GoPro Adventure in Park City, UT

We finally had the car all packed and we started to pull out of the driveway on our way to Park City, Utah for our 3^rd annual Folan Family Ski Vacation. One house away and on sounds the obnoxious iPhone ringtone. “Hello this is U.S. Airways, your flight has been…cancelled.”  Cancelled! Are you kidding me?!? We have ski passes for the mountain tomorrow! This trip can’t be cancelled! We were all speechless as we turned around immediately and headed back to the driveway. Without even getting out of the car, dad called U.S. Air over his Bluetooth in the car and we all listened in as the woman tried to help us find an alternative to our winter wonderland destination.  After much arguing, we were able to find a flight that was leaving one hour ahead of our scheduled departure through American Airlines. If you travel with the Folan’s, you will know one major thing about family vacations – we are usually always running late to the airport. So to tell us we are going to board a flight in one hour while still driving 45 minutes to the Philadelphia airport and parking, checking luggage, and going through security, I would say you were nuts. But we did it. We had to ditch our direct flight for a layover in Arizona, but it did not matter. We were on our way to one of my favorite surreal destinations where you feel like you’re on top of the world.

Patrick and I had gotten GoPros for Christmas and had not had time before New Year’s to use them. This was going to be the moment – getting unbelievable footage on the mountain.  But here’s the catch, I had no clue how to work the fragile device. I could wing it, but who knows how that will turn out. Unfortunately, that’s all I had time to do. We arrived to Park City, jumped in a shuttle at 11:30pm local time (2:30am ET) and our bodies felt numb. But like I said before, it did not matter because we were going skiing!

            We were staying in town where there is a lift right up to the mountain, but we didn’t have our skis yet and we found out in the process that you cannot ride the town lift if you are not strapped into skis or a snowboard, so we quickly caught the next city bus to the ski lodge, grabbed our fitted skis, and FINALLY hit the slopes much later than expected. But like I keep saying, it did not matter because we were skiing!  Because of the commotion with our flight, I was not able to set up the GoPro for that first day of skiing at Park City, but I made it a mission to get that thing ready for filming when we went to The Canyons the next day.  The next dilemma I encountered – only 16 minutes of memory available on my memory card, but we ski for at least 4 to 6 hours a day. Oh boy this is going to be a nightmare picking which runs to film and which to ignore.

One of the greatest things about Park City is its accessibility and public transportation. Like I said, we stayed in town where all the restaurants and shops are located, so we could walk to all our dinners, and leisurely stroll through the town and people watch at night. It was great. Also, you can get to at least three major mountains just by jumping on the free city bus, with your ski gear already on, even your ski boots. It’s the most ideal way to travel to a ski mountain. Door-to-door service. And finally, I whipped out the GoPro.

One of the cool things that’s unique to the Canyons is their Orange Bubble. It’s a temperature controlled cover that shields the people on the lift chair from any snow without having to take off your skis and jump on a Gondola. It also goes super fast.  Needless to say, this had to make the cut in my GoPro footage. Our Orange Bubble ride was great. The four Folans sitting together, ready to finally begin our first full day (second actual day) of Utah skiing. The Canyons is known for its size. An amazing quality is that there can be 20,000 people on the mountain at one time, yet you still barely have to wait in a lift line more than a minute. If you don’t think that’s amazing, then you have never experienced the horror of ski lift lines.  We had such an amazing time, ate the Cloud 9 Dinner all the way at the top of the mountain, and skied all day long. We wore ourselves out, and by the time we made it home, we all could not get to bed to take a nap quick enough. 

On our third ski day, we went to the exclusive Deer Valley resort.  The neat thing about Deer Valley is that it only allows skiers on the mountain. No snowboards are allowed. It feels discriminatory, but it makes your experience pretty awesome. The key is to get on the mountain RIGHT when it opens, because they uniquely groom the trails specifically for skiers. Riding up that lift at 9:30am all I could see was that beautiful corduroy snow that makes a skier the happiest person alive. We saw some beautiful houses along the trails, and had another perfect ski day. It was not as sunny as the day before at The Canyons, but again I got some fun footage on the GoPro.

Finally, on our last day, we decided to head back to Park City, because it was accessible to us from the Town Lift, which was right outside our apartment, and we did not have to jump on a city bus. We ate breakfast at the café right under the lift, having our fix of substantial ham and jalapeno omelets and big mugs of coffee. And we got to hit the slopes for a final day.  We had been to Park City the year before, and these double black diamond bowl runs where there is just powder and a steep hill that you have to carve your own trail day were closed both years. My brother and I had wanted to try one so badly.  Today was our lucky day. One of them was finally open for 2 whole hours today, and we were there. We took the old two-seater lift up the mountain, glancing down at the fresh untouched powder beneath us. It looked heavenly. I turned on the GoPro to start filming, it didn’t matter if I used all 16 minutes of video on this run, I needed to document this. It was an amazing run and we were exhausted by the time we made it back to the lift. But we had to go again. As we were going up I asked my brother, Patrick if my GoPro was blinking red (meaning it was filming) and he said no. “No, no!” That means I missed that whole run. Even worse, the camera was dead. So much for unforgettable footage! But we lived in the moment and finished our amazing final day of skiing, savoring every moment on that mountain before we had to let reality sink in again.

You might be asking yourself, “Only four days of skiing, that does not seem like a long vacation.” Trust me when I tell you, four days is plenty for your quads to feel like they are going to explode off your leg! I enjoyed every minute of that final day of skiing, but my legs thanked me when it was over. Like always, it was bittersweet to say goodbye to Park City. My body was dead, but my adventurous self wanted to keep exploring the vastness of the mountains with my partners in crime. Until next time, Park City. There is no doubt I will be back to relive this amazing fantasy vacation. But for now, I will piece together my GoPro film to relive the memories until that time comes.

Here is a link to my last college soccer game as a Loyola Greyhound. (Video courtesy of the Patriot League Network powered by Campus Insider)

Holy Cross Game

October 31, 2015 (Saturday)

Today's the day, what I thought would be my last day playing at my home field.  However, it turns out we have clinched a home field playoff game with our season's performance, so it will only be my last afternoon game at the Ridley athletic complex. We will be battling the Holy Cross Crusaders for either 3rd or 4th place in the Patriot League Tournament. I have come to this field at least six days a week since August 4th this year and have cherished the last several weeks playing and practicing here.  And so today, while I will not be honored as a senior, I feel amped to step on the field with my Hounds and thank the people who have supported me over the years with a great performance.

However, it seemed the team did not have that on their agenda today.  We have 5 seniors and myself (a fifth year team member) on the team, so we assumed the girls would find much to play for in trying to honor the seniors on Senior Day, but we came out flat and lethargic without the emotion I had envisioned before the starting whistle. As a goalkeeper my job is to make saves to keep my team in the game, but it hard to watch from the defensive end of the field as my teammates cannot string together a solid attack. It's hard to say that our team is playing like we have nothing to play for, because it is a day to play for the seniors, but that is how I felt watching from my box.

The first goal of the game for Holy Cross came early in the first half when our team got called for a handball in the box stemming from poor all around defensive organization. The ensuing penalty kick on me led to the eventual game winner for the Crusaders as were were unable to score in the 90 minute match. There were moments when I just put my hands on my hips and shook my head at the heartless effort we showed. A team relies on every member, and when one member is weak, the rest have an excuse to stoop down to that level which was how it seemed we were performing. 

The seniors put up a valiant effort, but we ultimately lost the game 2-0 sealing our playoff position at 4th place. I think the squad had their minds on Halloween and their costumes rather than closing out a strong Patriot League season undefeated at home. It was comforting to know that I had another night to finish off my home career strong, but I wished today could have been different. Our team was good enough to play better, and we chose not to do that. 

                                                  (Video courtesy of Loyola Athletics)

Ravens Nation

When in Rome, do as the Romans do...that's how I feel today after that awesome Super Bowl win by the Baltimore Ravens.  I must admit that this year I am a bandwagon fan, but when you live in Baltimore half the year, how can't you be one?

That might have been the most interesting Super Bowl to say the least.  We start off with the Ravens scoring on the first drive of the game, being up 21-6 at half time, Beyonce killing it at the halftime show, Jacobi Jones running for a 109 yard touchdown (I know they said 108, but it's going down in my books as 109 even if someone tries to tell me differently), only to have the power go out for 30 minutes.

The worst part about that power outage might have been that the commercials were not getting any better.  Then, to make matters worse, when the game did start back up again, the 49ers were unstoppable, putting 17 points on the board before the end of the quarter.  The only other thing that stood out to me during that 3rd quarter was the traditional and heartwarming appearance by the Budweiser Clydesdale (probably my favorite commercial of the night).

There were several QB sneaks by Colin Kaepernick, some uncalled.  There was the first FG fake in Super Bowl history, the longest TD in Super Bowl history, and the longest separation between championships for Ray Lewis, who won the Super Bowl 12 years prior.  What a season and performance by him tonight. To top the night off, it was an exciting football game, and the score was a little too close for comfort there at the end.  (Secretly though, I knew the whole time the Ravens would pull it out!)

All in all, it was a fun night, comprised of overeating and bleeding purple.  Shout out to the Ravens on the National victory, to the MVP Joe Flacco, who had a stellar performance tonight, and John Harbaugh, who is a class act (it can never be easy to beat your younger brother in the Super Bowl...although it always feels good to beat your younger brother at everything else haha sorry buddy boy!!)

(photo courtesy of sports.yahoo.com)

Congrats again to the Baltimore Ravens.  I am so proud to get the chance to celebrate with this great city tonight!!

Keystone

Yesterday we arrived in Denver, Colorado, the first stop on our way to Keystone Mountain for a much anticipated 4 days of skiing and relaxing. The time difference threw us off a little bit so by the time we finished dinner at Ted's Montana Grill (one of Ted Turner's many restaurants) we were ready for bed.

Today we got up nice and early (6:30 is really pushing it sometimes) and we drove 2 hours to the mountain. My ears were just waiting to pop the entire way. We rented our skies, picked up some new gear to look a little more stylish, and headed across the street just to wait an hour in line for our lift tickets.

It didn't even matter though because we had finally made it - skiing out west. (This has actually been on my bucket list for awhile, so I can check it off!) The gondola ride went very smoothly considering it was my first time on the slopes in 2 years, and our first run was underway.

It didn't take long for my toes to go numb, but I didn't really care. I was flying down the mountain, the wind striking my face. Two runs in and we already lost mom, and the third one after lunch we lost dad, but me and paddy boy stuck together and wore ourselves out.

I don't know if my legs have hurt this bad in a long time! All I want is my foam roller to get these knots out of my quads. I know tomorrow will be fun but I hope I can feel my legs while skiing. And this altitude is really something to get used to. We are all still trying (and failing) to adjust but the headache and dehydration can really get to you.

I definitely would recommend this mountain and the condo we are staying in. Coming home to a fire after a long day of skiing hits the spot. The day wore me out but I have to go now to start preparing for the next day of adventure tomorrow!

Good night!
Colleen