Back to real life... i.e. MIDTERM TOMORROW AH

so what am I doing? Throwing out a blog to procrastinate. I would get an A+ in procrastination techniques.  So after I collected my two vouchers from the airline (ya, honeymoon! Here we come!) I took the bus to the airport for a third time. I just happened to run into one of my best friends in the world and his new fiance as they stepped out of the gate I was waiting to enter. It was like a movie. We grabbed a drink before we rushed off to catch our flights. I joined the crew at Keystone and we headed off to Vail/Beaver Creek. 

Above is a panoramic of the back bowls of Vail. The bowls were pretty slushy and full of grassy patches, exposed rocks and boulders and other dangerous obstacles. Luckily we all got home in one piece! Although there were some good wipe outs!

 The boys skied two days at Keystone, two at Beaver Creek (best conditions), one day at Copper and one day at Vail (worst conditions and longest lines... but usually my favorite place!)

I feel guilty that my favorite day was a girls' day. We took a day off to recover and had ourselves a little adventure. The lovely Meagan served as our guide. We hiked up to Hanging Lake (pictured above, to the right and below.) The hike was short but the snow and ice made it very treachorous. Luckily Kristen's brother happened to give her a very belated Christmas present of 3 pairs of clamp-on ice traction cleats.  I will never hike without these bad boys if there is ice on the trail!  We felt so cool as we raced past the other hikers struggling, slipping and sliding their way up the trail. People were saying things like "ya, they know what they are doing" and "wow, they must do this often!" We felt like real mountain climbers.

Up at Hanging Lake, you can hike around the waterfall and look into the crystalline blue water. It was amazing. You could see the trout swimming around and a log that went way to the bottom of the lake. Then we took a lesser known trail up above Hanging Lake to Spouting Rock. There we were welcomed by a very high waterfall that feeds Hanging Lake. There was a huge cone of ice that forms over the winter beneath the waterfall. We were able to crawl around in the ice in the cave behind the waterfall. It was wonderful.

Afterward, we spent the afternoon relaxing our aching muscles in the natural hot springs in Glenwood Springs.  It was so nice to chill in the warm pool and hot pool and lay in the sun! Then we shopped a little, found some deals and headed back. The boys were so jealous.

To the left is a picture of Drew and I on our way to Blue Sky Basin, the furthest bowl of Vail. We had some fun in a natural half pipe that formed in a gully on Cloud Nine.

We were surprised to come home to summer in MN. Yesterday we took a 3 hour bike ride along the Missisippi. The trail is normally closed due to flooding in the spring, but Climate Change made our bike ride possible. (Speaking of, Earth Day is coming up... better start thinking of new ways to go green!)

That's all for now folks! Sorry no funny stories to share!