2010-02 Visiting Mariah at DU

The weekend of February 19-21 was dads and granddads days at Denver University.  I decided to head out and visit Mariah.  I went with Steve, who is the dad of another friend of Mariah's from Eagan, Jordyn.  We headed out on the first flight on Friday morning and made it to Denver about 8:30. 

The kids had classes until 11, so we waited until we heard from them and then headed to campus to pick them up.  We headed out for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (one of Mariah's favorite restaurants when we were in Manila) and then did some shopping picking up some gear for skiing on Saturday and then some necessities and not so necessary things at Target.

We were going to the Denver Pioneers hockey game Friday night.  We went to a nearby restaurant for dinner, and barely beat the hockey rush.  Steve and I had tickets down in one of the corners for the game, and the girls left the student section on the other end to come and join us for the the last period and half. 

Saturday we got up and left for Breckenridge ski area about 8:00, but due to a series of nice snowfalls, the roads were slow and packed with people heading for the mountains, and it took us about 3 hours to get there.  We rented our gear in downtown Breckenridge and took the gondola up to the base of the mountain. 

It was beautiful day for skiing, and the crowds dispersed as the afternoon went by, greatly reducing the time in the lift lines.  The long runs were something I really enjoyed compared to the hills here in MN.  We stayed in the same general area the entire time and rode up to the top of the runs on a 6 person chairlift that was about 7,000 feet in length, but covered the distance in a little over 6 minutes. 

After skiing we walked through Breckenridge going into a few of the shops along main street before heading up ot Frisco for dinner with Jordyn's mom's cousin and her 2 sons.  The traffic was much better going back to Denver as it only took about 1-1/2 hours.

Sunday morning we got up to go to breakfast with the girls, and we ended up at Panera after trying to go to a small bistro on Pearl Street and another restaurant near campus that were bothfilled up with long waiting lists. 

Although we only had a few days with the girls, it was fun to go out and see them and spend time with them in their environment.  Mariah is enjoying her first year of college and getting involved in a lot of different activities and making a lot of new friends.  She is going to be registering for spring quarter this week and already making campus housing arrangement for next year.  Time sure flies