Vail (Day 2).

After A-basin… I wasn’t exactly excited about skiing… my neck was still hurting, I had developed a number of bruises on my ankles from my ski boots, and I was exhausted… I’ll just admit it – bottom line – I didn’t want to fall again, I wanted the slopes to be easy enough for me to not even have to worry about falling…

The four of us (Sean, Zach, DJ and myself) packed in the Camry Saturday morning and made the 30 minute drive to Vail. We got there and decided to eat breakfast before we strapped ourselves to our skis for the day. We ate at the quaint little French place – I had a yummy omelet – thanks for bfast Sean! We went back to the car to get our skis and headed to the slopes. The one good thing about Vail vs. A-basin is the size. Vail is huge – so the masses of people didn’t seem as bad as at A-basin, plus there were tons of green slopes for us to explore. We made our way up the mountain, and it was a blast coming down. Sean did some radical 360’s and managed to stay on his feet (well for the most part – not going to lie I enjoyed watching him fall – like I am sure DJ enjoyed watching me fall the day before). Around lunchtime, Yarome and Jessica showed up, and we all rode the Gondola up part of the mountain. Keep in mind, Yarome (on his snowboard), and Jessica, DJ and Zach (on their skis) are professionals compared to Sean and myself. Sean and I think we can make it down this green slope called “The Lost Boys”. We ride the chair lift the rest of the way up to the top of the mountain (never go to the top of a mountain if you are a beginner – you are bound to have to go down a slope that you don’t think is green!). At the beginning, we were fooled – it was easy.. then we reach the snow mountain equivalent of Stone Mountain. I some how made it down the first part without falling, Sean busts it a couple times – skis flying in the sky – lucky DJ was there to help him. Then we get to the last hill before we are back to the chair lift. This hill scared me cause at the end you have to make a hard right, or you will go off the mountain. I decide I am not taking the chance – so I begin to slowly go down sideways then I start scooting down parallel with the mountain. I make it about three quarters of the way down and all of a sudden I start sliding down the hill… backwards! I stop myself with my hands and my legs/skis decide they want to go in different directions, I was in tears and had to unclip in order to move. I’m pretty sure I strained my right calf in the process – ouch! I decided at that point I was done! Skiing was over, um oh that’s right I’m at the top of the mountain though! We managed to make the probably hour long ski down the mountain, luckily never falling. I happily put my skis in the car and put my other shoes on and headed back to Vail Village. Sean, DJ and I did a little shopping while we were waiting around from Yarome, Zach and Jessica to finish. I got a Colorado flag – which I had been wanting since we arrived in CO – I think it’s my new must have when I travel – I now want a flag from every place I travel (I have an odd obsession with flags – I have quite a few already ). We hopped in the car to head back to Denver in order to catch our flight that was scheduled to leave Sunday afternoon. We’re on Interstate 70, cruising, puttin’ up the hills and flying down the mountains when all of a sudden – red tail lights galore – apparently there was a crash in the tunnel ahead. We sat with the car in park for a good 45 – 1|00. Finally made it back to Denver to our hotel, ordered room service and caught some z’s….

Boulder (Day 3) to come…

Enjoy some pics from Vail:

the greenies

the slopes

the parking lot on I-70