Fun with the Finger's: Beaver Creek, Colorado

We are coming down off of a big high from our weekend! Kelly and I went with our friends Alan and Jennifer to Beaver Creek, Colorado for a ski trip. We left last Friday and came home on Monday. It was a quick trip to us but so much fun! You can't beat a weekend full of beautiful scenery, good friends, good food-especially chocolate chip cookies, lots of laughs and of course skiing! We had the best time and it was such a nice little getaway.

We left bright and early last Friday morning. We headed to the airport and with the time change we made it to Colorado around 10:30. We ate lunch in Denver then continued driving on our way to Beaver Creek. Beaver Creek is about 10-15 minutes from Vail. Once we got there we got checked in, complete with a yummy chocolate chip cookie, then got settled in at our condo. We stayed at Townsend Place which is a ski in ski out condo right beside the Beaver Creek village. We weren't able to ski that day but we did pick up our skis and boots so we would be ready the next morning. We also made our way to the grocery store for a few things, that turned out to be mostly snacks and chips! We had a good laugh and took a picture of our groceries. We also ate dinner while we were out and it was very good. Afterwards we headed to the village to check out some of the shops. The guys found some very interesting stores that night. One was full of fur coats and one in the window had caught their eye or should I say the price caught their eyes...$7,100.00! It was a mink coat with bobcat trim....hmmmm. Another store sold bronze statues and they found a nice one in there for around $150,000. Definitely some pricey stores ;) We had fun looking though! Most of the shops were closing up by this time so we finished walking around and headed back to the condo. We were all getting pretty tired since it had been a long day and we had to rest up for skiing the next day.

Made it to Beaver Creek!

We took this picture to show the long icicles.

Iin the Village

There were several ice sculptures in the village that would light up

The expensive coat that we got a kick out of...

Our groceries...or should I say our chips and snacks!

The next morning we got up and got ready to head out to ski. The lifts opened at 8:30 and I think we were on them at 9. We spent our morning skiing. Beaver Creek is a good size with a lot of lifts and runs. On our second lift up I was taking a picture on my phone and my ski glove fell off the chair...not good. Jennifer gave me her glove liner to wear and we had to ski back down hoping to see it. Alan actually found it and it was a little off the groomed path so I'm thankful he was able to get to it. After that little setback we headed back up the lift and off to the next run. We actually headed to the very top of the summit. At the top the elevation was 11,440 ft! The view was breathtaking! Looking out at these huge mountains covered in snow is so awesome! We had to take some pictures at this point!

Ready to ski!

I love the aspen trees! The white against that blue sky is just gorgeous!

On the chair lift. This picture is where the glove fell off!

The gorgeous view!

A look at some of the ski runs...in the distance the skiers look like ants!

Top of the summit...11,440 ft

Group shot

From here we skied down a little further and decided we were ready for a lunch break. Its amazing how skiing just wears you out...especially my feet and ankles! Those boots are killer. We had a very good lunch there on the mountain. There was also a photographer there so we got a better group picture.

We got a lot of comments on our Georgia gear. We even got an occasional "Go Dawgs!" At this particular picture stop we had a laugh with a few LSU fans and this guy even decided to be a great photobomber. Gotta love it!

I can't remember what day I took what pictures when it comes to the scenic ones on the slopes. They may start to look alike but it was just so pretty I couldn't help it.

A view down to the village

The Ritz Carlton at the bottom of the Bachelor Gulch lift

Skiing down to Beaver Creek

All of the lifts close at either 3:30 or 4:00. At the end of our first day we were ready to call it quits at about 3:15 so we headed on back to our room. My feet were so ready to get those boots off! We all got back and relaxed a bit before getting ready to head out to dinner. We ate that night at a place called the Coyote Cafe. It was a neat little restaurant. After we ate we made a stop at the grocery store to grab lunch food for the next day. We decided it would be cheaper than eating on the slopes again :) Not to mention we had a lot of chips to eat up! Because we were all aching from the day, and our motto for the trip was YOLO (you only live once), we decided to run to the hot tub. It felt so good! We could barely see each other through all the steam but it sure felt good to sit in that hot water and those jets. After we had shriveled up and started to get hot we made a run back to the room before we could start to freeze outside! We headed to bed to rest before going at it again the next day.

Sunday we woke up and got ready. We had planned to separate for the morning and meet back at lunch. Kelly and I had a rough start...when we got going Kelly forgot his ski goggles. No big deal really there. We caught the lift to start up and the way our lift was, we got on and then a few feet up was another place for others to get on. It dips down so those riders can get on and when Kelly & I went over that low point, Kelly's ski poles snapped! No sooner than the worker had said watch your poles did his poles crack. Not good... When we got off the lift I think he was feeling so weird without his poles. We were going to ski back down to get him new poles. He did really well without poles even if it did feel odd. I think it also wore him out a little. You don't realize how much you use those poles even for just having something to hold on to. He made it though and luckily didn't have to pay for the poles. I think that happens a lot in that particular spot. So once we had those new poles we headed back up and skied. We went to more slopes we hadn't skied on Saturday and actually enjoyed these even more. We weren't hurting like we thought and felt better as the day went on.

ski foul...broken poles

new poles...and ready to go

waiting on the hubs to get poles

We skied until about 12:30 then took a lunch break. We had to eat quick because the slopes closed at 3:30. We had planned to meet up with Alan and Jennifer at 3:00 at the base of the Centennial lift. Everyday at 3:00 at that lift they serve chocolate chip cookies. These guys come out in white aprons and chef hats and serve plate after plate of cookies. And the people come from everywhere for them too! We had to get in on that and they were delicious! Just what you need after skiing for sure.

At the bottom of the Centennial lift which is at the Beaver Creek village

Cookie time

more cookies

I thought this church was pretty

We then all headed up to ski together before the lifts closed. We made it for the first run but the second run we were planning to do, the lift had closed. Kelly & I went back to the bottom from there and Alan & Jen wanted to try one of the black runs. It was a little sad finishing up knowing it was our last day to ski but we sure enjoyed it all! When we got back to our condo we had to return our skis. Kelly & I decided to have a little camera fun in the snow first. It is fun just to fall back in deep snow and lay there, and for us be silly...

That night we had dinner reservations so we went to the village early to do a little shopping. We then headed to the Chophouse for dinner which was a memorable one. One thing I loved so much about our trip is how much laughing we did. We love having good friends that we can talk to and laugh with. It made for a memorable trip and one we enjoyed a lot! I hope to have more fun ones in the future!