2 days of pure POWDER

I skied for two days in 20+ inches of powder at Monarch Mountain. It was fantastic!! There were very few people on the mountain this early in the season (and because of the snow storm).
I was so proud of how well I was skiing...no falls! I stayed on the greens for half of the first day, and then I ventured onto the blues. By the end of the day, with only a few stops for hot chocolate and a hamburger...I was pretty sore and ready to relax. I drove back down the mountain, checked into my room for the night and then drove across the street to the local hot-springs-pool. I was soooo warm and nice on all my aching body parts...I swam about 30 minutes in the lap-swim section and then relaxed in the hotter water section.
After a shower, I drove to the historic downtown section of Salida (the city I was staying in) and found a family-run bistro to have dinner at. After I stuffed myself on bread, salad, and chicken Parmesan...I headed back to get some well deserved sleep before day 2!
I woke up on Saturday to the sun streaming from behind the curtians! I was so excited because I thought I was going to get a sunny day of skiing...unfortunatly, up the road and up the mountain 20 minutes the weather was on a whole different page: still snowing! But I was used to it and the fresh powder that I was skiing in made it all worth it! My mom offered me an early Christmas present: she would buy me some time with a ski instructor to work on my technique. I took her up on the offer and started out the morning by meeting Bob. Bob was about 80 years old and could barely keep up with me on the slopes. But he did have experience and was able to give me the technique tips that I was looking for. We worked on riding on the edges of my skies, turning in powder, quick turns, etc. It was a nice lesson and I had some ski company for the first few runs of the day.
I skied some more runs, stopped for lunch, skied some more...and then decided that I was about ready to call it a day and get started on the drive home. It was only 2:30pm when I loaded into the car (I could have skied for another hour) but I realized about 3 hours later that leaving early was one of the best decisions I made all weekend!
The first hourish of the drive back to Colorado Springs was okay...sunny, clear, few cars on the road. But then, about midway home, it started to get very dark and I entered the snow storm that was blasting COS. Driving in a snow storm is a very scary thing...I don't like it at all! My knuckles were white on the steering wheel, my windsheild was covered in dirty snow and the wipers were doing the crappiest job ever. I was STRESSING! The best part of the drive was when I got right behind a snowplow for a few miles...I relaxed about half way.
Around 6pm I made it back to the OTC in one piece, just in time for dinner:). It was good to see all my friends...of course I rubbed in the fact that they missed out on AMAZING skiing conditions...but mainly I just relaxed and hung out.
Sunday was my last whole day at the OTC until 2006...I did some laundry, washed my car, refilled the windsheild fluid, watched TV, played on the computer, went to see Harry Potter 4 with Jess...normal OTC activities! Washing the car was important because of all the salt, snow, and dirt that I drove through. I wanted to make sure it was not going to turn into a heap of rust while I was in Florida. I drove from the car-wash back to my parking spot at about 10 mph so that nothing would splash up!:)
Monday morning I did swim practice with the team (the team consisted of Jaz, Jess and I) grabbed some breakfast, and then packed up and got a ride to the airport. Another flight...I'm getting the feeling that I spend a lot of time on airplnes lately!