J.N.W.T.

Friday, June 2, 2023

Rough Creek 2023 -- Memorial's day weekend

We enjoyed the cooler weather this year at Rough Creek. And the wild flowers were such a treat.

Sunday, March 19, 2023

2023 Spring Break Ski Monarch

We went Spring Break skiing for the first time this year. Snow god had blessed us with incredible ski conditions during our week at Monarch. The Friday before we left, Will texted me the snow report. Monarch has just got a huge snow storm. It was still snowing during the weekend and Monday.

We left the house on Saturday at around 8am and arrived at our rental property near 7pm MST. This drive has become so familiar to us. After we found the entrance to our rental house, we were happy to open the door to a new and cute house.

Sunday morning, we walked out of our bedroom and were greeted by the view of sunrise on Mt Shavano through the window. This house is lined straight with a perfect view of the majestic mountain. During daylight, we were even more impressed by our lodge. 14000 County Rd 220, Salida, CO. Vicki Mallon

We picked up kids' skis at Mt Shavano ski shop and realized how busy spring break week is for skiing. Groups of visitors came to the shop. Without reservations, skiers were turned away. Monarch Mountain was also much more crowded than the week before Christmas. All of us picked up skiing from where we left a couple months ago quickly.

Monday was a great ski day with fresh powder. After a fun day of powder skiing, we drove to town for grocery shopping and dining at the Boathouse Cantina. After we parked our car near the river, we found a surfer practicing in the Arkansas River! It's not common that we see skiers and surfers on the same day. There were also rafting guides training in the river. With surfers, rafters and bikers, Salida was booming with outdoor activities.

Tuesday was Will's birthday! Weather warmed up and it was a beautiful sunny day to ski on Will's birthday. We took a few family portraits with an iphone propped by a few rocks. And we ate ice cream to celebrate our lovely daddy.

We went soaking in Mt Princeton Hot Spring on Wednesday. The key was to arrive early before 10am to secure a creekside pool. We soaked for about three hours and ate their pizza in the pool again. We struck up a conversation with a family from Chicago.

After the hot spring, we stopped by the Jumping Goat farm. Kids asked me why we were going to a goat farm. I said it's for investigation of my retirement activities. We bought some freshly made goat cheese and patted the goats there. The goat farm happened to be for sale. However, after smelling the goats, I scratched goat farmer from my possible job title.

We went to Buena Vista river park. It has two bouldering parks there. Both kids loved testing their climbing skills. When we arrived home, we still had daylight. One great thing we discovered about spring skiing was we had so much more light! We used the time to hike the trail on property. The trail went along a ridge in the property for 0.3 miles until it ended at CR220. That makes the property probably more than 5 acres. This much space gave us so much privacy even with the open design of the house.

We loved the house. The big floor to ceiling windows, the custom woodworks and brand new appliances. The house is also floor heated so it is not dry and the temperature was consistent. I also loved their modern fireplace design. It turned out the owner and her neighbor did the whole thing. I texted her that if we were to build a house in Colorado, we would love to have her help!

Thursday and Friday were another two powder days! Every trail became a playground with 5-6 inch of snow coverage. We made our fresh track and flew through the soft snow. For days, we drove by Mountain Spirit Winery down the road. We made a stop on Friday and did a bit of wine tasting. Both kids brought their books and read when we tasted wine. :-)

Saturday we left at 8:15 MST and arrived home at 8:40 CST. We had Arby's at Raton for lunch for a change and curly fries were a big hit with the kids! After dinner at home, we all went for a long night's sleep. What a wonderful family ski trip in the books!

Notes:

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at the front end of spring break were much busier on the mountain than Thursday and Friday
Jackson wore size 21 ski boots and skied on 120cm skis (he'll be ready for longer next year)
Norah skied on 110cm skis (didn't get her boot size)

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Books in 2022

I spent my spare time devouring good books I came across in 2022 -- Grand total of 66 books. 2/3 of my goal of 100 books.

Night road by Kristin Hannah
Where'd you go, Bernadette by Maria Semple💓
The midnight library by Matt Haig💓
Anxious people by Fredrik Backman
The four things that matter most: A book about living by Ira Byock 💓
A brief history of time by Stephen Hawking
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 💓
People we meet on vacation by Emily Henry 👎
The last thing he told me by Laura Dave
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
A long petal of the sea by Isabel Allende
Beartown by Fredrik Backman 💓
In the midst of winter by Isabel Allende 💓
The great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The white tiger by Aravind Adiga 💓
The new revelations: A conversation with god by Neale Donald Walsch
The Tibetan book of the dead
The power of now: A guide to spiritual enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle 💓
A woman is no man by Etaf Rum
Same kind of different as me by Ron Hall 💓
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Lord of the flies by William Golding
The black swan by Nassim Nicholas Tabeb
Serve to win by Novak Djokovic
The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A beginner's guide to the end by B.J. Miller
Happiness by Matthieu Richard
Little Fire everywhere by Celeste Ng
Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann 💓
The old man and the sea by Ernest Hemingway 💓
Beautiful country by Qian Julie Wang 💓
The giver by Lois Lowry
A new earth by Eckhart Tolle 💓
The Guncle by Steven Rowley
The art of living by Thich Nhat Hanh
Wish you were here by Jodi Picoult 💓
Into the wild by Jone Krakauer 💓
The martian by Andy Weir
Red rising by Pierce Brown
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner 💓
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee 💓
Into thin air by Jon Krakauer 💓💓
The four agreements by Miguel Ruiz
The fifth season by NK Jemisin 💓
The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin 💓
The Stone Sky by NK Jemisin 💓
The Christie Affair by Nina De Gramont
The invisible life of Addie Larue by VE Schwab
Wild by Cheryl Strayed 💓
The silence that binds us by Joanna Ho
Dune by Frank Herbert
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari 💓💓
The call of the wild by Jack London 💓
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
The untethered soul by Michael A singer
The adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 💓
Atlas of the heart by Brene Brown
Free food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee 💓
Seven years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer 💓
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 💓
The fault in our stars by John Green 💓
Remarkably Bright creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
My year of rest and relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh 👎
When breath becomes air by Paul Kalanithi 💓💓
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Monday, January 2, 2023

2022 Ski Monarch

In 2022, we returned to our last Christmas lodging in Poncha Springs. Annie is such a great host and we kept in touch through the year. (410 Quarry Station, Poncha Springs, 81242) When she told me a week ahead that the house was empty and ready for us, we decided to leave one day earlier than planned.

On Saturday Dec 17, we started our routine drive to Colorado. We left at 9AM, stopped in Wichita Falls for Chick-fil-a with a detour, and arrived at 8PM MST at our house. Norah was struggling with car sickness/altitude sickness the last hour. Fortunately she fell asleep close to our destination and didn't wake up for dinner at the house. Going back to a familiar house made us feel like going home. Annie left a welcome package for us. The house is so well stocked that we really don't need to bring anything extra. It even has the woods for the wood burning stove.

Norah woke up with high energy Sunday morning. So we were ready to go skiing! This is the third time we skied Monarch Mountain. We loved the layout of this small mountain. It claims 800 skiable acres, with 130 acres of Mirkwood closed currently. All runs funnel to the same base and there is no chance of losing our kids to a different base. There are 4 lifts from the base, Garfield, Tumbelina, Pioneer, Breezeway. And one lift from mid-mountain, Panorama. Pioneer has the similar drop off spot as Garfield but is as slow as a beginner chair. Tumbelina is only serving green and blue runs. We stayed mostly on Garfield, Panorama and Breezeway during this trip.

Both kids picked it up fast on the first day. After one full day of skiing, we drove to Salida's Safeway for grocery shopping and dinner at Boathouse Cantina. We skipped restaurant dining for the last two years. We all loved Boathouse back in 2018 when we dined there. It is as nice a setting as we remembered. Window looking over the Arkansas River and S Mountain with Christmas tree lights on it. After dinner, we walked over to the Riverside Park to match what's in our memory. It was too dark.

Monday Dec 19, we continued to ski and improve. Both kids (especially Norah) are excited to warm up so she could ski with B-rad tomorrow. On Tuesday, we dropped off both kids to B-rad at 9:15. Will and I got to ski by ourselves from 9:15 to 11:55. We enjoyed the black runs on Garfield and Panorama. When Will took Jackson's ski to be waxed after skiing, he dropped me off at Vino Salida. I wanted to check that place out last year since it is right across the street from our rental house. I ordered a flight and gulped it down when they came to pick me up. A unique wine tasting experience!

After three ski days, we took a ski break on Wednesday to Mount Princeton Hot Spring for a soak. It was cold (10-20F) and I was worried about kids being cold before we went. But I need not to worry. Both kids loved the creek-side pool. Jackson marveled at how relaxed he was in the pool. Hot water bubbled up from the bottom of the creek bed. Cold water mixed in with the rushing creek. The naturally formed pool provides great soaking, mountain and creek views and rocks as entertainment. We hopped and settled into a nice pool. Will went to the gas station at the parking lot and got us pizza for lunch. It was such an idyllic setting. Snow started to fall. We stayed in the pool for 5 hours till we reluctantly said goodbye.

Thursday Dec 22 was forecasted to be a frigidly cold and very windy day. Six inches of snow fell overnight. The temptation of powder snow drove us to the slope and the ski conditions were pretty good. Only Garfield was open in the morning. Norah and I found Powderline last time we skied. It had unskied powder even before the storm. We went there again and it was just us. One of Monarch's best features is the crowd. No matter the date and the snow condition, we never encountered a big crowd here.

The cold got to Norah after lunch and she would like to go tubing instead. I took her to the tubing hill. It charges hourly but the ticket guy gave us an extra half hour. Compared to the Steamboat Spring tubing hill we did a few years ago, every tubing place seemed miniature to Will and I. But Norah enjoyed the tubing activity nevertheless. She was 1 year old at Steamboat Springs after all. We did some reading at the lodge waiting for Jackson and Will. We were able to get the same or very close by table each time. That also tells how small the crowd is.

Friday Dec 23 was almost a blue bird day to our delight. Monarch opened Breezeway so Geno's Meadow was open to us with its fresh powder in the trees. Kids practiced their powder ski skills on the mountain. Steel City (the bigger terrain park) was also open today. Jackson also practiced his jumping skill. This is the 5th day of our skiing. We started to feel tired towards the end of ski day. The powder snow also presented new challenges -- many times I found the kids stuck in the tree well. When I took off my skis to help, the snow went to my thigh. Annie, our host, convinced me to start a fire in the wood burning stove. What a delightful experience! The warmth of fire radiated towards us. It became the center spot for our apre-ski activities.

Saturday Dec 24 was another break day. The welcome book from our host recommended Green's Creek as a winter hike. We didn't think it would be snow covered so I only brought my hiking shoes. But within a half mile of the trailhead, the road started to be covered by snow. The hike was many times more beautiful with the snow covering everything. Snow on the ice over the running creek was such a peaceful and beautiful sight. We hiked and played in a snowball fight and made a snowman. Snow was very light and airy to make a good snowball. We enjoyed this close experience in the snow just 15 minutes from our house.

After we took a break at the house and changed out of wet socks and shoes, we went to Riverside Park in the daylight. The big river was running without slowing down in the winter. We followed the river walk until we saw a big buck drinking water at the end of the walk. When we moved down to the riverside, he disappeared. S mountain was by our side and started with its glowing Christmas light. Salida is such a beautiful mountain town. We opened gifts tonight so we could head out early to Copper the next day.

We woke up at 6am on Christmas morning and left at 7am. Sunrise was at 7:20am. When we were heading north, we saw these red, orange and yellow lights peeking through the clouds. It turned out to be a marvelous sunrise! We stopped to take in the scene and saw the top of Mount Princeton covered in pink lights. We were so lucky to see the magnificent sunrise and sunset on Christmas day! We chose today to avoid the crowd on Copper mountain. It was not too crowded and 3 times the size of Monarch. We enjoyed the Gondola ride, the long blue runs and big terrain parks.

Monday Dec 26 was our last day at the mountains. Norah and I decided to go soak in Mount Princeton Hot Spring again and the boys wanted to ski the last day. I took a plastic lid and six dice with me, inspired by a family we saw last time with waterproof Uno cards. Norah threw a four of a kind plus a pair on the first throw. We had fun with our soaking and went back for a late lunch. We picked up the boys at 4pm.

Tuesday we drove from 8:45am MST and arrived home at 9:45 CST. 12 hours total drive time both ways. We ate our dinner at home so we didn't stop for more time on the road. Another successful ski trip in our bags!