Beaver Creek - Feb 2014

Beaver Creek

Rakesh, Simran and Ria decided to join us again for a ski weekend in Beaver Creek over President's Day weekend.  We took the Monday and Tuesday off and stayed out in Beaver Creek for 4 nights.

Accommodation:
Westin - We had stayed here last year and really like it so we booked it again, staying in a two bedroom with a shared living room and kitchen.

The skiers ready for the day!

Activities:
Ria was in Ski Girls Rock again for three of the days and she joined the boys on the last day to show them her favorite runs and what she had learned.  Rak and Keith skied all four days.  The first two days they had private lessons from the aunt of Jacqui, a colleague of Keith's.  They both learned quite a bit to the point that they were skiing black runs with moguls without looking as much like idiots!  The other good part was that they got to skip the lines on the Sat/Sun - which enabled them to do a few more runs on the busy days.  The weather was a bit overcast the first couple of days, which was actually good otherwise the snow would have turned to mush.  It was generally beautiful blue sky the Monday/Tuesday. 

Simran at Vail

Shawna at Vail

Simran and Shawna mostly chilled while everyone skied.  We booked our Bali trip after much research and discussion on hotels - we found some kick butt places so we are all very excited for the trip!!  Shawna went to the spa one afternoon at the Hyatt and they both went to Vail one day to walk around.  They also cooked each night, taking turns to prepare dinner.  Shawna cooked a Thai dinner the first night (spring rolls, coconut/lemongrass soup, and chicken stir fry), Simran cooked pasta with salad and garlic bread the second night and Simran cooked rice bowls the last night which we served with leftover soup.  All of the meals were yummy.  Keith jokingly asked why the white girl was cooking Asian food and the brown girl was cooking European food!

Happy Hour Time!

Restaurants:
Mod Market - We stopped by for a quick dinner on our way out to the mountains.  We had our usual bar-b-cue pizza and chicken green chili soup.

Henry's Chinese Cafe - A favorite of Simran and Shawna's - we had lunch here.

Arrowhead Alpine Club Yurt - Keith and Rak's ski instructor is a member of the club, which runs a private restaurant in a Yurt at the top of Arrowhead lift.  Definitely a good way to have lunch on the mountains, Keith had Bison Chili and Fish Tacos for lunch both days. 

Spago - Located in the Ritz Carlton hotel.  Shawna and Simran had lunch here, sharing a pizza and crab cake.

Izakaya Den - We had dinner here on Tuesday night and shared a bunch of small plates while Rak and Ria also had udon.  It was yummy!

Vail - Feb 2014

Karen, Cheryl, Keith and Shawna at Larkspur

Cheryl decided to spend another weekend skiing with us this year and this time she brought along Karen who Keith knows from the dining club in DC where he worked with her and Cheryl.

Accommodation:
The Lodge at Vail - We had stayed here last year with Cheryl and enjoyed it so we decided to stay again.  We shared a room between the four of us so Keith felt like a king having three women in the room!

Activities:
Karen had arrived earlier on Friday and took the shuttle from the airport out to Vail.  We picked up Cheryl at the airport around 3pm and headed out to the mountains.  Unfortunately, we ran into some horrible traffic thanks to a crazy guy who was driving drunk on the highway and when the police started to chase him, he proceeded to ram into cars to get through.  Once the police stopped him, they shot the guy and then took him to a nearby hospital.  Due to this, the highway was shut down for quite some time and they diverted traffic to the local roads.  It took us over 6 hours to get to Vail and as a result, we missed our dinner reservation.  So we stopped in Silverthorne to grab a quick Chipotle.  When we arrived at Vail, Karen was napping as she had already had her fair share of drinks.  We dragged her downstairs for a glass of wine at Elway's while we call caught up and then we went to bed.

On Sat, Keith, Karen and Cheryl skied all day while Shawna worked out and went to the spa.  After showering, Karen, Cheryl and Shawna had a few drinks at Mountain Standard and then we picked up Keith (who was napping) and went to dinner.  On Sun, Keith, Karen and Cheryl skied again - according to Keith, it was one of the best ski days ever as the weather was gorgeous and the powder was awesome.  Shawna worked out, had lunch and then checked out of the hotel.  She then staked out a place to watch the Broncos in the Super Bowl where the rest of the gang joined her after skiing.  The game was pathetic and depressing!  After the game, we drove back to Denver and Karen and Cheryl left the following morning.

Restaurants:
Sweet Basil - Shawna had lunch here.  Always an awesome place!

Larkspur - We all had dinner here.  Great restaurant and food.

Mountain Standard - The girls had drinks here on Sat night and Shawna had lunch here on Sunday.

Tavern on the Gore - We watched the Super Bowl here and had a few beers and dinner.