This was a very good trip despite Jen being under the weather. She is a trooper! The drive started without her voice thanks to a particularly bad cold. Plenty of napping and over-the-counter-drugs did little to liven up the fourteen hour drive.

Silence.

At long last we arrived at The Sheraton Mountain Vista Villas and were pleasantly surprised to find it was easily the nicest place we have stayed. Any time they offer this deal again, we will be there. It was a true one bedroom with a huge bathroom, mini kitchen, balcony and fireplace. Super 8 this was not.

The snow report was calling for 1-3″ of snow overnight, so we went to bed expecting a pretty good day. When we woke up there was already 6″ on the ground and no signs of letting up. We hopped on the shuttle and headed up Beaver Creek.

It wasn’t very busy at all, so we had several hours of great skiing.As the day rolled on the runs got tracked out, the temperatures rose and the snow got a bit heavier/wetter. Jen had a bit of a tumble when the heavy snow grabbed her ski. Unfortunately this also meant a twisted knee.

The next morning Jen’s knee was feeling even worse and she STILL had no voice so I was ordered out onto the hill alone so she could sleep in. This was a terrible punishment because there was another 11″ of snow and it was perfectly sunny! The mythical bluebird powder day, with knee deep snow and almost no one on the mountain. It was so good, I had to have the professional photographers on the mountain document it.

I may have overdone it.

My legs were jelly by noon, and I headed home to pretend that Jen didn’t miss anything special. We had a late lunch, and bought some medical supplies to tape up and ice her knee.

The extra rest must have done the trick because both the knee and the voice were, while far from one hundred percent, well enough to go skiing the next day. It’s good that they were because it had started snowing yet again overnight. The initial estimate of 1-3″ was now at nearly two foot and counting. We drove to Vail, took a couple groomer warmups and then took off for the back bowls.

The skiing was very good, so good we may have overdone it a bit. It was a long day of hard skiing. We were both completely beat on the ride home. Jen’s voice was back to almost full volume though, so it wasn’t too bad of a drive. No worse than Kansas usually is anyway.

Kansas.