Boarding CO

The first vacation of 2014 is complete.  I better get this documented before life activities take over.  I went snowboarding in CO with Jax and Orange Blossom.  It didn't snow much while we were there, but they had received some snow a day or so before we arrived.  So the snow was decent.  It wasn't fresh powder, but still very good stuff.  Some highlights:

1. Boarding Vail.  That is an awesome slope.  We were there for two days, and I didn't even come close to going on all the runs.  And they had runs that were challenging enough that I didn't feel quite up to that challenge.  I did enough black diamond runs that by the time I left I was feeling somewhat skilled in boarding moguls.
2. Boarding Beaver Creek.  Also a very nice slope.  I didn't get to all of that slope either.  I didn't know this before I went, but Beaver Creek is even more highfalutin than Vail.  True story.
3. Discounted lift tickets thanks to a generous relative.  Yes, they were highly discounted.
4. Visiting Aspen.  I wasn't willing to spend $129 to board for two hours, but Jax and I checked out the town while Orange Blossom used his "free" Aspen lift ticket pass.
5. Learning all kinds of interesting stuff about meat like the fat on grass fed beef is yellow, and corn fed beef fat is white.  We learned about rigor mortis and dry aging and wet aging too.
6. Becoming better acquainted with a relative. (sorry, no picture for this one.  Whoops.)
7. Delicious home cooking at the rental condo (steak, potatoes, broccoli, chicken, green beans, etc.)
8. Hearing some good bluegrass (we could clearly hear the band that was playing at the town festival as we sat in the hot tub).
9. PB&J sandwiches never tasted as good as they did for lunch on the ski slope.  You may find this hard to believe, but I think they may have even been better than the meat sandwiches that I made.
10. Beautiful scenery.

View from the slopes of Beaver Creek.

View along I-70 on the way to SMM in Rifle.

 

View of the slopes of Aspen.  Look at those moguls!  Orange Blossom said it was a pretty tough mountain that needs to be respected.  When we looked at the mountain map, there aren't any green runs on the slopes of Aspen.

Chilling out in Aspen, CO.  A big lunch and some sporting goods shopping complete.  Oh, and browsing at the antique store was done too.  The cheapest item in that store was $5500.  Wooooo-heeeee.  Needless to say, we didn't purchase any antiques.

More scenery on the way back from Aspen.

View from the back side slopes of Vail.

Orange Blossom at Vail's Blue Sky Basin.  I thought of another nickname for him:  Crax.  Amusing, yes.  But, I think Orange Blossom is still a slightly better one.

Jax enjoying the slopes of Vail.