It's been a long time since the last Crowley Family Vacation(tm). (Actually, when was it? Vegas in 2000?). Anyway, this past Thanksgiving my Dad surprised my Mom with skiing trip for their anniversary - a whole week out in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. (That's been my Mom's dream forever, btw)
The master plan was that the whole family would head out right after New Years, but then Little Brother Jonathan got a new gig working at SNL and had to skip out on the trip last minute (sucker) leaving me, Katie, Mom and Dad on the American Airlines flight out of Boston.
Tuesday 7/7
We flew out on Saturday, skied on Sunday (snowy + foggy + super low visibility = super shitty day). I busted my $20 goggles the first day out (yes, during the zero visibility day rendering me useless) and then bought these superstar goggles. Anyway, here's me, Katie and my new goggles, at the summit of Morningside Park, elevation 10,565 feet.
Note the fleece: it was warm, like 45 degrees, all week. Perfect weather.
Hold on a second, Steamboat is a pretty sick mountain. 10,500 feet at the summit (compared to 2200/ft for Attitash?). By the way, that's not the vertical drop - that's the elevation (meaning the air is thin and even the three minute walk from our condo to the gondola would have you huffing and puffing, nevermind riding the trees in the backside of the Morningside bowl).
And, if you do want to talk vertical feet, that yellow line on the right hand side is pretty much the size of Attitash. Sick, eh?
Okay, bare with me because these photos are kind of all over the place. My Dad ended up getting the place out in Steamboat off of a recommendation of a friend of his that lives out there. Anyway, this guy hooked us up with a sweet slopeside condo and a laundry list of things to do while we were out there.
One such activity was (no joke) this sleigh ride through the woods followed up by dinner in a teepee. After a whole day of high-altitude skiing, Katie and I rush home and shower-up, and then some guy with a van and a cowboy hat picks us up (and another other random couple) and drives us 40 minutes outside the city to this abandoned ranch. At this point, I was pretty sure they were going to enslave us and force us to work in the salt mines, but to my surprise, and as promised, they loaded us on the horse drawn sleigh and took us for a ride through the woods.
Anyway, here's Katie and one of the horses. (note the 100 layers she's wearing).
Oh, and by the way, its f'freezing cold (that's short for "fucking freezing"). Luckily my Mom tricked me into wearing three layers *and* the lady driving the horse gave us blankets that we all warmed up (thanks to something we on the east coast call "a dryer").
Here, Mom and Dad freezing their nuts off.
And me and Shoops, huddling for warmth. God bless the hoodie.
So, here's us in the teepee (note the space in the middle - and cowboy hat - reserved for Jonathan). I had the Chilean Bass, my Dad has the lamb. Katie and Mom went for the chicken. Chumps.
Late Night: See, here's where I get frustrated that I didn't take my digicam out more often. Tuesday night we managed to sneak Katie into one of the big boy bars (a place called Lupos, right in the Steamboat village. Think 44s without the girls or athletes). A few hundred drinks there and... oh wait, did I happen to mention how I left her alone for 2 minutes only to return and find some 27 year-old law student macking on my 18 year-old little sister. For shame!
Wednesday 7/8
Okay - Wednesday morning. We drag Big Dig away from CNBC and take him up on the gondola with us. My intentions were honest - get Dad out of the house (he can't ski due to his bum back), leave him at the lodge to do some work and read the paper. My mom's intentions? A little sketchier - no sooner did we step off the gondola then was she flagging down the Summit Photo Monkeys.
And of course, here's Dig chatting it up on the cellie Big Mountain Style(tm).
Back to the photo monkeys: These guys are at every mountain, lurking around, pimping out photography, and setting up the most ridiculous poses for surely regrettable photos.
It's a clear day so people are all lined up to have their pics taken - and we're all watching the photo monkeys posing people up so they're laying down, rolling around in the snow, sitting on each other's shoulders, sliding through people's legs, hoisting skis in the air... you get the idea. Anyway, here's the photo guy dealing w/ Mom and Dig.
... and the aftermath. Mom carefully choosing the best from the worst. (Note me strumming my snowboard like a guitar.)
Wednesday night out. Katie and I head back to the scene of last night's crime (aka, the 27-year old law student hangout). Back up for a sec - the whole week we were out in Steamboat it was "College Week" (which essentially translates into "Southern College Week", which can probably be dumbed down to "Drunken LSU College Kids Represent in 2003 Week"). What does that mean for us? Lots of southern boys for Katie to oogle, lots of country music for me to scour at and lots of college parties for Katie, and I to try to scam ourselves into.
In fact, before we headed to Lupos, Shoops and I tried to scam our way into the LSU-only dance party held at the gondola midstation only to be turned away as I flashed my NYU id (bling bling, college!). The liftees were kind enough to give us a heads up on the fact that we could probably sneak back in an hour... thus our three drink field trip to Lupos. (note pic of Katie as shot through 1/4 of a local lager)
Back to Lupos... the 27-year old law student and his entourage are nowhere to be found (much to Little Sister Katie's dismay). We have a few drinks, Katie beats me in air hockey (again! I went 0-5 vs. The Shoops), and as we finish up and are journeying back to the gondola for Round 2 of our attempt to sneak into the LSU party...
... we run into special guest star Melissa.W from NYC! (Teendrama superfans may recognize Mel from such favorites as Dinner Club and The Welcome Back Nathania Discotheque)
Turns out Mel has family out in Steamboat and comes to visit every winter - who knew?! Tagging along (left to right) we get Mel's cousin Mary (with bonus doggie bag full of ribs!), Mel's friend Emily (also from NYC, who knew?), and of course, Little Sister Katie on the right.
Turns out that Mel and crew were on their way to Tugboat (another bar in the Steamboat village, one that Katie got negged from the night before). We tag along, somehow snuck Katie in, and proceeded to drink another 100 beers. Here, me and Mel slowdancing to crappy ass country tunes....
... and, me and Shoops busting country moves, windburn style.
And, of course, Late night.
According to my Dad, I came home so belligerent that I whip off my shirt, yell a few obscenities ("I'll buy and sell you, old man!") and pass out, bare-chested, on the bearskin rug in our condo. I don't believe a word he says.
Thursday 7/9
Um, moving on. The next morning I somehow managed to meet up with the girls (Katie sat the day out). Here's me playing the photo monkey at the summit of Morningside Park (again).
Note: Mary isn't Oompaloompa small; she's kneeling down
Oh, going back to the whole Melissa-in-Colorado thing. It turns out Mel used to spend summers out in Steamboat (college break style) so not only does she know the mountain pretty well, but she knows a bunch of the locals.
Thursday night me, Mel and Emily head downtown (a 10 minute car ride away) to hang out at the Old Town Pub, owned by one of Mel's local friends. A whole bunch of other locals show up, Mel knows them all, drinks roughly 600 drinks and gets drizzzzzzunk.
Emily and I hide in the corner and watch the Tom Arnold sports show...
... until Melissa came over and DEMANDED I take the PERFECT photo of her and Em.
If you feel particularly motivated, email vote@teendrama.com to vote for your favorite.
Mind you, this is a quiet locals hangout and here we are snapping photos like paparazzi. We settle up with the bartender/back masseuse (er, ask Mel), call a cab and head back to more familiar ground - Tugboat.
Another note: We call the cab - er, actually a minivan - and who's sitting in the backseat but some kid I used to ride with at Attitash last season. Small world.
@ Tugboat. For some reason the digicam didn't see much action at Tugboat, which is really a shame considering Mel's drizzunk state. Loyal teendrama fans are missing out on more Mel-slowdancing action, some pics of Mel trying to climb into a baby's highchair and bonus footage of Emily macking on "Cowboy" the bartender. (yup, that's his name)
But, you do get to see my highest Ms. Pac Man score ever. That's 170,500 on one quarter (w/ speed-up chip). Proper!
Friday 7/10
Friday morning. Me, Katie and Mom make runs for half the day. No surprise, but the NYC girls are too hungover to meet up at a reasonable hour.
Rewind for a minute - back to the Photo Monkey rant. This is a digipic of a picture that was hanging in one of bathrooms at our place. Just look at the kid laying on the snow with his sunglasses all titled down, NKOTB style. I mean, come'on!
Friday was out last night in Steamboat and we were treated to all-you-can-eat Western BBQ at the gondola midstation. Here's me and Shoops stuffing out faces. Yee-haw. (btw, I think my new nickname should be Johnny Photogenic)
Again, my digicam laziness missed shots of Mom line-dancing with some huckster and me competing in the balace-the-spoon-your-nose-,cityboy! game.
We're still talking Friday night. I rest up from the ribs incident and head downtown w/ Mel and Em again. Of course, as the evening looks like its about to end at Tugboat, I invite the THREE of us back to my place to eat the rest of the food in our fridge (so my mom doesn't have to smuggle it back on the plane).
Long story short, Mel pulls a FOURTH guest back. I won't drop specifics, but how about an outline of late night action...
I. FRIDAY NIGHT
That's pretty much it. While Em and I were lounging and Mel was macking, the snow was falling at Steamboat. With us leaving for the airport at 12:30p the next day, I motivated early (on 3 hours sleep), hit a solid half day in two feet of fresh in the back bowl and brought my board all the way down to the asphalt of the parking lot on the last run. Good times, good lines. (inside joke, I'm really not that lame).A. In the Living Room
1. Mel making out with Johnny Sketch
B. In the Kitchen
2. Sweet sweet making out sounds coming from couch1. Em and Dens eating snack mix
a. had to turn the faucet to drown out the making out noises
b. thought i was going to throw up.
