replace ones which have either been stolen or have simply run away to find a home where they'll actually get used. I love that store. I could wander around in there all day long.

My new favorite Park City bookstore is called Dolly's and is right next to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. This store is cozy and wonderful and so are the people who work there and they keep live cats sleeping in a basket. Jenny discovered this cool new edition of Pippi Longstocking, which I had not even known about but must buy immediately for the library.


We wanted to have lunch at Bistro 412 (turn your speakers off if you don't want your mind polluted with the sweet singings of French men, Dad) in keeping with our weekend of Estrogen and The Finer Things, but it was closed. Jerks. So after roaming the street for forever (lots of places are closed right now) we decided on Bandits' Grill and Bar. The only problem with this place is that it's right next the Hungry Moose Grill, which is awful. Last year when my parents were visiting we accidentally went to this place for dinner because I mistook it for Bandits. Do not make the same mistake.

Spitfire and Jen split a guacamole burger, and I got the Kobe Black & Bleu, which was an American Kobe beef burger with bleu cheese, caramelized onions, lettuce, and tomato. It was amazingly good. We had a tiny bit of room left for dessert, so when our server listed brownie sundae as one of the options we ordered one to split between the three of us. And then she, assisted by a forklift, brought it out to us.


And yes, that is a full-sized skillet underneath it and a full-sized waterglass next to it. Other people in the restaurant stared and asked what unholy thing we'd just done. We did our best but couldn't come close to finishing. Which, okay, I get that for presentation's sake that's a really clever thing. But we didn't need that much dessert. We couldn't eat that much dessert. They don't put the desserts on the menu but instead list them at the table, so that you don't see a price to tip you off about the size. I'm just saying. It was good, but unnecessarily (and somewhat deceptively) huge. I'm just warning you for when you go.