Aspen

I like to ski. The boyfriend likes to ski. It is a win-win in my opinion. I think it falls along those lines of "Happy Wife, Happy Life".

Another pitfall of DC...skiing isn't exactly a lifestyle option. Even if it is, can we even really say that something like Wisp is really a "mountain". I don't think so.

So two people who love to ski, a(nother) shitty thing about DC, a boyfriend who generously shares frequent flier miles = a lot of West coast skiing adventures.

This year we got back to DC after a long Christmas back West with our families, only to spend a whopping four days in DC before getting on a plane again. To make it extra fun, I had no idea where I was going. I packed, got to the airport and only knew we were going skiing. He printed our boarding passes, and then we went through security. I was finally tipped off to the fact that we were headed for Denver, so I just assumed we were headed to Copper or Winter Park.

Once we arrived in Denver, the BF recommended we get food. My thoughts quickly went to "Is he REALLY going to make us eat in the airport to try to throw me off?! Of course we are at the destination!"

Oh. How. Wrong. Was. I.

After eating we started walking. We were on one of those moving conveyor belts when I looked up and could just barely make out the words on one of the gate signs for "Aspen/Snowmass"!!!!

Aspen!!!

A quick flight later, there we were at the Aspen airport surrounded by more fur and multi-thousand dollar ski coats than I have ever seen in my life! People were popping champagne in the airport and Bogner was a casual as a pair of jeans.

Skis for days, and Aspen print carpet in the airport

We stayed slope-side at Snowmass and were able to walk to the lifts our first day skiing. Saturday was glorious. Sunny, warm, and some perfectly manicure groomers to tear it up on. The scenery was unbelievable. And they aren't kidding when they named the place Aspen. You can smell those Aspens as you ski through beautiful glades. The lodges were modest, to my surprise, but boasted some really outstanding food.

We skied for as long as they would let us on the lifts, then popped our skis off and walked less than a block back to the hotel. It was heaven.

That night we headed in to town and went to an Italian restaurant that a friend had recommended. While the pasta was outstanding, it was the creme brulee topped with fresh bananas that really won our hearts.

As usual after a day of skiing, we were sound asleep before 10:30pm.

The next morning we woke up to socked in skies, but with determination to get some more Aspen experience in. We took a shuttle bus (which was outstanding and quick and free!) into Aspen and decided to ski Ajax (as the locals call it). It. was. cold.

And. snowy.

And windy.

And did I mention FRIGID?

Our first 4 or so runs were through almost untouched powder that was soft and fluffy. The gondola had been closed in the morning and when they finally opened it we decided to take it up to the top. It might have been the most terrifying lift experience of my life. The gondola had to run at about 1/4 speed, and was swinging and swaying in the wind. Some of the cars almost hit each other. It was a rather silent trip to the top as we both gripped the bench in fear. We ended up warming up in the lodge at top, then finally braving the increasingly windy and cold conditions to get some runs it. The snow was great and the runs were fun, but we had ice caked on our faces and hanging from our noses. We took a verrrrrry long lunch, and then called it a day.

While it wasn't the best day of skiing, it was still an amazing experience. There is nothing better than skiing down into the main street of town when you are done at the end of the day.

That night we browsed the shops, gawked at the crazy ski shops and the ski clothes that cost more than my yearly salary and then had dinner at the White House Tavern. 

It was again an early night followed by a long mournful day where we had to leave to go back to real life.

My overall verdict: Aspen is the whole package.  I am sucker for resorts that have good snow, good terrain, and a cool town to top it off. Aspen's beauty is second to none, and the people watching alone is worth the trip. Even if you can't afford the expensive clothes, you can at least browse and feel just that much closer to being a billionaire. Overall, make it a bucket list trip, it is worth every penny. 

Utah Ski Vacation

To back track a bit, lets focus on Thanksgiving for a moment before we talk Christmas.

I was all set for a East Coast Thanksgiving, a few days out of DC meeting some more of the bf's family, some food, relaxation, you get the idea. I've kind of become immune to being away from my family on Thanksgiving as it is a very rare occasion that I can be in Idaho for Thanksgiving and then come back a month later for Christmas. (Particularly when I take three week Christmas Vacations ;)!) So needless to say, while I would love to be home with my family having a traditional Thanksgiving, I have certainly learned to adapt and have a non-traditional thanksgiving without much pause.

So we are all set for Mass. when the bf comes over one evening and says:

"I have a question."

Gulp. Internal monologue kicks in "oh myyyy gooood. What did I doooo? Oh wait, is this? Does he have a small box? Nope. No box. Ok. Was I mean lately? No. Well I don't think so. Oh my. Am I getting disinvited from Thanksgiving?!? Is he going home without me?!? Ok. ok now. Calm down.

I mean....how funny would that have been! You know. If I thought like that, or anything. But I don't think like that. Or at least I tell myself so. Ha!

Anyways, I respond with a " yea?"

Which I got a question and response that was far from what I expected!

The bf had figured out a way for us to stay in Park City over Thanksgiving and hit up the open ski resorts. BUT only If I wanted to go...

I don't think it was any surprise that I jumped on that plan pretty quickly.

So we spent Thanksgiving in Utah. Just the two of us. Or maybe I should say the four of us.

Oh yes...it gets better this surprise the bf put together.

He put skis on it!

With new skis, boots, and the whole kit and kaboodle I was excited to get on the snow! Our trip started out with a Thanksgiving morning brunch with some good friends and their adorable daughter, who was born around Thanksgiving last year. We cooked up a frittata, holiday rolls, a fruit platter and some mimosas. Since we were going to miss the bebe's birthday party we got to give her our gift early which was fun.

We packed up and headed to the airport where we dined on some fast food for a pre-flight meal.

After a painless flight we picked up our rental car and headed into Salt Lake to stay the night before driving up to Park City.

Slightly hungry, we ended up eating some baked potatoes and drinking a night cap of beer at the hotel.

The next morning we headed up to Solitude for the inaugural voyage for the skis. It was beautifully sunny, warm, and complete with a pretty empty mountain.

We did pretty well. Only stopping for a morning break and lunch and then skiing until about 3.

We then headed to our hotel in Park City, which was really a timeshare resort, which came complete with families of 13 and an event schedule that was similar to a Ledo deck on a cruise ship. We were exhausted and naturally took awhile to relax before heading out to dinner.

We also got to spend a day walking around Park City and stumbling upon a perfect Saturday date night activity....

The PBR was in the next town and we knew we had to go!

We had a romantic date watching some bull riding, drinking cheap beer and munching on hot dogs and red vines. It was perfect.

The next day we headed to Alta. Skied our legs off again. Finished the day off with some awesome beer and a peanut butter mouse (errr...did I say mouse? Let's try mousse) pie and a neighboring room full of loud women drinking far too much red wine. (Needless to say we opted to switch rooms to ensure some sound sleep.

Due to an awesome deal on Liftopia we decided to squeak in a final day of skiing before catching our flight and checked out Brighton.

After skiing to the point of barely being able to walk, we packed up the skis and headed for some food before the airport.

This is where things got a teensy bit rough. Our flight out of Salt Lake was delayed and we were going miss our connection in Chicago. The bf needed to get back so we flew a red eye that dropped us into DC right about the time I would be waking up to get to work. It was an ugly day at work. However, we survived and that night I was asleep by 6.

Phew that was a novel of a story!

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