Chris, Rhiannon, Mom and I woke up around 6 a.m. for our departure from Jacksonville to Denver this morning. Before boarding the plane for Charlotte (the first leg of our journey), we spotted a rather odd advertisement in the window at the airport. Still haven’t figured out what the gigantic, headless woman was trying to sell me.
Chris and I have never ridden in first class before, so it was a real treat to have ample leg room and personal space. Armed with snacks and drinks aplenty, Chris dug into the second book of the Sparhawk (Elenium) Trilogy and I began writing in the pages of a new journal.
We had a three hour layover in Charlotte, which resulted in a trip to Starbucks (Skinny vanilla latte, anyone?) and lunch at a place called Salsaritas, a Moe’s Southwest Grill-esque restaurant in the main concourse.
As we were boarding the flight from Charlotte to Denver, I sat back and observed my fellow passengers. The last man to board was a pretty harried looking individual who seemed hell bent on picking a fight with the flight attendants. From what I overheard, it sounded as though he’d had to go through security four times before he was finally allowed through and he was terrified he’d miss the flight. The flight was pretty important from the sounds of it because he was going to visit his dad in the hospital (he’d had a heart attack late last night).
I got restless about an hour and a half from our destination, so Rhiannon and I passed the time staring at the crop circles and mountains we could see from our windows. When the plane touched down, the excitement of being near our final destination was palpable (or maybe we were all just really excited to be allowed to get up and move around again). ^_^
From the Denver airport, it’s about an hour and a half shuttle ride to Keystone. We were fortunate to have a pretty interesting crew aboard the bus with us. One of the passengers was a starter for the different ski & snowboarding events and was on her way to Copper Mountain for the U.S. Nationals. One of the men on board was on his way to support his 15 year old son who was competing in the snowboarding half pipe competition at said nationals.
When we finally arrived at Montezuma condos, our home away from home for the next week, we were delighted by all the amenities, the décor and promise of a jacuzzi & sauna next door. After unpacking our gear, we headed over to Bighorn Steak House (located in the Keystone Lodge) for a fabulous dinner. Rhiannon and I ended up with the “Tenderfoot” Prime Rib (to die for), Chris had a New York Strip and Mom ended up having lamb loin. The food was AMAZING!
After that, we headed back to the condo to get some shut-eye before hitting the slopes.
