Steamboat - Spring Break 2009

DAY 1 - "MOM, DID YOU GET A PICTURE OF THE BUFFALO?"

Ah, Spring Break. It's finally here. Just like the past two years, we're off to Steamboat Springs, Colorado to go skiing for five days. Today's itinerary - fly to Denver (on Frontier Airlines), grab the rental slug (a Kia SUV from Alamo), and drive the 180 miles to Steamboat. Then, once we get to Steamboat, we need to check into the condo, get the girls checked into ski school, pick up the rental equipment, and run to the grocery store and the liquor store. A full day.

Here's a shot of Libby on the plane. I think she's trying to spy on Sara and I.

The flight was uneventful. The bags were on the carousel when we got to baggage claim. The shuttle bus was right there when we exited the terminal. We had checked in online so all we had to do was grab a vehicle and go. Pretty sweet. From the time we hit the runway to the time we drove away from the airport was less than 45 minutes. I think that was a record for us. The drive from Denver to Steamboat is always pretty spectacular. One of the highlights is driving past the Buffalo Overlook just west of Denver. Since I was driving, Lori was in charge of taking pictures. At the Overlook, there was a huge herd of buffalo right near the road. Here's Lori's shot of the herd...

Well, it was supposed to be a shot of the herd. She hit the off button by mistake. This was all we got. Libby gave her grief the rest of the trip. She was pretty unrelenting.

Got some great skis this year. We signed up to get the "High Performance" package which is an upper intermediate type of ski. After the girls got their skis and snowboard, it was time for Lori and I to get our skis. The guy in the shop offered to put us on some demo (top of the line) skis in exchange for a contribution to the tip jar. I kicked in a $20, and the tech put us each into a pair of K2 Apache Crossfires. It turned out to be the best $20 I've spent on ski equipment.

DAY 2 - SKI SCHOOL & HAVING THE DAY TO OURSELVES

Our first day of skiing, and Lori and I got to ski together for most of the day by ourselves. We dropped of the girls at Ski and Snowboard School down in the base area (Elev. 6,900') at 9:30 AM and didn't have to pick them up until 3 in the afternoon. We didn't have any real plans, just get up the mountain and have some fun together. Went up the Gondola, went down an easy blue, then went up the Sundown Express lift to the top of Sunshine Peak (Elev. 10,384'). Took a couple of high speed cruisers and then went and skied West Side (a black, or expert run). After just a couple of runs it was obvious that the skis we were on were awesome. Lori was having a ball. I had to watch it when I stopped because she was right on my tail and almost ran me over a couple of times. I've never seen her ski any better. Just before lunch, we decided to go over to Storm Peak (Elev. 10,372') and get some runs in over there. After a couple of runs, we we're heading up the Bar-UE Lift and passed over the Four Points Hut (Elev. 9,716), which is a small cabin like structure with a full bar and a deck where they were obviously grilling burgers and dogs. The smell got to us and we decided to eat at Four Points instead of going back to the condo. Good call on our part. Huge cheeseburgers with an extremely well stocked condiment bar that included awesomely good garlic dill pickles, were only $8.50 (we split one) and the full bar inside had Fat Tire on tap (pints were $5.50 - we each had one). Here's Lori and I enjoying lunch.

After lunch, we made a few more runs down Storm Peak, then went to the lower part of the mountain to make a few runs before picking up the girls. As is our custom, we made several runs down Vagabond, then swung over to Heavenly Daze to head down to the base to pick up the girls. Before heading down, I stopped and took one of those postcard shots of the Gondola and the town of Steamboat Springs in the background.

We grabbed the girls and found out that they did exceptionally well in class. We went up the mountain for one more run (this time with the girls) and called it a day. Went back to the condo, made some pizza and relaxed for a bit. Then we got dressed again and went back to the Gondola. As part of our vacation package, we got to go on a Snow Cat driven sleigh ride from the top of the Gondola at Thunderhead (Elev. 9,080') over to Rondezvous Saddle (Elev. 9,325') at the base of Sunshine Peak. We grabbed some blankets and huddled together on the 40 minute ride. It was cool to see the mountain just after dark. Needless to say, the girls had no problem getting to sleep that night.

DAY 3 - SKIING WITH THE GIRLS

No more ski school for the girls. One day is all they want. We get to have fun with them for the rest of the week. After getting a really late start (around 10 AM), we decided to go up the Gondola, then up the Sundown Express to hit some of the runs on Sunshine Peak. There are some pretty easy blue runs up there, and thought it would be a good warm-up for the day. So with that in mind, we went down Tomahawk and Baby Powder. Both girls handled the runs with no problems. Then we went down Sunshine Lift Line which a pretty fun (and fast) mid-level blue. It's wide open with a pretty steady pitch. Good times! Here's Libby and I on the lift.

Seeing that it was again another one of those "Chamber of Commerce" type days, we had to take some pictures of the girls on top of Sunshine Peak.

After another couple of runs, Sara had her fill of the top of the mountain and wanted to go to the kids terrain park on the lower mountain. Libby wanted to stay on top and snowboard, so we decided to split up with Lori and Sara going down the mountain, and Libby and I staying on top. Sunshine Peak was getting crowded, so Libby and I went over to Sunshine Peak. On our last run on Sunshine Peak, we saw a guy skiing in a full gorilla suit and a Hawaiian shirt. After a couple of runs, the smell from Four Points got to her like it got to Lori and I, so we made a quick run down the upper portion of Buddy's Run, then a quick traverse on Calf Roper over to Four Points. We split a cheeseburger, I had a Fat Tire, and Libby chugged down a Sprite. Libby had a blast having a "picnic" up on top of the mountain. We had fun people watching and soaking in the sunshine.

Since I've been talking so much about the Four Points Hut, here's a shot from the deck, looking to the top of Storm Peak. We're looking across the grill area.

Libby and I made it back to the condo around 4:00 PM. I took the girls to church, and I went to scope out some place to eat on Monday Night. I was drawn to the Mahogany Ridge Brewery and Grill in Downtown Steamboat Springs. Had a couple of beers and watched the NCAA Basketball Pairings on TV. Then I picked up the girls, went back to the condo, made some pasta, opened a bottle of wine, and settled in for the evening.

DAY 4 - FRIDAY THE 13TH: 3 DAYS LATE

The calendar said Monday, March 16, 2009, but for all intents and purposes, it was Friday the 13th. An interesting day to say the least. We got up late (again), which was kind of good, considering the weather. Haven't talked about the weather yet. Pretty much the whole time we were there, the low in the morning at the base (where we were at was in the low 20's, but at Thunderhead (mid-mountain) they have these strange temperature inversions and it never dipped down below the upper 20's. In the afternoon, the temperatures ranged from the low to mid 40's at the top of Storm Peak, to the mid 50's down at the base. This made for bullet-proof ice in the mornings, to oatmeal like conditions at the bottom at the end of the day. The trick was to stay on the parts of the mountain where the snow was good and consistent. Anyway, back to the Friday the 13th stuff. We decided to split up again, with Lori and Sara going together, and Libby and I creating trouble on our own. We were all going to head down to the Gondola from our condo together, but after we walked out of our condo, crossed the driveway, and down a flight of stairs to the slopes, Sara realized that she forgot her goggles. So, Lori and Sara went back to our room (which was on the 4th Floor) and Libby and I skied and snowboarded down to the Gondola. We were about halfway through the Gondola maze (the line to get on) when Libby realized that she was wearing different ski bibs than the past two days and that her lift ticket was on the other pair of bibs. So, we left our equipment down by the Gondola and started walking uphill back to our condo. We met up with Lori and Sara, and we decided to leave Libby with Lori and Sara, and I would slog back uphill and shag her lift ticket.

Now slogging uphill to our condo, I was sweating like a farmer in a grain silo in the middle of July. When I got back to the condo, I grabbed Libby's lift ticket and a couple of zip ties and completely changed clothes. I took the liners out of my gloves, just leaving a shell, and up top switched to just a turtleneck and a lightweight cycling jacket that converted to a vest. Much more comfortable. Walked back down the hill, gave Libby her lift ticket, and we were off. The skiing was great. Libby and I stayed the entire day on Storm Peak. Did a bunch of laps on Buddy's Run. Ate again at Four Points. Got back to the condo around 3:30. Lori and Sara were still out. They finally got back around 4:15 PM. Lori went on to tell me about her Friday the 13th horror story. Remember me talking about the weather? Well, Lori was overdressed as well. After her and Sara got to the top of Thunderhead, Lori tied her jacket around her waist. Sometime on her first run, the jacket fell off. Had her cell phone, the condo key, and some cash in the jacket. They retraced their steps on the next run and couldn't find the jacket. They went to Guest Services at the base and then Lost and Found to see if they had her jacket. No such luck. She left her info and the lady in L&F (Donna) gave her her card. Lori and Sara went back to skiing hoping for the best. Later in the day, they gave Donna a call from the courtesy phone outside the condo. Someone had found Lori's coat. They went to L&F and picked up the coat. On the way there, they ran into the lady from Guest Services who also remembered Lori and somehow knew that L&F had her coat. Everything that Lori had in her coat was still in her coat. That's why we go to Steamboat. Great people. Cool visitors. Best staff around. Everyone a normal person. No egos (except for the few visitors from the East Coast!). Anyway, you want to see pictures. Here's from the top of See Me, a black run that leads down to the base. The Gondola and the rest of the base area is at the end of the run that curls to the left. If you look directly behind the clump of trees in the middle of the run you'll see aline of brown colored condos. Just behind that, there is a little road, and some white colored buildings behind the road. We were in the farthest of the three white buildings down the hill. Not too bad.

And here's a great picture of Sara at the end of the day. In her words, she had "crazy hair!"

Yesterday, I talked about scoping out places for dinner. We went to Mahogany Ridge Brewery and Grill. It was still Happy Hour, which meant $2.00 pints and a $1.00 Tapas (Spanish for "small bites") menu. The Tapas menu had things like "two pear BBQ sauce encrusted drummies", "cheese quesadillas", "two coconut shrimp", "two vegetable rolls", "two crab tostadas", or "two Money Bags" (small wonton wrapped shrimp and vegetable concoctions tied off at the top with seaweed and deep fried). They also had home made root beer for the girls. We ate and drank 'til refusal, and our bill was less than $30. And as Rachel Ray would say, "Yummo!" Here's a shot of Lori and Libby after a couple of beers and root beers...

And one of Sara and I...

DAY 5 - ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

St. Patrick's Day. Always fun on the mountain. Today, I was lucky enough to ski all day with Sara. She geared herself up with her shamrock head gear, and we were off for a day of adventure. Here we are first thing in the morning on the Christie Peak Express.

Sara took me to a bunch of places that I hadn't been before, including a very long run called Why Not, and down a cool run called Big Foot which led to the Rabbit Ears Terrain Park. Sara played around in the half pipe and went flying across the four rollers and got caught some pretty big air.

Here's a video of Sara having fun on Why Not:

Since I took Libby out to eat on the mountain, I needed to take Sara out to eat at Four Points as well. She was a hit up there with her headgear. We both had a hot dog, but Sara requested some chips and a Vitamin Water to wash it down. I chose another Fat Tire.

We played around some more after lunch, going down a blue run called Rainbow and one of Lori and my favorites, Vagabond. Sara and I also got to see a guy skiing in a banana suit. Didn't see the Chiquita sticker. Here we are later in the day on the Christie Peak Express (we had to get to the Kid's terrain Park again!).

Sara and I went back to the condo a little early to watch cartoons. I think Lori and Libby were one of the last ones off the mountain. They wandered around all day, even going on a couple of black (expert) runs. I think that they tried to get themselves lost.

Our day didn't end when the runs closed. Just after sunset, they have the torchlight parade down the mountain followed by fireworks. In the torchlight parade, the ski school instructors (fueled by pizza and beer) snake their way down the mountain from the top of the Gondola to the Base area carrying flares. Pretty cool visual. Here's a picture of the girls in their St. Patty's Day finest. (I was wearing a hat that was shaped like a huge beer glass.)

And here's one of the finale of the Torchlight Parade:

DAY 6 - LAST DAY ON THE MOUNTAIN

It's Wednesday, our fifth and final day of skiing. Bummer. Time for Libby and I to pair up again. We decided to see as much of the mountain as we could. We were going to go everywhere. We started off going up the Gondola to mid-mountain (Thunderhead). Then we took the Storm Peak Express Lift to the top of Storm Peak. After a warm-up down Buddy's Run, we went into Morningside Park, which is on the back side of the park. We took the Morningside Lift to the top of Mt. Werner (Elev. 10,568') for a run down Over Easy. Here's the view from near the top of Mt. Werner (Libby is the snowboarder in the pink sweatshirt in the background.)

After we got off Over Easy, we hit Buddy's Run again, and it was time for Libby's turn in the video spotlight...

After that, we went back up Storm Peak and skiied and snowboarded down Storm Peak South (a black, or expert run). The down Rainbow, to Moonlight and over to the Sundown Express Lift and Sunshine Peak. It was time for a break, so we went down High Noon and over to Rondezvous Saddle for some lunch. The Saddle is a 3-story building with a restaurant, a bar, a cafeteria, and an outdoor deck, bar, and grill. We did the outdoor deck, bar and grill part. Great cheeseburgers here as well (and they had the big pickles!), plus Sprite for Libby, and Guinness for me (Brilliant!). Had to take a picture of Big Sweetie!

After lunch, we did Sunshine Peak for a bit, then made our way to the lower mountain, doing Vagabond and Heavenly Daze. We finished off our skiing and snowboarding, by doing See Me (a black run). Went back to the condo, met up with Lori and Sara, went out to Ben & Jerry's, ate all of the leftovers in the fridge, then packed up.

DAY 7 - THE TRIP HOME OR "MOM, DID YOU GET A PICTURE OF THE BUFFALO (REDUX)"

Time to go home. Kind of sad, but it's always great to go home. As usual, we had to take a quick family photo before our trip back...

Of course, from left to right, it's Sara, Lori, Libby, and me.

Almost forgot to show the condo from the outside. We stayed at Storm Meadows at Christie Base, Building I. Here's a view from the parking lot. We were on the opposite side of the building.

And here's a shot from the same position but turned about 90 degrees. The "wider" run above the jog in the building in the foreground is See Me.

We decided to go back to Denver on a slightly different path. Instead of heading as quickly as we could to I-70 on Highways 40 and 9, we decided to stick on Highway 40 all the way to I-70. Went through Hot Sulphur Springs, a really cool canyon area, Granby, Winter Park, and Berthoud Pass at around 11,500'. We finally met up with I-70 near Empire, Colorado. Then, it was off to Denver. But, before we could get there, we had to pass the Buffalo Overlook that we saw on day 1. This time, Lori was ready and up to the task. In the bottom right, just above the white SUV, I give you buffalo!

We hit Denver around 11:30AM. Our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until 3:05 PM, so we decided to get some lunch. I had already anticipated this, so I had our lunch destination programmed into the GPS. We navigated our way past Invesco Stadium (where the Broncos play) and into LoDo (Lower Downtown in Denver). Across from Union Station, we had lunch at the Wyncoop Brewing Company, which is Colorado's oldest brewpub (opening in 1988). It's owned by the current mayor of Denver. Great beer, great food. Sara had the kids chicken nuggets and instead of processed stuff, it was hand cut chicken pieces with their house beer batter. Libby had a chicken breast sammie. Lori had a buffalo burger, and I had the fish and chips. Beer wise, Lori and I both had a Mile Hi PA. She had their Railyard Ale (they're across the street from Union Station), and I had a Silverback smoked porter (25% of the proceeds go to saveagorilla.org, which is a mountain gorilla conservation fund). Here's Lori and Sara with their gorilla:

I also went up to the main bar before we left and had a sampler of Patty's Chile Beer. It's made with Anaheim chiles and smoked Ancho chiles. It smells like chiles, but the taste is actually kind of lemony. Pretty interesting. Here's a shot of the girls in front of the brewery.

The trip back to Kansas City and Lenexa was also uneventful. Our plane was on time so we got to pick up Sandy (our lab) from doggy day care ahead of schedule. It was nice to crawl back into our beds at the end of the day.

RETROSPECTIVE

How do I summarize our trip? Well, a week outdoors doing something that we love to do as a family and having a great time... it's about all you can ask for. If you've never been to Steamboat, we can't recommend it enough. As I've said before, there are no egos there. Everyone is so laid back and very helpful. There's a lot of "money" in town, but no one seems to flaunt it. It's a cowboy town at heart and everyone seems to go with that philosophy. Steamboat is home to more US Olympic Athletes (both winter and summer) than any other city or town in the US. They are all listed in the phone book (I checked), along with CBS sports guy Verne Lundqusit (football and basketball). You can ski with an Olympic Silver medalist (Billy Kidd) almost every day, or a bronze medalist (Nelson Carmichael) on a mogul run on Sundays. A gold medalist (Debbie Armsrong) runs a woman's camp several times a year. Lori and I don't want to ski anywhere else. Plus, they have tubing, horseback riding, snow mobiling, soaking in hot springs, art galleries. The list goes on and on. Go there. You'll have fun. Plus, I hear it's great in the summer with mountain bihing, hiking, golf, kayaking, etc.

Also wanted to say that I was impessed with the girls on the trip. They skied and snowboarded great, and they were good citizens as well. Plus they made me laugh, all of the time. As a Dad, you can't beat that.

Thanks for putting up with my rambling!