COLORADO
Dec 20, 1994 - Jan 3, 1995
Preface
Lisa and I decided to spend our Christmas break at her house in Colorado
Springs skiing. We were later joined by Will and Pieter, two other guys
from our hallway in Bursley.
Dec 20
In the morning we went ice skating at Yost
Arena. It gave us something to do before we had to go to the airport.
Our flight came in this day. The flight was OK. It was a little bumpy,
but the dinner was pretty good. We had salad with stripts of chicken in
it. Not the best, but it was great for airplane food! We landed on
time, and spent the next hour and a half in the car going to Lisa's
house in Colorado Springs. It was dark already, so we couldn't see
anything. I was excited to see those mountains I had heard so much about.
Dec 21
Lisa pulled me outside and showed me the mountains. They were
spectacular! You could see Pike's Peak from her driveway. It was
gorgeous! We didn't do much this day. I learned how to play
racquetball. That was an experience, but it did hook me! We also bought
our lift tickets for the upcoming days of skiing.
Dec 22
Our first day of skiing. Today Lisa and I went to Keystone. The view of the mountains from Keystone was even
more spectacular than at Lisa's
house. Why? Because all of the ski resorts are on the continental
divide, whereas Colorado Springs is east of the entire mountain range.
Anyhow, Keystone was pretty good. I found out how much I liked skiing in
Colorado. It was nice to spend 15 minutes going down a ski hill instead
of 1 minute like in Michigan. It was also interesting to note that we
could see Breckinridge from Keystone. It was very warm this day (and
everyday). It got up to about 45 degrees in the mountains, but as soon
as the sun set at 4pm, it got dark and cold FAST! That evening we
decorated the Christmas tree. It was a fun family event. We whipped out
the 8-track player and played some good ole fashioned Christmas music.
Dec 23
Today we went skiing at Winter Park. The view of the mountains
from Winter Park was even more impressive than at Keystone. I used up
practically a whole role of film just taking pictures of the mountains.
Winter Park was a great place to ski. Best view, most snow, best runs,
least people, fastest lifts... What else would I want? Today I skied my
first Colorado black diamond. It was very steep and had LOTS of moguls.
I survived it, but stuck to blue runs from that point on. At the end of
the day we tried skiing above the timberline. This was at the very peak
of one of the mountains where the air is thin enough that trees can't
exist. It was a totally different type of skiing having no trees around
and being up at 12,060 feet. The view from
above the timberline at Winter Park was pretty awesome, I have to admit.
Dec 24
Not much went on today. I slept in until noon since I was up at 5am the
previous two days. Lisa and I did some shopping at Walmart and went to
the Candlelight service at her church that evening.
Dec 25
The Passmores celebrate Christmas differently that my family ever has.
It was lotsa fun. We got up in the morning and first looked at what we
got in our stockings. Following that was the Passmore's telling of the
Christmas story from the Bible. We then continued with our other
presents. Unlike in my family, we each went around one at a time and had
to guess what our gift was before we opened it. It took quite awhile!
The turkey dinner that followed this was oh so good. That night we were
bored, so we went to see The Santa Clause.
Dec 26
Today was spent at the Garden of the Gods, a strange rock formation in
Colorado Springs where we went rock climbing. It was lots of fun rock
climbing--it was something I'd never done before. The view of
Pikes Peak from the Garden of the Gods was rather impressive, too.
There's also a very large rock naturally balanced on a point, known
(ironically enough) as Balancing Rock.
Dec 27>
Today was devoted to skiing at Breckinridge. It was OK there, however it
was SO crowded!!! We often had to wait in line for up to 20
minutes, whereas the other resorts had waits up to 5 minutes at most.
Other than that, it was alright, but the lines made an already short day
of skiing even shorter.
Dec 28
Today we drove to Boulder to see one of Lisa's friends, and later that
day drove to Denver to pick up Will and Pieter from the airport. We
played racquetball again that night.
Dec 29
We wanted to show Will and Pieter what Garden of the Gods was like, so we
went rock climbing again. We took a lot of GQ pictures (as Will
described them). Here's a picture of Will and Lisa, and one of myself. We went
shopping again, for gloves, lift tickets, etc. That evening we decided
to treat ourselves to some Morrocan food, so we went to a way cool
Morrocan restaurant. It was
expensive, but well worth the money. We at
with our fingers as the Morrocans do, and used an entire towel draped
over our left shoulder as a napkin!
Dec 30
Today we were planning on skiing at Copper Mountain, but we got hit with
a huge storm that prevented us from getting there. It did do some rather
interesting things to the trees -
made them quite beautiful, actually.
We tried to come up with some things to do, so we decided to drive to
Golden, Colorado and tour the Coors brewery. The best part about the
tour was that Will, the only one who's old enough to drink the 3 free
beers at the end of the tour, forgot his ID, so he was outta luck! Later
we drove to Cripple Creek. This was on old Gold Mining town that has
been refurbished into lots of casinos. It was a neat place to walk
around and we had one of those old
Western brown photos taken of us. That night we got a room at the
Broadmoor Hotel so we could watch the U of M Holiday Bowl game on ESPN
(which Lisa didn't have at home). This was no ordinary hotel. I would
say this was probably the fanciest hotel I have EVER seen in person or
even on TV.
Dec 31
Today we finally DID get to go to Copper Mountain. It was OK. Very
average in every way, although the weather was pretty nasty - foggy,
misting, cloudy, cold. However, it was quite an experience skiing on 8
inches of fresh powder. I'm not sure if I liked it or not. It was
different, that's for sure! Today Lisa found a couple guys to bow to her at the
ski resort.
Jan 1
The event of today was flying. Lisa's dad, who is a former member of the
airforce rented a Cesna for a couple
hours, so we all took turns flying
it. We also experience zero-G, and positive-G's. It was like nothing I
have ever done before - LOTS of fun. Lisa's dad told me that I fly like
I ski - aggressive.
Jan 2
We went back to Winter Park for our last day of skiing. Our Christmas
Break was coming to a close. Sometimes we were a nice happy group of
friends, and other times we were hitting
each other with our poles.
Jan 3
Today we came home. Our flight back was very nice. It got off the
ground late, but landed on time. I had a nice hot turkey and ham
sandwich for lunch. Not only was it not bad, it was tasted GREAT!
Other pictures not included above
Some famous quotes from the trip
Note: Most of these were taken out of context, so take them with a
grain of salt.
- Will
- It felt like I got it in.
- Feel this wood!
- Lisa
- Men like women who know how to drive a stick.
- Will just leaned over to bite me!
- The view from down here is interesting!
- [to Dave] Don't sit on that! I'm trying to take my pants off!
- The more you think about it, the bigger it gets.
- It goes in surges.
- When we get around the corner, whip it out.
- Oh! Chi Chi!
- You bite it, you chew it, you swallow it.
- Pieter
- [regarding Lisa] I need to give her a massage. I haven't had a
chance to touch her all day!
- [to Lisa] Can I have some of yours?
- Dave
- [regarding Lisa] She's starting to warm up!
- Other comments
- We saw Lisa's baby pictures, we played doctor, and we saw Lisa naked.
- Dos Hombres!
- Dave: Want a screw?
- Pieter: Where'd you get it?
- Dave: On the floor.