While Mother Nature is obviously confused as to which part of the year it is supposed to be, (come on 65 degrees one week and a blizzard the next!), the people of Park City know what they want and are ready to share it with you. Many restaurants have woken from their slumber of the post ski season drums, and with a clear mind and fresh kitchen your taste buds will be delighted with the sweet dance of summer foods in your mouth. The resorts have begun preparations for another lush green summer of zip lining and sliding, biking and hiking. And while we in Park City know that sunny, 80 degree days are not far away, I guess you could say that we are a little anxious, so time to pray to the Sun Gods?

The summer of 2010 is sure to be a great one – free concerts, music in the mountains, wine fun. . . and eventually (hint hint Mother Nature) some sun!

When most people think of spring break they think of wild parties in Cancun, Girls Gone Wild, wet t-shirt contests and the beach. Well Park City is no Cancun, and the only beach you will find this time of year is not going to be bikini friendly, but when you have a city that gets an April shower of 33 inches of snow in about two days we introduce spring break in a whole new style.

Not only have the girls gone wild here, but everyone has joined in their madness. . . powder skiing heaven madness that is! And we even have our own version of the wet t-shirt contest – put a white t-shirt as your base layer and see how wet you can get it from intense spring skiing. And the best way to wear a bikini in April is make sure you have a hot tub, hop in while some flakes gently fall from the sky, get out on a dare and roll in the snow and hop back in sizzling.

The season has been extended an extra week to experience our version of spring break, so play hookie if you must and come shred some pow with us!

A parade during 30mph wind gusts and no holiday announced? Why yes, of course! If you were navigating your way through the winds of Tuesday afternoon on Main Street around 5:30pm you most likely saw Utah’s Olympic athletes. Over a dozen athletes participated in this year’s most recent 2010 Vancouver games and like a proud mother Park City was ready to show them off to you! Some faces you may have recognized in the parade were – Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, Olympic aerialists and silver medalists, Ted Ligety, Park City born and raised World Cup 2010 champion and Billy Demong, another born and raised local who earned both gold and silver medals in the Nordic combined. The parade traveled down historic Main Street, stopping at the town lift plaza for a live performance from the School of Rock Show Band and autograph signing. If you missed this, well this city will always be like a proud mother and will be showing off her stars in four years to come. But if you don’t want to wait that long then just head up to any of Park City’s and Utah’s world class resorts and Olympic sites and you will likely find our athletes training hard every day for the next four years to continue their Olympic dreams.

If you have been anywhere in the upper half of Utah in the past two weeks you would think that Mother Nature was ready for spring. With temperatures reaching the mid 50’s in Park City and the snow beginning to turn into that wonderful spring slush the trees and flowers had even been tricked into peeking out their buds for a taste of the warm sunshine. But as Mother Nature seems to always toy with Utah’s snow emotions, she has yet again pulled a fast one on us with the Snow Gods bestowing 15inches of fresh snow at our feet for our riding, snowball-fighting, snowman making and continuous winter pleasure. No doubt the turns will be epic today and through the Easter weekend, and I imagine the snorkel you thought could only be used at that beach-front resort, may very well come in handy. The groundhog does not really apply to Park City or Utah. Mother Nature acts slightly bipolar at times what with one week of 50 degree temperatures and the next a 48 hour continuous blizzard, but for the pining ski bum in all of us we will take it all, one beautiful white inch at a time.

Spring Has Sprung and the wet will be on the run this weekend as Park City kicks off the end of the ski season. Beginning this coming weekend, March 26, the Canyons will be hosting a ten day celebration. Saturday will be a splash with the Canyons annual Pond Skimming contest. Go to www.thecanyons.com if you are interested in signing yourself up to skim across the 100ft. pond, or just to see what time the mayhem will start. Park City Mountain Resort will host the Queens Cup Open Saturday the 27^th featuring the female phenoms of the skiing world going slopestyle and shredding it up. If you have no idea what I just said, just go check it out. I can promise that it will be ‘gnarly dude’! (www.parkcitymountain.com)

Who can think of springtime without thinking of a fuzzy bunny and chocolate eggs? At 9am sharp Easter morning Park City Mountain Resort will open the hill for their annual Easter egg frenzy. The kids corral will hold their own hunt for kids ages 6 and under, with free hot chocolate and coffee for the parents. Eggs hidden on first time are full of candy, and if you are lucky enough to find an egg higher on the mountain the rewards are sweet, (how does a 2010-2011 seasons pass sound?). And what are eggs without the bunny? Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort will both have the man, or bunny, himself skiing around all day.

So while some may be crying as their snow gradually gets slushier and seems to disappear by the minute, while others celebrate the warm weather and signs of grass and new buds peeking through, this time of year in Park City is a definite time to celebrate the season almost past and the season coming up.