2011 Spring, Summer and Fall in Vail

            It was a great summer for us. It has exceeded all of our expectations! Vail Club 50 (at a a cost of $35 pp per year) has bike rides, hikes, lake trips, picnics and lots of socializing. We are doing Moderate hikes of about 8 to 10 miles (having built up from the Tortoises and not liking the 18 miles that the Hares do) all of which have 1000 ft. elevation gain and mostly having about 2000 ft. elevation gain. We started with the bikers but it turns out they are road bikers and we like soft-surface trails/roads with our mountain bikes. So we do that on our own. All this is in an effort to be Younger Next Year.
            We are volunteering at the Betty Ford Alpine Garden (planting and weeding) and like that a lot. We did volunteer work for the International Dance Festival and got to go to about 6 of the performances for free, including the New York City Ballet traveling troupe “Moves”.  We went to performances of the Dallas Symphony, the Philadelphia Symphony and the New York Philharmonic too. After a long hike in the Eagle’s Nest Wilderness area to come back and see a world class cultural event is unique and fabulous. We also volunteered for the Jazz Festival over Labor Day Weekend. We weren’t sure our volunteering would be worth the effort. It turns out that the performances we got to hear/see for free were wonderfully entertaining.
            We are meeting wonderful people to socialize with here and having dinner parties and going to dinner parties—one of our favorite activities, actually.
            There’s another fun thing around here. When we walk through town, we often meet people we know. We stop to chat a little; it’s like that Louis Armstrong song—It’s a Wonderful World.
            I’ve been enjoying learning the wildflower names.

Corydalis Aurea or golden smoke on the new Eagle Vail Trail

It’s been such a busy summer that I hardly have any time for anything except our activities (and the daily drudge of making 3 meals and so on). Such stress! 
            About 6 months after his surgery, Dimitri's shoulder was about 95% back to normal and he had finished PT. What a remarkable and swift recovery!

Dimitri in the Vail Valley Medical Center having shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff. It tore on December 9, 2010. He was skiing with one of the groups of Vail Club 50. Suddenly another skier in the same group hits him from behind and he lands on his right shoulder. His name is Nezih Cakir. At the time he said that Dimitri cut in front of him and that's why he hit him. He still would not admit responsibility. Dimitri guesses he didn't know about the rule of the slopes that the uphill skier is responsible for avoiding people in front. A couple of months later, when Dimitri started accumulating medical expenses, he called him to see if he would share some of the costs. However, in the meantime, he had changed his story to say that we were skiing side-by-side and that we simply collided. Unfortunately, no eyewitnesses, no ski patrol report...

Vail