For starters, there was Winter Park. Since the College Ultimate Pass extends our season passes to Winter Park, and the Beaver Village Condos were offering awesome packages our first week of break, a few of my friends and I decided to rent a condo.
Our first day there we unloaded everything necessary and immediately headed up to the mountain, excited to explore the terrain. Although there hadn't been much snowfall prior to our arrival we had fun just messing around for a few hours on the mountain. We then headed to the supermarket to stock up on food and explored the town. I think we were all pretty tired out but we stayed up pretty late socializing and watching movies. We were all very excited for the week to come since the weather forecast called for snow. Well mother nature delivered, here's a picture of Matt cleaning the snow off his SUV in the morning. We knew it would be a good day.
They opened a new run and Chris and I tried skating over to it, but we just kept sinking in.
They had free entertainment including live music and photos with Santa Clause, which we took full advantage of.
We found a thrift store in town and bought some old school ski suites to rock out.
Soda Pop Cans. So here's the thing that kills me about Colorado. They claim to be this Eco-friendly state that cares about the environment, yet they are missing one of the easiest ways to encourage recycling. It's a pretty simple system that is very successful in the state of New York. When you go to the store and buy anything in an aluminum or glass can, as well as most plastic bottles you pay a 5 cent deposit. When you return the container you get your money back. However here in Colorado it seems to be just to opposite. Many towns don't have a recycling center near them so you usually have to drive a few hours or pay to have your recyclables properly taken care of. According to enotes.com, the energy saved by recycling one aluminum can equals the amount of energy it takes to run a TV set for four hours. Where I was raised it was a sin to throw away anything recyclable, which is why I felt so shamed throwing away the hundreds of Soda Pop Cans we had accumulated throughout our stay at Winter Park.
The trip ended up being a learning experience for me. After spending five straight days with only guys I started to pick up on some of the "Rules of Manhood". Here's what I discovered:
Bacon trumps all. A few of us went shopping to get food for the week, and stocked up on everything we thought we could possibly need. However, one of our friends who decided not to pool his money and bought his own food was smart. He bought bacon. Since it was the one thing we forgot, it could be traded for anything from eggs to a chick fajita.
It's okay for men to use women's shampoo (who knew?). Maybe it's because I grew up without any brothers, but I always believed that guys used men specific shampoo like Selson Blue or Suave for Men. Luckily for me, I was wrong. I forgot to bring my shampoo and conditioner on the trip, but there was no need to worry, our showers were stocked with both Aussie and Garnier Fructise.
If you want to make a guy feel masculine, ask him for help opening a jar or container. I noticed this early in the week when I needed help opening a jar of salsa. The guys that were close by were almost too eager to help me, a women, the "weaker sex". I did it a few more times throughout the week, just for laughs.
We had a great trip. If you are ever in Winter Park I'd recommend staying in the Beaver Village Condos. They were only a short bus ride from the mountain, and honestly, how can you wake up on the wrong side of the bed if you're mornings start out looking like this?
