Skiing with the Vernons

We had a much-appreciated 10 day vacation this month which took us back to Bryn Mawr, PA to visit with my family and see Laura & Matt who flew in from Santa Barbara. After a couple days there, we departed for Denver, Colorado, making it there the morning before the big snow storm hit and shut down the airport for a couple days (Phew...good timing!) We were greeted at the airport by Mike Vernon who is living in Boulder for the winter, and he showed us around Boulder and met up with Tim & Lindsay for lunch at a delicious burrito joint. (Boulder has great Mexican food...something we miss in Maine!) After Kelly was done with work, we all piled in Mike's car (packed to the brim with our gear and luggage!) and drove the winding mountain roads to the Breckenridge resort of Valdoro, where Steve's family was awaiting our arrival.
The Valdoro definitely treated us well...our 1 bdrm condo had a gas fireplace, full kitchen and all the amenities we could ask. We were situated down the hall from the Vernon's condo and had our Christmas meal that first night while the snow began to fall (which didn't stop falling for about two days!) We frequented the hot tub downstairs regularly, which turned out to be the best remedy after a long day skiing on the cold, snowy slopes.
We spent the first days skiing at Breckenridge, which gave me a good chance to explore the mountain's vast slopes (sticking to the blues with Carolyn!) while Steve, Mike and Dave took full advantage of the mountains black diamonds (and double blacks!) When the skies finally cleared at the end of the second day, Steve and I spent the afternoon skiing together and we explored more of the mountain than I had previously seen. The views that emerged were breathtaking and as the sky turned orange and pink we basically had many slopes to ourselves which was an amazing experience for me, someone who's used to the more crowded, smaller East coast mountains.

On the fourth day, we drove to Vail, the picturesque village that is nestled right into the mountain side, and Steve, Mike, Dave and Steve's highschool friend Patrick spent the day skiing the expert terrain of the mountain, while Joyce, Carolyn and I explored the many unique boutiques and shops of Vail. We joined up with guys later for pizza and then made our way back to Breckenridge.

Our last day was spent with Mike exploring the smaller towns along the way back to Boulder. We stopped in the town of Empire (population 300) to take in the local "antique" store which had one or two things that were actually made in the US. Then we made our way down to Boulder where we killed some time before our red eye flight back to Philly for Christmas eve.
Once back in Philly we took a much needed nap before heading over to the annual Christmas Eve gathering of the Hollinger family at Aunt Linda and Uncle Tracy's. We caught up with the cousins ate a delicious meal and drove through the luminary lit street on the way home. Christmas day at the Hollinger house was spent with family, exchanging gifts, and of course, more good food. The next day was back to Maine with a stop in Milford CT to see Steve's Aunt Catherine and Uncle Bill as well as the other Vernons. It was great to see them all! Well, DeLorme was calling Steve back to work and Lesley had some important work to do before the new years, so here we are back in Maine.
For New Years we will be going to a party thrown by Lesley's new knitting friends in Portland. Much to Steve's dismay, there will acutally be no knitting taking place during the party! Haha...we hope you all have a Happy New Year!!!!