But neck pain aside, we had the BEST weekend! My friend Tiff, who I adore, flew in Friday evening with her delightful beau Dustin and we headed to Keystone, a ski resort about an hour west of Denver. We rented a two bedroom condo within walking distance to almost everything. It had an indoor pool and hot tub, a full kitchen, a nice view...seriously, no complaints here...it was lovely. We were actually a bit embarrassed to bring Tiff and Dustin back to our tiny apartment at the end of their stay.
Tiff and Dustin took some downhill lessons on Saturday morning. Mark, who has wanted to learn to ski for awhile, sacrificed for my sake and kept me company. We took the gondola to the top of the mountain, enjoyed the views and high altitude (11,000 ft), then came back and cheered on Tiff and Dustin as they attempted to learn the basics.
There are few things that don't cost a small fortune in Keystone, but a winter sleigh ride is one of the rare experiences that won't break the bank. For ten dollars a piece we took a horse drawn sleigh {along with 12 other people} through some of the back country. It was freezing. And I questioned how often they washed the blankets that were provided to all of us for the ride. But otherwise, it was lovely.
And thankfully on Sunday I felt well enough to take a one-hour cross-country ski lesson (easy breezy since I could look straight ahead and avoid looking left if necessary). The instructor told me I had a very natural stride {yay me!} and we will definitely be back for more. It was like hiking, one of my great loves, except with snow and frequent falls. I was in love!
Tiff and Dustin headed back early Tuesday morning and I have been in a mild "Where are my friends?" malaise ever since. But I've also been distracted by an insanely busy week at work thanks to an upcoming deadline. But, since I'm blogging at one o'clock on a Thursday afternoon, obviously things aren't going as smooth as I'd like regarding that deadline. Yesterday we had 75+ mph gusts that kept blowing out the power, constantly crashing my office computer. Today we woke up to five inches of snow, which is no big deal, except my office has no electricity and they closed the interstate for several hours this morning... so it's a paid snow day for us all!
2 comments:
wow, hope you're feeling better! that is super stinky timing. I can only guess that God was protecting you from either a deadly fall, or a really embarrassing one in which you lose your skis, poles, hat, and gloves right in front of the lodge with tons of onlookers (not that I would know anything about that)
despite all that snow (or maybe even because of it!), i must say that these pictures are breathtaking! and we've definitely never had a "too hot" day, so there's another bonus to frigid weather.
We stayed in the exact same building in a room with the exact same layout last year! I think Keystone is probably my favorite ski resort I've ever visited. I even liked it more than Vail.
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