Steamboat - Dec 21 and 22

Sunday, December 21

Our first full day, when possible, we like to take it easy, get settled, and acclimate to the altitude. We slept in, which was nice after the long day of travel, and then went downtown for brunch at Winona’s. I tried the spiced tea, which was like a cross between hot tea and apple cider- delicious! Grant and I shared the Greek omelette, while Geo got cinnamon French toast and Katelyn had strawberry pancakes.

After brunch, we roamed around town a bit and bought a few sweatshirts. Then Katelyn and I went to get her rental skis while Grant and Geoffrey headed to the grocery store. 

Steamboat is unseasonably warm. It was mid-40s, and there is little to no accumulated snow on the ground. It feels like spring.

Back at the condo, Grant and I hit the gym to work up an appetite for dinner.

Grant and I took the bus back into town and went to happy hour at our favorite restaurant, Laundry. We had three street tacos (one shrimp, one brisket, and one fried avocado), a meat and cheese board, brisket potatoes, and a salad with whipped goat cheese and a citrus dressing. All of these were tapas-sized and off the happy hour menu! For dessert, we got blueberry cobbler and their yummy coconut cream pie with pineapple. So delicious!

Grant and I left with full, happy bellies and took our time getting home. We went to Walmart to grab a few more things - we also want to get some new Christmas lights for the balcony because the ones we have are reaching the end of their life. Hopefully they will go on clearance in the next few days! We also got off a stop away from our usual stop so we could walk back. Then we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching a cheesy Christmas movie!

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Monday, December 22

We planned out our skiing days this time because we only get five days on our Ikon passes at Steamboat this season, and there are blackout days. Today was our first day. Unfortunately, much of the mountain is still closed because of the lack of snow. However, the newer Wild Blue Gondola and the additional snowmaking they installed on that side of the mountain gave us some really nice runs that we could lap- Tomahawk and High Noon, specifically. We did these runs several times in a row, but as the afternoon progressed they got really bumpy and skied off. It was around 45–50 degrees again, so the snow was also a bit slushy. We took the Thunderhead gondola down rather than skiing because there really wasn’t a good way to ski all the way down, but it was kind of fun to end the day back on the gondola.

Back at the condo, we went to the jacuzzi and really enjoyed soaking our sore muscles. Then Grant made us amazing carnitas tacos for dinner. Grant and I played one of our new games (FleetL The Dice Game), and now we are watching TV and messing around on our devices.

I could fall asleep now…