Thursday, March 21, 2013

Spring Break in the Rockies

We haven't been good about posting on this Blog since we pulled our condo off the market.  It's great to have the place paid off and exclusively ours.

With the West Branch Spring Break, we opted to spend the week in Colorado.   We arrived on Saturday the 16th after picking up a new sofa in Denver.  The old sofa that came with the place was way overdue, but finding a new one that would fit in our small space was tough.   We finally found one that would work and arranged to get it at Sofa Mart in Denver.  Luckily, we were able to maneuver the stairs and do the swap.   While its a bit more firm than we like, at least its not all beat up.  We enjoyed having the Grand Lake Brewery Taphouse next door and filled a couple growlers and got some pizza for dinner (the Bacon Mushroom with white sauce was incredible).

We met up with the Scheidts' on Sunday at Winter Park.   Camden remembered how to ski very well and seemed to enjoy it.  It was very windy and a few lifts were closed.   It was supposed to also be windy on Monday so we opted to take that day off of the slopes.   Monday we went into the park with our snowshoes and did a little hike.   After hearing the sound of a very large animal not far off the trail, Lori decided it was time to turn around.   We played some racquetball and again enjoyed the new hot tub.

We skied again both Tuesday and Wednesday at Winter Park.   Again, Camden did very well.  He had been a strong blue skier and was getting into blue/blacks.   He did a long fast cruiser (too fast) to beat Scheidt down the hill, along with a really long powdery mogul run.   By the end of Wednesday, he finished the day with another long blue/black run with pretty good parallel turns and all.  He can pretty much handle any run that we generally do, so next year should be a lot of fun.   We timed our trip on Wednesday to close the slopes so we could hit the Tabernash Tavern on the way home for dinner.  It was a very great dining experience, although a little pricer.

Thursday we met up with our friend Shannon and her friends from Houston.  We did a 4 hour snowmobile rental.   It was a nice ride, though we ended up getting pelted with snow and did some riding in Whiskey Park in a whiteout.  It was still a good time for everyone.   We capped the afternoon with a small hike to to Adams Falls (though frozen) and some appetizers at the Sagebrush.

As usual, it was a great week and very hard to pack up and go, especially as we are looking at heading into some spring snowstorms.   But we need to make it to the wedding in Orange City.   We're not sure when we'll be back, but may keep an eye on cheap flights from Cedar Rapids for a long weekend once spring breaks.  

Check the Marshall Blog for more details.