What started as a Sundance Fest addon has a life of its own and the 5th Annual Tumbleweeds Film Festival lives on this September 25-27. The Rose Wagner Theater becomes kid central with family friendly films, workshops and a Clubhouse with obstacle course, Microsoft Just Dance mini dance floor, STEM learning activity by Animal Jam, and an arts and crafts station.
The Utah Film Center’s Patrick Hubley said, “We launched our Tumbleweeds programming with the goal of fostering the next generation of filmmakers and film fans, and we hope this programming will inspire the creativity and imaginations of young film-goers not only in Utah but across the country.”
Tumbleweeds features content for children and teens and is the only one of its kind in the Intermountain West. Next weekend, kids 4 and older will have the chance to see world cinematic films like Pim & Pom from the Nederlands.
The lineup includes 11 feature films, a documentary, and four shorts. Audiences will see the best g-rated flicks from around the world, participate in media arts workshops, and get down with Just Dance and arts and crafts in the Tumbleweeds Kids Clubhouse.
“The festival has evolved to include a traveling statewide program and Utah Film Center has developed a partnership with Sundance Institute to co-curate Sundance Kids during the Sundance Film Festival in January as a direct result of Tumbleweeds’ successes,” said Hubley.
The most exciting part will be the game coding and Animal Jam Animator workshops. If interested, sign up asap. They are limited to the first 10 registrants.
For ticket prices, screening times and more information visit utahfilmcenter.org.
The new Bratz ‘Study Abroad’ Doll collection is out now, in time for the holidays. Yasmin showed up on the doorstep and Sage couldn’t wait to review it for everybody.
Seeing as how I never really played with dolls, this one was all Sage. Here’s her honest take on one of her favorite toys:
Park City Area Restaurant Association’s “Dine About” returns for its third straight year October 1- 11. This 11-day food extravaganza features affordable and delicious two-course lunches and three-course dinners from some of your favorite area restaurants.
The prices can’t be beat: just $10 or $15 per person for each lunch, and $20 or $40 per person for each dinner. “No coupons, no punch cards, no strings attached — simply walk in, ask your server for a Dine About menu, and enjoy,” PCARA executive director Ginger Ries said. “It’s such a great way for diners to check out new restaurants or revisit old favorites, and an excellent chance for restaurants to recruit a whole host of new fans.”
Nearly 30 restaurants have signed on to participate including: Billy Blanco’s, Chimayo, The Eating Establishment, The Brass Tag, Grappa, Grub Steak, Lespri Prime Steak Sushi, Powder at Waldorf Astoria, Riverhorse and Wahso. And, to entice your culinary experience even more, Dine About has partnered with Stay Park City to offer lodging choices so you can bring your bottle(s) of wine and stay the night.
To take advantage of the special offers, visit www.stayparkcity.com/lodging/dineabout. Restaurants are still signing up to take part in the Dine About so make sure you call your favorite spot to see if they’re participating this year.
The irony isn’t lost on locals. Four miserable winters (comparatively) and yet Utah ski resorts spent millions on “improvements” this summer, while raising the cost of lift tickets yet again, all in the hopes of attracting more visitors.
Don’t they know by now that we skiers are all about deals? I’d rather have the option of brown-bagging it for a $50 lift ticket than spending $100 because there’s a shiny new lodge or snowmaking equipment that needs to be reimbursed. That said, Utah skiers can expect to see some major alterations to the Wasatch Front landscape this 2015/16 ski season.
Photo courtesy Vail Resorts
This was a HUGE year for construction and retooling. You would have been living in a cave in the North Pole not to have heard about the conjoining of Park City Mountain Resort and Canyons into one massive area now named “Park City Mountain” and “Canyons Village at Park City”. The area(s)’ owner, Vail Resorts, plunked down $50 million dollars to transform Park City into “the largest resort in the United States.” Not that anyone would actually want to spend more than half of their day skiing between the resorts (cabriolet, three lifts and two gondolas, with only one intermediate run to be had through it all) just to get from Canyons to PC) but, whatever, there will now be 7,300 skiable acres for one lift ticket or season pass price ($789 and $101, respectively). The folks it’ll suit best are intermediate skiers who start at Park City and want to spend the night at Canyons or ride their zipline. Or perhaps people staying in Park City who want to backcountry ski because you can only do it from Canyons. Think Whistler/Blackcomb not Alta/Bird.
In addition to the Quicksilver Gondola that links the two areas, PCM’s King Con Chair is now a six-pack, The Motherlode lift is now a detachable quad, “Miners Camp” replaces the Snow Hut Lodge- 500 indoor seats (yay!), a large deck and fresher food choices like homemade soups, made-to-order sandwiches and tossed salads- and the Summit House has been remodeled to increase seating; the Red Pine Lodge has a new, upper deck and 250 more indoor seats, and they’ve added snowmaking on two trails in the Iron Mountain area to handle increased skier traffic for Quicksilver Gondola access.
Photo courtesy Snowbird Resort
The next big spender was Snowbird Resort with $35 million dollars in capital improvements. Hidden Peak is finally crowned with the Summit Lodge. Guests can dine surrounded by a spectacular, 360-degree-view from 11,000 feet. The two-story glass-enclosed structure replaces the modified port-a-John that housed Snowbird’s elite Ski Patrol. The new 23,000 square foot building will have cafeteria seating for 192 people on the first floor, a private dining room for 180 guests, restrooms, a coffee/pastry shop, a 10,000 square foot deck and a new Ski Patrol headquarters. Patrons of the Cliff Lodge waved good bye to those quirky windowed-showers in 350 guest rooms in the east wings. The remodel includes carpeting, marble counters and tile in the bathrooms, ergonomic mattresses, contemporary furnishings and entertainment systems, energy efficient lighting and upgraded Wi-Fi. No more wire wickets. Following in Alta’s footsteps, RFID has come to the Bird. The Bird plans to extend the ski season in Peruvian Gulch, Gad Valley and Mineral Basin by adding more snowmaking guns to those areas.
Then comes Deer Valley and Solitude. DV officially took ownership of the Big Cottonwood Resort in May 2015 and immediately began ripping out the aged Summit fixed-grip double chairlift. They installed the new, four-person detachable high-speed Summit Express chairlift and added a new ski run from the top of the existing Apex Express chairlift to the bottom terminal of the new, realigned Summit, significantly lessening the current travel time to Honeycomb Canyon. So now you can access Honeycomb without freezing and falling asleep. You’ll still have to ride two lifts to get back to the base of Summit but at least they are now all high speeds. When you’re ready to eat expect that Deer Valley Difference in the remodeled Moonbeam Lodge Restaurant. In fact, DV revamped the menus at all of the resort’s restaurants.
Brighton made the best move of all. They’re celebrating their 80th anniversary by bringing back their extremely popular ‘kids 10 and under ski free’ deal. Smart families will be packing that brown bag and heading up BCC a lot this winter.
Utah’s newest resort, Cherry Peak Resort, is planning for their inaugural season this December. The Northern Utah area 15 miles from Logan features three triple chairlifts, a comprehensive snowmaking infrastructure and a 1.25 mile-long-run. They didn’t have enough snow to open last season so fingers crossed for something better soon. The resort has an impressive three-story day lodge for year-round events.
Feel like having a mountain all to yourself? Rent-a-Resort at Eagle Point, south of Salt Lake City, is available for private rental Tuesday through Thursday, January 5 – April 3.
