Christmas Break Update!
12/28/09, 8:15 am
Hello, all! Here’s my report after the big ski trip and Christmas in Kentucky! It took me about 12 hours of travel time to get to Beaver Creek. I took a cab, two airplanes, and a shuttle van to get there. Nothing was delayed too much, which was a good thing. Because of the sign-off procedures and going through Customs and Immigration, I had to be on the Embarkation Deck at 5:45 am. And of course, that was the day that my alarm decided it didn’t want to wake me up on time. Luckily, I had everything already packed from the night before, so all I had to do was roll out of bed and get dressed. I was finally off the ship around 6:30, but my flight didn’t leave until 12:30, so I had A LOT of time to kill. I called my mom and dad and talked to them for awhile, then I caught a city bus to a coffee shop to get some breakfast and kill some time. I anticipated that there would be a large back up checking in at the Long Beach Airport, so I caught a cab around 10:00 am, thinking that if I was there two hours before my flight, I would have plenty of time to get through security. Of course, it took me about 10 minutes to get through everything and get to the terminal. And, thanks to Delta’s lack of details regarding extra fees, my suitcase was 15 lbs. overweight, and I ended up paying a combined $110 to check one suitcase. The weight limit was 50 lbs. and my bag weighed 65 lbs. The lady at the counter said my only other options were to take 15 lbs. out and put it in my carry-on, or buy another suitcase from the gift shop and put stuff in there. Either way, it was going to cost a lot of extra money and be a lot of extra hassle, and I was mad enough about it, I just wanted to get through and be done with it. Once I got to the terminal, I passed the time by watching some Scrubs on my laptop. Finally, the time came for me to get on my plane. It was a typical flight – terrible leg room, screaming child behind me, and I was starving, but the two tiny handfuls of peanuts were at least enough to get me through until I got to Salt Lake City. The flight departing from Salt Lake was delayed about 20 minutes, but it still got in the air without too much of a delay. Which was good, because it was starting to get darker and colder, and we did have to take some time to de-ice the wings of the plane. My flight got into Denver just on time, and I got my luggage and checked in for my Colorado Mountain Express shuttle to Beaver Creek. I waited about another 30 minutes for the shuttle van to be ready, and right on the dot at 8:00, we were loaded and ready to go. There were three other passengers in the van with me, but we all stayed quiet and kept to ourselves. Which was good, because I was tired and just ready to see the family. It ended up taking about 3 hours to get to the house in Beaver Creek. I was greeted by my lovely girlfriend, and we talked and hugged, but we had to go to sleep because I had a big day ahead of me.
The next morning, we all got up and got ready for skiing! Everyone was very happy to see me, and I was happy to be there. After breakfast, we packed lunches and got bundled up, then we headed into the ski area so I could get my ski rentals. (Let me preface the whole skiing experience with my past skiing experience – I have only been skiing once, and it was with the St. Matthews UMC youth group. This was several years ago, maybe early high school, so probably 8 years ago. We went somewhere in North Carolina, meaning primarily artificial snow on the slopes. I only remember skiing one day, and there was enough time in the day for a few runs, and I remember going up the lift on only my second attempt at skiing and missing the exit part of the ski lift at the easy slope, and it took me higher up to the harder part of the mountain. Needless to say, I was not prepared to ski down the mountain, and instead I scooted my butt the whole way down.) So, since then, I haven’t been skiing, but I was ready to go that day. We went to the Vail Ski Resort, which was about a 20 minute drive from Beaver Creek. I got my ski equipment, and I made my way to the slopes as quickly as I could with giant, heavy ski boots. I stuck with Emily, Katie (Emily’s sister), Scott (Katie’s husband), and Lorie (another one of Emily’s sisters) for the first part of the day. Emily was my designated ski instructor, and overall she did very well. I started out really excited about being on skis. After lots of falling and tripping – I fell about 10 times in a row on the same spot on my left hip/butt cheek – I started to get a little frustrated, and very tired. A combination of a lack of oxygen and using way too much strength to push myself up every time I fell over added to my frustration. I took a break with Emily and Lorie to eat some lunch, and I realized that packing a banana in my backpack was a bad idea, because falling on it 20 times was not good for it. The next time up the lift, I sat and took a long break at the lodge, just to catch my breath and rest my feet. The rest of the group caught back up with me, and I felt a lot stronger and better about skiing, I felt more confident about my turns, and I was starting to have fun again. Once that day was over, we made our way back to the house in Beaver Creek. Katie and Scott made chili, cornbread, and mashed potatoes for dinner. The family ended up taking a big family picture at night, but once that was over, everyone was ready to go to bed again.
On Wednesday, I took some ibuprofen and hit the ground skiing! We went to Beaver Creek that day, and I was felt like I picked up right where I left off the day before. I was much more confident with the turning and stopping, and didn’t fall as much. It had snowed about three inches during the night, which put lots of fresh powder on the slopes, and even though that took some time to get adjusted to, it sure helped ease the pain of falling! I started out skiing with Emily and some other family members, but the experienced skiers broke off from the pack and tackled some of the black diamonds, and even a double black diamond. I went off with Emily’s parents Paul and Patti, Emily’s oldest sister Julie and her husband Brent, and Katie’s husband Scott. We stuck to the simpler parts of the mountain, and later on that day, we finally went down some blue square slopes. The first part of the hill was about a 1000 yard very steep, downhill stretch of snow. I made it with just a few falls, albeit it was very slow to begin with. Every time down a mountain, I caught on to turns and stops, and started to feel more comfortable with things and was having lots of fun. Somewhere along the way, I fell once, and I must have kicked the inside of my left calf muscle with my other boot really hard, because at the end of the day, I took my socks off and discovered a bruise the size of my fist on my leg muscle. It didn’t hurt, unless Emily poked it with her fingers. 5 days later, and it’s still there. So is some of the discomfort in my thighs. Everybody said I was using too much leg power to turn, but I somehow felt more comfortable turning when my center of gravity was lower, and that required constant leg squatting. We packed up that day and headed back to the house, and I finally got a chance to get in the hot tub. Being in a hot tub while it’s snowing outside is a great combination of fun! I stayed in for about 30 minutes, and then I left so I could prepare dinner. It was Emily’s and my turn to make dinner for the family, and I pulled up an old favorite – Mexican Fiesta meal – chicken and steak fajitas with all the works, cilantro lime rice, chips and fresh pico de gallo, queso, bean dip, guacamole, and Corona beer. I requested margarita mix, but they weren’t able to pick any up. Everyone loved the food, and everyone was stuffed afterwards.
We were planning on leaving at 3 am so we could get back to Kentucky at a reasonable time, in order to get some sleep before Christmas day festivities. However, there were reports of severe snow and ice throughout Kansas, so we made a decision to hit the road early and try to make it through Kansas and the bad weather sooner rather than later. If we were to get stuck in the snow, we might possibly not have been able to make it back to Kentucky until Saturday. I rode in the van with Brent and Julie, the kids Maura and Tristan. Emily and I sat in the back, and I made a good pillow/foot rest for her. Poor Tristan was not happy about being in the car seat for such a long time. The whole trip ended up taking about 25 hours. All night long, the roads had a sheet of ice on them, and the wind was blowing across the highway at very strong speeds. Trucks were stopping to put chains on their tires, cars and trucks alike were being stopped, driven off the road, and overturned on the highway. Thankfully, we made it through the night without any major problems. Once the sun came up, it helped to melt some of the ice, but there were still strong winds, and once we hit Central Kansas, it was a torrential downpour of rain almost the rest of the way home from there. I drove from Central Kansas to Central Missouri – I said I was tired of sleeping so much, so I had to drive. We got back to Georgetown at about 12:30, and everyone promptly went to bed to await the arrival of Santa Claus!
This was the first Christmas I can remember not waking up at 7 or 8 in the morning in anticipation to open presents. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited about Christmas, it’s just that the sleepiness in my body was stronger at that point. I woke up and went downstairs with Emily, her parents, and her brother Jeff. We ate breakfast with Katie and Scott, and then we opened the first batch of presents. Once all five Bridge siblings were present, there were more presents to be shared. The children were here too, and it was fun to watch them tear into the wrapping paper and be so enamored with the toy at hand that they forgot about the next toy to come. Everyone seemed to have a great Christmas! We also spent the day eating, snacking, and somehow, everyone was engaging in conversation, even though we all had just spent the last 25 hours in vehicles together.
It has taken me several tries to complete this blog entry, but I’m finally done. Since Christmas, I’ve played some video games and watched some Heroes on DVD with Emily, and we had another family dinner on Saturday. Sunday, we went to church and heard a great message about how to head into the new year without past regrets and with hope to successfully live out the future. Emily and I went to the mall and I convinced her to get matching Kentucky t-shirts for us both. We both got black shirts with blue block letters. Despite having a new Kentucky shirt, the Cats lost last night in the Music City Bowl. I guess we win some, and we lose some. We are planning on going to Chicago for New Year’s. She is going to meet her friends from her Vienna study abroad this past summer. I’m excited to meet her friends, as well as be in Chicago and be with her for the big New Year’s Eve celebration!
Sorry for the delay in the update! I hope you had a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and hope you’ll have a great New Years also! Please pray for my grandma, she’s in the hospital and very ill. Thank you.
