Last Day at Breck

Breckenridge's last day of skiing is today (Sunday).  To celebrate, we decided to try for one more day on the mountain.  I think Bode's first time skiing was at ski-school back in February of 2011.  It is hard to believe he's been skiing for over five years :-)  But that's a bit misleading, as he didn't start his "serious" skiing until January of 2013.  He is now a Level 5 skier, and I'm sure there are some characteristics somewhere that describe what this means.  He's starting to do hockey-stops (skidding to a halt), and there are bits and pieces of parallel turns as he goes down the mountain.  He's better when his right-leg is his downhill leg; when his left-leg is the downhill leg, he resorts to some snowplowing.  All in all, he is doing fantastic, finishing the year with close to 85,000 vertical feet.  Ashley beat us all with almost 120,000 vertical feet.  I show 80,000 vertical feet, but I did spend a day at A-basin, which lacks the necessary RFID equipment to track this oh-so-important statistic.  And I don't really want to burst Bode's ego and tell him I'm closer to 95,000, because he thinks he skied more than me, and it's always fun when you beat Daddy (Bode and Mommy took two "sick days" from school/work and went skier while I slaved away earning money to fund these little trips).  

We took a few pictures to commemorate the end of the season.  The weather was nice--almost too nice, as the warm weather tends to create slushy conditions, which then ice-over, creating very icy skiing at the start of the day.  Still, it is late April and we were skiing, so I shouldn't complain.  First we have a nice picture of Bode and Mommy.

Next, a couple shots of Bode and me.

We skied for a few hours, and then it started to get too crowded, as many people were trying to get in some final runs, and a lot of the mountain was already shut down.  We all agreed we had a great ski season and are looking forward to next year, so much so that we've already purchased our season passes.  We ate lunch at Downstairs at Eric's, played our usual game of Pacman War, and then Bode and I had a thrilling skeet-ball contest.  I think he beat me 2-1, but the best part was we each earned a free game.  Bode scored an amazing 380 points, and I did him 20 points better.  Neither of us realized you got a free game if you get more than 350 points, so we were pretty stoked  (Editor's note:  A game costs $0.25, so we aren't sure why Jeff is making such a big deal about saving fifty cents, especially when they just spent $30 on lunch.)

We lounged around the house the rest of the day, reading, playing games, and watching Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D on TV.  Ashley and Joey are couch hogs (you can see Harley's head to the right of the round table).

Bode has five more weeks of school, and then he's a third-grader.  Hard to believe...Pleasant week to all.

Jeff's Day Off

USAFA didn't have classes scheduled for 1 April.  A friend (Nick) and I decided to use this rare weekday off during the school (ski) year to hit the slopes at A-Basin.  I left the house at 0545, met up with Nick at 0600, and we were in the parking lot at 0800.  Lifts didn't open until ~0900, so we had a little time to kill.  But killing time is so much easier when you are already at the lifts vice being stuck in traffic.

We had an incredible day.  The weather was spotty--in some pictures, it will look like it was bad, but in reality, it was quite pleasant.  No real wind except at the top of the bowls, and the intermittent sun made it nice in that we didn't get sunburned.  Here are some photos and movies.  First, Nick ready to go.

I tried taking a selfie, and then Nick took a picture of me.  Most of the pictures are at the top of or in the middle of the back bowls of A-Basin--some great ski terrain.

The skiing was great.  Nick really likes the bowls, and I was happy to ski them with him.  The favorite place to drop in was a shoot called Jump.

I had to include the above picture as proof to Bode that his Daddy was skiing on the dreaded "double black diamonds."  Looking down into the bowl was a rather intimidating action--the grade didn't look very steep from the chairlift, but when looking down from the precipice, it's hard to think the drop is anything but straight down.

I took some good movies of Nick (he took one of me, but it's on his phone; if I get it, I'll be sure to post it...but maybe not because I fall at the end of the run :-)  This first movie shows the little jump we had to do when we dropped in.

Next is a funny one of Nick.  There's no skiing involved--I just wanted to get a video of him looking for his skies after a spectacular crash.  Note my heavy breathing--skiing at 13,000 feet is exhausting.

Finally, another good crash of Nick.  We realized anytime we took a video, we crashed.  Thus, we stopped taking movies and just skied :-)

I got a couple of good action shots of Nick--still photos seemed to not have the crash jinx.

Note the lack of skiers in the pictures.  We had an amazing day--hardly any people were skiing the bowls.  At some point, I snapped a picture of the two of us.

I've spoken to Ashley about letting me ski every Friday during ski season; not sure if this request was well received :-)  Pleasant weekend to all.

Spring Break #3

Thursday was probably the best ski-day of the season for the McGuirk family.  Tons of snow had fallen, so we got there early and were on the lifts at 0830.

We followed a similar route like we did on Monday, starting with Mercury and enjoying the fresh tracks.  We then went over to Peak 8.  One of Ashley's favorite runs is a black diamond called Shock. We had always bypassed Shock on the way to the Peak 8 lift, but this time, Bode was up for it.  Little Dude made it down, no sweat.  The nice thing about Thursday was all the powder kept Bode from getting too much speed even when it was steep.  Of course, the drawback was both Bode and Ashley would crawl to a halt if the terrain wasn't steep enough.  We went up 6-Chair, and had by far the best skiing I had ever had.  I was going through fresh snow up to my knees, which was great, but also exhausting.  Bode has yet to learn to love the powder, but I'm sure he will get there.  He did enjoy a head-over-heels tumble Ashley made, which would have hurt on Monday, but her fall was cushioned by all the snow.  Around 1030, we decided to warm up.  Bode was being goofy and was trying to avoid having his picture taken.

Bode wanted to do Peak 10 again, so we gave it a few more funs, stopping for the occasional picture.

We finished the day with a run through Riperoo's Forest.  I took a different route to it so I could film the last run of the day.

You might have noticed a band-aid over Bode's right-eye in the above pictures.  He did this about a week ago.  He was playing with Joey, and turned to run from him and ran smack into our stair bannister.  I heard the yelling, and didn't think much of it until I saw all the blood (why do head cuts bleed so much).  We cleaned him up and took him to the Urgent Care facility, who checked him out and said stitches were NOT needed (which was a huge relief to Bode).  They did glue his cut shut with some advanced medical glue (probably the Kragle from The Lego Movie).

We had a wonderful spring break ski trip.  We can't believe the season is almost over--I'm sure we'll go a few times in April, as we both really like April skiing (warm, no crowds...we've become ski-snobs :-)  Pleasant week to all.

Spring Break #2

We had never gone tubing at Keystone, so we decided to give it a try.  The tubing runs are at the top of the gondola.  When we got out, we heard someone on one of the worker's radios say, "We got a puker in the gondola."  Bode laughed, and it made me rethink about wanting to work for a ski resort.

There is a large snow fort at the top of the mountain.  Bode asked me to build him something similar in our background.  I promised that if we ever got enough snow, it'd be at the top of my list of things to do.

There are some slides that run through the fort, so Bode tried them out.  The tubes seemed a bit small for a person my size, but Ashley did them and verified that yes, the tubes were tiny.

The view from the top of Keystone is amazing.  The day was somewhat clear, so you can see Breckenridge in the background.

It was now time to tube.  We headed over to the tubing area, watched the safety video, and headed out.  I tried to get some pictures and movies.  First up is a shot before our first run.

I had thought I would be able to take movies during a run, but you get going pretty fast, and I didn't want to drop the camera.  The three of us did a few runs together, and then I went by myself and filmed Bode and Ashley coming down the mountain (they are on the far left in the video).

Ashley then filmed Bode and I riding down together.

Overall, the tubing was tons of fun.  Afterwards, we headed back to Breckenridge, and again lazed around the house.  Forecast for Tuesday night and Wednesday was a ton of snow.  I did a bunch of shoveling and stacking of wood, which makes me feel like I'm really roughing it (even though I'm never out of wifi distance).  Wednesday, the snow was falling and the wind was blowing, and it was thirty degrees colder than Monday.  Thus, we opted to goof off instead of skiing.  We went to the Breckenridge Rec center, swam, splashed around, and relaxed.  It was a great way to recharge our batteries for our final day of skiing on Thursday.

Spring Break #1

This past week was Bode's and my spring break.  We planned ahead and reserved our mountain estate for the entire week.  Monday was a beautiful day--temps were probably in the 50's by mid-afternoon. Bode saw someone skiing in shorts, which made him laugh.  There weren't many people there either, which made it doubly awesome.  Bode has become a great skier, so much so that we don't mind skiing with him.  Before, we did a lot of greens (a lot of greens!), which, while fun for him, was not that challenging for Ashley or me.  The last few times skiing, Bode has ventured onto some of the black diamond runs, and he's come away unscathed.  Thus, we tried to get a little more adventurous this go.  First, we headed to the top of the Mercury lift to get warmed up.  It'd been ~three weeks since Bode had skied, and he was a little rusty.

We did a few runs, and then convinced Bode to head over to the top of Peak 8.  The route consists of some solid blues and blacks.  We got to the Peak 8 SuperConnect lift without any problems and headed to the top.  We then skied over to 6-Chair via Frosty's Freeway, which has some good bumps and moguls.  Bode had never been up 6-Chair, which takes you above tree-line.  We stopped for some pictures.  Note the absence of vegetation.

I then skied to the other side of Ashley and Bode and took a picture of them with the Imperial lift in the background.  We couldn't convince Bode to go up--maybe next season.

I took a movie as we skied down--it's harder to film Bode now, especially on the steeper terrain, as I need to pay attention to what I'm doing, lest I end up with a real funny video of me wiping out.

At this point, Bode's confidence was sky-high.  Thus, we suggested we try Peak 10.  Back in January, we took Bode up the Falcon Superchair lift.  He was able to ski down, but he did not like it--was far too steep in scary.  A much different story this time.  Note the confident stride as Bode approaches the start of the run.

Ashley led us down, and Bode followed.  I had to work to keep up with him.  In fact, I yelled, "Bode, let's stop so you don't get too tired," acting as if I were worried about him, when, in fact, I wanted to rest my legs before we continued down.  When we got to the bottom, Bode proclaimed Peak 10 his new favorite.  We did lunch at Downstairs at Eric's, and then lazed around the house the rest of the day.  One of us took a nap...

Next up:  a trip to Keystone and some tubing.

Annapolis

About a week ago, a colleague and I escorted three cadets to the Washington DC area.  We were visiting some labs that were doing a similar project to ours.  However, we did have some free time and stopped off for a tour of the Naval Academy.  The below picture is in front of the USNA track with an academic building (I think) in the background.  

We got to go inside Bancroft Hall, which is this giant dormitory building--it houses all 4,000 midshipmen and some of the administrative offices.  I had to take a number of pictures, and even then I didn't get the whole building--there's still an entire other side out the back.  Crazy--can't imagine the heating bill.

Their chapel is very beautiful.  I took the below movie while inside.

We had a great visit to Annapolis.  Their buildings are a lot older than those at USAFA.  The campus feels a bit more historic and regal than ours.  Plus, they are located right next to downtown Historic Annapolis, which has all sorts of great restaurants and shops.  But the one thing they don't have is good skiing...which is a sneak-peak for the next few posts, as it's SPRING BREAK! and we are headed to the mountains.

Dog Buddies

The dogs have been together for over two years, and I think they really like each other.  When they sleep, Joey likes to snuggle up next to Harley, who really doesn't like to be bothered when she's sleeping (a lot like Ashley).  However, I think Harley is too tired to try to get away from Joey, so she tolerates him.  I took the below pictures the other day while I was cleaning the house.  Harley and Joey were perched on a little landing area on our stairs.  Neither moved much--just watched me as I cleaned up the large amounts of dog hair that fill our house.

Joey is quite the playful dog.  Almost too playful, as he has way to much energy.  He does like to play, and he makes some noises that sound very aggressive while doing so.  I must admit that if I didn't know him, I'd be afraid of him.  However, while it looks like he's biting my feet, he is very gentle, and whenever he puts his teeth on something that's soft (e.g. my skin), he never puts any pressure on me--apparently he knows the taste difference between shoes and the alpha male.

I'm quite amazed my Achilles tendon doesn't get ripped to shreds when we play these little games :-)  Pleasant day to all.