Back home to Colorado
Elisha and I flew into Denver and visited my parents in
Estes Park. We had some fun in the
National Park going for a couple of cross country skis and taking a hike with
my mom. Mom treated us like royalty
making me some of my favorite foods that I had missed while being in Antarctica. We also received a couple of free comp
tickets to Winter Park from that ski patrolling family I met in Peru, so I
introduced Elisha to the moguls of Mary Jane on a fresh powder day.
We then travelled to Crested Butte to stay for about a
week. The first night we slept at Bro’s
place. We did a xc ski to the summer only town of Gothic where the Rocky Mountain
Biologic Laboratory is located. That
night we got to move in with my parents who had a condo near the ski hill. It was the first time the family had all been
together in a while, and mom made a tasty beef and cheese fondue dinner. Bro and I went out dancing that night, the
first time that the guy bros had been dancing together in quite a while. The next day I toured Elisha around Crested
Butte ski resort, showing her the steeps and chutes of CB. That night we went out to a fancy family
dinner as the snow continued to fall hard outside. The next morning we woke up to the biggest
powder day that Crested Butte Resort had had all year. We got to the lift early so that we could be
one of the first chairs up. It was a
great day of skiing powder. That night
we went out to one of my very favorite fancy pizza places: the secret
stash. The next day Elisha and I did
some backcountry skiing in the Coney area.
The next day we took the scenic route home so that I could show Elisha
some of the beautiful passes and mountains along the way, including the
Collegiate Peaks and the highest 14ers near Leadville.
The last couple of days in Estes, we did some packing for
our upcoming South America trip and went down to Boulder to watch CU demolish
#19 Oregon.
Idaho Visit
After a bit over a week in EP, we made the drive up to Boise
where we stayed with Sherman and Sherman’s mom , Sally. We hung around and visited some of my old
college and Boise buddies. Yosh threw a
party at his house with a bunch of friends, and then afterwards we went out
dancing to Boise at some of my favorite places including humpin’ hannahs, JT
Toads, and Dirty Lil Roddies. We also
visited the College of Idaho for the day to visit some of my old profs, to show
Elisha the college, to eat at our tasty cafeteria, and to play some noon-ball
(profs vs students)
From Boise, we headed to Pocatello to hang out with Lucas
and Sari. They treated us to tasty,
tasty ribs and pulled pork. Our first
day, we skied at Pebble Creek ski area during a great spring day. It’s actually a pretty sweet little ski
area. That night we also went out to
some hot springs: lava hotsprings. The
next day, we hung out, went for a little bike ride, and then went to a bar for
some wings, brews, and to watch the Arizona vs CU pac 12 bball tourney game
The last day of our visit to Pocatello, we drove up towards
Salmon to go to Goldbug hotsprings. It
was a gorgeous drive, and we went past Idaho’s tallest peak, Mt Borah (the
first time I have seen it). Lucas rode
up with us with the plan of hitch hiking back after soaking. He brought a big pack with a sleeping bag and
bivy in case he couldn’t get a ride.
The hot springs were absolutely AMAZING! It was a bit over a mile hike up to
them. There were several pools with
perfect water temps, with waterfalls cascading into them, and with great
views. We stayed and soaked for a long
time, and it was starting to get dark when we got back. We drove the remaining few miles to Salmon to
get some food and brews at the brewery there.
At this point Lucas asked Sari if she wanted to drive up to hang out
with him for the weekend in Salmon. She
didn’t feel up to it, and he didn’t feel like attempting to hitchhike back in
the dark especially considering that we had hardly seen any cars in the day
going that way. So why not go further
away from Pocatello he thought? So he
continued north with us as we headed into Montana and visited and stayed the night
with Shuttle Jen and LDB Scott from Antarctica in Corvallis, MT
Meet the Parents
Jen made us a tasty breakfast, and then we began the final
leg of the journey up to Heron, MT where Elisha’s parents live. Lucas was of course still with us. Elisha’s parent’s, Mark and Sue, live on a
beautiful piece of property with a small stream and a pond in a valley
surrounded by mountains. The first
night, Lucas and I slept in Elisha’s VW van, Oswald. We spent a day hanging out at the Kayser ranch
meeting her brother Jeff and his fiancé Kiersey (Carseat), and her brother
Trever and his wife and 3 kids who lived next door. That evening we drove to her cousin Cori’s
house in Sandpoint, ID. The next day we
headed up to Schweitzer Ski Resort to hit up some of their fresh powder. Elisha and I bought end of the season passes
for $99 good for the rest of the year. The 3 of us had a lot of fun. Schweitzer is actually a really good
mountain. Big with lots of diverse runs. And that evening, I drove Lucas to the
greyhound station in Coeur D’ Alene to catch a ride back to Pocatello. Cori made a fancy dinner that night for us,
and we stayed the evening in Sandpoint.
The next morning we headed back to Heron to hang out some more with the
parents.
The next day Elisha and I headed back up to Schweitzer for
morning skiing on a pretty decent powder day.
In the early afternoon, we drove back down to Sandpoint to meet up with her
parents where we loaded up in one car and headed for the border. We crossed into Canada, took a ferry across
Kootenay Lake and ended up at Ainsworth Hot Springs. It was a nice developed hot springs with
pretty views of the lake and mountains.
It also had a cool cave/tunnel that you could walk through
3-23-13
March madness has begun, so we are now in full march madness
watching mode. We’ve currently moved on
to Coeur D’ Alene, and I am staying with Conrad and Whitney having tons of fun
with them of course!
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