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Sun, 21 Mar 2010

What can one say about vacation? I love vacations. Long ago, we reserved a week at our timeshare in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I was a little nervous about driving that far in the middle of winter, but we had beautiful weather all week. Even with the good weather, we drove about fifteen hours to get to our condo. It is three mountainous hours away from Denver. We were in the mood for winter sports after watching the Olympics just a few weeks ago, so we rented cross country skis for the week. Just to let you know, we are not really Olympic level skiers. None of us has been skiing (other than around the school field) in the five years we've lived in Missouri. Last time we went to Spooner Lake in Nevada, Thomas was in a trailer we pulled behind us…Also, Colorado people take their skiing seriously. We were directed to several "moderate" trails, but we found them to be fairly challenging.

When I asked where flatter trails were, I was told that Colorado doesn't do flat. So we struggled up and down the slopes. This trail on the second day did have a nice long trail along a ridge.

The locals also apologized to us about the poor quality of snow. I guess it's been a low snow year as well as quite awhile since new snow. It seemed pretty typical of snow I've been used to in California.

The last day we were in the mood for some easier skiing so we drove about an hour away to get to an easier trail around Steamboat Lake.

We took a day in the middle of the week to hike to a nearby waterfall. It was really pretty. We met some people coming down the trail who'd climbed the waterfall, but since we didn't have crampons or ice axes, we had to be content with admiring from below. 

We also spent one day downhill skiing. We didn't go to the big Steamboat Springs resort, but to the smaller Howelson Hill where the locals go (and where the Olympic athletes train). A family lift ticket for the whole season here is only $350!  Kids here learn to ski about the same time they learn to walk. And then they start jumping. We were there on a day that they had the last jumping competition of the season. We watched three year olds "bump-jumping" It was just like T-ball or junior soccer. As we headed up the hill, we could also watch the bigger kids jumping. It was pretty cool. Annoying were the little ones that clogged the lift lines and got underfoot. They may have been annoyed also by us. Thomas took out several when he was unable to stop himself from sliding down backward while waiting in the lift line. Sorry about that.This first picture is at Howelson, looking to the lodge, over the town, and to the bigger resort across the valley.

  The little kid with the big skis in front of Melody is a jumper.

  This is not anyone in our family.

In addition to skiing, we did a lot of swimming at the indoor pool at our condo. We also tried out the sauna, and found the jacuzzi a great way to soothe those sore underused skiing muscles.

Years ago, we found the tradition of keeping board games at the front desk a good one. We haven't used them in awhile, but played cards, twister, and trouble this time.

The only problem with our condo was that we didn't get the usual twin beds in the second bedroom. Thomas ended up sleeping on the window seat. He won't be able to do that for much longer, but it worked fine for this trip. 

Our drive home was long, and we did it at night again in order to leave and stay ahead of a predicted storm. We arrived home to find all well here. After a rest, we were able to attend Melody's camp certification meeting and Bryan's robotics competition on Saturday.  Ahh, reality. Vacation is so much more fun…