Vail, Skiing and Snowed In?

Saturday brought more cold temperatures (sensing a theme here?) and a day trip to Vail, CO, vacation destination to the stars. We all layered up, got everyone ready, loaded up the vans and off we went. It took a little under an hour to get there thru the mountainous terrain and snow fluuries.

Vail is a suprisingly small village (from what we saw) replete with condos, shops, restaurants and ski slopes. We saw more people dressed in ski attire than regular clothes walking around the village. We wandered around for a bit, had some (0verpriced) lunch and hit a couple of shops to collect our normal souveneirs (spoon for Cynthia, golf ball for John-hint hint if you travel). Sadly we didn't see any stars out and about but it was a nice day outing capped off by all of us getting fitted for our ski outing on Sunday.

Sunday morning and the slopes were calling! We woke up, ate a little breakfast and it was time to head out to the great outdoors. We had gotten some advice on how to dress to stay warm from Dr. Bill, a long time friend of Brandon and Nedelka and we tried to follow his advice. Here's some advice of my own, as the picture can attest, when it's 13 degrees, snowing and windy, there's not enough clothes to keep you warm while you're outside, but I digress. We got out there, got dressed (ski mask, helmet and ski boots which were an ordeal on their own) and made our way to the mountain. After getting our lesson and lift tickets we (Cynthia & I, Camille, Tan, Jerome, their daughter Caprice and Nedelka-the rest chose snowbarding) met up with our instructor and started with the very basics. I will give all credit to those who grasped and embraced the instruction. I followed along enough to the point that I wouldn't fall flat on my face but all I was concentrating on was trying to make sure I still could feel all 10 toes!

We started with one ski and making our way in a wide circle with that. Then the other ski and the same drill and then both skis. As we advanced to moving side stepping up to a small incline and making various slides down the hill (basic, shuffling the feet, making a wedge) the altitude got the better of Cynthia and she needed to sit the rest of the session out. I continued on as we went to the top of the hill and came down. Camille loved it, Nedelka, Tan and J enjoyed it also. Cynthia said I did a really good job, but I think gravity had more to do with it than anything. Meanwhile the surprise of the session was Caprice. Tan and Jerome both marvelled at how quickly she picked it up and how much fun she had. After the lunch break most of us stayed in the lodge while Camille and Caprice went back out on the slopes and Rus, Brandon, Dwayne and Marise went back out to snowboarding. At the end of the day everyone had a memorable time and now for those of us who aren't going back later this week we can say, 'We ski'd!'

When we came back from skiing, the girls had spa appointments scheduled for 6pm. They headed out to the spa, but 20 minutes later here they came back in the front door! Turns out the winds had kicked up even more than earlier in the day and due to the blowing snow, visibility was negligible. We were snowed in for the night!! Turns out the Colorado Dept. of Transportation has closed the main highway (I-70) west of Denver (where we of course are!) and it remains closed cuurently. Rus, Brandon & Dwayne cooked dinner for the group, the wine was flowing, jokes exchanged and plenty of laughs. Good food, good friends, great times. "You know how we do!"

Cynthia's altitude sickness took a turn for the worse so she was bed ridden for most of the evening but after getting some oxygen, she was back to about 80% of her normal self. Jerome also struggled with the altitude and had an oxygen tank delivered to the house. The service told him that they had taken 100 calls for vactioners needing oxygen assistance. We had planned to go snowmobiling today but decided when we got up that she wasn't really healthy enough to go. We are still going to try to go to our planned New Year's Eve sleigh ride so there's more news to come!! ** UPDATE-It was cancelled due to the weather conditions. **