Ski Trip 2009: Steamboat, CO (Days 1 & 2 of 6)

Watching Star Wars on the plane

View from our condo balcony Friday morning

Making our way from our condo (background) to the ski rental place

Helen has an affinity for moose and loved this long legged guy

Checking out some sort of ice structure under construction

Gondola Square in the background with lots of construction

View up the mountain from the bottom

Gondola Square - lots of shops, restaurants, and Gondola loading area

Got our equipment and we're ready to ski

Derek and Adam check out the trail map during a break

Taking the gondola up the mountain

Nice view from the gondola

Derek, Adam, and Me at the top of the gondola

This year we went skiing in Steamboat, Colorado (Google Map, Wikipedia). We really wanted to go out west again, especially because the boys are skiing much better since our last trip out there and because it was pretty icy on the east coast last year on our trip to Sugar Mountain.

I wish our ski trips out west could be for a full week, but because of Helen's teaching schedule she feels she can only get away for the 3 personal days she's allowed each year. If we wrap them around a weekend then we can get 5 days. It's also harder on the kids to miss school the older they get. So, unless we want to ski during crowded holidays we're stuck with the 5 day ski trip.

I started looking at airfares late last year and it wasn't looking good. Then I started to see some reasonable airfares (in the $300 range), but with our limited time we really needed a late afternoon departure time and a late afternoon\early evening return arrival. I finally found one and was about to book the online itenerary I had assembled, but when I went to book the flight it had jumped $60 a person. We pushed the trip back a week, which was good because I found cheaper lodging as well, and I quickly booked the trip. It was a good thing. It wasn't long after I booked everything before the price on our flight started going up.

Thursday Feb 19, 2009

I had the day off and spent a good bit of time the previous night packing. We planned on only checking 1 suitcase. I left a bunch of Helen's clothes out and told her when she woke up that she had some choices to make. She said she wasn't prepared to make any choices and that we would just have to pack 2 suite cases.

Another teacher picked Helen up in the morning so that the boys and I could pick Helen up at her school and head straight to the airport. I finished the packing and loaded all the stuff into the van, did a sweep\vacuum\mop, cleaned the toilets and headed to have lunch with the boys at their school. However, the school decided to have the students eat in their rooms in order to setup the science fair in the cafeteria - thwarted! I filled up the van with gas and ran to the bank for some money and then came back and checked the boys out. They were so excited.

After checking the boys out of school we headed to Helen's school. I told her I would be there about 1:15sh (I always add "sh" to any time commitment). She was stressed about us not making our 3:58 flight and called me on the cell phone about 1:20 wanting to know where I was. I let her panic a little before telling her to look for me because I was pulling into the parking lot.

The drive to airport was pretty smooth, although it was pretty crowded at the airport. I used to valet cars at the airport during college, but I've forgotten all that and had to make a couple trips around the loop before getting the parking right.

We checked in and security wasn't too crowded - thank goodness because we were starting to run out of time. Even though security wasn't crowded it was still a royal pain. I have a big problem with security in general and what a drain it is on productivity. I would estimate that there's at least a 25% surcharge on all productivity do to the need for security. Why can't people just do the right thing and do nothing that detracts from the productivity of society? Do they really need to be wanding 65 year old men and having them remove their clothes? I didn't get to stew about it too long because the plane was boarding by the time we made it to the gate.

We flew Frontier Airlines. They have different animals painted on the planes. Stu the rabbit was flying with us to Denver and then Luke the lynx on the commuter from Denver to Steamboat. The kids loved the animals on the plane. The flights were fine, although we were a little concerned about the pilot on the commuter because he looked and sounded about 20 years old.

The shuttle bus from Steamboat met us at the Steamboat\Hayden airport and it was a 20 minute or so drive to the resort. Derek slept on the sofa and Adam slept on the love seat - and they were excited about it. However, the following nights the novelty wore off and they opted for turning them into sleeper sofa's.

Friday Feb 20, 2009

We woke to a beautiful morning. From our condo balcony we could see people letting their dogs loose and running around the ski slopes before the slopes opened. We had a relaxing morning and didn't get out until about 10. We walked over from our condo in Ski Time Square to Gondola Square where we rented our ski equipment.

It was Spring Break locally so it was probably more crowded than usual, but still minimal lift lines. In the early part of the day we stayed down lower and worked on refreshing our skills. The kids loved the Rabbit Ears terrain park. We all (except Helen) tried some weak jumps. I had just sat back and landed on my butt when this teenager in a Ray Allen Celtics jersey proceeded to nail all three waist\chest high jumps in succession - with a somersault on each one. It was amazing how well people were skiing out there.

Later in the afternoon we took the Gondola up the mountain and did some runs up higher. When were got back to the condo Helen and Derek crashed. Derek had some altitude sickness and didn't stir until morning. Adam and I hit the hot tubs. There was one indoor and one outdoor. We spent most of the time in the outdoor tub - something about the temperature differential that makes it feel really good. Adam, my soaking partner, never really relaxed and treated it instead like a swimming pool. There was lots of kicking, splashing, and jumping in. It was fun.

I ordered some pizzas for takeout and took the city bus to get them and go to the grocery store. It would have been nice if there was a store within walking distance. We brought a bunch of chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies that Helen made at home and they lasted almost the whole trip.