USA 09/10 – Las Vegas to Beaver Creek
USA 09/10 – Las Vegas to Beaver Creek
Unfortunately, today started early again – we met Ed ready to head for the airport at 6am. A quick Starbucks breakfast, and we were on the way with a humorous taxi driver. The streets were abnormally busy for 6am, but as the driver suggested it was probably just people heading home after New Year’s celebrations (now being 2nd January…).
We arrived at the airport, unloaded everything and checked in. The baggage weight game was a mixed result (remember, the limit is 50lbs), with Ed coming in as the heaviest (51lbs), Pip in second place (47lbs) while I took third (45lbs). This was a total mix-up from the first flight-leg where Ed was the lightest and Pip the heaviest. Nonetheless, no excess baggage was required and check-in was painless. From here we passed through security, homeland security, and every other kind of security you can think of, then caught the train (“tram”) to the terminal.
Leaving Las Vegas
This whole process had not taken nearly as long as we had expected (we had planned on having 2 hours time as per latest TSA guidelines), and now we had an hour and a half to wait about in the terminal. Although Pip and I had snacked at Starbucks, Ed hadn’t yet had breakfast, so we decided to stop past Auntie Annie’s pretzels and grab a bite to eat. Cinnamon-sugar covered pretzels was the go, and we continued the USA diet we had begun a number of days ago now.
We decided not to play any of the pokies sitting all over the terminal, but instead found a comfy seat and watched the time slip by. Once we finally boarded, the flight was uneventful – so uneventful that both Pip and I slept practically the whole way. You’ll have to check with Ed if anything interesting happened. We did, however, arrive in Denver 30 minutes before the scheduled arrival time, which was a nice surprise. This wasn’t all positive news though, as our gate at the airport was not yet ready for our arrival – and as a result we had to spend 30 minutes waiting in a holding bay; great fun.
After finally arriving at the gate, we walked the length of the terminal and caught the underground train to the baggage carrousels (trains/trams seem to be the order of the day here in the USA). Unfortunately, once we got to the baggage carrousels, we followed a sign left to the United area, but didn’t notice that there was an identical sign in the opposite direction – and just our luck that we had to go to the right! We walked past all 14 carrousels before finding ours, but as Pip always says: “walking is good for us”.
Soon after we checked in to our shuttle bus service – the Colorado Mountain Express – and waited for our 1pm departure to roll around. Pip and I sought out some lunch, but Ed decided to hold the fort in the bus waiting lounge. We departed on time, and were on our way west towards the Rockies. The drive was easy, on a 3-lane highway the entire way, but we did see a traffic jam comparable to our Hoover Dam experience going in the opposite direction through the Eisenhower Tunnel. Key words here were opposite direction – whew. As we pulled through Vail, a town just before Beaver Creek, the snow was falling hard and fast – a good sign for us and the days ahead!
Heavy snow fall
After a total 2 (and a bit) hours drive, we finally arrived at our home for the next week or so – Beaver Creek, Colorado. The snow wasn’t falling here like it was back at Vail, but it was good to be able to see things in a little clarity before evening set in. We were dropped at the hotel, and went to check in – the Highlands Lodge was the hotel of choice this time – complete with outdoor pool and spa. Once we were assigned our room, however, we discovered that we had been placed in the Highlands Westview – 50 metres across the road (and snow, and cold), with no pool in that building… Pip was the angriest out of everyone, followed by me and the Ed (who was too tired to be fully angry).
We were taken to our room at Westview, and discovered that not only did it not have a pool, but the ski in/out access wasn’t anywhere near as good as the main building. This was enough to spur on some action from Ed, who went back to the reception to argue our case – the travel agent had booked the Highlands Lodge, and not the Westview, and this was very clear on the voucher. Pip and I stayed in the original room while this was occurring, so we can only assume this was a peaceful discussion (…maybe). Ed returned shortly after, and we were on the move again (of course, we have to move at least once) – back to the original Highlands Lodge where they had found a room for us… although the room wasn’t ready yet, and wouldn’t be for an hour. On this note, we decided to take a walk into the Beaver Creek village and sort out the skis that I did not yet have (a small problem, as our first day on the slopes was tomorrow).
Ed had been talking to Jeff from Christy Sports (in the village) about the skis that I was looking to get, but Jeff had not been able to get them in. Once we had made the walk to the village, angry, and most certainly not in snow clothes (ie, nice shoes and jeans), we came across another ski shop, Base Sports. We decided to stick our head in and just see what kinds of skis they had, and sure enough, they had the ones we had been looking at! As a bonus, they offered to let us take them out as demo skis to see what they were like. (Perfect!)
Pip in the village
By this stage it was cold, dark, and snowing heavily outside, but we powered on through the shops that were still open to check out the range of things available here at Beaver Creek. We went grocery shopping too, and although could get most of what we needed, could not get fresh fruit and vegetables . We bought what we could, and arranged for a free shuttle to pick us up and take us back to the hotel, in the hope our hotel room would be ready for us.
We completed our (new becoming) mandatory room change, and settled in to our new home for the next week or so. We didn’t stay too long, however, before heading back to the village for dinner at Blue Moose Pizza. The food was nice, and the service not dissimilar, even though it was probably the cheapest restaurant on the mountain. After dinner we picked up the demo skis, and headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. Tomorrow was set to be a big day, hitting the slopes for the first time this year.
Make sure you have a look at some of the photos, as there are some great scenic shots from the drive here. Have a look at the photo mash-up if you can’t be bothered clicking more than once.
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