Ski Bunny

Last September my company had a huge project that needed to be completed quickly and I was one of the people who worked on that project. It required a lot of overtime and personal sacrifice for everyone who worked on the project. To thank us for all our hard work the company gave each of us $300 to spend on a night out. John and I decide this was a perfect opportunity to take the snowboarding lessons we have been wanting.

For those of you who may not remember, John tried to teach me to snowboard last year and it was a disaster. He said that I called him a lot of names on my way down the hill and while I don't remember that, I don't doubt it either. However, I am a strong believer in taking lessons so this time I asked my friend Melissa to take a lesson with me. Little did I know that Melissa had never been skiing, much less been on a ski lift before. This was going to be a totally new experience for her and I knew Saturday was going to be an interesting day for us.

We were a little rushed for our lesson due to driving time but once we got all our gear strapped on we were ready to go. During our lesson we spent about an hour going over how to ride the board, how to make turns, and how to stop. Melissa and I rode the lift together and did a pretty good job in my opinion. Melissa was pretty nervous about riding the lift for the first time but since I had already embarrassed myself twice on different ski lifts before I knew nothing could ever be worse than that. We were a little ungraceful getting off the lift but we had a good laugh about it.

Casey & Melissa after our lesson

While we were in our lesson John and Casey went snowboarding on some other trails. They met up with us during our lesson right before lunch and Melissa and I decided to skip the second the part of our lesson. We grabbed a beer with the boys and sat outside soaking up the sun and watching the people ski and board. After our beer we headed back down road to a town called Nederland, CO.

John & I at the bottom of the hill

The Ski Lift

John was born and raised in Nederland and if you've ever been to Baldwin City imagine a town even smaller than Baldwin and sounded by woods and mountains. John's favorite burger joint is called Mountain Burger and it's located in the only grocery store in town. It's a hamburger stand like you would see on the streets of New York only it's inside the store. Their burgers are HUGE and cheap and they have the best onion rings I have ever had. Casey and Melissa loved the joint and named it the second best burger they've ever had.

In my opinion the best thing about Nederland is their Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival they have every March. It comes to town this weekend and I can't wait to tell you guys about all the fun we will have had. I love this festival and believe it or not...there is an actual frozen dead guy in town. John drove us close to the property where "Grandpa" rests in a Tuff Shed. The small brown shed directly to the left of gray building in the picture below is where they keep "Grandpa" on ice.