Vail

Well we've ignored the blog for a couple of weeks and its time to let you know what we've been up to. In the last three weeks we've seen a lot more snow. The driveway has been shovelled and the windscreen wipers were frozen solid on one frosty morning. We were housebound, if not for a frosty walk around the block last weekend with overcast weather and steady snow. Tess quite likes the cold air against her rosy cheeks, and it's just as well because the opportunity has presented itself regularly. Things we've experienced; we ate at the international house of pancakes, we had hotdogs at the Chicago diner, have fallen in love with pulled pork (a true American delicacy), we spent a weekend in a cozy log cabin in the lap of luxury in Vail and I watched a high school basketball game go right to the wire and Arvada win by two points in extra time. All in all, the American experiences keep coming and coming. Vail was fantastic. We walked around the township and our feet were spared any snow because the cobblestones are kindly heated, a detail the Lakewood council could take on board. The slopes run straight onto the shops and hotels. The village is mock Bavarian and very picturesque. More than one woman swanned by in a fur coat and we must have looked very out of place. We were staying to the south so we braved some snow covered roads, more snow than I've seen on snow fields back home until we arrived at the largest house we've ever seen and proceeded through a tunnel to the heated drive. After a short stop we drove to the main cabin where we would be dining and socialising around the open fire. The cabins and main house are set in hundreds of acres on the fringe of state forest. So the views were stupendous. Our host, Josh, took us snowshoeing around the property and Jason and Tess almost disappeared into a metre of snow. I found this hilarious but then had difficulty getting up myself a moment later. The following day Josh's mother, Judith, dropped us at the top of the road and drove a few kilometres down and blocked any possible traffic so that we could toboggan down the road. I haven't had so much fun since I slid down the slopes on a garbage bag as a kid (thanks Uncle Peter). I crashed and couldn't get all the way down but Jason, Amber, Josh and their 2 year old daughter, Riley got up to some fantastic speeds. So we have yet to ski but no pressure. Next weekend we are going to the 'Frozen Dead Guy' festival which celebrates a cryogenically frozen man in a village in the mountains. Should be interesting?