Head For the Mountains...

[The following post was composed on Sunday, February 11]

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The other couple on this ski vacation with my parents and me is the pastor of their church and his wife. Instead of going to church somewhere, we had a short devotional time at the hotel this morning. This pastor is beloved to his flock, which included me before I moved away. It was neat to hear him work through a couple of scripture verses.

We fueled up at a nearby IHOP then headed into the Rocky Mountains. The temperature was in the 40s as we started out but fell quickly into the low 30s as we climbed. “America The Beautiful” contains a familiar passage about “purple mountain majesty” and I am experiencing that firsthand. The beauty of the snow-capped peaks is truly awe-inspiring.

Our condo has a great view of a frozen-over lake with the majestic mountains in the distance. The condo is really nice. It’s 2 bedrooms and 2 baths with a living room and kitchen. The living room has a gas fireplace and an outside deck. By the way, neither of the 2 bedrooms are mine; I get a Coleman air mattress to sleep on! : ) The area is lacking in fresh snow. There’s lots of dirty, leftover snow from the blizzards of last December. Fresh snow is forecast for tomorrow, however. After unloading and unpacking, we stocked up with groceries for the week. We will be cooking most of our evening meals in lieu of eating out.

The last order of business was to check out the ski resorts. We stopped at Breckenridge first. I got checked in at their ski school and bought my lessons, equipment rental and ski lift tickets. My dad found a great deal online: 3 days of lessons, ski lift ticket, and equipment rental for $235, a HUGE savings over buying them separately. The slopes were populated with mostly locals that I’m told will be gone during the week. We stopped briefly at Keystone, where my parents went to ski school.. I took my first pictures of the mountains there.

Now I wait in anticipation for what is to come. I’m not sure what to think about learning to ski. My parents’ experience with skiing has been positive thus far so I’m optimistic about my learning experience. With a good night’s rest and breakfast tomorrow I should be ready to tackle ski school head-on.