Ski Trip 2009: Vail and Beaver Creek

As most of you already know, we spent the last week skiing in beautiful Colorado. It was an incredibly relaxing yet active vacation- one we look forward to each year. We spent six days at Vail Mountain and one day at Beaver Creek.



We arrived in Denver Friday evening, picked up the rental car and headed west to the mountains. A few hours later, we arrived in Avon (about 10 miles from Vail) caught up for a while with David’s friend Rick (who had arrived a few hours earlier) and his sister-in-law Diane (who is spending the winter teaching ski school) before passing out. Rick’s wife Carolyn is due with their second child in a month and could not make the trip.


The Beev

We woke up bright and early each morning – and VERY excited to ski. Each day went something like this: wake up, have breakfast, put on ski gear, head to the mountain, have an awesome day skiing, come home, take a HOT shower, have dinner, go to bed. Repeat.


Riding up in the Gondola


Dave- heading down to the Blue Sky Basin


Ali- Blue Sky Basin

I took lessons the first few days while David, Rick and Diane had some fun on their own. I joined them on Tuesday. Rick had to go back to his job and family, so we drove him to the airport Wednesday morning and took the rest of the day off- it was nice to give our legs a rest. We saw Gran Torino (loved!) and shopped a bit. Then on Thursday it was back to skiing! On Friday and Saturday we skied with Mike and his friends Brian and Francis who happened to be in town.


Look out below!


Mike, David and Brian

We found a few new restaurants to love; the newly opened Avondale and local hotspot Sweet Basil. In the week we were there, we actually completed the Thomas Salamunovich restaurant trifecta by eating at Larkspur at the Golden Peak Lodge, Larkburger in Edwards and Avondale at the Westin in Avon. In what has become a bit of a ski trip tradition, we made fajitas and watched the Superbowl.

Here is a very brief video I took of David coming down a run. Mike took much better videos and I will post a link to them later (probably some time next week). In the meantime, enjoy all 6 seconds of this:




As they say in Beaver Creek- we weren't exactly roughing it. The week flew by and before we knew it, we were packing up to go home. We spent Sunday driving back to Denver, returning the rental car, flying home, doing laundry and getting ready to head back to work and normal life.


About to head down Blue Ox


Enjoying an Apres Ski Coffee

We must thank Brooke and Brian as well as Becky and Aaron for taking such excellent care of Jerry while we were gone. We really appreciate your effort and help- next time we go out, dinner is on us! We’d also like to thank Carolyn for the use of her beautiful home and Diane for being such an accommodating host. It was a great week and we look forward to the arrival of the baby next month!