Travel Writer, Lisa Niver Rajna, started skiing in Park City Utah in 1979. Her family would visit three times a year from Los Angeles. She offered to share some recollections of Park City Past.
In 1979, I remember when we finally got to Park City because of the traffic light. There was such a long stretch of nothing where the Red Stone Mall is now, and then we would turn right at the light after the Alpha Beta and after a few blocks pull into the Shadow Ridge parking lot.
Back then, we would take the bus to Main Street for dinner just as we do now. I remember staring out the window waiting to see it coming from the stop at the bottom of the lifts. We would run down the hall, take the elevator and skip though the parking lot to have the shortest wait outside in the cold for the bus. I miss Claimjumper, which was my favorite place for grilled chicken with a piece of pineapple on top. The menus on green glass bottles always amused me. I just never saw that in Los Angeles. It seemed clever and retro all at once without any pretentiousness it would have had at home.
After dinner almost every night, we went to Alpha Beta, which was really the only thing open after our meal. Wandering down the aisles we would gather food for our breakfast and after skiing snacks. We never went as a family of four to the supermarket at home and it was a fun night activity seeing what we could find and convince my parents to bring home with us. Sometimes we even got ice cream!
With our purchases in tow, we walked the few blocks from the supermarket uphill, past the traffic light and back to Shadow Ridge ready to relax and prepare for another great day of skiing on the mountain.
After all these years, a day of skiing at Park City is still my favorite and brings back memories of days with the entire family.When I return to Park City now, I am amazed at how it grew up just like me. The fancy restaurants, the Red Stone mall and theaters, and the shopping just was not there when I was little. I am happy to be able to continue to see favorites like Grub Steak with the phenomenal salad bar, best beer bread ever and grilled chicken with a pineapple slice on top. I still love a great baked potato and who can resist mud pie after a hard day of skiing!
About Lisa Niver Rajna
About the Author: Lisa and George Rajna met online in 2007 and started traveling together internationally almost immediately. By 2008, they had quit their jobs, rented their condo and left for a year on the road. After eleven countries, twelve months, losing sixty pounds and getting engaged underwater, they returned to Los Angeles. On July 1, 2012, the next year long adventure began in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and now India.
