Winter Trip to Colorado (Part 2)

On the first day, we decid­ed not to ski, but to get pass­es and enroll Mark in ski school for two days. I naive­ly thought — just come to the moun­tain and ski. But no. You can’t get on the lift with­out a spe­cial per­mit. While the kids were buy­ing pass­es, I enjoyed the views. There were many fenced areas on the moun­tain with gen­tle slopes where chil­dren were taught to ski and snowboard.

These schools were orga­nized by age and skill lev­el. Very young chil­dren received pri­vate lessons. There were tiny kids who seemed to be two and a half to three years old. Each lit­tle child was assigned an instruc­tor who could catch the child with spe­cial straps when they start­ed to fall. The chil­dren slid down a small slope, and a mov­ing walk­way, like those in air­ports, brought them back up.

Then we met with Sve­ta and Sasha from Texas. They are friends who moved to Texas from Ari­zona at the begin­ning of the pan­dem­ic. They knew we were going to Steam­boat and came to ski as well. They enrolled their son Sasha in snow­board school. In the evening, we all had din­ner in our room.

December 22. Tuesday.

The first day of ski­ing. I stayed at the hotel. It was cold out­side. Marik was placed in the fifth lev­el of ski school. He was satisfied.

In the evening, we had din­ner with Sve­ta and Sasha. Sve­ta fell on the moun­tain and hurt her elbow and leg, so she wouldn’t be ski­ing tomorrow.

December 23. Wednesday.

Ski­ing. Marik is in ski school. They were already tak­en to the blue slope. He said that it was scary, but he liked it. In the evening, we had din­ner with friends who also came to Steam­boat Springs from Texas.

December 24. Christmas Eve.

The day began as usu­al with prepa­ra­tions and ski­ing. Marik’s ski school was over, and he skied with his par­ents. I stayed at the hotel. It was sun­ny and ‑7 degrees Cel­sius dur­ing the day. I decid­ed to take a walk and strolled for about an hour. There were almost no peo­ple on the streets, just pass­ing cars; the oth­er tourists were all on the moun­tain.

I thought the moun­tain vis­i­ble from our hotel win­dow was the only one, with many lifts and slopes: green, blue, black. But it turns out this moun­tain is for gen­er­al ski­ing, and behind it are oth­er moun­tains with dif­fi­cult slopes where advanced skiers go. How­ev­er, even up high, there are sev­er­al green slopes that are very beau­ti­ful (accord­ing to my children).

At three o’clock, the skiers returned. Today, Marik, due to inex­pe­ri­ence, cut off Levy, and they both fell. Well, it seems like every­thing turned out okay. Valya says he has start­ed ski­ing much bet­ter, but there is still some reck­less­ness in his skiing.

In the evening, friends came over with their sev­en-year-old son. Levy grilled lamb ribs. We had a fes­tive dinner.

December 25. Christmas Day.

Marik refused to go ski­ing. Levy and Valya went by them­selves. We stayed with Mark at the hotel. After lunch, we all walked around the ski town and took photos.

In the evening, we start­ed pack­ing to go home so we could leave ear­ly in the morn­ing. We packed all the ski gear and every­thing we could gath­er. We made sand­wich­es for the road so we wouldn’t waste time in the morn­ing. We need­ed to leave very ear­ly since we want­ed to get home in one day, and the dri­ve would take about 15 hours with stops.

December 26. The Drive Home.

We woke up at 5 a.m. We quick­ly start­ed gath­er­ing food, brew­ing tea, and load­ing the car. Still, we didn’t leave until 7 a.m.

On the way back, we took a dif­fer­ent route on High­way 13, and we real­ly liked the road because it was not moun­tain­ous and very calm. Then, we drove through Grand Junc­tion and into Utah.

We returned home around 10 p.m.

December 31. New Year’s Eve 2021.

After break­fast, we start­ed clean­ing the house. Valya was working.

At 9 p.m. Ari­zona time, New Year arrives in Amer­i­ca on the East Coast. We turned on the TV to watch how the event was cel­e­brat­ed in New York. Usu­al­ly, by this time, a huge crowd gath­ers in Times Square, the ball drops, and every­one rejoic­es; the new year has come.

This year, Times Square was emp­ty. A few peo­ple in masks were run­ning around and orga­niz­ing their setups; sev­er­al musi­cal groups were per­form­ing. We didn’t even notice when the new year began.

Lat­er, I learned from the press that many squares in world cap­i­tals, where peo­ple gath­er to cel­e­brate the New Year, were closed this year. Only a small num­ber of peo­ple, dis­tin­guished for their efforts against coro­n­avirus, and some musi­cal groups were invit­ed to Times Square. A rel­e­vant song, “We Will Sur­vive,” was performed.

For the Ari­zona New Year, we decid­ed not to overindulge, espe­cial­ly since we had the tra­di­tion­al Olivi­er sal­ad for din­ner around 6 p.m.

Sand­wich­es with red caviar and cock­tails. Recent­ly, I’ve devel­oped a fond­ness for gin and ton­ic. Valya says it smells like Christ­mas trees, but I don’t mind. Still, we end­ed up with too many sand­wich­es. We overindulged.