Somehow we must have functioned, made plans and traveled in the world prior to the Internet, but I don't
remember how. Once I decided that we should go skiing, I got onto RSN.com and checked the snow reports for
every ski area in North America. That immediately told me that Vail was doing the best snow wise. Then I got
on Dean's United Air Lines web site and checked aircraft loads to see if we could get a flight out to Denver.
Seeing that getting seats looked good, I logged onto Snow.com, Vail's website and searched for some
reasonable lodging. Under "Special Deals" I found a fantastic early season offer of two for one room and lift
tickets for up to six days. This brought the condo cost down to $98 per day and the lift tickets which are $71
at the window down to only $24 per day. Great deal.

     Heading out at o-dark-thirty, we checked in at Orlando International Airport where they hand searched all
six pieces of our luggage from clothes to skis to boots. That went okay and we got First Class standby seats out
to Denver on UAL 532. We were scheduled for the noon Colorado Mountain Express van out to Vail but the
plane arrived early so we got on the eleven o'clock van ($124 round trip/person). Arriving at the Lifthouse
Condo about 1:30 we got checked in and decided we could get in a couple of runs that afternoon. The way the
lift tickets worked out we had six days of skiing with only five full days to use them so this was basically a
freebee. Skiing a bit the first day gave us a chance to rediscover how to ski and get rid of the first run
anxiety before the first full day. I did well but Yvonne really stank. She just couldn't get going and I thought
oh boy the old girl has turned 60 and it is all over.

    That was all on Tuesday December 10. With the time difference we slept lousy (as we did all week) and were
up at like 0300 waiting for the nine o'clock opening. I taped my aching body together and we finally headed up
the mountain on the first gondola. Yvonne must have dreamt skiing because now she skied like a pro. The snow
base was just fine although it had been several days since Vail had snow. We had fun on the smooth groomed
hills, skiing the Simba and Born Free runs down to Lionshead and going over the Game Creek bowl.

     Let me interject here that this was the 40th Anniversary of the founding of Vail and there were lots of
events going on in celebration the whole time we were there. On Wednesday evening Herman's Hermits (yes
really) performed on an outdoor stage playing their hits from forty years ago. I thought it would be an
embarrassment but it was really great. Peter Noone had a great sense of humor and played off his old fame in
an entertaining manner. Other anniversary events included an Indian snow dance and a big fireworks display

    Wednesday evening it began to snow and it came down to the tune of fifteen inches through Thursday. That
morning we skied in about eight inches of fresh powder so light you couldn't even feel it as we carved first
tracks across the pristine blanket. This is what skiing is all about! However as the day progressed and the snow
kept falling and the skiers chopped up the snow, the slopes began to look like a choppy bay with large waves of
snow. I exhausted myself fighting down some difficult runs and got altitude sickness pretty bad so that I was
ill all Thursday evening. Altitude sickness is about as bad as seasickness. Really miserable.

    Up to this time we had the slopes to ourselves, but there seems to be some Colorado law that if it snows
every resident is required to abandon spouse, work or school and hit the slopes so at opening time on Friday it
was a madhouse. Stew Woodward came out from Boulder to ski with us and fortunately I had recovered enough
to ski. Stew was my lead engineer way back when we were launching astronauts to the moon in the sixties. We
hadn't seen Stew since that time until about six months ago when they visited us in Florida. Stew's an
interesting guy and at age 66 leads expeditions to the Himalayas and other locales. And the SOB can ski!! He
was kind to us and let me lead him to slopes where Yvonne and me were comfortable. He seemed to yawn a lot
but I'll put that off to the long drive from Boulder. We had a good time skiing and catching up on the 30+ years
since Apollo.

    Friday, Saturday and Sunday were great ski days with mild temperatures and sunny skies. I'm always
surprised that I'm usually too warm rather than too cold on the slopes. Yvonne and I covered Vail from one end
to the other and even went off the main mountain to Blue sky Basin where we were far from the maddening
crowd and enjoyed some beautiful glade (woods) skiing through fir trees draped in blankets of snow. From the
photos you can see just how lovely the sky, the snow and the mountains looked.

    Monday at 0542 we rode the van back to DIA arriving at 0800. Last year returning from Breckenridge we
had a terrible time getting through check in and security with Yvette and Stephen. This time we just whizzed
right on through with no extra inspections. Either they have straightened out their act, or nobody is flying.
Anyway it was very smooth. We flew UAL 1132 back home and yes (rub it in) got First Class. Sometimes you get
the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. This whole trip we got the bear.

    Merry Christmas to all from Steve and Yvonne