“Maybe I’ll just fly from China for the weekend.”

Sometimes, plans are hatched haphazardly, without much thought or regard to logistics, cost, and jet lag. That is exactly how my Park City weekend came about, during a call with my college friend, Dan.

For years, he and a group of our friends have met up in Park City, Utah for a weekend of skiing, drinking, and the sort of shenanigans that 30-somethings can only handle for 3-4 days before they realize that they are no longer in their early 20s and a night of sound sleep becomes more appealing than another late night of debauchery.

I have been living overseas since this annual tradition began, and since I’m not a skier, flying a crazy distance to a ski destination to then not spend a single minute on the slopes seemed illogical. Instead, I became the recipient of many a drunken FaceTime calls. It became an annual tradition.

My friends got to catch up over cocktails and trail runs, while I was left with four guys yelling at me through my phone at 9am thanks to the time zone difference.

My joking conversation with Dan became serious after I did a quick Google Flight search and found fairly reasonable fares with decent connections. The plan was officially hatched, and two of us decided to keep the rest of the group in the dark about the upcoming party crasher from China.

I decided to fly into Salt Lake City on a full day ahead of my friends’ arrivals from around the States. It would give me a bit of a head start on the inevitable jet lag that comes with a 15 hour time difference, plus I could explore downtown Salt Lake City.

I dropped off my stuff at my rather depressing airport hotel and dove straight into exploring Salt Lake City. To be honest, it wasn’t out of sheer excitement about the city (sorry SLC people) but a strategy to avoid falling asleep at 3pm, only to wake up refreshed at midnight and hating my life. I had a jet lag plan, and I needed to stick to it.

I went in search of food, only to discover that Utah has a few branches of my favorite fast food chain, In-N-Out. Yes, this institution is incredibly hyped (some might say over-hyped), but it’s a special treat for me. They also do the best version of a lettuce wrap burger ever (ask for it “Protein-style” from the extensive secret menu) that manages to stay together despite the mess of grease, cheese, and sauce.

Scrambling for what to do downtown, I was informed by my Uber driver that the city has a light rail system called TRAX. By sheer coincidence, the In-N-Out was located near a station. For only $2.50, I hopped on TRAX and headed into the city. Thank you to that Uber driver for inspiring me to not take an Uber!

Downtown SLC is compact, but rather beautiful, surrounded on almost all sides by jagged, snow covered mountains. The extensive Church of Latter-day Saints complex around Temple Square dominates the downtown core, covering over 35 acres. The official home of the Mormon church, there is a the Salt Lake Temple, two Visitors’ Centers, the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, Church History Museum, as well as offices and a convention center all next to each other. Impressive, if not a bit imposing.

Just a few steps from Temple Square is the large indoor/outdoor City Creek Center that runs for several blocks through downtown. Home to stores like Nordstrom and Apple, it has a retractable roof and a creek running through it that is stocked with trout. I’m not usually a big fan of malls – I mean, I live in Shanghai, which is basically all malls – but I give SLC props for at least making it slightly less soul-sucking than normal.

I found time in the afternoon for a quick haircut at The Bureau Barber to make sure I looked fresh and clean for the weekend. I also stopped into a local supermarket to pick up those essential items that are either hard to find or crushingly expensive in Shanghai: pancake mix and maple syrup.

I was struggling by around dinner time, even after a few coffees, so I grabbed some prepared food from the supermarket and hopped in an Uber back to my dumpster fire of a hotel for a night of rest.

Side Note: My hotel was not really a dumpster fire, just annoying. I had asked about their free airport shuttle – the only reason I was staying near the airport – and was informed to call when I landed. So when I called, after spending a better part of a day flying from China, I was told that there were no shuttles running between 11am-4pm and that even then, it only runs once an hour. We talked at 1pm and she legitimately asked me if I wanted to wait until 4pm for the next shuttle. The hotel was 3 miles from the terminal. Plus, on check out, I left my luggage at the front desk where I had to sign a document stating that if my bag was lost or anything stolen, the hotel would not be held responsible. They were holding 3 bags at the time. I could see them behind the counter. How hard is it to keep track of a few bags and not lose them? It did not inspire a lot of confidence.

The next day, as I eagerly awaited Dan’s arrival to get the surprise plan in action, I made it a point to stop by local favorite Red Iguana for a quick Mexican lunch and far too many chips and salsa. It is well regarded for the variety of traditional moles, a sauce that requires an abundance of ingredients (everything from chiles to chocolate) and a dish I simply can’t get in Shanghai. Each region has a slightly different recipe, so the server suggested I do a half/half, with mole verde and mole poblano over pulled chicken.

It hit the spot.

After that, it was back to the airport where Dan and I had a reunion like two long-lost brothers. We grabbed his ski gear and hopped in an Uber for the 4o minute drive up into the mountains.

Park City is east of Salt Lake City and sits at an elevation of around 7,000ft. It is framed by Wasatch Ridge and sits between Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain Resort. Nearby, there is Canyons, another ski resort, and Utah Olympic Park, which was the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The drive up was beautiful, and we prepared for surprise numero uno. Our buddy who lives near Park City was hosting the weekend. Dan greeted our host at his front door, while I snuck out from behind the garage for the reveal. It was pure shock and awe, with a touch of confusion.

Did I just really fly here from China? Are you only coming for the weekend? Yes and yes.

As each new friend arrived in Park City, we sprung the big surprise of my visit each time. My favorite was the fake FaceTime call that we staged with ‘Drew in China’ while I was sequestered in an upstairs office, trying to speak quietly. I casually suggested doing a toast together over FaceTime (something that had become a tradition), only to say that I needed to grab my drink from downstairs. The camera phone showed me coming downstairs and into the room where they all sat, as the latest arrival looked dumbfounded.

The pressure quickly mounted to go skiing with the group at least once over the weekend. The mountains had received almost 400″ of snow this season, and we got an additional 24″ of fluffy powder just over the weekend. The thought of giving it a shot for a day on the mountain floated around my head for a second, but I knew better than to spend a day hurling myself down the slopes, crashing and tumbling along the way. The almost $200 (?!) day pass, plus rentals, sealed the deal for me.

I decided to avoid the bumps, bruises, and sore muscles, and just explore Park City while my friends were hitting the mountains.

Park City is a surprisingly cool town that I know only from the Olympics and the Sundance Film Festival. The compact main street is lined with shops, restaurants, and bars. It is an old mining town, and many of the architecture and buildings have been preserved. It felt small enough to be on the quaint side, but with plenty of shopping and dining options to keep things interesting.

Getting around the whole area is easy as well, as the town runs a free bus system that covers the entire valley, from the Utah Olympic Park all the way to Deer Valley. From Canyons, where we were staying, there was an express electric bus that ran straight to Park City Main Street in about 10 minutes.

Most of our time spent in Park City itself was going out to eat, where there are an abundance of choices. We ate sushi at Flying Sumo Sushi, steaks at Butcher’s Chop House, a really good reuben at The Eating Establishment, and a few drinks at Flanagan’s and the No Name Saloon. Be advised that on the weekends, it is important to plan in advance for dinner. Many of the restaurants, and even the bars, were packed and reservations were essential.

Main Street of Park City is also home to High West Distillery, makers of very nice bourbon and rye whiskey, if you are into that kind of thing. The adjoining restaurant and bar are perpetually packed, from lunch all the way through late night. One evening in fact, there was a wait list to just get into the bar.

Luckily, the retail shop is open all day, so I of course brought home a bottle of their bourbon as a Utah souvenir.

After each day of skiing, I met up with the group for a little après ski, which is the type of skiing I like to do (basically, just drinking on the mountain). On Saturday, I took the chair lift up to Canyons Village to meet them at The Farm for a late lunch and a few bottles of nice Oregon Pinot Noir (as late 30-somethings, our tastes have become a bit more refined). The area was filled with hotels, restaurants, bars, and live music in the afternoon, as hundreds of skiers wrapped up their day.

On Sunday, we met near Deer Valley at Stein Erikson Lodge, a swanky mountain resort that has a large lodge/bar/restaurant that looks just a picture you would find if you did a Google image search for “bougey ski lodge.” Large, exposed wooden beams, a roaring stone fireplace, big comfortable sofas, and plenty of people milling about still wearing ski gear. We sipped on Irish coffees and old fashioned’s as the guys recovered from their days of skiing.

Our nighttime activities were rather tame, though they did involve raiding most of the gin and bourbon from our friend’s bar at home (sorry, Doobie). We played cards and had a multi-hour back-and-forth about the proper scoring system for a card game that none of us will remember next time.

We watched the worst ski movie of all time (Hot Dog…available in full length for free on YouTube. Not a good sign…) that had some of the most cringeworthy lines and the most appalling acting I’ve ever seen. It is genius, hilarious, and terrible, all at the same time.

It’s amazing how much our topics of conversation have shifted over the years. Two of the guys have kids, so we talked about fatherhood, parenting, and the joys/frustrations of having kids. We talked about the stock market, IRAs, and how to trade options. Despite that, we haven’t lost our abilities to completely rag on each other and replay stories from twenty years ago like they happened yesterday.

I stayed up late, drank too much, ate way too much food, and managed to avoid any sort of physical activity. It was exhausting, but awesome. By Monday morning, it was time to get back to the SLC airport for my trip back to Shanghai.

Living abroad, I try not to miss the major events back home, but other things, like reunion weekends, tend to fall through the cracks. Sacrificing some of those experiences is unfortunately part of the expat life. But I never regret making the effort and I’m so glad I made the decision to hop on a plane for 15 hours to spend a few days with some old friends.

It was expensive, tiring, and completely impractical. We are already planning next year’s trip.