Brigid Travels

Updates from The Road

Mammoth Mountain [2017]

Canyons Park City [2016]

We headed back to Park City for skiing, since last time there was no snow (!). Once again, we started with a trip to the amazing Red Iguana in Salt Lake City! Yummy!! This time we had TONS of fresh powder, almost every day! Wheeee!!

And we explored the geothermal pool inside Homestead Crater - nice after a long day on the mountain.

Colorado Rockies [2016]

We had a great time meeting up with Carl & JoAnna at the Dillon Dam Brewery at the beginning of the trip, and stayed with them at their lovely flat in Denver on the last night. In between, there was lots of skiing and snowboarding with Larry & Jean at Keystone and Breckenridge! And on the last day we were able to hook up with Swede, a Sigma Nu frat brother of mine from CMU! 

South Lake Tahoe [2015]

We booked this trip a few months ago, banking on El Niño giving us early snow! And the little guy delivered!! Monday We traveled all day, arriving in time to unload at our home for the week - the Stardust Lodge - and have a great Mexican dinner with Larry & Jean at a hole-in-the-wall nearby, Maya's.

DSCN9045

Tuesday Started off the skiing portion of the trip with yummy breakfast at Red Hut of course! Went skiing/boarding for a few hours at Heavenly - the snow was not plentiful, but it was nice and there was good coverage on the groomed runs - exactly what you need on the first day of the season 🏂

Afterwards Jean and I had fun creating our first tie dye shirts! Steve and I stopped by the Tahoe Sports Ltd shop, always great, where I picked up elusive snowboard boots and Steve got new snowboard pants. Success! And then we all headed down to JJ's in Minden to have dinner with Butch and Michael.

IMG_1342

Wednesday After a late breakfast at Red Hut, we found it was too windy and icy to hit the mountain today, so we hung out with Michael at McP's and had dinner at Base Camp Pizza. We should get a big storm tonight!

Thursday Lots of rain overnight, and at 9:30am it turned to snow! We had a great breakfast at the Driftwood Cafe, and toyed with heading on to the mountain but it would be cold and soggy and not many runs are open... so we hunkered down in town. We did a little shopping, and lunched at Azul Latin Kitchen. That night we took advantage of a free lasagne dinner at the Stardust and watched The Manchurian Candidate. What a great movie!

DSC00179
DSC00179

Friday Powder day!! Overnight we got 2+' and so after another great breakfast at the Driftwood Cafe, we jumped on Heavenly's Gondola and hit the slopes! It was snowy with limited visibility early in the day, but that eventually dissipated.

DSCN9051

A few runs in, we decided to go down a run that ended up being tons of deep powder. Unfortunately I got stuck a bunch of times... exhausting. But it was a great day!

DSCN9061

We topped it off with a marvelous dinner at Azul Latin Kitchen (with margaritas) after trying to go to the Tahoe Adventure Film Festival at Montebleu, but it was too smoky in there and my asthma told us to Get Out!

Saturday The crowds have certainly hit South Lake Tahoe! Breakfast at the Driftwood Cafe was very busy, which reinforced our decision to drive to Kirkwood for the day's snowboarding. Very fun day, the roads were good and the crowds were pretty light!

DSCN9108

One odd little incident - there was a little mouse hopping around in the snow at the top of one of the chairlifts at one point. We think she might have had a baby gripping her back... couldn't figure out how to help her, and by the time we got back, she was gone.

It snowed a bit here and there, made for a gorgeous winter wonderland.

By the time we got back 'home' the crowds were crazy, so we picked up a pizza at Base Camp Pizza and watched Pan's Labyrinth. Odd movie, but good.

IMG_1361
IMG_1361

Sunday We got up early and headed down the to the valley so that we would miss the brunt of the new storm, and had brunch with Butch at Bodines. The weather was a bit gnarly so we headed to the airport early, played some cribbage and relaxed before heading home.

Great trip!

South Lake Tahoe 2015
South Lake Tahoe 2015

Park City [2015]

Had a great time in Park City, even though the snow didn't cooperate! Spent time with Larry and Jean, and Julie came out too! 

Steamboat Springs - Days 2-4 [2014]

Sunday we drove into town in time to see the end of the Winter Carnival on the main street that was covered in snow, in addition to it snowing. Kids going over jumps on skis pulled by horses, guys 'riding' shovels pulled by horses and a small town parade with high school marching band on skis/snowshoes, local businesses in wagons pulled by horses or snowcats, pulling people on skis hanging onto ropes! Very unique and fun to watch!!

Afterwards we waited to get lunch at Winona's. Fabulous, definitely worth the wait. The we headed over to Howelson Hill to watch the last 2 rounds of ski jumpers! I was lukewarm on standing in the cold to watch, but I'm glad we did - very fun to watch, and seem like a great group of guys that really support each other.

Grocery shopping rounded out our afternoon. That night we headed to Mc Knight's Irish Pub for dinner. Yummy - great celery root/fennel soup, grilled veggie sandwich, mac & cheese. Oh, and Guinness, of course!

That night the tv and Internet and hot water heater all were out. Not thrilled with this place. But it's not terrible.

Monday we hit the mountain. Powder!!!! It was really snowing pretty much all day, so the visibility was very poor - it was hard to see whether the run was smooth or choppy, shallow or steep... So I got tired pretty fast.

We stuck to the right side of Steamboat, where it was impossible to get lost, or wander onto a double black run. Lunch on the mountain was baked potatoes with veggie chili at the Rendezvous Saddle. Good stuff.

That night we stayed home and cooked and watched Olympic coverage. We found out that Steve's cousins decided not to come - they were going to drive from CA and the roads were just too treacherous. So they went to Lake Tahoe instead where there have been a few big dumps of snow, finally.

Tuesday we shuttled to the mountain and in the morning it was overcast and a bit snowy but there were patches of sun mid day - just a fantastic long day of boarding :) Powder or corduroy and fun tree runs for Steve to get stuck in! Quick lunch was had at Rendezvous Saddle when I tried the portobello sandwich - also very good!

That night we went out to grab some Mexican. By this time it was snowing pretty hard again. Ended up at the Cantina. Pretty good food, no complaints on the margaritas!

Today we will take a break from snowboarding. My legs are feeling it, and I want to be able to hit the mountain Thursday and Friday! It's supposed to snow pretty steadily on the mountain through Friday, so visibility will probably be a challenge. But it will be a blast :) and it is so gorgeous!!

Lake Tahoe - Alabama Hills - Trona [2014]

There wasn't much snow in Tahoe, but it was still fun. On the drive home we stopped overnight in Lone Pine, staying at the Dow Villa Motel, so we could explore the Alabama Hills and take a gander at Trona and the Pinnacles.