OnSno.com

Day 6 (wow… day 6 already?!) here at Beaver Creek was our first “rest day” – no skiing involved. We woke up at a similar time as every other day so far (damn body clock), but stayed in bed for an extra hour or so while we tried to catch a few more Zzz’s. We had a relaxing breakfast, then started to get ready to head into Avon – a town about 5 minutes down the mountain from the Beaver Creek village. As Pip had washed her hair this morning, and it was -10C outside, we decided to wait until after it was dry before leaving. On previous days, we had had some trouble with the housekeeping department here at the Highlands, and just to keep us on our toes they came at yet another different time today – 10:30am was the chosen time (similar to 3:30pm and 4:30pm I know), and as a result we weren’t ready to be disturbed.

The Beaver Creek Village centre

Ed asked them to return in 10 minutes once we had left for the day, but they began on another room which we knew would keep them occupied for at least 30 minutes. We watched a little more TV until the washing was finished, and the hair was dry, then headed into the village to catch the first bus of our journey – to the Elk parking lot. Luckily the bus was waiting as we crossed the bridge, so we made the quick dash and hopped aboard. The trip was short and we were soon at the base of the mountain, ready to catch the second bus to the Avon town centre. To make it two in a row, the bus pulled up only seconds after we had arrived, so we made the transfer and we were on our way.

The ride didn’t take long, at all… in fact, we were dropped off at the first stop, which the driver told us was the main shopping area in Avon. We had a quick walk around and discovered very little… very little indeed. We did however find a Mexican restaurant, a Mexican convenience store, a few other strange small country town-style shops, and a large sports store. It didn’t take us long to work out that there was really nothing here, and certainly nothing that we were interested in having for lunch as we had originally planned. The only one thing we did find that was of use to us was the supermarket – a full-sized (or close enough to) one too!

Hmm... stairs or escalators?

We spent the next half-hour or so loading up on groceries we had not been able to buy up the mountain (such as fresh fruit and vegetables), or those things that were twice the cost at an altitude of about 400 feet higher. One full trolley, 6 shopping bags, and a backpack full of groceries later and we were on our way back to Beaver Creek – but not before we had the 15 minute tour of Avon on the Red Line bus. Avon was, well, pretty small. We had really seen the most exciting part, and it hadn’t really been all that exciting.

Upon returning to the Elk Parking Lot, we waited for the Beaver Creek Village bus to collect us, and made the reverse journey that we had made nearly 4 hours earlier. There was a bit of a wait when we arrived at the village before our Eastern Route bus arrived, but we weren’t much looking forward to walking back up the hill to the hotel with all of the groceries so we had few other options. It was 3pm by the time we got back to the room, but as we passed through the reception area, the housekeeping staff appeared out of the elevator and followed us down the corridor. I joked to Pip that they were coming to clean our room, but when we realised that they actually were, the smile turned into a look of disbelief. We had a small “discussion” with them regarding the “come back in 10 minutes” instruction we’d given them, but it was clear that they understood basically nothing of what we said.

Pip impressed with the shopping

We weren’t in the mood to put up with 30 minutes of vacuuming and the other rubbish that came with the housekeeping crew, so we asked for them to change our towels and just leave everything else. A few minutes later, when we couldn’t understand why they were still in the room, we discovered that they had made the beds, started dusting and so on – so we asked them to just leave (nicely of course). We think the greatest problem was a language barrier, but for a hotel chain such as this, it really isn’t good form.

Soon after we made nachos for lunch (late, I know), and enjoyed a number of hours of sitting in front of the TV – both on the couch, and falling asleep in bed. It wasn’t until after the NCIS marathon had finished at 6pm that we realised we had missed the Thursday night light show on the slopes – including skiers and boarders with glowsticks coming down the slopes, and a fireworks display in the village. Probably not a huge loss, but it was our one and only chance to experience it, so a bit unfortunate there.

We got moving again and cooked dinner – another home cooked meal, I know! Today it was satay beef, rice and vegetables; relatively very healthy. Dinner was enjoyed by all, and we relaxed the remainder of the night both in front of the TV again, and on Skype. I think I’ve watched enough TV now to last me for the rest of 2010, but then again – when in Rome…

It was unfortunate that we weren’t on the slopes today as the weather looked perfect (except for the cold temperatures), but tomorrow is supposed to be similar and it was certainly good to just relax all day. We only took very few photos because there was nothing too exciting to see, but they are up in the gallery regardless. I’ve made a quick photo mash-up for the sake of consistency, but you already know that not much exciting happened.

Hope everyone is surviving the heat-wave back home; looks like we missed the cold snap that seems to have dumped on the rest of the country here!