A Park City Adventure

Park City's Star Bar hosted a great performance from Better Than Ezra. The band made their mark on the charts in the 90s but due to their dislike of the music video they have kept a little below the radar. Playing in bars and smaller venues (at least around the West), the New Orleans trio spend a lot of time touring and performing for their rabid fan base.

The weekend started by leaving work Thursday around 6 p.m., traveling to Park City with Jen, Cindi and Siobhan, and finding our hotel. The hotel was simple but nice and it had a bar & grill. Arriving at the semi-hopping hotel eatery around 7:30, it took forever to order and get our food. My below par fish 'n chips were no match for the yummy-ness found at the Scottish festival (you could say I'm now a fish 'n chips snob). Jen and Siobhan really liked their French dip and Cindi liked her stroganoff.

We departed to the Star Bar for the concert around 9:15. And this is were the mis-adventure began...

Cindi's iPhone took us a strange way to the historic main street in Park City (this time is wasn't Carmen the Garmen). We all wildly stared out the windows trying to find the Star Bar as we slowly moved down the street. Cindi spotted the venue nestled between a restaurant and some construction. Now the task was to find parking. We had passed a parking structure on our bizarre route to main street but we took a co-workers advice and drove up the hill and found a full parking lot. Jen slowly manuvered through the lot and we spotted (not an open space) but what looked like a tour bus. Buzzing with excitement we were more enthusiastic about the upcoming concert than before. And we decided to park in the large parking structure and walk to the bar.

As Jen drove down to the structure, we spotted four guys walking away from the bus and toward the bar's back door. We started to speculate... could this be the band? Even with BTE billed as a trio, they usually have a fourth member to act as backup singer/pianist/guitarist. We crept past the group - gawking at them - when Kevin (BTE's lead singer) turned and faced the car. Now... one would think that we would be cool, roll down the window to say something like "We love you guys!" but alas all four of us screamed loudly with excitement followed by Jen hitting the gas pedal and driving off.

Reaching the parking garage (now laughing at our ridiculousness), Jen parked and we walked to the Star Bar for one of the best concerts I've attended EVER. We were only 10 feet away from the small stage as BTE played an excellent show. We danced... mimicked some drunk dancing girls... laughed when guy a started to steal a base with Jen (she gets all the crazies)... stared at the REALLY drunk blonde with no depth perception... and had a yummy ginger ale.

Exhausted from dancing, standing, and the whole evening, we rolled back toward the hotel room (stopping for some munchies on the way). I tried out the hotel shower to find that it was made for people who liked a tropical feel to their bathing experience. The shower head didn't so much as spray but mist the water.

The next day we woke, got ready, and set out for a breakfast joint. This is where our second adventure came. We discovered several things about Park City:

1. Residents don't eat breakfast
2. Buildings are all an ugly uniform brown and green color (making it hard to find breakfast)
3. 7-11 has Honey Nut Cherios, milk, bowls, and spoons
4. Stacie and Jen get really annoyed when not fed
5. Park City is a ridiculous place
6. Stacie can spend $$$ like crazy in the outlet stores.

All in All the adventure was a memorable one with some great tunes, good friends, and a huge credit card bill.