After thoroughly exploring the populated NE of Colorado we decided it was time to move on. We left with mixed feelings as we have grown to love this part of Colorado, especially Fort Collins, and because the van's brakes, when used, wince. Because of Vandrea's whininess we omitted some more aggressively mountainous detours while still getting plenty of paved up and downs and spectacular mountain views on our way to Vail.
Since Aunt Barb shares the town's name we had to stop in. We found that the town had much more than just a familiar name so we lingered.
A very active ski town for most of the year, it was strange to see bright green mountain tops and not snow. We came at just the right time as the leaves on all the trees have slowly started to transition into autumnal yellows and oranges which made for a beautiful view of the valley.
Though the town of Vail is inherently touristy and expensive we managed to find two free ways to enjoy it. The first was a Ski museum which charts the history of the sport and its symbiotic relationship with the town. Snowboarding or snurfing as it was originally named was also covered. We learned the spin off sport was invented in the 1950's by a father on Christmas who improvised a scheme to get his children out of the house by nailing two skis together and sending them down the backyard hill. Christmas dinner waited in the family's empty home and surrounding houses too. Later a kid in a high school shop class came up with technical improvements.
It was humorous to read the museum's collection of antiquated sounding rejection letters that had been returned to inquiring snowboarders. These letter which kept denying slopes to snowboarder stretched into the mid 90's. Though I can't think of another sport who's athletes on one extreme are rich people with leisure time and frequent flier miles and on the other young people with near suicidal energy and a group affinity for marijuana.
The state didn't just turn down snowboarders it even turned down the Olympics. In 1976 voters kept the Olympic games from Colorado for fear of cost, environmental harm, and invasion of outsider opportunist, the first to ever do so.
The second free and absolutely beautiful thing to do in Vail is visit the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens (I guess we just publicly admitted we didn't hand over the suggested donation). The gardens sit on the edge of town and hosts an array of plants exclusive to high elevations. The exquisitely maintained grounds feature attractive walking paths, several waterfalls and a tranquil feel throughout. I don't know if I've been in a town so well incorporated into nature. It wasn't a city who added parks to beautify itself. Instead it's like you are taking a short nature walk along a mountain stream and almost forget their are people living in structures on either side of you.
For the evening we stayed in the town of Glenwood Springs. Since this was just a place to lay our heads we caught up on missed media, including "The Artist." Since the film was such an Oscar success we had planned on watching it for some time, but being exhausted each time we approached Red Box we felt we couldn't commit the attention it deserved. I went into the movie thinking that I couldn't possibly like a silent film and was blown away by how compelling it was even with the absence. Isaiah thought it proved the importance of sound on a film's emotional impact. (I thought the climax was clever and it was an expert blend of cutesy, whimsical, theatrical, and sad)
I don't know what to attribute it to but we have, I hope, hit the depths of our bad movie wallowing. Lately we have been watching more interesting films. Along with the Artist we saw "Bernie" which had an innovative twist, not a Sixth Sense kind of twist, but a modest and delightful casting twist, which despite the participation of Matthew Mcconaughey didn't suck, and features Jack Black, no lie, acting (despite playing an over the top character who is continuously singing, somehow he doesn't fall back on the Jack Black formula) and Carnage, which I liked and Isaiah appreciated in parts (It was an acting showcase, though again too much stage type acting for me, though again with reasons -the story was originally a play-with an impressive shifting of conflict and character revelation, though almost all sides of every character was unlikeable. I've complained about character unlikeability before. I guess I'd rather watch a complexly evil person, than one complexly shallow, or one who's whininess is deeply layered).
Our foolishly obscene amount of soda consumption sadly remains steady. This all seems to be leading up to a confrontation that will take place in New York City. Will we be so hooked that we will pay $10 for a coke?
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