Wednesday 1 April 2009

We're back!




























Good Morning! Well, beginning to re-adjust to normal life again after getting back from the USA. We had a fantastic time and both mine and Bear's skiing improved a lot and we were glad that we eventually chose to go to Vail rather than Aspen. Vail was a fantastic ski resort and well deserves it's reputation as the best in North America.

We managed to find a great local baby sitter (called Mountain Sitters) who were able to take care of Sean and Freja, the daughter of our friends who joined us there.

Being there for two weeks gave us plenty of time to indulge in some of my other passions, such as sight seeing and of course shopping. (pictures of what I bought to be added in the next post).

We split our time between Boulder (a beautiful Colorado town where our friends live) and the mountains. We travelled between the two in our rented car (with a fitted babyseat), and enjoyed the breathtaking scenery as we drove around.

The weather went from beautiful spring sunshine to a complete winter 'whiteout' where when I could only see as far as the end of my skis (pretty scary). In fact, so much snow fell in the last few days that we became snowed in, couldn't travel and had to extend our stay by two days. Not too much of a hardship though, haha!

All in all, we had a truly wonderful time away and Baby Bear seem to enjoy his first long haul trip. We made a decision to go back to Vail next year and hopefully every year at the same time.

Now all I need to do is to recover from my jet lag - perhaps the girls night out ( with up to 5 other Swedish girlfriends) that is planned for tonight will help! :-) Who is baby sitting then? Bear of course! :-)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aspen is the place to see and be seen. The best oxymoron we uncovered is that so few Aspenites actually ski. This makes for fantastic un-crowded skiing and admittedly great star spotting. Curl up by the roaring fire in deep leather couches at The St. Regis Lobby Bar, the place for après ski, and watch the parade of furs.

We had a drink with comedian Carrot Top and apparently just missed Melanie Griffith who frequents Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber’s trendy bar, Whiskey Rocks. Our First Tracks ski instructor lives next to the “Dons,” Henley and Johnson. That’s all the Aspen name-dropping I have.

Unlike Aspen’s glitzy après ski scene, Vail skiers and riders are more hard-core, heading directly to the village bars in their ski boots, as opposed to quitting early to don their furry après ski boots.

Vail appears the more rowdy of the alpine hamlets, but I cannot fairly attest to which town has better nightlife. After all the skiing we did, the pillow won. Suffice it to say you will not go thirsty, hungry or un-amused after the lifts close in either of these animated ski towns.

In one week we did the side-by-side ski test of Aspen and Vail, to determine who is the fairest of them all. End result, we were exhausted from logging 234,000 vertical feet – but gleeful. We came to ski and we were highly successful, quite high literally too, skiing at elevations over 10,000-feet.

We would gladly return to either resort and settle in for the duration. I love Aspen’s ambiance – but enjoyed Beaver Creek’s terrain most. My husband loves the vast Back Bowls of Vail, but says there is no better 2,000-feet of pure vertical terrain than the Big Burn at Snowmass.

My daughter says she would gladly move to Aspen. My son inquired about colleges near Vail.

Aspen’s four diverse mountains and fabulous ski town will amuse anyone for days, weeks, and for many - a lifetime. Vail alone takes a week to conquer plus you have Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe on the same ticket.

I recommend you bring the pace down a notch, settle in to one of these incredible resorts and stay awhile. Pick the resort that suits your personality. If you long for maximum vertical, neither area will disappoint.

Anonymous said...

beautiful scenery and pictures!!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Suzie said...

vilka underbara foton!! jag ville se bilden dar du lag ner i backen!! :))
puuuuss

onsitelondon said...

Det ser onekligen ut som ni har haft en fantastisk tid. Tänk vad skönt och avslappnad man kan bli av natur och frisk luft. Ibland tror jag att man vänjer sig för mkt vid London och glömmer hur den "riktiga" varlden ser ut.

Välkomna hem.

Kram

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