Just Say Yes to Spring Break in Colorado

 Almost every year for the past several years, Ray's brother Bill and his family have spent their kids' spring break skiing in Vail. They rent out a group of rooms for themselves as well as various friends and family. This year, they invited the boys and I to come along since Nick's and my spring break happened to coincide with theris. How could I say no? Chris had recently returned to his station at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota from a six-month deployment in Qatar, and decided to come along too. 

On Saturday we flew to Denver, where Chris picked us up in his little Toyota Yaris after making the six-hour drive from Rapid City. There was barely enough room in the car for the three of us and all of our stuff! Our first night in Colorado was spent at my sister-in-law Pamela's dad's house in Lakewood, where we all had a nice dinner with him and several members of Pamela's family.  His house is only a couple of blocks from the Catholic church, so Sunday morning before heading out to Vail, Chris and I walked over for Mass.

After arriving in Vail and settling into our room, we explored our little corner of town.

The views from our room. I loved how the town looked like a Christmas village!

What can I say about what the next few days were like? I'm secretly hoping one of the boys will move to Colorado someday so I can move there too. Or at least come visit A LOT.

That's me in the yellow suit. I got it in 1994, on my first trip to Vail. Ray and I were engaged at the time, and we came the week after Christmas with his parents and some of their friends. For my Christmas gift, I got to pick out any ski outfit I wanted from any shop in town. We spotted William Shatner in that same shop. Princess Diana was in town that week, and at the end of our trip, she ended up on the same flight out that we were on. 

Anyway, I got a ton of compliments on my vintage ski suit!

One thing I will say is that I felt like my skiing was improving every day. That is, until Thursdady morning when I took a hard fall and hurt my shoulder. Pamela, who knows the mountain well, helped me get back to the hotel. Of course I cried--not because I was injured, but because I wouldn't be skiing anymore! After resting and concluding that nothing was broken or dislocated, I decided not to go to urgent care and made an appointment to see my orthopedist the following week. (It was found to most likely be a strain to my rotator cuff, and trauma-induced bursitis.)  My legs felt fine though, and since there happens to be a Geocaching Adventure Lab highlighting the artwork around town, I took a nice slow walk.

The beautiful creek that runs through town!

Friday it snowed. Nick and I stayed back at the hotel to play games and relax while everyone else went out for one last day of skiing.  At lunchtime we hopped on the gondola to meet the others for a nice meal on the mountain. I was glad to get to see these views one more time.

I'm happy to report that Chris' little Yaris got us back to the airport safely and on time, despite the snowy road conditions! (Did you know that I-70 between Denver and Vail passes over the highest point on the Interstate Highway System? Yeah. I just plugged in my headphones, looked at the scenery, and tried not to think about it.)

Pamela says that their kids' school system is changing its calendar and moving spring break to the week after Easter. They may have to forego their annual trip for a few years.  Me? I have no idea what I'm going to do for my next spring break. I guess it's time to start planning.

Been a Minute

 I was browsing Airbnb the other day, looking at possibilities for a future trip. When was the last time I stayed in one, I wondered? Oh yes, the weekend before Thanksgiving, in Philadelphia. I was there to run the Philly Marathon, and I convinced Nick to come with me. I'm delighted to say that he was agreeable to spending the weekend with his mom! We visited Independence Hall, the historic Eastern State Penitentiary, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Thinker, and (of course) the famous Rocky statue.

(Nick's Converse shoes are the exact same size as Rocky's!)

Race day was cold and windy, but I layered up and was warm enough, and had a great time. The finisher medal was pretty sweet, too. The best part? Having Nick there to greet me at the finish line.

The place where we stayed was an apartment above a flower shop, only a few blocks from the start/finish line and the Museum of Art. What did we do in the evenings? Lie around in the Airbnb and watch Rocky movies, of course!

And the time before that?  Last July, in a room above a detatched garage in a quiet Memphis neighborhood, when I took a road trip there for the Worldwide Cache Fest geocachig mega-event at Shelby Farms Park.

I had big plans to write a whole blog post (or two) about this trip to the Home of the Blues. Despite the sweltering heat, I had SO MUCH FUN, and did so many things, I could write at least five or six of them. Instead I'll give you some of the highlights. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. The National Civil Rights Museum

2.  Crystal Shrine Grotto

3.  Vertical Madness, a geocache 80 feet up in a tree

(Way up there is the geocache. You have to use a harness and ropes to get to it.)

Shannon (Geocaching name Shandrum) the owner of the Vertical Madness cache. He's a professional arborist, and brought all the equipment needed. For several days he stayed by the tree and helped lots of people with this rare find!

4.  Walking through a swamp to find the oldest geocache in Tennessee

5.  Walking (I did a lot of that) across the Mississippi to find a geocache in Arkansas

6.  Seeing Graceland up close, and the place where Elvis and his family are buried.

 

7.  Of course, THE BEST part of the trip was all the great people I got to hang out with!

I spent the 2022-2023 school year taking classes. I've gone back to school, hoping to have a degree in nutrition in a couple of years. I've learned a ton of things about atoms and molecules and bacteria and viruses and the intricacies of the human body. The world is AMAZING, I tell ya.

What else? Hmmm.... OH YEAH, I have a daughter-in-law!  The wedding, according to my 10-year-old nephew, was The Party Of The Century!

And, Nick is now a Virginia Tech Graduate.

Even though blogs are kind of obsolete nowadays, I enjoy mine and hopefully I'll put up a few more this summer! Stay tuned (but I wouldn't hold your breath, haha!)