Day three in Evergreen - Winter Park

As we ate breakfast this morning, we spotted some elk in Annie's backyard! They were so calm... we could walk pretty close to them and they didn't care. We saw more as we drove down Annie's street!

Today was our first day on a big mountain in Colorado! We drove over an hour to get to Winter Park; Shell gas stations have a great deal where if you buy 10 gallons of gas, you get a buy one get one free voucher that can be used at resorts like Winter Park and Copper Mountain. We obviously used this today, since regular lift tickets are almost $100!

Josh decided he wanted to do the bowls at the top left of the photo below, so we took a few lifts and a few trails to get over to that area... and then learned that the whole area was closed! Josh and Vidak accidentally missed the turn for the blue we were going down and instead found themselves at the top of a black run covered with moguls... oops!

We decided to head over to the right of the photo below since there was a nice looking area with greens and blues for me and blues and blacks for Josh and Vidak. We took yet another terrible trail over to that lift... only to learn that the area over there was closed as well! As you can see from the image below, a lot of the mountain was closed :(

To add to that, it was also incredibly windy (probably the reason that the lifts were closed). Any powder snow had blown off, leaving hard ice underneath... the best runs were protected by trees, and those runs still had some soft snow. Josh and Vidak went off on their own as I skied by myself for a while. I made it back to the lodge and ordered hot chocolate for everyone, since were all pretty exhausted when the day was over!

We left Winter Park and got pizza for dinner on the way back to Annie's. Everyone was pretty tired so we went to bed not long after getting back to her house.

Josh's high for the day was pizza for dinner because it was very filling and delicious after a slightly disappointing day, and my high was seeing Josh and Vidak act very goofy at Winter Park. Josh's low was how windy it was on the mountain! My low was that I didn't really enjoy the snowboarding at Winter Park... I was very sick of the trails by the end of the day :( Josh and I shared the same "ho"... Vidak was so funny when we told him what après-ski means, especially since the place that apparently had the "best" après-ski was mostly empty!

Day two in Evergreen - Sol Vista

The three of us woke up early this morning, and Josh and Vidak built up their boards while I made breakfast and lunch. Josh decided that we would start at a small mountain for our first day of skiing, so he found a great deal at Sol Vista. The only bad thing is that the mountain was over 90 minutes away from Evergreen... we had a long drive this morning!

The three of us went down a blue run together for the first run of the day, and then on the lift on the way back up, Vidak realized that he lost his phone! We all took our time going down the same run again, looking around for his phone in the snow. We couldn't find it, so Vidak went to the lost and found area as Josh and I kept looking outside.

The help desk employees gave Vidak access to their computer, and he logged into his GPS tracking program. We could actually see where his phone was! It seemed that the phone was going up some lifts and down some runs, so obviously everyone was worried that a skier had found it and claimed it as their own. I called and texted the phone, but no replies. Finally, the GPS refreshed on the computer and Vidak realized that his phone was right in the lodge! Josh and I split up and searched the different floors of the lodge but couldn't find anything... until Josh saw a man giving a phone to an employee! It was Vidak's phone! It turns out that the man who found the phone couldn't speak English, so he couldn't reply to the texts, and even answering the phone would've been pointless. Either way, it was wonderful that Vidak found his phone!!

Vidak and Josh rode in the terrain parks for most of the day, and I conquered lots of the blues on one of the mountains. :) We all went down some blues at the end of the day, and I finally kept up with Josh, and sometimes went faster than him!

At the end of the day, we took some group photos. As you can tell, Josh and Vidak have matching hats... I knit the hat that Vidak is wearing first, for Josh, but it ended up being way too big (I used a pattern called "Gargantuan Melon"...), so I used the same yarn and made Josh's regular-sized hat. Vidak didn't bring a hat, so he ended up wearing the enormous hat today!

We went to the grocery store after skiing and bought some beer and rum along with breakfast and lunch necessities. When we got back to Annie's house, she suggested that we make Mai Tais with the rum and enjoy them in their outdoor hot tub... which we did! It was fantastic. When we got out of the hot tub, Annie served us an amazing dinner of salmon and wild rice. She really has spoiled us!

Josh's high for the day was getting to snowboard with Vidak, and my high was feeling like a super confident snowboarder by the end of the day! Josh and I had the same low, which was the 90 minute drive out to Sol Vista. Josh's "ho" was the elaborate search for Vidak's cellphone, and my "ho" is related to that... it was honestly so funny when Vidak saw that the GPS tracker was saying that his phone was in the lodge, because he yelled, "It's in the lodge. It's in the lodge!! It's right on top of us!!"

Grand Junction to Evergreen

Josh and I woke up pretty early this morning and got out the door around 8 AM. Yesterday, we didn't have a place to stay tonight; for some reason it was extremely difficult to find a host anywhere in Frisco, Breckenridge, and even in the Denver area. Luckily, we managed to get a reply from a woman and her husband in Evergreen who could host us for a few days!

As we left Grand Junction, we got a text from a potential host in Breckenridge. The text was very peculiar... he said that we could meet up when we got into Breck, but didn't say that we had a place to stay. We got into Breckenridge in the early afternoon and met up with Dara at his workplace/house, and realized that we were being interviewed to see if we were cool enough to stay with him!

Dara was actually a really neat guy. A few years older than us, he started his own biodiesel and soap-making business five years ago, and actually lived above his shop, along with three other people who also worked for the company. It was a crazy operation, and a very interesting conversation! As we left, he still couldn't concretely offer us a place to stay, but suggested that we keep in touch.

We got into Evergreen and met our host, Annie, at her very nice house. We learned a lot about her and her husband, Andy: they're both in their early 50's, are competitive cyclists and have competed in Iron Man competitions numerous times!

Vidak was flying into the Denver airport from Tampa this evening, so we left to go pick him up about an hour before his flight was scheduled to land. Annie said that she would have chicken enchiladas ready when we got back... amazing!

Our only photo from the day is a very creepy one that Josh took of Vidak while he was waiting for his luggage...

Josh was very happy to see a friend come out to do some snowboarding with us, and we excitedly told Vidak all about Annie as we drove back to Evergreen. Her chicken enchiladas were amazing and we really had a great time talking with her.

Josh's high was meeting Annie and having dinner with her, and my high was that we found such a wonderful host to introduce Vidak to Couch Surfing! Josh's low is that we basically just drove all day, from Grand Junction to Breckenridge to Evergreen to Denver and back to Evergreen. My low is that we only have that one photo for today! My "ho" was feeling like Josh and I were meeting Project Mayhem from "Fight Club," especially with their soap making operation!

Moab to Grand Junction

This morning, Josh and I went with Chris to Arches National Park so he could show us some of his favorite areas. Though we visited the park yesterday, we didn't venture very far and we didn't do any hikes, so we were excited to actually see the park!

First on our list was Balanced Rock, a famous point in Arches. We also hiked around the North and South Windows.

The Double Arch was really neat, and Josh got lots of awkward photos around them!

We also hiked the Sand Dune Arch, which was Josh's favorite since there was a really neat payoff at the end of the hike.

Bob, from Ogden, had suggested the 3 mile Delicate Arch hike that Josh and I really wanted to do... but unfortunately we ran out of time and just did the 100 yard walk to the Delicate Arch viewpoint. The Delicate Arch is one of the most famous arches; it's on the Utah license plate!

Chris took us to a local restaurant for their famous hamburgers and chili before Josh and I headed to Grand Junction.

We took a neat drive through a canyon to get to Grand Junction. We met our host, Joy, and her four year old daughter. They had to leave for a birthday dinner but we got to play some card games with Joy's daughter; she is so cute!

Josh's high was the Sand Dune Arch hike. Josh's low was the weather: it was a cold day in the desert! My low was how I was feeling... I bought some pseudoephedrine and it made me feel better, though. Josh and I shared the same "ho" for the day: Joy is a very forgetful person, and it was very funny (and awkward!) when she realized that she had forgotten to take her daughter to school that morning. Oops!

Ogden to Moab

We had a long day of driving this morning so we said goodbye to Bob, Kathleen, Doris, and Shawn and packed up the car before heading to Moab.

We didn't really stop anywhere along the way until we got to Arches National Park!

Unfortunately, Josh realized that we were low on gas just as we entered the park, so we only drove a little ways in to take some silly photos and real photos.

The landscape was amazing, and I love this photo that Josh took of my little car, surrounded by mountains and rocks!

We met our host, Chris, at his house on the outskirts of Moab, and we played a few video games with him before he said that he had to be at work pretty soon. Josh and I learned that he DJs for a local radio station on Thursday nights, and he invited us to come along!

Chris did a great job DJing the show, and we even got to participate when he and the other DJ asked us questions about our trip and Couch Surfing! It was a lot of fun, especially when we got to peruse the thousands of CDs and make our own requests.

After the show, Josh and I joined Chris back at his house. We met his roommate, and the three boys drank beer while looking over maps of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Tomorrow, Chris is showing us a few light hikes in Arches!

Josh and I shared the same high today, which was being on the radio... even though very few people were listening, it was neat to know that our voices was being broadcast over the airwaves! We also shared the same low... we didn't do very much today; most of our day was driving from Ogden to Moab. My "ho" was when we gave a shout-out to Vidak on the radio, and Chris repeated it except said Vidak's name as "V-Dawg!"

Day six in Ogden - Powder Mountain

We woke up this morning to beautiful and clear blue skies and started to get excited. Bob made delicious pancakes for breakfast and we got out super early and had a fantastic drive up to Powder Mountain... the skies stayed clear all the way up and we bravely drove farther up the road to park in the resort center parking lot.

It was without a doubt the best day of skiing we have had on our trip. The ski report said it was a perfect 10 and it definitely was; there was so much powder and the sun was warm... amazing!!! Josh brought the camera out for a little because we had to capture how nice everything was! The ride up the Hidden Lake Express lift was fantastic because of the scenery, and we were smiling all day!

As the employees told us, people definitely do there own thing at Powder Mountain. People can start on groomed runs and dive into powder whenever they want, like this guy!

This is the view of the lift from about the same angle as yesterday....

One of us could be heard singing or humming the Who's "I Can See for Miles" all day!

Josh took a few photos of me practicing the new technique! I had a great time "carving."

We drove over to the Sundown area because obviously Josh wanted to do some night skiing tonight, so he upgraded his ticket and I took a few photos of him carving the "pow pow" (and also eating it).

A great end to an awesome day of snowboarding!

Josh's high from today was riding a riding a rail in the terrain park, and my high was when Josh that I looked very good "carving" a blue run :) Josh didn't have a low, but my low was that I keep falling on my left arm. If I forget to take Advil, I can barely hold a door open! :( Josh's "ho" was taking a trail through the trees that was so used that it had been packed into an inescapable track that ended with a ramp out of the trees! Josh said he was in the air for so long that he had time to think, "Oh no, this sucks. This really sucks," before eating it. My "ho" was meeting an author on one of the lifts... the three of us started talking and we learned that he is the author of this book, and Josh and I plan on downloading it so we can listen to it in the car!

Day five in Ogden - Powder Mountain

Bob made scrambled eggs, biscuits, and gravy for breakfast to fuel us for our first day at Powder Mountain!!! It wasn't snowing in Ogden so our spirits were high as Josh and I drove up the mountain. Powder Mountain is even further up than Wolf Creek, and the incline on the extra road was very scary... it started to snow and just got worse and worse. We made it to the first parking lot, in the Sundown Lodge area, bought our two-day tickets, and then hit the slopes!

We took a blue run down and it was not too bad! The powder was amazing and it was like falling on pillows. Since the Sundown lift just provides access to a tiny, tiny part of the mountain, we took the shuttle to the resort center, where we could access many more runs. I thought it was very neat that we had to take a green run to get to the lift!

We eventually made it to the Hidden Lake Lodge, where I took this photo of the lift:

That really is exactly what it looked like outside. The lodge had lots of beautiful photos of gorgeous sunny days... it was almost cruel! Josh maintained a positive attitude and kept saying that the clouds would clear out... but they did not, and we spent the day snowboarding in a blizzard!

Josh did a few runs by himself while I thawed in the lodge, and then we did a few more together. (In the image below, purple denotes runs that we did together.) Josh would not let the weather get him down, but could not muster the energy to really smile... or his face was frozen!

I worked on "kicking out" my back foot in order to link turns quicker, but it was difficult to learn this in deep powder... it was much more fun just to "surf" the snow! A few runs were kind of groomed, so I managed to practice this new technique on those.

Josh was planning on upgrading his ticket for night skiing but it was still snowing when we got to the Sundown night skiing area, and we decided to head home... Josh did not want to have another scary nighttime driving experience on snowy mountain roads! However, the roads weren't too bad, so thankfully it was a smooth drive back home. We had leftover shrimp Alfredo for dinner before getting to bed early to prepare for our last day of skiing in Utah tomorrow!

Obviously we had the same high today: snowboarding in fresh snow was fantastic! The mountain is enormous and we barely covered any runs even though we were there all day. We also had the same low, which was the awful weather. It was difficult to enjoy the snowboarding when you couldn't see farther than 10 feet in front of you! Josh's "ho" was singing our made-up song as we drove off the mountain... since we drove pretty slowly, the lyrics went: "Taking our time getting down the mou-ou-tain," and we took turns making up other lyrics :) My "ho" was listening to Bob tease Shawn... sometimes Bob just says things that are subtle jokes at the age difference between Kathleen and Shawn.

Day four in Ogden

We woke up in good time today but ended up not going skiing... we looked at the webcams for Powder Mountain and it looked incredibly crowded. We tried to weigh the pros and cons... pros: obviously fresh powder; cons: super crowded. We manipulated our itinerary a little and decided to take today off and spend an extra day in Ogden to do Powder Mountain Tuesday and Wednesday!

Bob suggested the Hill Aerospace Museum, a free museum with lots of planes. Josh loved it there!! We spent many hours looking at planes... and helicopters... and engines... it is definitely not my thing but I'm glad that Josh had fun even though we weren't skiing.

Bob cooked potato soup and cornbread for dinner and we spent time talking to him before going to bed. It's funny that we sent a request to stay with Kathleen but have ended up spending much more time with her dad!

Josh's high was seeing the SR-71 because it was an unexpected and pleasant surprise to see one at the free Air Force museum. My high was spending more time hanging out with Bob, he is recently retired and has done so many active, outdoor things in his retirement! Josh and I shared the same low of having another day with no snowboarding... Josh's "ho" was seeing all of the huge Mormon families at the museum, and my "ho" was that actually spent like four hours at the museum.

Day three in Ogden

Bob made delicious breakfast burritos this morning and Josh and I decided that today would be a no skiing day. The roads were totally covered in snow and it was still coming down!

My little car was totally blanketed in powder!

Josh threw on his ski gear and headed outside to make a snowman. Unfortunately, powder doesn't make a very good snowman, but he managed to make a little snow baby with our Jelly Belly jellybeans for the mouth and eyes :)

Then, he tried shoveling snow into a pile to form a snowman. It looked pretty ridiculous at first...

... but then he gave it my scarf to wear, plus some pine cones (from Sequoia!) for eyes, and it was looking pretty good.

Then Josh proved he has read too much Calvin and Hobbes and made a snowman murder scene.

We did some errands today and driving around today was actually a lot of fun. The roads were clear and the snow made everything look so beautiful!

I cooked shrimp Alfredo for everyone for dinner; I love staying with families because we always have a nice sit down meal with everyone sharing their day... it makes me feel less homesick!

Josh's high was playing in the snow, and my high was watching Josh play in the snow... he was like a little kid! Josh's low was not snowboarding today, and I didn't really have a low today.. it was nice to take it a little slow. Josh's "ho" was losing one of his lens from his glasses but not realizing it until after he was done in the snow. We couldn't find it because it was definitely covered up by snow! My "ho" is Josh's beard. This thing is so gross! In the photo below, you can see Josh's beard and also see that he is missing one of his lenses... oops!