Santa Fe Days 3 - 5
December 29, 2006
Day 3 in Santa Fe and nothing but snow, snow, snow and then more snow. Forecast is calling for 30 - 45 inches today and tomorrow. Judging by the bottles left on the balcony last night, we have gotten about 12 inches so far. Our plans were to ski at Ski Santa Fe today but the local news is warning against getting out on the streets. The road crews are working, but the snow is coming down so fast that they can't keep up. Beth and I decide to do a little road recon and we call down to get our car pulled around. What a crappy day to be a valet. I tip our guy for his efforts and off we go.
Our plan is to hit the grocery store and grab some breakfast type stuff then head toward the mountain and see how the roads look. No problem in getting to the store. Yes the roads are covered with snow, but they are still passable. Donuts in hand, we head toward the mountain. Before even leaving town, there is a pretty significant hill to climb. We make it up no problem, but my nerves are shot as it is steep and getting slicker by the moment. We go a couple miles further and I decide it's time to turn around and head back. There will be no skiing today. I wish I had 4 wheel drive.
Back at the Inn at Loretto we break the news to the group and decide to head to downtown Santa Fe and find some food and maybe do a little shopping. Mexican food is always good, especially for breakfast. After walking around downtown and deciding there is really nothing for families to do, we head back to the hotel and invade the lobby. We found a checkerboard inlaid in one of the tables but no checkers were to be found. We come up with the idea that we will get 12 pennies and 12 nickels from the front desk and use those as checkers. Andrew goes to get change and comes back a few minutes later saying he needs help. So I go to the desk and the clerk tells me she doesn't have 12 nickels. I suggest dimes but she doesn't have those either. So how about quarters little lady? We just need 12 of something Quarters it is but here is what she says when she's counting out the change from my 5 dollar bill. "Um....if I give you 12 quarters and 12 pennies then that really messes up your change because then I'll have to give you some extra quarters and a dollar bill." No kidding Einstein. 8 minutes later she finally figured out what the change should be. She got stuck thinking she had to give me exactly 12 pennies and exactly 12 quarters and it totally messed her math up. Do kids in New Mexico even go to school? What the ????
After a couple of checkers games, the kids decide to have snowball fights outside while the adults decide to have some hot totties and relax. 4 hours later (literally) the kids finally come in covered in snow and soaking wet. No problem.....go dry off and watch a movie in the room fellas. The adults....well, let's just leave the adults out of this but I will say that the 3 shifts of waitresses we met in the bar were all very nice. Looks like pizza again tonight, which is fine with me. I'll even eat the green chile pizza this time.
December 30, 2007
We woke up to find a note under our door asking us to allow 30 - 45 minutes for the valet to pull the car around as they have to literally dig the car out. At this point, we can't even find the bottles on the table on our balcony because of the snow. After last night, it's a good thing. More snow in store for today and we know we are not going anywhere. Sounds like another fun filled day stuck in our rooms. At least we can walk downtown for breakfast but there will be no skiing today.
Finally the snow starts to slow down in the afternoon and we are able to get out and catch a movie. The kids and Bruce hit the new James Bond flick which got rave reviews from all the boys. Beth, Mel and I decide on The Good Sheppard with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. The jist of the movie is about a guy in the CIA and how his secret life ends up effecting his family. It's a very deep, intellectual movie and therefore I had a hard time following. I should have hit Bond. I know I can follow that. All was not lost however as Angelina Jolie is smokin hot as usual. What did Brad Pitt ever do to deserve that? It goes to show that even butt ugly dudes can get hot chicks.
With the snow coming to a halt, we are hoping that the roads to the mountain will be open and drivable tomorrow. At this point, I'm starting to worry about how we are going to get home. I-40 is closed from Albequerque to the Texas line and that is the route we need.
Happy New Year's Eve - December 31, 2006
We awake to another note about the 30-45 minute wait for the car to come around so I call down early. We get dressed and 30 minutes later our posse (B-ditty, A-train, Cam-man, Rdogg, Brucester and Big Daddy) is ready to go in hopes of beating the crowd and catch some freshies. We get down to the lot and the valet informs us they took our car back already. Huh? What happened to 30 minutes? Do they not teach kids in New Mexico how to tell time? I think not.
We make it to the mountain in about an hour and are there a little before they open at 9. The line for ski rentals is about 10 deep so not too bad so far. The weather is absolutely beautiful. I've never seen a better day for skiing. Not a cloud in the ski, fresh powder, no wind and a temp of about 30. Perfection.
Rails attached, it's time to head up. Rdogg having recently graduated from ski school, we decide to take the short lift up to the beginner slope to gauge his progress and see how gnarly we can get today. Tips up, Rdogg off, looking good. Posse set, Atrain and Cam-man lead the way followed by B-ditty and Brucester. Big daddy and Rdogg bring up the rear. At least until Rdogg points em downhill and shouts C Ya'll Later daddi-o. Off he goes. Next I hear...Cya'll later Atrain....C ya'll later cam-man as Rdogg blows by everyone. I think we are in for a gnarly day. He even dodges a screaming starfish without a single face plant. That's my boy.
Over to the quad, we head up to the top. At least as far as we could go. The very top of the mountain was not open yet as they needed a few more inches of snow. You can still see chocolate chips up top. No worries, there is plenty of mountain for us to tackle. Up at the top the view is spectacular. We cruise around some gapers and start heading down. Anybody up for a blue? Rdogg, Cam-man and Atrain are up for the challenge of a baby blue. Down they go. No fear. All three point the sticks down the slope and head straight for the bottom. Big Daddy cruises down slowly while Brucester and B-ditty take the long way down. We cruise the rest of the way down and decide to take the quad back up and come down blues this time.
Back on the quad. Tips up, posse off. A-train is in the left seat and decide to take a sharp right turn. Wipe out. Rdogg, A-train and Big Daddy go down. Yard sale everywhere. B-ditty somehow dodges us all and stays perpindicular. Off we go and stop at the top of the blues. Atrain and Cam-man are stoked so I tell them to go ahead and go and I'll meet them down at the bottom. Rdogg and I start cruising and he gets a little out of control. I think he has a little kodak courage. It didn't last long....face plant. We struggled down and finally made it only to find out that Cam-man had suffered a major wipe out and has a gnarly gash in his grape. He must have crunched his melon on his ski because it was a razor straight slice. Unfortunatly for Cam-man that was the end of his day. 10 stitches later he'll be ok. Hang tough Cam-man we will get them next year.
Brucester and Cam called Mel to come get in them and take them to the big blue H in Santa Fe while the rest of us stayed to ski a few more times. We probably did 5 more runs including some gnarly trips through the trees in Adventure Land. A-train is a great little skier. Blues are easy and he is probably about ready to try his first black. We'll wait for Uncle Rick to escort him down that. Rdogg did well and will never need ski school again. He's awesome on the greens and can handle the blues well and probably will hit his first black in the next couple years.
Ski Santa Fe was the bomb. I'm sure the perfect conditions effected our rating system, but we put it high on the list. It's not the biggest mountain by far but the runs are wide and smooth and about the perfect lenght. Our only complaint is with the lift lines which at times were 15 to 20 minutes. I'm sure a lot of it had to do with the top not being open and it being the break between Christmas and New Year's. We will definatly try and get back to Ski Santa Fe some day.
The trip is winding down and it's New Year's Eve. We take the easy way out and celebrate New Year's with the New Yorkers at 10pm local time. We have a long drive tomorrow and we don't know if I-40 is going to be open or not so we are allowing for extra time. Good night John Boy. Big Daddy out with 2006.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! January 1, 2007
It's been a good trip, but being snowed in cost us some valuable ski time which put a damper on things. We were not overly impressed with the hotel either. The Inn and Spa at Loretto is a great location, but not the friendliest staff I have dealt with. Also not the sharpest.....evident by the checkers fiasco. I think snobish might be the right word. We will go back some day, but next time we will stay somewhere else. There is a nice looking Hilton in downtown that may work out.
Day 3 in Santa Fe and nothing but snow, snow, snow and then more snow. Forecast is calling for 30 - 45 inches today and tomorrow. Judging by the bottles left on the balcony last night, we have gotten about 12 inches so far. Our plans were to ski at Ski Santa Fe today but the local news is warning against getting out on the streets. The road crews are working, but the snow is coming down so fast that they can't keep up. Beth and I decide to do a little road recon and we call down to get our car pulled around. What a crappy day to be a valet. I tip our guy for his efforts and off we go.
Our plan is to hit the grocery store and grab some breakfast type stuff then head toward the mountain and see how the roads look. No problem in getting to the store. Yes the roads are covered with snow, but they are still passable. Donuts in hand, we head toward the mountain. Before even leaving town, there is a pretty significant hill to climb. We make it up no problem, but my nerves are shot as it is steep and getting slicker by the moment. We go a couple miles further and I decide it's time to turn around and head back. There will be no skiing today. I wish I had 4 wheel drive.
Back at the Inn at Loretto we break the news to the group and decide to head to downtown Santa Fe and find some food and maybe do a little shopping. Mexican food is always good, especially for breakfast. After walking around downtown and deciding there is really nothing for families to do, we head back to the hotel and invade the lobby. We found a checkerboard inlaid in one of the tables but no checkers were to be found. We come up with the idea that we will get 12 pennies and 12 nickels from the front desk and use those as checkers. Andrew goes to get change and comes back a few minutes later saying he needs help. So I go to the desk and the clerk tells me she doesn't have 12 nickels. I suggest dimes but she doesn't have those either. So how about quarters little lady? We just need 12 of something Quarters it is but here is what she says when she's counting out the change from my 5 dollar bill. "Um....if I give you 12 quarters and 12 pennies then that really messes up your change because then I'll have to give you some extra quarters and a dollar bill." No kidding Einstein. 8 minutes later she finally figured out what the change should be. She got stuck thinking she had to give me exactly 12 pennies and exactly 12 quarters and it totally messed her math up. Do kids in New Mexico even go to school? What the ????
After a couple of checkers games, the kids decide to have snowball fights outside while the adults decide to have some hot totties and relax. 4 hours later (literally) the kids finally come in covered in snow and soaking wet. No problem.....go dry off and watch a movie in the room fellas. The adults....well, let's just leave the adults out of this but I will say that the 3 shifts of waitresses we met in the bar were all very nice. Looks like pizza again tonight, which is fine with me. I'll even eat the green chile pizza this time.
December 30, 2007
We woke up to find a note under our door asking us to allow 30 - 45 minutes for the valet to pull the car around as they have to literally dig the car out. At this point, we can't even find the bottles on the table on our balcony because of the snow. After last night, it's a good thing. More snow in store for today and we know we are not going anywhere. Sounds like another fun filled day stuck in our rooms. At least we can walk downtown for breakfast but there will be no skiing today.
Finally the snow starts to slow down in the afternoon and we are able to get out and catch a movie. The kids and Bruce hit the new James Bond flick which got rave reviews from all the boys. Beth, Mel and I decide on The Good Sheppard with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. The jist of the movie is about a guy in the CIA and how his secret life ends up effecting his family. It's a very deep, intellectual movie and therefore I had a hard time following. I should have hit Bond. I know I can follow that. All was not lost however as Angelina Jolie is smokin hot as usual. What did Brad Pitt ever do to deserve that? It goes to show that even butt ugly dudes can get hot chicks.
With the snow coming to a halt, we are hoping that the roads to the mountain will be open and drivable tomorrow. At this point, I'm starting to worry about how we are going to get home. I-40 is closed from Albequerque to the Texas line and that is the route we need.
Happy New Year's Eve - December 31, 2006
We awake to another note about the 30-45 minute wait for the car to come around so I call down early. We get dressed and 30 minutes later our posse (B-ditty, A-train, Cam-man, Rdogg, Brucester and Big Daddy) is ready to go in hopes of beating the crowd and catch some freshies. We get down to the lot and the valet informs us they took our car back already. Huh? What happened to 30 minutes? Do they not teach kids in New Mexico how to tell time? I think not.
We make it to the mountain in about an hour and are there a little before they open at 9. The line for ski rentals is about 10 deep so not too bad so far. The weather is absolutely beautiful. I've never seen a better day for skiing. Not a cloud in the ski, fresh powder, no wind and a temp of about 30. Perfection.
Rails attached, it's time to head up. Rdogg having recently graduated from ski school, we decide to take the short lift up to the beginner slope to gauge his progress and see how gnarly we can get today. Tips up, Rdogg off, looking good. Posse set, Atrain and Cam-man lead the way followed by B-ditty and Brucester. Big daddy and Rdogg bring up the rear. At least until Rdogg points em downhill and shouts C Ya'll Later daddi-o. Off he goes. Next I hear...Cya'll later Atrain....C ya'll later cam-man as Rdogg blows by everyone. I think we are in for a gnarly day. He even dodges a screaming starfish without a single face plant. That's my boy.
Over to the quad, we head up to the top. At least as far as we could go. The very top of the mountain was not open yet as they needed a few more inches of snow. You can still see chocolate chips up top. No worries, there is plenty of mountain for us to tackle. Up at the top the view is spectacular. We cruise around some gapers and start heading down. Anybody up for a blue? Rdogg, Cam-man and Atrain are up for the challenge of a baby blue. Down they go. No fear. All three point the sticks down the slope and head straight for the bottom. Big Daddy cruises down slowly while Brucester and B-ditty take the long way down. We cruise the rest of the way down and decide to take the quad back up and come down blues this time.
Back on the quad. Tips up, posse off. A-train is in the left seat and decide to take a sharp right turn. Wipe out. Rdogg, A-train and Big Daddy go down. Yard sale everywhere. B-ditty somehow dodges us all and stays perpindicular. Off we go and stop at the top of the blues. Atrain and Cam-man are stoked so I tell them to go ahead and go and I'll meet them down at the bottom. Rdogg and I start cruising and he gets a little out of control. I think he has a little kodak courage. It didn't last long....face plant. We struggled down and finally made it only to find out that Cam-man had suffered a major wipe out and has a gnarly gash in his grape. He must have crunched his melon on his ski because it was a razor straight slice. Unfortunatly for Cam-man that was the end of his day. 10 stitches later he'll be ok. Hang tough Cam-man we will get them next year.
Brucester and Cam called Mel to come get in them and take them to the big blue H in Santa Fe while the rest of us stayed to ski a few more times. We probably did 5 more runs including some gnarly trips through the trees in Adventure Land. A-train is a great little skier. Blues are easy and he is probably about ready to try his first black. We'll wait for Uncle Rick to escort him down that. Rdogg did well and will never need ski school again. He's awesome on the greens and can handle the blues well and probably will hit his first black in the next couple years.
Ski Santa Fe was the bomb. I'm sure the perfect conditions effected our rating system, but we put it high on the list. It's not the biggest mountain by far but the runs are wide and smooth and about the perfect lenght. Our only complaint is with the lift lines which at times were 15 to 20 minutes. I'm sure a lot of it had to do with the top not being open and it being the break between Christmas and New Year's. We will definatly try and get back to Ski Santa Fe some day.
The trip is winding down and it's New Year's Eve. We take the easy way out and celebrate New Year's with the New Yorkers at 10pm local time. We have a long drive tomorrow and we don't know if I-40 is going to be open or not so we are allowing for extra time. Good night John Boy. Big Daddy out with 2006.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! January 1, 2007
It's been a good trip, but being snowed in cost us some valuable ski time which put a damper on things. We were not overly impressed with the hotel either. The Inn and Spa at Loretto is a great location, but not the friendliest staff I have dealt with. Also not the sharpest.....evident by the checkers fiasco. I think snobish might be the right word. We will go back some day, but next time we will stay somewhere else. There is a nice looking Hilton in downtown that may work out.
posted by barry c at 4:00 PM
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