I spent the short time after Trey and Kaela left gettting ready for my next visitor, my Dad. He came in last Wednesday. I had work Thursday at Loveland, so he had to snowboard by himself. I met him for lunch and hot chocolate during my breaks. We left straight from Loveland for Steamboat Springs. On the way, we stopped in Kremmling to eat at a Mexican restaurant. I had been craving Mexican for a long time. There are no good Mexican restaurants within at least a half hour of me and I haven't had good Mexican food since Los Aztecas last August! (the things you all must take for granted.)
I had never been to Steamboat, so I had been looking forward to the trip for a long time. We stayed in the Steamboat Grand, a very nice hotel just across the street from the base of the ski area. We had great weather the whole time we were in Steamboat, sunny and in the thirties during the day. There hadn't been any new snow very recently, so there was no "Steamboat champain powder" to ride. The warm temps during the day and cool temps at night meant that the snow was hard and icy in the morning, but softened up in the afternoon. It was neat to ride steamboat because it is so much different than Loveland. steamboat's peak elevation is lower than Loveland's base elevation. That makes for nicer weather (warmer and less windy) and the terrain is completely different. There are big, wide open aspen glades, which is something Steamboat is known for, but I didn't get to take advantage of them, because the snow was so icy in the trees.
The snowboarding was fun and the time at the hotel was great, too. My dad was in Steamboat for a conference (meetings before and after snowboarding) and managed to get a nametag for me. So, I was able to go down to the conference area and eat breakfast for free every morning. They also had a snack buffet with free beer in the afternoon that I took full advantage of. I'd sit outside the conference room eating five star snacks and drinking Fat Tire while my dad was inside listening to speakers.
We came back from Steamboat Sunday evening and snowboarded at Loveland Monday morning. My Dad's flight was scheduled for 7 pm Monday evening, so we headed down to Denver early Monday afternoon. Even though we hadn't gotten any snow in the Mountains, the storm that hit the Midwest did a bit of damage in Denver. My Dad's Monday flight was cancelled, so he had to wait 'til Tuesday morning to fly out. Because I had work Tuesday, he had to stay in a hotel Monday night. I did get one more free dinner out of him before I left Denver to head back to the mountains, though.
It was definitely great to have another visitor and even better to have my Dad come. This was the first time that he had seen the cabin since he had the addition built and since I repainted it this summer. I was proud to show off all the work I'd done and changes I'd made. He seemed really happy with the adition and all the work that had been done.
