Scrutinizing the fancy phone map like a board game, we wove our way out of traffic and on to side roads, back roads and frontage roads. The heavy traffic on the interstate inched idly by off to our left. We were determined not to return to the mass of immobile cars until it unclogged a bit.
And by golly, we succeeded.
If you’ve ever driven through the mountains of Colorado, you are familiar with this conundrum. Along many major mountain roads, there are really only one or two options for getting from point A to point B. And sometimes, there are no options at all, besides the one main vein. However, with some imagination, some risks, and some quick decisions, you too can avoid the catastrophe of overburdened roads. And fancy phones don’t hurt.**
This is all a very long-winded attempt at telling you about our weekend in the mountains at Beaver Creek. To my knowledge no beavers actually make camp in Beaver Creek. Nor could I find a creek (false advertising). Nonetheless, it remained a splendid little escape.
We ate giant pizzas with two types of bacon, sat in a hot tub, accidentally pilfered s’mores from what we thought was a communal offering (it wasn’t), went on a doozy of a hike that gained us several thousand feet in elevation, rode a ski lift back down to the base of the mountain, ate some more food, and looked at an art festival. We also attempted to inspire Elise to be an Olympic heptathlete, volleyball player, sprinter, and long-distance runner all within the confines of just one olympiad. For some reason she thought we were crazy.
It was the perfect respite from the heat and schedule-chaos of life at home base in Denver. And despite the noticeable lack of beavers and creeks in Beaver Creek, I highly recommend giving the little mountain village a visit.
End scene.
**I am not getting paid by the fancy phone people to laud the fancy phone capabilities. If I was, I would have more cash. And if I had more cash, I would have rented a helicopter to fly me out of the mountains yesterday afternoon. Or just bought a lot of coffee.