Kevin Andrew Lipscomb - PhotographyHi-Altitude Honeymoon
Our flight out of Norfolk the morning after the wedding had a scheduled take-off time of 6:10 A.M. Being in our respective assigned places at 6:10 is not altogether unusual for Rebecca nor for me, but we are not accustomed to being on a jet airliner at 6:10 after an evening wedding. We were headed to Vail, Colorado. We had done a good job of packing beforehand. Before we left the house, I put the nozzle on the garden hose and sprayed the "Just Married" messages off of the Lincoln Town Car that I'd rented for the wedding. That was uneventful, as I think the substance that Shawn and Lisa chose to decorate the car with was soap. We said goodbye to Sasquatch and piled everything into Rebecca's Explorer: Five bags to check, including Rebecca's skis, and two carry-ons. I drove the Lincoln and Rebecca followed. Our first task at the airport was to drop off the Lincoln. I had not really topped off the fuel tank (I had only put about 25 miles on the odometer), but I said I had. I like living dangerously. We parked the Explorer in the parking garage and carried our luggage through the temporary tunnel that led to the terminal. We checked the five large bags and headed to the second floor, where we had enough time (by design) to stop at a kiosk for pastries. That was our first breakfast. At the security gate, I remembered to ask the guard to hand-check my film pouches, which he did without a fuss. We unloaded our pockets into the tupperware cup and walked through the metal detector uneventfully. I don't remember waiting at the gate for very long before boarding. First class seats
Denver International Airport (DIA) was interesting. I remembered the tremendous cost overruns that they'd incurred as they developed the computer-controlled baggage handling system there. The system had been a poster child for, among other things, poor software development practices. For us, however it worked fine. In fact, we didn't have luggage problems at any point on the trip. Our favorite part of DIA was the talking subway system. The system connects the airport's three remotely-located concourses with each other and with the main terminal building. Before speaking an instruction to its passengers, the subway's speakers would play one of several silly little musical phrases. I suppose these two-to-three second interludes were designed to cut through whatever other chatter or boom-box noise the passengers may be introducing into the environment, but they just made Rebecca and I laugh. We found our luggage easily, stopped by the Alamo desk to pick up the keys to our rental car, and headed to the shuttle lanes. An Alamo shuttle bus brought us and our luggage a mile or two out to the rental car lot, where we picked up the car after reminding the staff that we'd arranged to have a ski rack installed on the roof. From Denver, it's about a two-hour drive to Vail. Vail itself is built right up against the interstate, but its coziness isn't apparent from the highway. In these parts that the locals call the "high country" of Colorado, they use traffic circles (roundabouts) at the bottom of every interstate junction. After literally driving around in circles and making a brief stop at the visitor's center, we arrived at the Sonnenalp at around 12:30 P.M. MST -- three and a half hours before check-in time. Let the tipping commence!
Of course, we took some time to check out our suite at that point. Gas fireplace, king-sized bed, cozy sitting area, TV, VCR, "mini bar", and large closets; heated bathroom floor, dual sinks, large bathtub and separate shower; terrycloth robes and slippers, safe, clothes iron and ironing board; and a view of the stream that runs through the village, and of the mountains. We'd made a good choice.
At some point, we walked around the hotel to check out its amenities. It had what amounted to a parlor; a library; a fine-dining restaurant; a game room; two internet-connected computers; and a spa with a heated indoor/outdoor pool, indoor and outdoor jacuzzi/hot tubs, a workout room, a bar, and a circular fireplace surrounded by sofa benches. The spa also had massage and mud bath areas, but we didn't explore those parts. Clean towels were never more than ten paces away. Our next task was to pick up my rental ski equipment. We stopped at the concierge desk for directions and a walking map and headed out. The village has plenty of pedestrian space, and wasn't crowded while we were there. We soon found the skip shop and claimed the rental equipment. Since we had decided not to ski until the next day, the shop staff offered to store our equipment there until we came for it. "What's the charge for that?", I asked. "Nothing." I was pleasantly surprised. Several things pleasantly surprised me on our honeymoon, but most consumer-related surprises were associated with high payments. This was one of only two events that came across to me as a deal.
Time to hit the slopesNow it was Monday. We spent the day skiing. I skied amateurishly. It turned out that I'd selected boots that were a little too large, and skis that were a little too long. Rebecca skied much better, but said she didn't feel up to par. We had lunch at the current incarnation of the Two Elks Lodge, at the top of one of the mountains. The original Two Elks Lodge was burned to the ground by environmental activists several years prior. I didn't take any pictures on the slopes until later in the week. By the end of the day, it was evident that we'd neglected to use any sunscreen. At 11,000 feet, that's a mistake no matter how bundled up you are. That night we had dinner at one of the two restaurants owned by the Sonnenalp called the Swiss Chalet. They serve everything fondue-style there. Rebecca had never had fondue before. You would've thought Rebecca had never been served a bottle of wine before, either. When the waiter showed us the label, Rebecca said, accurately, "We don't know what we're looking at, but it looks fine to us." When the waiter poured the first glass for Rebecca, she proceeded to chug down the first mouthful without pause, and when we were getting ready to leave, she gave the waiter and I a chuckle by asking if we could take the bottle with us. My tip probably paid the waiter's car loan installment. Tuesday morning we stopped at the place where I'd rented my ski equipment so that I could exchange my skis and boots for smaller sizes. I still skied amateurishly that day, but I could tell that the shorter sizes were better for me. I was still gravitating toward the easy trails (or rather toward the bottoms of the mountains via the easy trails), so much so that Rebecca had to resort to using her feminine wiles (which will not be fully disclosed here -- suffice it to say that this was, after all, our honeymoon) to entice me to try the diamond trails. Low clouds and heavy snow came in shortly after lunch, so we made it a short day on the slopes.
That evening we had dinner at an Italian place called Vendettas. We had fun listening to a group of young Australians at a nearby table, and we talked about reserving spots on a snowmobile tour for Wednesday. I thought it would be good to give our muscles a break from skiing, and Rebecca looked forward to the variety. Back at the hotel, we rented Space Cowboys on video for only $8. The film's producers have their marketing folks rather than the director or screen writer to thank for the movie's popularity. Wednesday morning, we learned that no snowmobiles would be available until the next day. I still wanted to give my muscles a break, so we decided to do some sightseeing in our rental car. We took I-70 west until we realized we had passed our intended exit. Two roundabouts later, we were eastbound again. Just as we approached our exit, we saw a pedestrian motioning his hands as if he were pushing something in front of him down from chest-level to waist-level. He wanted traffic to slow down, and as I committed our car to the exit ramp, I saw that if I had continued east, I would've been crossing a curved, iced-up bridge. At the far end of the bridge, at least one car had run off the road and into an embankment. I said to Rebecca that it didn't look too bad, and kept going. In Colorado, we were just basic EMTs anyway -- our paramedic privileges aren't legally recognized outside of Virginia Beach -- and the only medical equipment we had with us was a pair of CPR mouth shields. Several minutes later, we heard a radio DJ say there had been a major accident involving an overturned vehicle at that very spot. I wasn't sure if the DJ was reporting an exaggeration, if my eyes had played a trick on me, or if a subsequent, more severe accident had happened after we drove by.
After our little road trip, we stopped at a grocery store to stock up on breakfast supplies. Later, we did some shopping and then partook of the spa again. We enjoyed sitting in the hot tub while snow fell lightly onto our faces. The heat made me thirsty though, and while Rebecca dried off and sat at the circular fireplace to read her leisure book, I went to the bar to order a fruit smoothie -- for only $8. What the hell, I'd saved up for it. After napping a bit, we had a fine-dining experience at the Sonnenalp's in-house restaurant (Ludwig's), and watched Erin Brockovitch on the VCR. This is as good a time as any to mention one of my major observations about Vail: the ethnic arrangement. It sure seemed to me that a large proportion of the workers that we had "face time" with were Europeans, imported no doubt because of the labor shortage. All but one concierge were clearly European; the folks we spoke to at the front desk were European; and the folks who anwered the phone were European. Our ski instructor (Friday) was Australian. Our valets, bellboy, room server, and snowmobile guides (Thursday) were American. The "back of house" folks -- maids in particular, and we understand, construction workers, were mostly Mexican, as was at least one shop cashier. Waiters were refreshingly assorted. So there was quite a mix, but I think it's unfortunate that roles and ethnicity seemed to be linked.
For the most part, it was a cloudy, snowy day. We drove on a variety of terrain and trails, with four or five opportunities to stop, turn off the snowmobiles, and just take in this part of the Rockies. The company had encouraged us to bring cameras, so I used my Lowepro bag to carry two FE2s, my three zoom lenses,and plenty of film. I had hoped to see some wildlife, but that didn't happen. The guide said the animals pretty much avoided humans.
He also led us into a meadow where we didn't have to "stay within the lines". He took the opportunity to do a little bit of showing off.
Next, he led us up to a peak above the timber line. This was awesome. We were more than 13,000 feet above sea level here. Without walking a step, our respiratory rates were twice normal. And it was windy...
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