Snow and salsa

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Thanks to the marvel of frequent flyer award flights, we managed to build in a little side trip from the South to North America to visit our lovely friends Tanya and Dav in Denver. Not sure whether it was good fortune on our part or magnificent planning on their part, but we were lucky to catch them just before they moved back to Sydney. (Not sure we would have been half as accommodating, and we certainly wouldn't have managed the air of organisation and relaxation that they did before we packed up home.)

After months of sunny hot weather we were itching for a bit of a chill and the opportunity to strap on our snowboards. Although we were pushing the end of the snow season and fully expecting patchy slush, as luck would have it a huge dump of snow was forecast just after we arrived. We made our way to Vail ready for when the storm hit. It started to snow as we lounged in the outdoor hot tub after the first day of cruisy boarding and hadn't stopped after adding 2 feet of new powdah when we left 2 days later.

That made for some frankly epic riding.

Day 2 was the business, boarding in trackless snow right up to closing time through the trees and natural half-pipes of Big Rock Park, no-one around, and each of us roaring with laughter as we sprayed huge rooster-tails off of the pristine pow. Without doubt my best day boarding ever ever ever - the stuff that sno-dreams are made of😊

Tanya and Dav had to leave after the second day, to meet the furniture removalists (who failed to show-up - Bahhh!) but we hung around to enjoy the additional foot+ (that's 30cm for the metrics) which fell overnight. At times there was almost too much snow and we wound up 'riding' in some crazy drifts in near white-out conditions. Still great fun😊

We then had something of an adventure getting back to Denver, involving a Greyhound bus, a road closure and some snow chain incompetence. The upshot was we finally got back to town at around 3am, the journey having taken 8 hours rather than the usual 2. On the bus we met some interesting people, who we are, happily, unlikely to have to meet again.

Having amply sated our snowboard lust, spring arrived in Denver bringing warm and sunny weather. We did a cool walk in the Rocky Mountains National Park, which laid on herds of elk and gamboling picas (cute little furry things).

When Tanya and Dav's apartment was completely free of the trappings of furniture, we took a road trip to New Mexico and Santa Fe, the oldest capital city in America. Santa Fe has its own unique character and charm, reflecting the cool and funky architecture, predominately low level adobe buildings. It's a place where many artists have settled and we took in some of the local art while we were there (including one gallery that has by far the best collection of black and white photographs that any of us has seen - shamefully can't remember the name). We also set ourselves the target of having Mexican food for every meal, which we didn't quite achieve but we did work our way through many burritos, fajitas, tacos, picos de galle, beans and rice, all washed down with margaritas.

Many thanks to Tanya and Dav for putting us up and entertaining us so well, when they had so many more important things to do.

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Photos

Feeling a little horny?
Dav happened across a magnificent elk antler in the RMNP. Being a good fella he put it back where he found it.

Spot the difference?
Paul admires some art in Santa Fe