:: All times are in GMT -5 (Eastern). ( RecentFull )
2004-03-14 @ 21:38:11Heaven Is In Aspen
I have been to heaven, and believe you me it is in Colorado.
I went on a spring break ski trip to Aspen-Snowmass last week and it was absolutely fabulous! We had clear blue skies, 10-20C weather and amazing snow. Check out some of the photos. We skiied two days in Snowmass, one in Aspen Highlands and the final day on Aspen Mountain. Buttermilk looked a little small, so we stayed away from it.
Getting back home was an experience though. The original plan was to fly to Aspen through Minneapolis-St. Paul, stay there 5 nights, and head back to Raleigh through Memphis. Instead, the Memphis flight was delayed (the plane had to return back on its way to Aspen) so we were transfered to a Minneapolis-bound flight. However, the temperature was too warm for the altitude and the plane would not have enough lift to take off so they had to remove fuel from the plane. After that was finally done a passenger wanted to unboard (since she would miss her connection in MSP) and that delayed us even further as they had to remove all her bags (and find them first!). Then of course we didn't have enough fuel to make it to MSP so we had to stop in Grand Junction to refuel (a very strange place, it was all dry with sand-like mountains nearby even though it was a mere 20 minutes from Aspen). Of course we missed our connection to Raleigh so Northwest put us up in a hotel.
On the up side, we were able to go to the Mall of America, which was neat. It didn't have an indoor hockey rink or submarine and the water park was much smaller, but the amusement park was of similar size as that in the West Edmonton Mall. Personally I liked it better than the West Edmonton Mall as it was better looking and on four floors instead of two really long floors. And it had a cool Lego store to boot!
Getting back home was an experience though. The original plan was to fly to Aspen through Minneapolis-St. Paul, stay there 5 nights, and head back to Raleigh through Memphis. Instead, the Memphis flight was delayed (the plane had to return back on its way to Aspen) so we were transfered to a Minneapolis-bound flight. However, the temperature was too warm for the altitude and the plane would not have enough lift to take off so they had to remove fuel from the plane. After that was finally done a passenger wanted to unboard (since she would miss her connection in MSP) and that delayed us even further as they had to remove all her bags (and find them first!). Then of course we didn't have enough fuel to make it to MSP so we had to stop in Grand Junction to refuel (a very strange place, it was all dry with sand-like mountains nearby even though it was a mere 20 minutes from Aspen). Of course we missed our connection to Raleigh so Northwest put us up in a hotel.
On the up side, we were able to go to the Mall of America, which was neat. It didn't have an indoor hockey rink or submarine and the water park was much smaller, but the amusement park was of similar size as that in the West Edmonton Mall. Personally I liked it better than the West Edmonton Mall as it was better looking and on four floors instead of two really long floors. And it had a cool Lego store to boot!
All in all an amazing vacation!