Another Boulder Christmas

With a late Thanksgiving and busy weekends between that holiday and Christmas, it seemed that this break took us totally unawares.  We don't normally decorate extravagantly at home, but we try to hang up ornaments and pull out a nativity scene or two (my favorite is our Andean influenced scene with llamas rather than sheep).  This year, we had NADA out and Michael commented that we were leaning pretty hard to being total atheists.  Even with the 25th rapidly approaching, we prepared minimally for our trip to Boulder, and for Christmas in general.  Fortunately, we had already planned on a low-key Christmas with few presents.  This was a bit less fun than the usual gift exchange, especially since we didn't even give any joke gifts, but it did streamline our preparations (meaning - we had almost zero).

My last week of school put me in a total Scrooge mood and I felt like I was holding on by my fingernails, just making it to Friday without losing my shit completely.  Once 12:30 pm on the 20th rolled around, I was at home, and it finally hit me that we would be leaving for Colorado on Saturday morning - woo hoo!  I felt a mix of relief and major excitement, especially since we started our holiday with margaritas with friends on Friday night.  The perfect way to celebrate a two-week break.

Our Christmas trips the past few years have followed a similar pattern so I can't say that they are exciting road trips - which is fine because "excitement" at Christmas might indicate a bit more stress than I would embrace.  We stick to the southern route via major interstates, but even that is an amazing trip through northern Arizona and New Mexico.  We always break up the trip in Flagstaff, AZ, grabbing a drink at Beaver Street Brewery when we roll into town and leaving bright and early after a morning cup of coffee at Macy's Coffee House (not related to the department store!).  While it's a long drive, we're both happy to truck across the Arizona and New Mexico landscape.  The trip doesn't ever feel long until we hit Colorado Springs and at that point the final two hours or so into Boulder seem to stretch on and on, especially after the previous ten hours or so.

Once in Boulder, we enjoy a bit too much good food and drink.  This time, our very first stop, even before seeing family, was the Southern Sun, to get a drink and fill up our growler.  Not a bad way for Boulder to welcome us - or vice versa!  We've migrated to a few other places this year, stopping by Salt for drinks on Christmas Eve afternoon.  To balance out such indulgences, I've stayed somewhat active, going for a morning or afternoon run several times, an early swim at the North Boulder Rec Center twice (once I packed two swimsuits and a towel, taking up valuable real estate in our packed car, I promised myself that I'd make good use of the gear!), and plenty of short walks with our dogs.  It's been relatively warm and we've regretted, somewhat, that we did not strap our bikes to the car.  But with skis already in tow, it seemed like overkill to bring bikes too.  

Warm temperatures are, of course, relative, and we have enjoyed a bit of snow in Boulder - on our first full day here and also this morning a nice dusting of snow greeted us.  Today, I managed to rouse Michael and we hit Chautauqua Park for an early morning walk with the doggies who were very excited about snow!

Not a great photo of me or the dogs, but the Flatirons are so pretty with the snow!

Meta photo - I'm taking a photo of Michael taking a photo; and Milo is grumpy because he just wants to GO, goddamnit!

These photos definitely do not do much justice to the morning which was gorgeous - but a bit cold!  With temperatures in the teens, I was ready for hot coffee after our walk.

Tomorrow, we plan to ski and then we'll soon pack the car to return to CA and 'real life'.  In the meantime, we have an exciting afternoon of football and I'm going to squeeze in a long, slow run.  While none of this is new to us at this point, the comfort of being here and spending time with friends and family is certainly one of the best presents that we could ever have at this time of the year.

Mammoth: Eastern Sierra getaway

I've lived in California for just over 10 years now (how did that happen?), and every time I visit the Sierra - no matter what the trip is - I think to myself "I must return soon". And then a year or two will pass, and I'll return and wonder why it took me so long to get back, especially when I consider that it isn't a long trip from LA.  In just a few hours, a person can easily find him/herself on a lonely road, passing cattle and the occasional ghost town with the lights of the city far behind and craggy mountains looming large.

Thanks to a timely semester break, Michael and I did enjoy a quick jaunt up to Mammoth Lakes.  We'd been in the area years ago over a bitterly cold Memorial Day weekend but had not returned since.  Going at this time of the year obviously promised to be a different trip - rather than hiking and kayaking, we planned to take advantage of the snow!  After hearing about skiing at Mammoth for years, we'd finally experience it ourselves. Thanks to my semester break, we left the LA area Wednesday afternoon and arrived at our destination in the early evening.  As we headed north, I kept asking "Where is the snow" because we drove through the Mojave, dotted with Joshua Trees and then gained in altitude but the landscape still felt fairly desert-like.  Driving into the town of Mammoth Lakes, the snow was piled up, and Michael could finally reply "Here is the snow!".  It seemed to appear as soon as we turned west and headed into the mountains - duh.

Skiing in Mammoth ended up being an experience of extremes - a terrible ski day followed up by an amazing day!  Thursday, we woke up early and headed out, hitting the mountain around 9:00 am and on the chairlift by 9:05 or so.  In comparison to skiing in Colorado, I couldn't believe two aspects: a. how warm it was!  b. how short the lift lines were!  In terms of the first surprise, I welcomed the warmer temperatures.  Colorado was bitterly cold, so heading outside and discovering that it wasn't too cold - well, that was a treat.  I knew that we were visiting Mammoth on off days, but I still couldn't get over the fact that there literally were no lift lines!  Unfortunately, my appreciation for Mammoth ended there on Thursday as I experienced the worst ski day of my life.  Okay, the second-worst ski day (the worst was definitely when I tore my meniscus). The snow was fresh and thick, and I am not very skilled at skiing through powder - yes,  I prefer the groomed, manicured slopes.  Added to the snow, which fell throughout the morning, visibility went from kind of crappy to just plain terrible.  I couldn't see anything in front of me and even took my goggles off, hoping that would help (which it did, initially, sort of).

We made it through about 4 runs in the morning - runs with lots of stops and starts - before I begged for  a break.  I felt so off because I couldn't see ANYTHING, and it really affected my confidence.  During our break, I picked up a new pair of goggles that would, I hoped, improve the visibility.  Returning to the mountain with new gear in tow, we felt better when we started out in the afternoon.  We probably had two decent runs before we were fighting the visibility issue again.  Not only were we totally frustrated, we were also exhausted by the early afternoon.  So, we called it a day.

Here I am before the fog gathered!

The forecast for Friday called for similar weather, except between the 8:00-9:00 hour, so we were on the slopes by 8:40, determined to at least get in a few good runs.  As the morning wore on, the weather held, and we both enjoyed a perfect day of skiing!  First of all, we couldn't believe how gorgeous it was - I mean, we knew that it was supposed to be amazing, but we couldn't see anything on Thursday.  So, the views of the Sierra just took us by surprise on Friday.  And we couldn't have wished for a better day of skiing - amazing snow, a beautiful day, and very few people on the slopes.  We were the only people on some of the runs!  

Looking down at the clouds - the trees appeared to be sugar-coated!

Enjoying the blue skies!

Taking in some liquid pleasure at lunch - Mammoth Brewing Company's Epic IPA hit the spot!

After lunch, we skied a few more runs but then decided to stop while we were ahead, at least in terms of skiing.  We were both happy and exhausted and didn't want to push it too much and risk injury (ah, the joys of getting older).  No doubt Thursday's challenging experience on the slopes highlighted how great Friday was, so we tried to take advantage of the conditions as much as we could but were tired by the early afternoon.  Before tucking in for the evening, however, we stopped at the Mammoth Brewing Company.  We certainly enjoyed drinking their IPA at lunch, and it seemed like a logical place to grab a drink.  Apparently plenty of other people coming off the mountain also wanted to grab a drink because it was packed!  While not a traditional bar (they only sell 'tastings' rather than pints), I was a huge fan of their beers, especially their holiday selection - the Dopplebock and Eisbock were amazing, and it was the perfect way to say farewell to Mammoth.

The view from the car - See you next time!