Janet gains a little independence and also learns that Vail is more than just a winter destination.
Day 2
At least today I didn’t wake up until 6:30 am, which was an improvement over yesterday. I had a wonderful breakfast at Blues, one of many local restaurants, while watching the children and the adults splashing in the stream outside.
Feeling adventuresome and wanting to work off the calories from my ham and cheese omelet, I rented a bike from Vail Sports, and peddled my way along the winding roads. I took time to stop and admire the tiny pocket parks, fountains, and sculptures that are everywhere.
Vail is a bombardment of sites-architecture, sounds-sidewalk musicians, and smells-the restaurants. Speaking of smells- missing New York, I stopped for pizza for lunch. It was close, but lets face it nothing is really like New York pizza. Yesterday I checked out the shopping in Lion’s Head, but today I found some great buys in Vail Village.
Besides the abundance of stores featuring t-shirts and winter gear, I also found a store that caters to the non-human population of Vail as well, the dogs. From personalized dog treats to scented mint strips for your canine, this store, The Mountain Dog, has everything and anything for man’s best friend. Water bowls are even set outside on the sidewalk, for whoever might drop by. You see dogs are everywhere on the streets of Vail, and it is obviously a pet friendly town.
The other unusual souvenir sold in Vail, is the manhole covers marked with the name and the date 1962. It turns out that the town kept discovering manhole covers missing, and turning up as garden stepping-stones in private homes. Rather then fight the trend, they now sell them as souvenirs and people creatively use them in a multitude of ways. Shopping is always exhausting so I headed back to the hotel for an afternoon jacuzzi.
Refreshed and ready for more walking, I checked out the Vail Library. Yes, the library. First of all, the library is air-conditioned and secondly, they provide free Internet time. Oddly enough, many other Vail visitors had the same idea and the lush chairs of the library were a hot spot of activity on this warm day. Across from the library was the Dobson Ice Arena, which today was playing host to the state ice-skating championships.
It’s another great place to beat the heat, and I enjoyed watching the future Michelle Kwans.
Dinner that night was at the Ore House, which turned out to be a good choice. If you are looking to cut down on vacation expenses, many restaurants feature early bird specials. The Ore House advertised a prime rib special the entire evening that was delicious. There are many night spots, bars and dance clubs in Vail to choose from, but being alone and married in Vail, I chose a movie instead. There’s a local theater right in the community and another in west Vail.
I picked a sappy movie that I knew my husband would never want to see, and I ate the whole bag of popcorn myself. Life is good...
