Ahhhh, that was a nice little vacation weekend.  Unfortunately it left me too beat up and worn out to do anything practical or taxing today, so I will just jot down a few notes and get back to bed.  I have the day off and my horoscope promises a 5-star day so I don’t want to ruin things by trying to spend it wisely.

Our weekend started last Thursday when we flew out to Denver to visit with Ed and Kim.  They both had to work on Friday so we kept it low-key that night, although we did manage to go have an awesome dinner at Benny’s.  I had the chili relleno dinner, which was spectacular as-is, but then I put it over the top (in both taste and fat calories) by going with the bonus topping of carnitas.  Holy smokes it was good.  As far as I know everyone else enjoyed their dinners also, but I wasn’t really listening.

Friday while Ed and Kim worked, we killed the afternoon by driving around sight-seeing and generally enjoying the weather.  We had a good lunch at some random Irish Pub, the name of which escapes me now.  All we really cared about was that they had outdoor seating so we could take in some sun;  The lunch itself was kind of secondary.  After Ed and Kim got home, we took the light-rail down to the Pepsi Center to catch our first ever NLL game.  That, of course, is the National Lacrosse League, just in case you don’t follow the game as closely as we do.  The home team is the Colorado Mammoths, and they seem to have quite a following.  I don’t know if the place was an official sell-out, but it had to be awfully close.  If I had to guess, the main draw is probably the fights, and we were treated to a few doozies;  They made hockey brawls look like powder-puff football.  It was quite an event at any rate, and now we can say we’ve been to a Lacrosse game.  I’m not entirely sure what they were doing over the span of the few hours we were there, but when they were done running around beating each other about the head and shoulders with their sticks, the Mammoth had more points on the board than the Rush, so the Home Team won.  (Insert ringing cowbell sounds and hurl a few loud obscenities here for the full effect.)

Saturday we got up early and drove to Breckenridge Park, for our first try at skiing.  (Technically, I have been once, about a 1/4 century ago, but my skills from that trip have waned a bit.)  We got there around 9:30, and the place was already pretty busy.  Ed and Kim strapped on their snowboards and headed off to do their thing, while we set about renting some equipment, signing up for lessons, and all that good stuff.  Our class started around 10:30, made up of Donette and I and four other first-timers.  The instructor seemed mildly curious as to why you would take skiing classes on the day before the park closed for the season, but he seemed game enough for teaching us anyway.  The morning session brought great promise, and we quickly deemed ourselves skiing prodigies.  By noon, we had positively mastered the skills required to traverse 30 yards of perfectly flat terrain.  We broke for lunch, and then returned to head up the lift for our first run at the hill.  I don’t know if we had short-term memory loss or what, but the afternoon didn’t go quite as well as the morning.  Everything that seemed so easy earlier was all but forgotten as we stared down the 25% grade into the frozen abyss that he took us to.  “Uhhh, dude, are you sure we’re on the right hill?”  It was a rather humbling afternoon, exacerbated by the hundreds of 7-year-olds whizzing by us.  By 3:30 we convinced the instructor that if he could somehow just safely transport us to the bottom of the mountain, we would tip him handsomely, turn in our gear and never again return.  If nothing else, we probably provided him with some good story-telling material for his off season entertainment.  All in all, it was fun though, in a rather painful and humiliating sort of way.  And if you’re going to try skiing, I think we picked an awesome day for it;  It got up to like 60 degrees by the time we were done.  After that torture session, we went into town and hung out at an outdoor concert, which was a little more our speed.  We stayed there for a few hours, people-watching and enjoying the music and perfect weather.  On the downside, Donette enjoyed the weather a bit TOO much…  By the end of the day she was so sunburned that her ears actually swelled up.  I didn’t do a whole lot better either;  I managed to burn my neck pretty bad.  At least she evenly toasted herself, I ended up with one side glowing red and the other side the color of a catfish belly.  Nice.

We spent the night in Breckenridge, then got up Sunday and hit the road back to Denver.  After a huge breakfast to start the day, we embarked on a very circuitous route home, in an ultimately unsuccessful quest to see a moose.  I guess it was too hot out for the wildlife, we didn’t see much outside of a few cows, several foxes and bunch of road-kill deer.  It WAS a nice scenic drive though, as far as drives go.  We took a few breaks, including a short hike in one of the parks, a stop in Idaho Springs for a late lunch, and a detour to Buffalo Bill’s grave site.  The trip took up the whole day, and by the time we got back to the house we had to head to the airport.  We got back to KC around midnight, picked up the dog, and headed home to rest up.  I’m glad I burned the extra day of vacation, as I am pretty worn out today.

Edit:  I added a few pictures to my photo gallery.