After getting back from the Alabama trip visiting my family we then flew to Denver, boarded the Colorado Mountain Express and started a long drive on icy roads into Beaver Creek. It took something like 4ish hours to get to the cabin so it was twelve hours of traveling. Long day for sure but when we got there I knew right away it would be worth it! The “Winchester Lodge” as I started calling it was gorgeous and sat right off of a ski trail called Cresta, you could literally ski to the back door! Not only that, you could hike up a small hill to said trail, ski to the lift and be heading to the top of Beaver Creek in minutes!
Our first day of skiing was Monday. Dustin went off with the boys and his mom and I went to the village to get some lessons. She is an experienced skier but wanted to perfect some of her weaknesses whereas I hadn’t been skiing since I was 19 (I am 28 years old) so we told them I was a beginner. They didn’t listen to us and put me with her and two other fairly experienced women and took us all to the top of the mountain. I kept asking “we’re going to go over things…right???” and he kept brushing me off saying, ya ya, it’ll come back to you. Luckily it did come back to me because he skipped the beginner stuff and took me right on a fairly steep run. I was so nervous! But the women in our group encouraged me and I did fine. Dustin’s mom and I really felt like the class wasn’t executed well and we didn’t get in a full day of skiing so we called and got a different instructor for Wednesday. On Tuesday I went out with Dustin and his youngest sister and skied BC and did really well, minus a wipe out in 3 feet of powder. Wednesday’s class really helped me fine tune areas I was weak in and the instructor, Wink, was great! He was probably around 70 years young, had two full knee replacements and was a bomb skier! Can’t brag about him enough!
For New Years Eve we went to Crazy Mountain Brewery and got a few flights and tried all their beer. Very tasty! I even liked the pumpkin beer which I usually think is too overwhelming but they nailed it. Then we met his family at E Town and had dinner followed by hanging at his sister’s apartment in Edwards.
As we did every night, we ended up in the hot tub! Friday was the forth day of skiing and oddly was my worst of all days. Dustin thinks it’s because I was more fatigued than I thought, I’d agree, my legs just didn’t want to corporate. It also didn’t help that a certain fiance accidentally took us down a blue run! I managed to survive, which was my ultimate goal, haha!
The lows were in the negatives and the highs were below freezing. I wore so many layers skiing so my body was fine but my feet were numb from the ankles down even though I wore good socks. I have never been that cold in my life and I’ve lived in some really cold states, ie. Montana! The cold didn’t stop anyone from having a good time, we all really enjoyed ourselves!
For Christmas, Dustin got me a pair of Sorel boots. These were the third pair we tried since that brand’s sizing is all over the place between styles. Take my advice, if possible I’d just try them on, I ended up getting a men’s version at Abbadabba’s in Little Five. Beyond happy with the pair we stuck with and they kept my cold-nature feet quite warm!
On the way in to BC our bus stopped at a Starbucks connected to a ski shop where I picked up this hat by Picture Organic Clothing. I didn’t own a fleece-lined hat and had only brought a wool cap with me so I figured I needed one, plus it caught my eye with it’s cuteness! Very warm and seems to be made well.
Wearing Sanctuary jacket, Jcrew sweater, Target button down, North Face gloves, TOMS sunglasses, UO denim, Sorel boots, REI socks.
The following photos are in Vail. We went and explored Vail Village and Lionshead. It was stunning! We walked around shops and looked at art work in high end art galleries. Then we took the gondola lift to the top of Vail. There was a lot of cloud coverage but they were slowly getting burned away by the sun which made the texture of the sky really beautiful.
Really enjoyed bonding with Dustin’s family and seeing their vacation home. There’s talk of us going back in the Summer time to hike and explore the trails we skied. Hopefully that pans out because I was also told about a llama hike where a guide loads up a llama with a picnic basket and you all go for a hike and have a picnic-ummm-yes please!
