Wow, what a trip. I’ve never had a trip that had such polar ups and downs before. I wonder if it’d be better to recap the days or write a quick list of ups and downs. I guess I’ll go with the days…

Friday

Went skiing at Keystone. Rented Katy a pair of regular skis and me a pair of skiing boots (at this point, all I have is the snowblades). Katy took an all-day lesson and I skied with Troy and Elaine. It was pretty easy to get the feel of the snowblades, I was just behind Troy on the first run. By the third run, I felt really comfortable on them and was flying around, having a blast. So, there is a big plus – hooray for the snowblades. Katy seemed to have a good time and was feeling great about it when we met up for lunch. Just before lunch, I did a run with Troy and we were seriously hauling ass. The result of which was my lift ticket removing itself from my jacket. Sigh. The place we bought them didn’t have the bar code, and I didn’t save the little tear off part of the ticket, so I had to buy another one. Nothing like a $130 day on the mountain. Boo. Oh well, I say, “it’s vacation, whatever” and buy the half-day ticket and head back to it.

At the end of the day, we were all pretty wiped out, so we grabbed a drink and sat in the jacuzzi for a bit, then took naps, and then out to eat Chinese.

Saturday

This day starts out as bad as it can get. Katy was up most of the night feeling sick (and getting sick, I won’t get graphic, the next sentence will say it all). We head to the emergency room at 2am and find out she has food poisoning. Poor Katy. Sushi at the restaurant is probably the culprit (she was the only one to eat it).

6 hours and 3 IV bags later, we leave the hospital. Did I mention Poor Katy? We spent that day sleeping and trying to get Katy healthy. Troy and Elaine did some shopping, I went out with them for a short time to grab food, and we pretty much just relaxed.

Actually, aside from the hospital part, it wasn’t so bad just relaxing. Well, for me, it wasn’t. Katy was in hell all day long.

Sunday

Better than Saturday, but still Katy’s stomach was touch and go. We did our outlet shopping on Sunday, while Troy and Elaine braved A-Basin in the super cold and snow (Friday it was nice and sunny (though still 20 degrees), but Sunday it was bitter cold and snowing sideways). Got some good stuff at the outlets and spent good time with Katy. Happy happy she was feeling better. Troy and Elaine wisely quit after lunch, so we all hung out most of the night.

Monday

This time it was Poor Elaine. She got sick all night Sunday night. Maybe a delayed reaction to the sushi (she had one or two pieces of Katy’s sushi)? Either way, her and Troy were in no shape to hit the mountain, so Katy and I went back to Keystone together. This time she rented snowblades, so we were on the same equipment. We did a few runs of “schoolmarm”, the 3.5 mile long beginner run at Keystone. Awesome beginner run, and Katy did a great job. She was a bit scared (as we all are at first) of the steeper spots and went pretty slowly. She only fell a few times (when she was scared of the steepness and psyched herself out) and once she finally gets over the fear, she’ll do great.

We had a great time on the mountain together and got a good picture at the top, taken by one of the mountain sharp shooters. We usually never use those guys, but this trip, we had no cameras on the mountain. Troy forgot his battery and our camera is too big and would crush my ribs if I fell on it, so we didn’t bring it. Anyhows, the dude took a great picture of us and we shelled out the $34 to get two 5×7’s of it.

Tuesday

We decided to rent snowmobiles on Tuesday at a place near Breckenridge. We got on them and the guide took us to a little oval track to test them out and get a feel for them. I was driving, with Katy on back and couldn’t hear what she later said was her screaming bloody murder. She was super scared by the motion of the snowmobiles in the snow (which was like hydroplaning constantly), and after that initial run didn’t want to continue. The guide did the typical laid back “whatever” approach and said something like “you’ll be fine, that was faster than we’ll go on the trail, the trails are way easier than that was”. Well, that donkey was full of it. The trails were about three feet wide and had sharp turns and he wasn’t going slowly. Of course, nobody else seemed to care, so it wasn’t like he was necessarily careless, but he should be attentive when somebody basically tries to get out of the activity altogether. Grrrr.

That said, the half-way point in the ride was at the top of the continental divide. Breathtaking views, seriously amazing. The visibility was basically “as far as you can see”.

After Katy braved another event (I’m thinking ski trip part II is unlikely), we went into Breckenridge and walked around while Troy and Elaine skied a half day with his parents. Great time shopping and walking around, again just spending time with Katy.

That night, we had a great dinner with the Deus’ and gang (side note: I ate two fried shrimp and enjoyed them. I was drunk on margaritas, so I can’t say I tasted it, but I’m gonna try again), packed and headed out of town.

Summary
To sum it all up… We somehow made it out of a trip with food poisoning and still had a good time. It was nice to be away and not really having to do anything. Skiing is fun, even though it’s tough work at times. I’m super glad I went with the snowblades and will now buy some boots to go with them. I kind of wish I had regular ski bindings instead of the clip in bindings, but it’s not that big of a deal. Katy will probably not want to take a cold trip again, so next ski trip will probably be a “guys trip”.