A weekend in Steamboat...

This was our first long weekend - thank you Martin Luther King! We set off on Saturday morning to meet our CITEL buddy, Dorothy for brunch. We arrived at Dorothy's lovely home and met her son Scott and daughter in law Sierra, both excellent conversationalists. Soon afterwards two other CITEL buddies arrived, Bill and Susan who exchanged to Belligen a few years back. We all chatted like long lost friends and shared travel tales over a lovely breakfast of homemade Coopers, (yes as in beer) bread, and a darker stout bread. Served with delicious home made quiches, fresh fruit, yogurt, sweet potato butter and champagne and orange juice.

 It was lovely to meet such kind and interesting people, who had loads of advise to offer us. Unfortunately after a few hours we had to hit the road and we set off for Steamboat. Thank you all for a lovely morning!

The names of fuel shops and other stores are really funny!

We enjoyed a two and a half hour drive through the rocky mountains to the beautiful ski resort town of Steamboat Springs. It was sooo beautiful. We checked into our luxury accommodation - amazing - and enjoyed a lovely dinner and sat down in front of the fire to watch our Broncos play.

No more talk is to be had regarding the broncos until next year.

We awoke to a beautiful day and set off to teach the kids how to ski, (I was also eager to try out my new skis and boots)! It was a beautiful spot to learn, thankfully away from the Olympic training session taking place nearby. Really!



The morning view of the swimming pool from out lounge room window

Yasemin and Max both had a great go and both made some progress. I had a few runs, but am looking forward to us all having some lessons next time.



Check out those ski jumps - no thanks!

The highlight for the kids was definitely the pool and hot tub. I can tick another goal of the list - swimming or having a spa outside in the snow! It was a fantastic experience with breathtaking views! We struggled to get the kids out of the pool.

Yasemin loves to take photos of herself while underwater

To top off a great day we had a gondola ride up the mountain, (courtesy of our amazing accommodation), and enjoyed the fabulous views.

We spent Monday morning in the pool and spas - surprise, surprise! We had a late check out and headed for home around 1.30pm when disaster struck. A massive snow storm, which turned a two and a half hour drive home into almost six hours. At times it was scary as we really struggled to see - thank goodness for the truck which guided us through the mountain passes.





I begged Garry to stop in the minus 15 degree temperature so I could take some photos of the amazing scenery - it really was a photographers dream.

Our trusty Subi coped well in the conditions

I froze standing on the Colorado River to take this photo

We have vowed to return to our new most favourite place - I think I might even love it more than Byron - is it possible? Their is a fabulous Cowboy shop that begs for further investigation, with more fabulous boots! Yasemin and Max begged this morning for us to stay and requested that we live in Steamboat forever.