since i have been out of college my father has been inviting me on a yearly ski trip with him. now it must be said that my dad is kinda a ski nut. ever time we have flown over colorado on our way to lets say visit my grand mother in californian my mom always jokingly grabs my dads arm just in case he tries to jump out of the plain to go skiing. now my father manages to take a few, well kinda a lot, of ski trips every winter. The father daughter was his idea a few years ago and this was our third time going. Last year it didn't happen for some odd reason and the year before we took a big group ski trip to lake tahoe. k came with us for that one too!
this year our trip started out pretty stressful and ended up being wonderful. the stress come from trying to fly out of chicago in a snow storm. that doesn't seem to work so well. our first flight was canceled and we were moved to a flight with a lay over in dallas. this flight got so delayed that we missed our connecting flight. we ended up spend most the day sitting in o'hara with me knitting and my dad and i talking. when we miss the flight in dallas we had a lot to time to kill again and ended up having a sit down dinner at tig firdays which had a really yummy salad and a so so veggie burger.
we finally made it to denver at 11 pm and were very anxious to see if our skis and snowboard made it too. magically they did. next challenge was that the care rental place had closed at 10. we had to found a car rental place that was open and ended up paying double what our original reservation would have cost. origanlly we should have been in to denver at 4 pm. we made it to our hotel in silverthorn at 2 am.
the next morning we were up at 8! quick breakfast, dressed and out the door to copper mountain. what fun was had! with my new boots i could actually ride my board! after the trip k and i had on mount hood i made it a point to go to the rei in portland and buy new boots. am i ever glad i did. my feet were no longer in agony and i could control my board. i was a much better rider all the sudden and had all the confidence in the world. before i had a pair of burtons and i hated them! i know that they are the it thing in snowboarding but i have never been happy with my burton boots and bindings. i got a pair of vans with a double boa system and they fit and and i can get them tight and my heels to come up and they are not crushing my toes. i am very happy! the only issues i have had so far are one hot spot on my left foot which i think is a break in issue and on the forth day of riding somehow snow got in them and my socks were a little wet. not to bad. i actually road a full day! well 4 days straight. that would have never been possible in my old boots. i would have been sitting in the loge in about 2 to 3 hours with my feet throbbing. why did i put up with this for so long?
so anyways we road till about 3 that first day and my dad is not a stop for lunch kinda guy. more of a eat some trail mix and have a cup of tea kind. not that they had any vegan options at any of the places to eat on the mountain. why must there always be cheese in the veggie burger?
the next day we went to loveland. now loveland is a more advanced mountain and usually mainly locals. it is located in the beautiful arapaho national park. this is a great mountain to challenge yourself. the base is at like 11 thousand feet and you can get up to over 13 thousand feet. most of it is above the tree line and completely wide open. another thing about love land is they do not groom their runs. it was all packed powder, not at all crowded, no idiots going way to fast and out of control, and lots and lots of fun.
now i have been riding since i was about 13 or 14. im at the point where i can do most any run and if i can't i know how to stop myself from getting out of control and get down the mountain. for me love land was fun and challenging and i liked it way more then i like vail. vail gets super crowded and has lots of cat walks. for a snowboarder cat walks can be very tiring.
that night we went to go walk around vail village. now i got to say vail village is so cute and cozy and so pleasant to walk around. i really think the new part they built in lions head where it looks all european is quite lovely. we had some amazing coffee and i had to take all these pics of the ice cream because it was so darn pretty! we had a quick dinner and looked at the fire fountain some more and drove back to our hotel around 10:30.
the next day was back to copper where i got into a fight with a t bar type thing. well they are not really designed for snowboarders. i watched every single snowboarder in front of me fall. i tired so hard and i almost made it but when it jerked me up i ended up sitting down to much and fell. i tired again and fell again and was exhausted from it and was done! so my dad went up with out me and did a run, came back down and we kept riding together.
after riding i really really wanted pasta from jersey boys again so we got take out. we came back to our hotel had a bloody mary and ate our pasta and then i completely feel asleep! i was wiped out. i had about a 40 min nap and then we got ready and drove out to breckenridge to walk around for the evening. the town of breck is huge! it kinda reminded me of manaznita where k and i go camping on the oregon coast. we walked around for a while and my dad showed me the out door crepe place where we got crepes before i was a vegan. one year when we were there with my mom also we just so happen to be there at the same time as their snow carving competition. it was one of the coolest things i have ever seen. my dad and i missed it this year. it should be happening next week.
i really enjoy alpine villages. it all makes me quite happy. the next morning we got up packed our bags and put them in the care. then it was off to loveland one more time and what proved to be the most fun day of riding. in the morning it was sunny and nice with fresh powered and we decided to take the highest life that took us up to 13 thousand feet. this is where what is called the ridge is and it is also the continental divide. my dad and i kept laughing that we were stuck in the tundra. it was quite an amazing experience and i have never seen anything like these views before.
at around 1 pm we had to throw our boards in the car and dive off the mountain. we stoped in historic georgetown to change out of our riding stuff and drove around the town for a few min. then of to denver we and made it to the airport just in time to catch our flight.
so overall i had an amazing and fun time. however needless to say the most important and worth while thing for me was to spend the time with my dad. i am also so happy and thankful that at age 50 my father is healthy and strong and leads such an active lifestyle. my dad can out ski me and out ride me on a bike any day. i am so proud and happy for him. he's a great and caring smart man and im glad we get to go and hang out just the two of us every once in a while.
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