Winter Park: December 28 - 30

Sunday, December 28

When we woke up, we checked out the weather and decided against skiing today. It was around 5 degrees with wind gusts of up to 30 at times. Honestly, it was the wind that made us say.... nah.... 

Instead, we had a leisurely morning. Grant and I went to the gym, and we played some games. In the afternoon, we went to the Headwaters River Journey - a museum about the Fraser River and water usage throughout Colorado. It was intereting and interactive and a fun way to pass the afternoon. 

We had dinner at Pepe Osaka's. This was a Mexican - Asian fusion resteraunt that had lots of interesting dishes to try. We shared tacos - one was a thai peanut chicken, one was ponzu steak, and one was mahi-mahi el pastor. We also got three enchiladas - steak tataki, chicken, and carnitas. Everything was good not as mind blowing as we had hoped. Still, I would go back because there are a few dishes I'd still like to try - like the sushi tostada. 

Monday, December 29

Today we skied Winter Park! After a sketchy first run down a very crowded cat track, we found our groove with some awesome runs on March Hare, Tweedle Dum, and Jack Hendrick.We also rode the Looking Glass chair lift, the oldest lift at Winter Park- a two seater with no safety bar. After hanging out over here for awhile, we took Village Way back to the base, and took the Arrow lift up and did a blue-black called Lower Hughes. This run was great and we ended up doing in a few times before the mountain closed at 4:00. 

We grabbed some hot mini donuts at the base and enjoyed a sweet treat before grabbing the bus back to our condo. Grant, Katelyn, and I went into the jacuzzi at the community center. Then we went to dinner at Hernando's Pizza Pub. Pizza, salad, and garlic bread really hit the spot! 

Tuesday, December 30

We woke up this morning and packed up the condo and checked out. Then we had breakfast at Wake'N Bacon again (because it was within walking distance and was yummy. lol. After breakfast we hopped on the bus and headed back to Winter Park. I honestly think this was my best day of skiing this season so far! The only downside is that it was crowded (to be expected) but the weather was 20-30s, the sky was clear and sunny blue, and the conditions were pretty good overall. Winter Park has some great, wide blue runs that were super fun. We started out on Arrow (with hopes of taking Larry Sale, a blue run, but that was closed to regular guests for racing.) Instead, we took Lower Hughes, which was a great run just like yesterday. Next we made our way to the mid mountain / gondola area and finally skied Cranmer, which was a super wide, beautiful blue run.  Next we alternated between Butch's Breezway and Tweedle Dum (with one more slightly scary ride on the Looking Glass lift.) Next, we headed back up to do Cranmer a couple more times before heading back to the base and the Arrow lift, where in the last 45 minutes, we managed to ski 4 more runs -  Lower Hughes two times, and, because they opened Larry Sale to everyone, Larry Sale two times. It was a great day of skiing! I really enjoyed Winter Park. 

Grant took the bus into town to get our car and came back to pick us up, while Katelyn, Geoffrey, and I gathered all of our skis, boots, etc. We hit McDonalds for a quick dinner and then drove back to Steamboat. We made it in time to unload the car and go in the jacuzzi before it closed at 10:00. Now I'm blogging, and we are all relaxing. 

What a fun vacation-within-a-vacation!

Steamboat / Winter Park Dec 26 - 27

Friday, December 26

Today was our 3rd day on the slopes! With the weather holding steady in the 40's, conditions on the mountain aren't getting much better. It hasn't been cold enough at night to make a lot of snow, and the few runs that are open are getting more and more skied off. Still, it's beautiful and there are some runs that are still really good. 

We started out on Buddy's Run again. Katelyn, Grant, and Geoffrey did the route twice - they are much faster than I am.... while I took my time and did one and a half laps (rather than go all the way back up Storm Peak, I just took Burgess Creek and did a half lap.)

In the first hour, we saw snow patrol helping people 3 different times!

We all met at the top of Storm Peak and headed over to Sunshine, where we did High Noon a couple of times before taking a little break at Rendezvous lodge. Then we did Tomahawk several times. Grant left around 3:00 because he had to go pick up our rental car, but Geo, Katelyn, and I did Tomahawk 2 more times before taking the Wild Blue gondola down to the base. Once there, Katelyn and I did the Christie twice, the first time skiing vogue - which had tons of bumps (I'm really getting practice with technical skiing!) and then Boulevard to Giggle Gluch, which were both fun and a great way to end our day on the mountain. 

Our plans for Saturday are to drive to Winter Park.... however, there is snow in the forecast (finally!) and we've been watching the weather all day. Originally, we were just going to wake up whenever, pack, and head on out in the early afternoon (Winter Park is about a 2 hour drive from Steamboat.) Based on the forecast, though, we decided it would be better to wake up and get an early start, as the snow was supposed to start in the morning and increase throughout the afternoon. So after a soak in the jacuzzi, we spent the evening doing laundry and packing. We went out to a late dinner at 8th Street Steakhouse, and then came home and went to bed. 

Saturday, December 27

We woke up Saturday morning to falling snow - normally a welcome sight but we were eager to get over Rabbit Ears pass before too much snow had fallen. Luckily, it was just a shower at that point, because by the time we got on the road half an hour later the snow had stopped. Still, the pass had quite a bit of snow on the road, and we took it nice and slow, and by the time we got down the other side, the weather was clear and sunny with no more snow. 

We made it to Winter Park in good time and had brunch at Wake'n Bacon. We were able to check in to our condo at noon. Our condo is right on the Fraser river, on the third floor of our building. (No elevators!). We unloaded the car and settled in. This condo is two bedrooms, with a cozy family room / kitchen area and 1 1/2 bathrooms. We will be staying here for 3 nights. 

We turned on the live cams in Steamboat and saw that the snow had started falling again and snowed heavily all afternoon. I wouldn't want to ski, but maybe the low temps and the snow making will enable them to open a few more runs when we get back in a few days! 

We walked around the condo area, and checked out the community center, which has a playground, a pool table, and a large indoor pool with 3 jacuzzis. Then we caught the bus to the Winter Park base area. We walked around the village and got some warm drinks from Starbucks. Then we took the gondola up to the top. It's free a few days a week to ride up the gondola after 4:00, and up top the lodge is hopping! There was a live band playing, all the food locations were open, and it was nice to take some beautiful photos up top. It started snowing lightly just before we rode up the gondola, and it was snowing a little heavier when we rode back down. 

We came on a great night - not only was it free gondola ride night, they also replayed their holiday drone show, so we got to see that! It was cold and snow fell lightly throughout the show, but it was fun to see! Drone shows are really awesome. 

The snow fall increased as the show ended and we walked back to the bus stop. We took the bus back into town and ate dinner at a BBQ restaurant that was really good! By the time we left, the snow was falling harder. We walked back to our condo, about 10 minutes away, and now we are just chilling in the condo. 

It's supposed to snow tomorrow as well - but we are currently planning to ski anyway. We will see how it goes!

Steamboat - December 23 - 25

Tuesday, December 23

Today was a fun day. We spent the morning eating breakfast and we went to the gym. In the afternoon, we went downtown to Howelsen Ice Arena to ice skate for an hour. After skating, Grant and I went to dinner at Cypress, a newer restaurant with a southern flair.  We went for Happy Hour and shared an order of deviled eggs, hot honey brussel sprouts, a chopped chicken salad, and the Cypress burger. The meat in this burger was amazingly delicious, and the pimento cheese was perfect. Meanwhile, Geoffrey and Katelyn went to Beau-Jo's for a mountain pie pizza. We finished dinner at the same time so we took the bus back home together. We went in the jacuzzi and then played some board games to round out our evening!

Wednesday, December 24

Happy Christmas Eve! Today we went skiing again! the temperatures continue to be fairly warm - 45 - 50 degrees during the day. Therfore, the conditions on the mountain haven't really improved and there is still very little opened. We started today taking the Steamboat Gondola up to Thunderhead so we could check out the runs that were open on the other side of the mountain. Unfortunately, there really was not much - just one series of runs, all blues. Rudy's Run was pretty nice, but Lightning was rubbish - crowded, icy, slushy, and bumpy, but Ego was smooth. We took Storm Peak (lift) up top to do the upper Buddy's Run, which was a really nice run. Unfortunately, only the upper part of the run was open. From there, the route was directed onto Calf Roper to 4 Points Lodge, and onto Rainbow and the small, small portion of Why Not that connects back to Lightning again.... Those are the only runs open on this side, making some parts crowded on the sketchier parts. 

We did this twice, and then decided to head back to the Sunshine peak side. Highline was open, so we could ski over to there from the top of Storm Peak. Over on Sunshine, we did Tomahawk (my favorite run) and High Noon a few times, taking a little break at Rendezvous lodge in the middle. When it closed, we took the Wild Blue gondola back down to the base. 

Back at the condo, we took a soak in the jacuzzi. We had Christmas Eve dinner - turkey, cranberries, mashed potatoes, crusted broccoli, and Hawaiian rolls. YUM! Then we played a few games together (with the kids!) including Carcassonne, Anomia, and Flip 7. Then we watched Home Alone, as is our tradition on Christmas Eve! 

Thursday, December 25

We had a wonderful, cozy Christmas! Grant and I woke up before the kids.... wow, never thought that would happen! Outside was gloomy and there was some precipitation.... unfortunately, it was more of a slushy rain since it still was around 45 degrees.  We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and then opened presents.... it seems Santa made his way to Steamboat again! 

After presents, we played more games... Katelyn and Geoffrey joined us for a game of Tapple and Codenames, and then Grant and I played Castles of Burgundy. Next, Katelyn and I baked cookies - We made peanut butter, peanut butter chocolate chip, peanut butter and jelly, gingersnaps, oatmeal chocolate chip, and oatmeal raisen. They all turned out so good and now we plenty of cookies to get us through winter break! Lol! We went back to the jacuzzi for awhile and then came back to watch a Jonas Brothers Christmas - which was a fun movie! 

We hope you all had a wonderful day! 

Steamboat - Dec 21 and 22

Sunday, December 21

Our first full day, when possible, we like to take it easy, get settled, and acclimate to the altitude. We slept in, which was nice after the long day of travel, and then went downtown for brunch at Winona’s. I tried the spiced tea, which was like a cross between hot tea and apple cider- delicious! Grant and I shared the Greek omelette, while Geo got cinnamon French toast and Katelyn had strawberry pancakes.

After brunch, we roamed around town a bit and bought a few sweatshirts. Then Katelyn and I went to get her rental skis while Grant and Geoffrey headed to the grocery store. 

Steamboat is unseasonably warm. It was mid-40s, and there is little to no accumulated snow on the ground. It feels like spring.

Back at the condo, Grant and I hit the gym to work up an appetite for dinner.

Grant and I took the bus back into town and went to happy hour at our favorite restaurant, Laundry. We had three street tacos (one shrimp, one brisket, and one fried avocado), a meat and cheese board, brisket potatoes, and a salad with whipped goat cheese and a citrus dressing. All of these were tapas-sized and off the happy hour menu! For dessert, we got blueberry cobbler and their yummy coconut cream pie with pineapple. So delicious!

Grant and I left with full, happy bellies and took our time getting home. We went to Walmart to grab a few more things - we also want to get some new Christmas lights for the balcony because the ones we have are reaching the end of their life. Hopefully they will go on clearance in the next few days! We also got off a stop away from our usual stop so we could walk back. Then we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching a cheesy Christmas movie!

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Monday, December 22

We planned out our skiing days this time because we only get five days on our Ikon passes at Steamboat this season, and there are blackout days. Today was our first day. Unfortunately, much of the mountain is still closed because of the lack of snow. However, the newer Wild Blue Gondola and the additional snowmaking they installed on that side of the mountain gave us some really nice runs that we could lap- Tomahawk and High Noon, specifically. We did these runs several times in a row, but as the afternoon progressed they got really bumpy and skied off. It was around 45–50 degrees again, so the snow was also a bit slushy. We took the Thunderhead gondola down rather than skiing because there really wasn’t a good way to ski all the way down, but it was kind of fun to end the day back on the gondola.

Back at the condo, we went to the jacuzzi and really enjoyed soaking our sore muscles. Then Grant made us amazing carnitas tacos for dinner. Grant and I played one of our new games (FleetL The Dice Game), and now we are watching TV and messing around on our devices.

I could fall asleep now…

Steamboat Springs, Colorado!

 We made it! We are so excited for our winter break stay in Steamboat Springs! This has become an annual tradition for us, and it feels so good to be back to our holiday home. 

Our flight left at 7:15 AM this morning (with a slight hiccup....  we were supposed to leave from Long Beach at 7:00 AM, but our flight got canceled at midnight. Luckily, Grant, who was insanely, but luckily, still awake, saw it got canceled right away and immediately rebooked us on a flight out of Santa Ana that left at almost the same time. Our flight was full with one empty seat.... next to me! Woot!

We had a 3 hour layover in Denver - time to eat lunch at Root Down and grab some Voo-doo donuts. 

We arrived in Steamboat with no hassle around 3:00 and were at our condo by 4. Our shuttle driver used to work on the mountain and we had a great conversation answering Geoffrey's questions about potentially working as a ski instructor in a few years. Geoffrey got good advice and lots of great information. 

After unpacking a bit and getting up the Christmas decor (we put lights on our balcony and they greet us whenever we are walking home from the mountain!), we headed to the base for  a brand new celebration - a holiday drone show to kick off the holiday season in Steamboat! It was incredibly cool and we were so glad we were able to make it to see the first of what we hope becomes an annual tradition for Steamboat! 

We're pretty tired, but I think we are going to hit the jacuzzi before going to bed. 

Yay for a a relaxing two weeks in Colorado!