I almost forgot!

 photo by smcgee, view of Blue Sky Basin at Vail

When in Vail, I skied a black diamond!  More than one actually!  Skiing a black diamond on a big mountain was on my list of things to do and now it's done.  Booyah!

Vaaaaail.

view from the eagle's nest, photo by me

 

 me riding the gondola, photo by the bf

Super. Awesome. Weekend.

It started with a scary drive through the mountains but once we got through that, the weekend was perfection!  Once we arrived in Vail, my cousin directed us in dropping our luggage at the gondola and then we grabbed a delicious, delicious dinner (plus delicious, delicious beer) at a restaurant called Garfinkel's.  Afterwards, we ourselves rode the gondola to the tippy top of the mountain.  We expected my cousin to take us to some random shack on the mountain but no, he actually lives inside the huge gondola building at the top!  I couldn't stop gushing about how cool his living sitch was.  I'm sure I drove him crazy. :)

The next morning, we decided to have breakfast down in the village.  Because we were already at the top, to get back down to the bottom we had to ski down.  And by saying we "had" to ski down, we had the opportunity to ski down.  We had the whole run to ourselves on perfectly groomed snow.  It was so cool!  After breakfast we skied all day and even though we all got separated half way through the day, we all had a blast.  The mountain was so big and there was so much to ski!  We're already planning our next trip out there and will definitely be skiing more than one day.  After a day on the slopes, we had dinner at a great pizza place called Vendetta's.

The next day, we slept in and then had breakfast at an awesome place called the Westside Cafe.  I had captain crunch coated french toast.  Yes.  And it was sooooo good!  The boyfriend had banana bread french toast.  Also soooooo good.  After breakfast, we grabbed our luggage, and got a start on the road.  It was hard to leave such an idyllic place, but we know we'll be back!

Recap:  We stayed at the TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN, skied an awesome day all day Saturday, ate amazing food for nearly every meal, and had a great time with the cousin.  I can't wait to hang out with him again and am so glad he invited us to see him!

road trippin'.

photo by -RobW-

This weekend the bf and I are going to visit my cousin!  He lives in Vail, CO, works at the ski resort there and lives on the mountain.  ON THE MOUNTAIN.  Yeah, it's going to be a good time.  The plans are to head down Friday, ski Saturday and maybe Sunday, go out on the town every night we're there, and have a rockin' good time!  I'm sure that there will be great pictures had so I'll be sure to update you on the weekend when we return! 

P.S. Wouldn't it be fun to road trip in this super cool green bus?  The answer is yes, it'd be so fun!

ski ski.

photo by Scott Teresi

Last weekend the bf and I (plus 8 other friends) rented a condo in Winter Park, CO.  We arrived Friday night and were scheduled to leave Monday am.  I'll have you know that I ski.  I grew up skiing as a kid, stopped when I moved to the desert, and started back up this year.  So I ski, but I'm not amazing by any means.  On the little ski hill by my little town, I can ski the whole mountain, green through black.  On Winter Park and Mary Jane, I can ski up to blue.  That leaves blue/black, black and double black all off limits to me.  A big mountain is intimidating!  It's also liberating.  There's so much space; the runs are incredibly wide and long.  And even though I was scared half the time, I wish I could ski big mountains all the time.  Do you ski?  If so, where is your favorite place?  What do you ski on?

As for the condo: Amazing.  Amazing!  It was huge, was right by the shuttle for the mountain and was crazy beautiful.  Oh, and there was a hot tub.  It was heaven!  After a long (and I mean long) day of skiing, it was so perfect to come back and soak.  We'll be going back again I'm sure, and when we do, I'll make sure to take pictures this time. :)