www.Vail.com

Vail always sounded sooo far away, but it's only 2 hours from our apartment. Of course not when you're driving there late at night in a snow storm!!!

Stranded on the Pass

Nick didn't get out of class until just before 6pm, and 5 adults and 5 adults worth of stuff for 2 nights, were out the door in a small 20 year old 4-cylinder Toyota Camry. We headed up the mountain with Nick at the wheel, on wet roads with very poor visibility! We hit one awful section where even the transports had to pull off and put chains on all their big-rig tires to get through the ice!

We made it to Vail safely and honestly only about 30-45 minutes later than it should have taken! Nick barely went above 40mph the whole way!

Our Condo at Vail Racquet Club was beautiful!!!! The master bathroom had glass doors and a double shower heads! The 2nd bedroom had bunk beds, with the bottom bunk being a double so Nick and I shared that, while Michael slept on the bunk above us!  For all of us it was a step up from what we've been sharing for the last week!

 

Michael, Nick and I went for a swim in the outdoor heated swimming pool around 9:30 and then enjoyed the heat in 1 of 2  huge out door hot tubs!

Wednesday morning lil' Randy came over and picked us up and brought us to their condo which was practically right downtown Vail. The Randy's and Nick and Michael headed over to the Ski Lifts and got hooked up with ski rentals and a lift passes. The rest of us took our sweet time wondering around Vail Village and then met up with them in time to take a few pictures and then send them up the mountain for a day of skiing! Considering only one of them has skied before and it was on a man made hill in FLAT southern Ontario they were taking on quite the task, skiing one of the most world renowned mountains!!

Big Randy joined out group and we got ski lift passes as well but ours were just for scenic rides. We went up the first lift, enjoying the sites and checking out the restaurants at the top, then went down and walked over to the next village Lions Head and went up that lift as well!

Apparently Michael had separated from the 2 brothers and somehow ended up going down the mountain into Lion's Head Village by accident and had to ask how to get back over to Vail! Too funny!

We ate lunch up there, and then came down and did some more shopping/browsing. We went up the ski lift in Vail again, just to enjoy the beauty! Shopped some more! I got an awesome Vail sweatshirt! 

Then we waited at the base of the mountain for the boys to come down for their last run! They had a blast! Totally worth the money and the pain to say they've skied in Vail.  I'm totally jealous because I would have loved to say that I did, but I don't  have health insurance at the moment so it didn't seem wise to possibly break a leg.

 

They boys were sooo tired, and I think we just snacked for dinner. Some of us adults ran over to the next town to the Wal-mart for snacks and I forgot to bring my B.C. from home so I had to go purchase a new prescription, as well as some Aloe for my sun burnt face! Apparently you're closer to the sun in Vail and being outside ALL day will turn you into a lobster!

Insert Sunburn Picture Here

Nick's parents came over and enjoyed our hot tub on their sore muscles from all the walking and then we went downtown to see it all lit up! I was hoping to go skating on the rink that was downtown but we got there just shortly after it closed for the night.

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning, Thursday - we all met at Yeti's Coffee shop (a popular stop in our 2 days) and enjoyed a leisurely morning coffee on a  patio looking at the mountains! Can't beat it!

I had a White Rasperry Mocha, and Iced White Mocha and a Chai Latte!

Then we headed out for a double family Photo Shoot!  ie. Place Nick and Brittney somewhere, add Everett family, Mom takes pictures, leave Nick and Brittney, swap in Austin Family, hand Camera off to lil' Randy, find new locations - repeat.

For lunch we split up families, all the original Austins went to Michael's pick: a German Restaurant for Wiener Schnitzel, and the Original Everett's + Steph, the newest Everett - went to a BBQ restaurant.

The afternoon was random, some shopped, some found a comfy spot, took off their shoes, closed their eyes and pretended they were at the beach, some napped at the condo. We all met up again at 4 and went skating! It was a blast! I would have been happy to skate alone, just so I could say I skated in Vail (close to skiing in Vail), but both the dad's joined me right off the bat and soon since we looked like we were having so much fun, MomE and Nick joined in!

Since we drove to Vail in the dark, we really wanted to head home in the light so we left shortly after our goal of 5pm, and made it home in the normal time, seeing 2-3 mountain goats on the way home!! (they were kind of far away, but at least mom can say she saw them....)

insert mountain goat picture here

It was short but sweet and I think we're all tired, from skiing, skating, walking and all that sun!

We took over 1000 pictures in 2 days!!