Day 3...Olympic Park

WOW....Olympic Park was amazing. We had called ahead and found out the tour times so we headed out for a bite to eat ...then up the mountain to the park. We went down to Kimbal Junction, about 15min from Park City but closer to Olympic Park, where we were headed to have breakfast. I thought this huge bottle of Jack was funny...

The light was made of utensils......loved it!!

We had a great breakfast, we were the only ones in there for a long time...Denny found out that out west they have their own idea of eggs ranchero, doubt he'll order that again!!

and then we headed across the street and up the mountain to Olympic Park...the 2002 Olympic's were in Salt Lake and the big ski jump and all types of bob-sledding  were in Park City. They have built an amzing museum to showcase this event. This is what you go past first on your way up.....

 This is the downhill ski jump from the bottom of the mountain....it was HUGE!!

We drove up the mountain to the Olympic Park, it was a bit windy and a bit cool, but not too bad. 

These brozes were out front....

 On the left a skiing champion.......................and on the right the "father of Utah skiing"

Noticed they named the welcome center after Joe Quinney.

There are tons of things to do here in the summer months...and we'd just missed all of them...oh well, this museum and short bus tour would keep us plenty busy.

Plenty to do in the winter too!!!!

There was a grest display of ski equipment, including ski wear/fashion down one hall.

This husband/wife team wrote  news about the skiers and the area

This was a wall of fame aboutthe instructors

And there were many stories of legendary skiers....

As we learned on our tour in the city museum....first it was silver that made folks come to Park City, then years later...it was the white powder....snow!!!

All 3 of the following are outfits and gear from Olypians whose home town and training area was Park City

This guy just won in Sochi in Feb 2014...

This is a 4-man bobsled....

 And here's the inside....very tight quarters

All of these are on display....the one second from the left is a skeleton because there's not much to it and when you are on it you guide it by shifting your weight. Your chin is about an inch off the ice.

There was a simulator we decided to try. You got in a ski lift and the film started. It first simulated downhill skiing...then a bobsled ride....was pretty cool, we moved around a lot.

Here's our bobsled ride....FAST ride, great simulation

Here's where we crossed the finish line from our bobsled ride......

Here's our skiing ride....

These were ski's and medals from many years of Park City champions. This museum covered Park City ski history, not just the Oympics...it was wonderful

 This was a "pinball" game to get down the ski slope...we played several times...didn't do too bad

Most of the upstairs was dedicated to the 2002 Olympics and Special Olympics

Here's the official poster and the Olympic torch, it was carried 13,000 miles across the United States by 12,012 persons....very cool.

This is the costume for "The Child of Light" which was one of the mascots and a common thread for the Opening Ceremony....the ceremony had more than 4,000 men/women and children in it. Light the Fire Within was the theme that was carried through the games.

One of the most watched Olympians in 2002 was Jimmy Shea. He was a 3rd generation Olympian and this is the first time in many years the "Skeleton" was back in the Olympics. LOVED his helmet.

He and his father got to carry the Olympic torch and help light the caldron.

His beloved grandfather died 7 days before the Olympics, he didn't get to see his grandson compete....or did he???

Here's where he won......they had some fantastic short films about many things, we watched them all.

This is as close as I'll ever get to Olympic medals....

Gold....

Silver....

                                                           Bronze.....

  And the backs of all of them......with  "Light the Fire Within" on each one.very nice.

This is how the athelete receives it....

  This was a huge display case with all the medals...

This was a display about how the medals are made....

A write-up with some facts about the 2002 games... 

And all the pins....pin trading started back in 1896...there were more than 3000 pins for the 2002 Olympics.

After seeing the inside we took a tour of the outside in a small bus....this is a huge pool being built for summer training. The jumpers come down the big slope and land in the pool...fascinating, I so wish we could have seen some of this training, but it was done for now. They will soon be making snow and Mother Nature will be providing it too!!!

This is the new jump being built above the pool....

Up close to the big downhill jump...we are headed to the top...

 On the way up the mountain we past the plant that keeps it all cool enough when Mother Nature is taking a break....

Riding up the mountain we had a great view of the bobsled track

 We were up very high...it was gorgeous.....

We got to the top of the bobsled track first...this is actually where the Olypians started...it was so cool to be in the same spot...

Our guide really knew his stuff.....he was a skier and had seen all this and loved telling about it.

Looks like Delta was a sponsor....very nice.

While standing on our platform, we cool look over and see another one with a different track. We didn't get to go over there, but we were told it was just like where we were. The black covering is to protect the track.

Now we're at the top of the big downhill jump. They walked across this metal bridge and took a left onto this platform....

on the wall at the back of the platform was this picture from some of the 2002 athletes gathered and waiting to jump...

On the right you look straight down...these are the steps that the athletes in the picture are standing on...the brown iron bar is placed on the starting ramp by a judge where the starting place will be. This is determined by weather and snow conditions. Then the silver bar further down in the  picture, is brought up closer to the iron bar and is the bar the athlete can sit on to start. 

It's a long waaaaaaay down.....how do u ever get the nerve to do this the first time...

Inside the judges area....rather basic, but warmer than outside!!!

One of the clocks for timing......

This was really a fascinating place, we spent all day here........

One last shot as we drove down the mountain....

We did a little shopping at the bottom of the mountain for some lunch things. Tomorrow is a train ride and I think we'll like our lunch better than their's!!!

We headed home and grilled some steaks....our condo had really nice gas grills and we were happy to be in out of the wind and cold.