Ski Trip: Full Report

Day 1: A Series of Unfortunate Events
We left Wednesday morning. The way things started out that day, we wondered if we were meant to be going in the first place. A series of unfortunate events that morning made us think that the trip was doomed.

I'm too cheap to pay for long-term parking at the airport, so we had our neighbor and apartment manager pick us up at 5:30 that morning. He helped us load our luggage into his classic Cadillac. As he loaded one of the bags, it smashed into the bumper and made a hole. If only we had known that this was a sign of bad things to come.

By 5:45 we were on our way to the airport. The classic car started acting funny, and the "service engine now" light came on. We thought we weren't even going to make it to the airport. After revving the engine several times, the service light went off and the car started to act normal again. So we made it to the airport just fine.

Our flight was to leave at 7:31. At 7:15 we boarded the airplane and got all situated for our flight to Chicago, where we would switch planes and then be off to Denver. At around 7:30, the pilot came on the loudspeaker and said that the plane was having problems. It was leaking hydraulic fluid from around the front landing gear. It was puddling on the ground, and he said it could not be fixed. The flight was cancelled. We got off the plane, and sure enough, a big puddle of fluid surrounded the front wheel landing gear at the nose of the plane. Better to be safe than sorry.

The flight attendants told us to go all the way back to ticketing so that we could be assigned new flights. This meant having to get our luggage from baggage claim, and that we would have to go back through security a second time on our new flight.

The line was already weaving back and forth in front of the American Airlines ticketing booth by the time we got there. After waiting for what seemed like hours, we finally made it to the front of the line. Delta's ticketing booth is right beside American's, and the ticket lady walked over to their ticket person to see if they could get us to Denver. They had a flight to Cincinnati leaving in 30 minutes, that had a connecting flight to Denver. Woo hoo! We wouldn't have to wait any longer. We were off and on our way again.

Has anybody ever had 4 S's on their boarding pass? If so, you could only be so lucky. With 30 minutes to board, we realized that our passes unfortunately had these S's. This meant we had to go through extra security. We had to step to the side and be wanded and patted down like we were terrorists. Our bags were also searched, and 10 of our 30 minutes were gone. After they determined that we were indeed not terrorists, we took off running to our gate. We ran on the moving sidewalk and it felt like we were moving at warp speed. We made it to our gate just as they announced that we could board.

This plane was perfectly fine, and we made it to Cincinnati with no problems. A new problem had arisen though. We were going to be picked up by a shuttle in Denver, and we were now going to miss this shuttle because of the delays. We called and scheduled a new pickup time, thinking that our next flight from Cincinnati would be fine. We were wrong. As we waited at the gate, they announced that this plane was broken and could not be fixed. We couldn't believe it. What are the chances of two planes breaking in the same day, in two different airline companies? At this point, we thought it was God telling us that we should not go, because one of us would crash into a tree and break some bones. Luckily, they were able to find a new plane that would take the place of the broken one. So after an hour delay, we were finally boarding the plane in Cincinnati that would take us to Denver.

After a long flight, we made it to Denver just fine. We arrived 5 minutes before our rescheduled shuttle was to leave. They held it for us, and we were on the road to our hotel in Breckenridge. It was a 2 hour ride to our hotel. Denver is situated on relatively flat ground just outside of the mountains. Once we were in the mountains, our headaches began. Headaches are a symptom of altitude sickness. Everybody in the van told us to drink lots of water, and to stay away from caffeine. We drank tons of water and Gatorade the entire trip, but the headaches didn't go away until we landed in Dallas on the way back home.

A few miles into the mountains, the snow started. It got progressively worse for the remainder of the drive. The interstate and roads leading to Breckenridge were solid white. The driver knew what he was doing though, and we made it safely to our hotel. The snow reports said it had snowed 10 inches at the resort, and it was still coming down.

We were starving at this point. Because of the delays, we had only eaten a bacon and cheese biscuit from McDonald's in Cincinnati, and pretzels on the plane. We dumped our luggage in our room and took off walking down the street for some food. This is when we realized how wonderful the place was. There was no McDonald's on the corner, no Walgreens, no BP gas station, no Walmart... everything was original and privately owned. Little shops and restaurants lined both sides of Main Street as far as we could see in both directions. We later found out that the town made a conscious effort to keep out chain franchise stores. We did see a Subway and Starbuck's however. We settled on a little restaurant called "Eric's", which was located in the basement of another restaurant. We had burgers and fries and it was delicious.

After eating, we walked around a little more. The snow was still coming down hard. We went back to the hotel and rented our skis/poles/boots from the rental shop and made our way back to our room. It was only 7:30 pm Denver time, but it was 9:30 Louisville time and we were exhausted. So we went to bed. Twelve hours later we awoke to a perfect day.

Day 2: Blue Skies and Fresh Powder
Do you remember waking up the morning after a snow with excitement because you didn't have to go to school? I had the same excitement all over again the next morning. It was a perfect day with the sun rising over the mountains outside our window. The trees were weighted down with tons of new snow. The sky was as blue as I've ever seen it. And with the air much thinner, it probably was the bluest I've ever seen. After showering and putting on 3 layers of clothing, we grabbed our equipment and headed to the bus stop. We were taking lessons this day, because we had never skied on real snow before.

We caught the bus and were dropped off at the base of Peak 8 for our lessons. After waiting for over an hour for everybody to get signed up and split up into groups by skill level, we were finally ready to go up the mountain. We were put into the Level 3 Beginner group, which meant we had skied before and were beginning to attempt side to side turns.


A view of the freshly fallen snow, right before we begin our lesson on Thursday morning.

The first trip up the mountain led to some spectacular views, and we didn't go anywhere near the very top. We might have been 1/4th of the way up. After going up and down many times that day, the wife and I both got pretty good at making parallel turns. Our instructor was awesome and made a huge effort to make sure everyone got individual attention. I really feel like I am a good skier now.

The lesson lasted until 3:30, and the lifts close at 4. So after the lesson we got back on the shuttle and headed back to our room, being extremely exhausted. The thin air caused some major huffing and puffing for me. When we got back to our room, the wife looked at me and her mouth dropped open and she let out a gasp. I looked like a raccoon. I wore ski goggles all day, and the rest of my face had sunburned really bad. It was funny, but painful. I'm peeling today and it looks really gross.

After a nap and shower, we started getting ready for our sleigh ride. We were really excited about this. I mentioned it a few days ago in my blog, and it really lived up to the expectations. Another bus picked us up outside our hotel at 6:30. We went all over town picking up other people at other hotels. Then we set off, deep into the mountains. A 10 mile bus ride took about 30 minutes to drive, because of the hills and snow on the roads. It was a dark and scary ride, but once again, the bus drivers there really know how to drive in the snow. We finally reached the check-in spot, and waited anxiously for everyone to be checked in. It was very cold, and they provided us all with one blanket per couple. We walked out to the sleighs and the setting was beautiful. There were 3 red open sleighs, each pulled by 2 big stout horses. There were 5 rows in each sleigh, and we were in the last row of the second sleigh. The trees and darkness enveloped us. We boarded the sleighs and took off through the forest.


We're freezing, and about to begin the sleigh ride.

We were freezing at this point, but the scenery and everything else just made us forget about the cold. The stars and moon were out, so we could see really well. At the midway point of the ride, we stopped in a clearing and the drivers talked to us about the history of the area. We were in gold mining country. There were mines in the mountains, and along the river that ran beside us there in the valley. When I thought that the evening couldn't get any better, a shooting star streaked across the sky.

We took off again and headed towards the mining camp/restaurant. The total ride lasted for about 30 minutes. The restaurant was a very small rustic cabin with antique heating and cooking stoves sitting in opposite corners. There was not a bathroom inside, but there were 2 outhouses outside. The cabin was lit with old time lanterns. We sat down at our tables and we were introduced to "Diamond Dixie", a dance hall girl from the late 1800's. She was in full costume and started telling her tale about how she and other dance hall girls used to go to the mining camps to 'woo' the miners, in hopes that one of them would give them gold. She walked around the room with her red feather boa, telling her story, and rubbing the boa on all of the guys' heads. It really made some of us uncomfortable. Then she drug one poor guy up there with her and made him sing to her and make a move on her. It was all in good fun, and helped give us all a perspective on what mining days were like.


Diamond Dixie and her Man

After the performance, we were served steak and vegetables, with homemade apple pie for dessert. It was a wonderful evening. I was expecting another sleigh ride back to the bus, but I didn't realize that our sleigh ride had only made one big loop into the forest and right back out again at the entrance. I was disappointed. We rode the bus back and went straight to sleep after a long and exhausting day.

Day 3: Skiing on our own
We were somewhat lazy starting out day three. We were still adjusting to the altitude, and were very tired from the day before. We slept in. We walked around town and did some shopping, and tried to find a nice place to eat brunch. We settled on Columbine Cafe, which was the upstairs portion of Eric's where we ate on the first day. This place served breakfast and lunch food all day. I had breakfast, and the wife had lunch. We shopped a bit more, and decided it was time to ski.

We put on our layers again, and headed to Peak 9. We were told that Peak 8 is where you need to learn, but Peak 9 has the best beginner ski trails. We discovered that the main beginner trail on Peak 9 was about one mile long! The lift was called the Quicksilver Super Chair. It held 6 people and traveled at super speed. It was really fun to ride. It took 10 minutes to ride the lift to the top, and about 10 more to make it back down. Again, the scenery from the top was breathtaking. I wish there had been a way for the non-black-diamond skiers to go to the very top peak without having to ski back down. What a view it would have been! We went up and down this trail 7 or 8 times before the lifts closed at 4 o'clock.

Exhausted again, we caught the shuttle back to our hotel. We decided on Bubba Gump Shrimp for supper that night. I've always loved Forrest Gump, and the restaurant did not disappoint. It was full of movie memorabilia including the white suit, suitcase, and box of chocolates from the bus stop, and Bubba's Army uniform. The movie also played constantly in the gift shop. We both had shrimp, of course, and it was the best shrimp I've ever had. After supper, we walked up and down Main Street and did more shopping. Our trip was coming to a close, as we were being picked up the next morning to go back to the airport. We tried to soak in every last minute that we could of the town. It truly had a Mayberry feel to it. Everyone was very nice and friendly.


A picture of us from town, with Peak 9 on the left and Peak 8 on the right behind us.

Day 4: Going back home
The van that dropped us off on Wednesday was back to pick us up on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. We were not ready to leave. I just had to convince myself that leaving meant I would be cured of my nasty 3 day headache. Another two hour ride took us back to the airport, in a van with an English family of six. It was quite an entertaining ride back. Two young girls were wound up and were very talkative and funny. Imagine these words from an 8 yeard-old with Hermione Grainger's accent from Harry Potter: "Do you remember that one time when we didn't know she was allergic to onions, and she ate them and her cheeks got all puffy?" The wife and I have laughed and laughed at this.

Unlike the flights to Denver from Louisville, we had no problems or delays or broken planes on our flight back. It was a good day of travel. I bought a book from the Denver airport bookstore, and read all the way back. It was the first book that I've read since the 5th Harry Potter book came out over a year and a half ago. Isn't that sad? I need to read more.

We made it home safe and sound at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night. It was a splendid trip, that we hope to repeat in the years to come. If you're still reading, I hope I haven't bored you to tears. I didn't realize it would be this long. I've tried to remember each detail for my own benefit, so that I can remember everything that was wonderful about it in the future. I hope you've enjoyed.