I’m typing this on Wednesday, the end of our third full day here at the YMCA of the Rockies, though I am sure I won’t be able to post this until Thursday or later. It’s been an incredibly busy day and lots of fun. It started with a trip to Bill’s Trout Pond in Winter Park, an operation run by an ex-ski bum named Bill. Bill was quite a hoot; he ran this trout pond in the summer and drove a shuttle van from the Denver airport and the Winter Park ski resort.
It was one of these places where you throw a line in the well-stocked pond and you’re going to catch a trout. The kids loved it; actually, all the kids loved it, which was a bit of a surprise. We figured that at least one of them would have gotten squeamish about the whole idea of catching fish and then watching Bill clean them, but they were all quite fascinated by the process, including the gutting. Bill, who had been running the fish farm for years and who had certainly seen groups like ours before, was not surprised to see the little kids this invested in the blood and guts side of things. Anyway, Will was the winning fisherman in that he caught two of the biggest fish (one trout that was 18 inches long), and he caught his fish first, almost right in a row. Then we had all of the fish for lunch– great and unbelievably fresh trout.
In the afternoon, Annette and Will and I went back into Winter Park to go to the ski resort and to take a try on the Alpine Sled ride. Really cool. Basically, you go down this track that is sort of like a bobsled run on a little cart where you control the speed. Will was behind Annette, and they were both way out in front of me; apparently, Will sped up on Annette, came up behind her yelling “ramming speed!� and bumped her cart, which is a no-no. It would have been fun to do that run again, actually, but we didn’t want to pay the $40 a person “all day� fee.
Anyway, after that, we went shopping and then we went out for dinner at a pretty nice German restaurant. Nice place and a good time for one and all, though I think it’s fair to say that the altitude and pine pollen had finally gotten to Annette. At one point in time, it got to everyone in my family other than the children, actually. You don’t think about this, but when you get up to 8500 feet or so above sea level and stay there for a couple of days, a lot of people start feeling pretty crappy. Just about everybody in our group (including me) had some symptoms from the altitude. So, when all is said and done, Colorado was “breathless� for more reason than one.
As before, there’s pictures on my Flickr account.
Nice place to have a vacation. I have not visited a great scenery in years. I guess you are having one of the best days of your life. On top that, skiing is always a fun adventure. I love cruising on ice.