What a week!! Probably the best we have had so far although we are lucky to have survived it. We were at the airport in San Diego a couple of hours before we needed to be due to my paranoia (not sure where I got that from mum), not only was it the normal stress of getting through customs on time it was magnified by the fact that we were flying with a budget domestic airline that didn't do allocated seating so the first people there get the best seats (we got very good seats). We arrived in Denver around 4pm and rugged up for the cold change, we caught a shuttle bus to the dodgy car yard where we were hiring a car from, all the other hire places like Hertz and Budget had flash shuttles that came every 5minutes but we had to wait for what seemed like a long time out in the cold for ours. We eventually managed to hire a little car and attempted to follow our hand written google directions to our hotel which took twice as long as it should have and it was very hard adjusting to driving on the other side of the road, I had to drive becuase Jesse isn't 25 yet so he was the director which got a bit tense at times but we survived it. We then headed over to Blake and Nats flash unit that they are renting in Downtown Denver where they cooked us a delicious curry for dinner, lent us their GPS and we had free hot chocolates from their foyer (the poeple who own units there must have high body corp fees). The next day Blake cooked Jesse and I avocado on toast which was only the second time we had had toast since getting to the states and was probably the healthiest breaky we have had, we caught a free bus down the mall and walked all the way back seeing some interesting sights. We found a second hand ski-gear place and boughts some clothes for the weekend which was cheaper than hiring them for 2days and then went and got snacks becuase we thought Steamboat Springs would be tiny and wouldn't have a big supermarket (how wrong we were). On the news that night we saw that Colorado was right in the middle of avalanche season which was not the best thing to hear before going skiing. The drive from Denver to Steamboat Springs took about 3hours and was very picturesque and enjoyable, we passed a massive lake that was frozen over and people were driving their cars out onto it which looked scary, we also saw people cutting holes through the ice and fishing. Upon arrival in Steamboat we went and hired out skiis and snowboards, got some alcohol and cards and headed back to our unit to enjoy Australia Day, later on we went out to dinner and drinks and saw it snowing for the first time. The next morning there was snow everywhere becuase they had had 3 inches which was perfect for a full day up the mountain and the powder made falling not hurt quite as much, by the end of the day we were wrecked and headed home for some more cards and drinks. Steamboat mountain was the most beautiful place I have ever seen and was like something you would only see in movies, it made our skiing experinece in New Zealand last year look very bland. The next morning my muscles were so sore everywhere from falling over so much and i'm not even sure how snowboarding uses your arms or neck but they were even sore. Somehow the boys headed back up the mountain for a second day of adventure while Nat and I checked out downtown Steamboat and trecked to a frozen waterfall. The temperature the whole time we were in Steamboat varied from -19 to 2 degrees Celcius which was by far the coldest weather I have ever been in. Our late night card sessions were very fun although did not lack controversy and often ran well past 12. Our time in Steamboat was not long enough and I would definitely recommend it. We are back in Denver for the night and fly to Dallas tomorrow for our next adventure.