Dodds Family Visit - July 2012

The Dodds Clan

Keith's family decided to spend another vacation in Colorado, so we joined them for part of it in the mountains.

Accommodation:

Vail Rental House

Shawna found a fantastic rental house in West Vail.  While not quite in the middle of everything, the house was easy access to I-70 and only a couple of miles to the main Vail Village.  The house was huge with 3 floors, 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, a gourmet kitchen and an open family room.

Activities:
Keith's parents arrived on Friday evening after driving the 753 miles from their house in Texas.  We had wine and cheese for dinner and called it an early night since Keith had to be up at 3:30 am on Saturday for the MS-150 bike ride.

On Saturday, while Keith was sweating away riding 75 miles, Shawna, Jean and Dick went for a walk in the park.  We then had lunch at the house (cheese, bread and fruit salad) and went to REI to see if Jean could buy some hiking shorts and shoes.  We were not successful in finding what we wanted at REI so we returned home to have a nap, drink a few glasses of wine on the porch and then out to a yummy dinner to celebrate Jean's 69th birthday.

Silly Cousins

On Sunday, we went for another walk around the park followed by a trip to the Pearl Street farmers market which was not as fantastic as Shawna was hoping.  Keith arrived home at about 1pm after the second day of his bike ride.  Later in the afternoon, Keith's parents met Graham, Margaret, Marisa and the kids at the airport and then we all met at Table Mountain Inn in Golden for dinner (with Kelly, Margaret's friend from grad school) - Margaret wanted to eat here since she had worked at this restaurant when she lived in Golden.  Keith's family left from there to go to Vail.

Josie, Margaret, Lily, Keith

Shawna and Keith worked on Monday and Tuesday and then met up with the rest of the family in Vail  on Tuesday after work.   We arrived just in time for Graham's dinner at the house - he made a yummy salad with lemon dressing, grilled sausage, corn pudding and ratatouille followed by berries and fresh whipped cream for dessert.

Boone, Marisa, Lily, Graham

Keith and Shawna started Wednesday (July 4th) with a walk up Gore Creek Trail which winds throughout Vail, mostly following Gore Creek.  Along the way, we gawked at all of the multi-million dollar homes in the area, asking who in the world could afford these houses and why we were not friends with any of them!  We walked 3 hours round trip before meeting the family for the parade.  The parade was bigger and better attended than we thought it would be, and the kids racked up with all the candy and prizes thrown from the floats and cars in the parade.  We returned to the house for lunch and while the rest of the family went back to Vail to do more activities with the kids, Keith and Shawna had a nap and then went over to the grocery store to get the rest of the food for dinner.  Shawna made Indian, including lamb curry (the same as Simran made in Sonoma), fish curry, potato and chickpea curry, basmati rice, and raita, with berries and sorbet for dessert.

Biking Lake Dillon

Alpine Slide

On Thursday, we all went to Dillon to rent bicycles.  We got mountain bikes with the "tagalongs" for the kids - Margaret pulling Josie, Shawna pulling Lily, and Keith pulling Owen, while Jean and Dick rode their own.  The kids were able to peddle, but did not contribute a lot - though as Margaret pointed out, just holding on was enough!  Graham, Marisa, and Boone skipped the cycling as Graham had hurt his thumb the day before and wanted to see a doctor.  After the biking, we had a picnic lunch while the kids played in the playground and then went up Breckenridge mountain to the Kid's Zone where we went on the alpine slide.  Margaret, Shawna and Lily were also going to try the bungee jumping but the line was too long.  So, we called it a day and returned home.  That evening, Graham, Marisa, Margaret, Shawna and Keith went out to dinner in Vail while Jean and Dick stayed home to watch the kids.  We had a great time at dinner and Keith capped the evening by torturing Boone with a "I Like Big Butts" rendition - Boone may need therapy someday!

Sibling Dinner at Larkspur

Hiking with Elizabeth

On Friday, we met Elizabeth, a friend from Fuqua, for a hike while the family went to Glenwood Springs for a hike and then to the hot springs.  The hike (Mohawk Lakes) was terrific with great views of Breckenridge Valley- about 3.5 hours in all.  In addition to Elizabeth, we were joined by her sister, niece, and an old friend of hers.  We capped the hike with a round of beers at Breckenridge Brewery, then headed back to the house which we had to ourselves until the rest of the clan arrived home.  Graham catered dinner - a yummy Thai style salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, and beef as well as a vegetarian pasta dish.  For dessert, we had angel food cake with berries and fresh whipped cream.

Mohawk Lake

We had to check out of the house on Saturday, so we were up early to get everything packed.  Shockingly, we were all able to depart by 9:15.  We all drove back to Denver early so that Keith's siblings could see the house before they flew out.  We had a quick pizza from Kaos Pizza, ran over to the park for a few minutes, and then said farewell to most of the family.  While Jean and Dick drove Graham, Margaret, Marisa and the kids to the airport, we went to the park for a 2-hour walk.  That evening, we went out to dinner with Keith's parents to celebrate our 11th anniversary.

On Our Front Porch

Sunday was a light day - mostly catching up on stuff around the house, another walk in the park, and a movie (To Rome With Love).  We had lunch (fish, veggies, roasted potatoes) and dinner (salad and fruit) at the house.

Keith's parents left on Monday morning to Aspen where they planned to spend 3 days before driving back to Texas.

Keith and Boone

Restaurants:
Indulge French Bistro - Shawna, Jean and Dick went here for Jean's birthday dinner.  Not surprisingly, it was a French Bistro (Jean and Dick's favorite).  It is located in Denver in the Highlands.  The food was very tasty!  Shawna had the crab, advocate and mango salad to start followed by the scallops for the main course.

Larkspur - We went here for sibling night in Vail.  Great restaurant, although the food was not as good as the last time we had been.  We split the pork and green chili ravioli (which was very tasty) and Shawna had the caesar salad to start (which was bland).

Kaos Pizza - In Denver on Pearl Street, this is a great pizza place with a nice outdoor seating area.  We ordered pizza and took it home to eat with the family.  The mushroom pizza rocks!

Satchel's on 6th - We went here for our anniversary dinner.  We decided to try the tasting menu with wine pairing which was a great deal!  The food was delicious - Shawna even liked the raw fish which was the first course.  We would definitely go back!

Snow in Summer!!