Christmas
We had a busy Christmas period as we had Kitty, Judy, Amy and Paul across from the UK. We packed in a lot including some jet lag recovery shopping at the fashion mall followed by a day on the slopes with skiing lessons for the newbies. We may just have our next downhill champions in Paul and Amy as long as we fit airbags at the finish line to stop them.
We got a bit damp as we timed our walk across the National Mall to the White House with a freezing cold rain shower, but managed to dry off a bit in the car. We were lucky enough to see the Capitals win an ice hockey match and got really into the cheering although there weren't enough fights.
Fortunately the weather improved so that our nighttime visit to the National Zoo for the illuminations and nocturnal animal exhibits was more pleasant. We even learned how to make smores (toasted marshmallows and melted chocolate on graham crackers).
We managed to eat too much food even though we did do a lot of walking and playing games on the Wii to burn it off.
On New Year's eve we took Kitty to Alexandria and although we spent a lot of time waiting for shuttle buses we did manage to see one band, which was mix of blues, rock and country, and the fireworks display at midnight.
Post Christmas we took Kitty to the International Spy Museum and the Air and Space Museum which had an exhibition from the American History, which was undergoing renovation, including Kermit the frog and R2D2 and C3PO.
The house does seem very empty and quiet now even though we haven't spent too much time in it post Christmas. We did have one visitor though, a raccoon which nibbled the squirrel food and peered in through the patio window; unfortunately it was too dark to get a good photo through the glass.
Colorado was great fun and although the temperatures were very low, -34C with windchill, we had a trickle of snow all week and the slopes were in very good condition. We did make optimum use of coffee and lunch breaks to defrost and also sat in the outdoor hot tub to warm up and ease our aches and pains. It was great to come back to Copper mountain not only because we knew the runs well but also because we could gauge our progress since our last visit. We made the mistake of going to Vail for one day which had far too many people and there were too many long flat runs from one area to another. It was also noticeable that everybody was really grumpy and certainly not as friendly and chatty as they were in Copper; especially the lifties.
On Sunday we went for an "easy to moderate" mountain bike ride in Cabin John park. The route had lots of junctions and quite complicated instructions to start with and the snow that was still lying around made things fun. The narrow paths, steep drops, number of tree roots and rocks made the ride very challenging - not what we really wanted but it did get us out in the fresh air.
Yesterday Helen and I drove up from home to Massachusetts as I have a meeting in Pittsfield. the journey took about seven hours including stops and we had a good view of downtown Manhattan and the Catskill mountains. Our plan is to drive up into Vermont on Thursday to go boarding and then drive back home again on Friday, we may even stop off at the Ben and Jerry's factory on the way back!
We've got no visitors planned for this year yet so check out our diaries and let us know when you are coming across - http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=djcritchley%40googlemail.com&ctz=America/New_York
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=drhelenking%40googlemail.com&ctz=America/New_York
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=r8ljtmacr5e7nhbil2st3egcfk%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York
We got a bit damp as we timed our walk across the National Mall to the White House with a freezing cold rain shower, but managed to dry off a bit in the car. We were lucky enough to see the Capitals win an ice hockey match and got really into the cheering although there weren't enough fights.
Fortunately the weather improved so that our nighttime visit to the National Zoo for the illuminations and nocturnal animal exhibits was more pleasant. We even learned how to make smores (toasted marshmallows and melted chocolate on graham crackers).
We managed to eat too much food even though we did do a lot of walking and playing games on the Wii to burn it off.
On New Year's eve we took Kitty to Alexandria and although we spent a lot of time waiting for shuttle buses we did manage to see one band, which was mix of blues, rock and country, and the fireworks display at midnight.
Post Christmas we took Kitty to the International Spy Museum and the Air and Space Museum which had an exhibition from the American History, which was undergoing renovation, including Kermit the frog and R2D2 and C3PO.
The house does seem very empty and quiet now even though we haven't spent too much time in it post Christmas. We did have one visitor though, a raccoon which nibbled the squirrel food and peered in through the patio window; unfortunately it was too dark to get a good photo through the glass.
Colorado was great fun and although the temperatures were very low, -34C with windchill, we had a trickle of snow all week and the slopes were in very good condition. We did make optimum use of coffee and lunch breaks to defrost and also sat in the outdoor hot tub to warm up and ease our aches and pains. It was great to come back to Copper mountain not only because we knew the runs well but also because we could gauge our progress since our last visit. We made the mistake of going to Vail for one day which had far too many people and there were too many long flat runs from one area to another. It was also noticeable that everybody was really grumpy and certainly not as friendly and chatty as they were in Copper; especially the lifties.
On Sunday we went for an "easy to moderate" mountain bike ride in Cabin John park. The route had lots of junctions and quite complicated instructions to start with and the snow that was still lying around made things fun. The narrow paths, steep drops, number of tree roots and rocks made the ride very challenging - not what we really wanted but it did get us out in the fresh air.
Yesterday Helen and I drove up from home to Massachusetts as I have a meeting in Pittsfield. the journey took about seven hours including stops and we had a good view of downtown Manhattan and the Catskill mountains. Our plan is to drive up into Vermont on Thursday to go boarding and then drive back home again on Friday, we may even stop off at the Ben and Jerry's factory on the way back!
We've got no visitors planned for this year yet so check out our diaries and let us know when you are coming across - http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=djcritchley%40googlemail.com&ctz=America/New_York
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=drhelenking%40googlemail.com&ctz=America/New_York
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=r8ljtmacr5e7nhbil2st3egcfk%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York
