2 weeks in Vail...Colorado

Below are some videos Stuart has made....click on the words to watch them....

Vail...fun in the trees
Beaver Creek
April Snow, Vail
Vail Spring Snow
Stuart literally spent hours and hours and hours on the internet when we returned home after our year in Denver,  organising accommodation for our long holiday in the US and possibly Europe.  We signed up for 2 house exchange websites and he sent off hundreds of emails requesting house exchanges. We knew we wouldn't be able to afford our holiday if we were paying for accommodation every night, so we were really keen to get exchanges.  Fortunately we found Judy from Boulder, CO who agreed to do an exchange, and has a duplex in Vail and we have scored 2 weeks here.
So we drove from WinterPark to Vail

in the hire car...

found the condo easily.....(just tricking)

this was the accommodation....

(just kidding!!) and it has been just perfect. The condo is 3 levels...a basement for the car and washing machine/dryer, a living area with a lounge/dining, kitchen and toilet and 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs.  We arrived to find a lovely bottle of red waiting for us and every creature comfort we could possibly need. It has been fantastic and a 1 minute walk to the bus stop for Stuart to go snowboarding. Thanks Judy.
This is the view from the back, which overlooks a lovely fast flowing creek.

Stuart was pretty happy with 2 snowstorms as we are now getting towards the end of the ski season and every bit helps.  He has really enjoyed his time at Vail

 and Beaver Creek

(see the videos at start of blog) and we had Ken and Barb who we met through CITEL come up and stay a night here to take on the mountains with Stu.  It was a good effort for them to come up as the I70 was closed for a few hours and they were stuck at Georgetown waiting for it to be reopened...they eventually got here and we enjoyed an evening sitting by the fire catching up.  The next day they had a powder day,

but Barb unfortunately hurt her knee, (however, no serious damage).  Stu and Ken were still able to put in a good day together.

CITEL were a fantastic organisation for us last year and we met such a great group of dedicated people.  So it has been really good to see CITEL people again and we are catching up with more over the next few weeks.  I can see that this exchange will keep on giving for many years. Thanks Barb and Ken for coming up..we really appreciated it.
So most of our fortnight here in Vail has revolved around snowboarding,

snowboarding

and for something different..snowboarding,

which was always the plan for March/April......so I am looking forward to a different adventure come May!!
Stuart has been watching a TV show back in Australia, called American Pickers, (these 2 guys travel the US looking for collectibles and go on to sell them), last year it was one of his favourite shows and when we got back to Colorado we were watching it again and they went to a town in Colorado called Leadville.  We had taken a drive to Leadville when we were in Silverthorne and actually didn't think much of it, so when they showed the "Old Opera House" in the main street on American Pickers, we were shocked as we didn't see it the first time we went...in fact, embarrassingly, all we saw were a few old houses and Safeway!!!  It turns out we actually only went to the outskirts of Leadville, so we decided to take a scenic drive to check the place out! 

And what a drive it was....

Abandoned mining town

Abandoned mine site

into Leadville....an old mining town full of character and great buildings..

Abandoned church

and we found the Opera House!

But what appealed to Stuart the most about Leadville??? "THEY BELIEVE"!!!!

Another afternoon was spent wandering around Vail Village.  Vail is an expensive resort so there was never any thought of us eating out or shopping (not that either of us are shoppers) but the Village is very European and there are heaps of shops and restaurants and a couple of ice rinks...an interesting place to walk around....

Stuart had spent a day snowboarding at Beaver Creek, which fortunately his Epic Pass from last year covered as it is a very well to do Resort.  Wanting to mingle in with the "richies", at the end of the day he was hot, so while waiting at the bus stop with a very wealthy looking lady, who was wearing very expensive sunnies, he took off his helmet and goggles and got his sunnies out of his pocket and put them on.  The wealthy woman kept staring at him, so he got a bit shitty and stared back...thinking "how did she know these are Walmart sunnies and cost $10?" He kept glaring at her until the bus arrived, he got on and felt like all the passengers in the bus were staring at him as well!..Anyway he got to the car, loaded all his gear in and drove back to the condo...catching his reflection in the mirror when he came inside...and this is what he saw!!  Seriously?  No clue?

Another afternoon was spent at Beaver Creek

Beaver Creek ski runs

checking out the Village...again, very pretty...but seemingly very expensive...

Stu and a bighorn...

before we drove up a mountain and got to witness a stunning sunset as a snowstorm came in.....

We picked a blue sky day for me to go up the gondola with Stu

and watch him snowboard.

The views from the top of the mountain were stunning...

 

 and it was a whole other world watching snowboarders, skiiers and bikers??

...and the little kids who were in ski school were pretty bloody cute!

 with interesting head wear!!

It was a glorious day, quite cold but that didn't matter when you get to see views like this....

On Sunday Stu had a day off snowboarding and we drove to Aspen.  We hadn't got there last year and I was keen to see it as it where the rich and famous hang out. Turns out we were both really disappointed in it..there wasn't much snow around which makes a difference....but to us it was no different to other ski resorts....maybe we missed something...but there were some magnificent homes...

The drive before Aspen was pretty spectacular.....

and when we tried to drive through Independence Pass the road was still closed, so we went for a walk on it instead...

but it was a little disconcerting to see this....

and then this....

 but a beautiful spot nevertheless....

So we headed back to Vail on the I70, driving through Glenwood Canyon which is a roadwork engineering masterpiece..sheer mountains either side of you, different levels of the road and a creek running alongside the road....quite incredible.....

but we are always reminded of Tom Price whenever we have driven this section...Mt Nameless in Tom Price....this in Glenwood Canyon....

A couple of photos I must share...things that I have never seen before in my (nearly 50 years)....I was buying some chicken at Safeway the other day and came across this....(and nearly threw up!)

and Stu was reading a magazine and came across this ad..which has really left me a bit speechless. Not much else to say about that.

But check this out...same place...photo taken 20 mins apart...gotta love snow!

So it's been a great couple of weeks here.  When you are travelling for such a long time, it is really nice to be able to spend a significant amount of time in one spot.
I am missing the boys a lot.  Kristoffer has just picked up a FIFO job up near Newman, in the Pilbara.  It is a 2 week on, 1 week off roster and he and Asha will no doubt miss each other terribly..but it is well paid work and will be a good start for them while they build their house and plan their wedding.  Jakeb headed up to Coral Bay for a week, Morgan stayed in Perth and Joshuah has driven down to Windy to be with my family. Easter time at Windy Harbour is always special

  and with Elizabeth and Tom, Yoli and Iyah in Australia as well it has been really hard being away from home.  The family got together at our house a couple of days ago to celebrate Mum's birthday and it was lovely to see them all and have a chat on Skype.

love my boys xxx

So Happy Birthday to Mum and Happy Easter to everyone.....