I know I've mentioned before that my friend Belle is a traveling nurse and when I visit her, I get to visit wherever she happens to be, last time it was Boston, and this time it's Colorado. She took an assignment in Boulder at the end of November, and Josh and I knew we needed to get out there to see her, and take advantage of the awesome ski areas nearby.
Belle picked us up at the airport and immediately asked if we wanted to go dancing. Sure! She took us to Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill, where Belle showed us that she's learned some country dancing in her time in CO.
She took me out on the floor and taught me a few moves. It was a ton of fun! I'll definitely be up for doing it again if I ever get back into a country bar.
The next stop was her place in Boulder. It was about 1:30 by the time we got there and Josh and I were exhausted from the flight and couldn't do much more than crash. It was probably best that we were so tired, because it meant we got to wake up and be surprised by this:
That is the view out of Belle's living room window. The owner of the property, Kitty, has a beautiful barn and some gorgeous, very friendly horses. I absolutely loved waking up, getting a cup of coffee and feeding these guys breakfast. Josh took out the camera and gave a great full tour of the property.
Click here to watch the video!
We went out to breakfast in Boulder and made our way slowly to our next stop. Breckenridge. When I say slowly, I mean it. The altitude was way harder on Josh and I than I thought possible. I spent most of our first full day in CO yawning and confused; and Josh spent it nauseous.
Belle has a knack for finding amazing people who turn out to be great friends, wherever she goes. Colorado is no exception and Kitty generously let us stay at her ski cabin Breckenridge. When she told us about the place she mentioned that the shower was being remodeled and didn't work. We were a little concerned there wouldn't be running water, so Belle sent her a text to ask. Her reply was "Yes". I wish we'd asked this question in person because I'm sure she would have laughed at us. I'll show you the full tour later, but this is what we pulled up to:
As soon as we got there all three of us were running around checking it out. I went up the three flights of stairs and got so light headed that I had to sit down or pass out. I sat. We enjoyed the rest of the day and night taking it easy in this gorgeous home. We had Belle's Thai chicken wraps (NUM!) and watched We're the Millers, which is hilarious and it became our go to movie for quotes the rest of the trip.
On Saturday we got up and were at Breckenridge, ready to ski by 9:30. That's not first chair material but it's not too shabby either. BUT THEN. It took us over an hour to find a parking spot. From there it took another 45 minutes of waiting for the shuttle, and waiting in the ticket line to get to the chairlift. I'll confess that I was a pretty grumpy individual by this point. How on earth does a Mountain as famous and huge as Breckenridge have such poor crowd control? I don't care if it is MLK weekend, a resort this size should anticipate and cope with crowds. *deep breath* I got over it as soon as we hit the snow.
Breckenridge is HUGE! With all the folks in the parking lot I expected long lift lines, instead, I was super impressed at how easy it was to get away from the crowd. Josh and I were still suffering from a bit of altitude weakness, which made us a little sluggish, but we got in a full day of skiing. Check it out, here is the our view from way above the tree line at 12,300 feet off of peak 6.
Here is Belle taking a quick picture break. She bought her first pair of skis from our friends Markus and Joanna, and she loved them! It is so good to get Belle into the sport that Josh and I love. Thanks to M & J for the hookup - as I told M, More Skiers = More Better.
Getting back down the mountain was just as difficult as getting up it, so we stopped on the patio and had a beer to celebrate a great day. We still hadn't gotten over the altitude (and honestly, we never fully did), so the one beer was plenty to make us giggly and a little silly for the 45+ minute trip back to the car.
We spent our Saturday night watching Silver Linings Playbook, and were joined by Belle's friend Addie. Our plan was to order a pizza and have it delivered, but when the guy taking our order snapped at me about how busy he was, I snapped back and we ended up having leftover Thai wraps. No complaints though, those things are amazing. Staying in also meant that we got to enjoy the cabin a little more, here is Josh with the full tour:
On Sunday we got up extra early, made the hour long trip to Vail and were on the slopes by 9:30. The weather was amazing, we had blue skies and no wind. As a Seattle-ite, I love it when I need my sunglasses in January. I thought about posting the 3 other shots where one or both of our eyes are closed but settled on this one - Belle and I closed our eyes and tried to time the pic with Josh so we opened them at the right time, this was our best shot.
If Breckenridge is huge, Vail is hugenormous. We skied from 9:30 until about 3:00 with a lunch break and we only skied one of Vail's three major areas. Granted, we found some runs we liked and did them several times, this still makes for a big ski area.
I've always been told
that if you can ski at Crystal (my home mountain), you can ski
anywhere. As a beginner skier, I've always thought people were being
nice and trying to boost my confidence. While I'm sure they were doing that, they were also right! Crystal is steep, narrow on a lot of runs and just downright hard. Breck and Vail were so open! All of the slopes were pretty much consistently graded, the grooming was impeccable and I didn't ski anything steeper than what I ski at Crystal. At first I was calling it easy, and I still mean that, but I should clarify. At Crystal I'm so focused on the mental aspect of telling myself that this crazy steep, narrow slope is something I can handle - so I kinda psyche myself out. At Breck and Vale I didn't have to deal with a run looking hard, I could just focus on skiing, and that made it easier for me.
Maybe its what I explained above about the slopes in CO seeming so open and gradual, but one thing we noticed was that there were a lot of people skiing out of control. Its one thing to ski fast, but its another to ski outside of your abilities so that you are a danger to yourself and other skiers. While we were on the lift Josh saw one guy doing just that. Now let me preface this by saying it's never good to see anyone hurt, especially during a sport, and especially if you know its serious. That said, I got an evil sense of satisfaction when instant karma took this guy down. As Josh explains it "He was skiing way too fast, got the speed wobbles, then completely lost control and crashed". He was moving around after the fact so he was ok and he didn't take anyone out with him, but he must have hurt his leg because ski patrol had to evac him. Interestingly enough, some places at Vale can't be skied out of, you have to ride the chair to get out...even if you're on a backboard. I'd sign the waiver and figure it out for myself before I'd let ski patrol do this to me:
I miss having Belle closer to me. I'm not much of a phone person so the physical distance means that there can be long stretches of time where we don't catch up. When it gets to that point where I just need to have some Belle-time it's good to know that she's only a plane ride away and that the time we've spent apart just means we have more to talk about. Of course, the built in travel and vacation is always a plus - I'm rooting for Alaska next time!
The trip was perfect, we had a phenomenal time. We skied, visited with friends, made some new ones, and we have no ragrets. Not even one letter.
The trip was perfect, we had a phenomenal time. We skied, visited with friends, made some new ones, and we have no ragrets. Not even one letter.
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