Chasing Moose

I've been in Salt Lake this past week for my annual February trip (it's amazing how Skype review sessions can keep students and colleagues happy). Actually, last weekend over Presidents' Day Jeanine and I met Sean and Gillian again -- see August 2011 post -- in Jackson. It was another fantastic weekend. When in Jackson, we prefer the Snow King Resort, and only me very unfortunately getting Jeanine sick (thanks Eisenhower Hall) kept it from being epic. Saturday was pretty much my ideal day, even if I learned that I don't like salads with diced bison: a nordic race in the morning followed by (almost) powder downhill in the afternoon followed by beers here:

I'm not very competitive, as my legions of readers know, so I don't play a lot of cat and mouse games while racing. But this time, about 4K in, I started to slow in an attempt to entice the woman behind me to pass me. Did I do this so that I could draft her up the hill? To take a breather? Absolutely not -- I did this because about 100 yards in front of me two moose had appeared and were just lollygaggling down the trail. I guess this is why they in fact call this race the Moose Chase. Sorry I don't have any pictures, although as slow as I was it would haven't mattered if I had carried a camera -- it was a hard and hilly (if fantastic) course. Still, I felt like telling the race officials that I was unfairly slowed by my 1K of chasing the moose, who were finally urged off the trail by volunteers who were prepared for such contingencies with cowbells.

The downhill was pretty darn good, too, despite the terrible snow year, and this was before the 40 inches rolled in (we got out just in time on Monday). I also recommend the waffles at the top of Jackson's historic tram:

Sunday Jeanine rallied enough to return to the Snake River Grill. Once again, it was fantastic, and, once again, I offer gratuitous shots of their amazing onion rings.

And just for the sake of the current meat craze, here are some gratuitous shots of my duck and Sean's pork shank:

Jeanine turned 35 during the week, and we had a wonderful quiet night and meal at It's Tofu, a great Korean place in an unassuming strip mall in the suburbs.

Yesterday was the annual 20K race at the "Farm" in Park City. Once again, the conditions were horrible -- 40 mile per hour winds, blowing snow, crappy chopped up granular snow with some ice, etc. But hey, it was worth it as my wonderfully weak age group came through again and I back-doored into a 3rd place age-group finish.