A very full day

Yesterday was a *long* day.  For reasons that made sense at the time, we decided to book the snowmobile tour that my brother-in-law gave us for Christmas the evening of our arrival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  Our flight was scheduled to arrive at about 1:30, so we figured we would have plenty of time to get checked into our condo before the shuttle picked us up for the tour.  Of course we failed to factor weather into those plans.  As the weekend approached, it began to look like the DC area was going to get hit by a snow storm Friday night and Saturday.  We had visions of delayed flights and late arrivals.  So we adjusted our plans to leave for the airport extra early, and made sure we had the phone numbers for the tour company, so we could notify them if we were going to be late.

As it turned out, the storm was mostly a rain event, at least prior to our departure, so our flight left National Airport on time and actually landed in Houston early.  The second leg of the trip went equally smoothly, and we reached our destination just a few minutes early.  We had arranged for a friend to pick us up at the airport, and he was kind enough to stop at the grocery store on the way to our condo.   We checked in and even had time to unpack before the shuttle arrived.

While we were waiting for our second flight, from Houston to Steamboat, I had a friendly encounter with an United Airlines pilot who approached me because of the Clarkson University sweatshirt I was wearing.  Turned out that he had graduated from Clarkson the year before I did.  We had a short, but pleasant chat.

Our snowmobile tour was two solid hours of riding in the national forest up on the Rabbit Ears Pass.  We rode through alpine meadows and on groomed trails, for the most part, but parts of the ride were on narrow paths through the trees.  It was a blast, and the tour finished with a *huge* dinner.

By the time we were dropped back at our condo and got ready for bed, we'd been up for almost 20 hours.  Which makes me wonder...why am I already awake this morning?

Trees, bumps, and the Pentagon Ski Club

After our snowmobile adventure last night, no one seemed to be any particular hurry to hit the slopes this morning, so we got off to what was, for us, a late start.  By the time we got up the mountain, it was probably about 10am before we made our first run.  The upper portions of the resort were shrouded in clouds for much of the day, so we did a lot of skiing in the trees, where the visibility was better.  We also spent a lot of time working on our mogul skiing skills...my daughter has decided that she is a ski instructor and is determined to make a marked improvement in this, my worst ski skill.  I was getting frustrated because I would string together a set of nice looking turns and then would struggle to do anything right for the rest of the run.  I know I am getting better, but the progress is uneven and anything but steady, so I find myself getting impatient.

We ran into a several members of the Pentagon Ski Club here today.  It has been a while, but we used to travel with this club, and they have a group here for the week.  It was nice to see some friendly faces, and we found out that they are going out to dinner tomorrow night.  I sent an e-mail to the trip leader to check on the details, and it looks like we'll be joining them for dinner tomorrow.  It will be fun to catch up with those members we know from our earlier trips witht the club.