My parents own a condo in Vail, CO and have gone the second week of August every year since I was eight years old. I can't quite tell when the Saga part of this tale actually began but as far as I can remember, each year that I went I ended up with some sort of mystery illness. The first few years I remember us calling it food poisoning, the stomach flu, and various other popular labels given to someone not feeling well though we never seemed aware of any possible correlation. The summer prior to my senior year of high school I became so ill that I nearly died and missed a significant portion of the first half of my senior year. I ventured back the next summer right before starting college and again became so ill I barely made it through my first 2 weeks of classes. Needless to say I have been pretty cautious about going there since. The diagnosis (aka best guess) was a combination of altitude sickness and and allergic reaction.
Kel and I went in 2007 but only stayed for a few days and I managed to only feel like I had been run over by a semi for a few days following our return home(significantly better than in years past).
The Saga:
After three years, we decided to try our luck again, this time for the entire week (I guess time had erased the severity of my near death experiences). I began a medication for altitude sickness 3 days prior to leaving and sedated myself with benadryl as soon as I entered the car headed East. I slept the entire ride and only came to long enough to use the restroom and eat lunch (possibly the fastest 8 hour drive I have ever made). We arrived around 4 pm and I was committed to the doctors orders of mandatory R&R for at least the first 2 days to allow my body time to acclimate to the altitude change. We settled in Saturday evening and enjoyed the sounds of the tumbling stream, smell of fresh mountain air, and breath taking mountain view from our balcony. Sunday we slept in, ate Swedish pancakes, and lounged around until we ventured out around 2pm in search of the farmers market and food. The streets were lined with vendors selling everything from high priced art and locally grown produce to corn dogs and refrigerator magnets and for every vendor there were at least 8 patrons ready and willing to pay any price for the local fare.
If you know my family, you know that were weren't there for the art. We all began searching the booths for which foods we had to have and in what order they could best enter our stomachs. I was on a quest for Kettle Corn while Kel and Dusty eyed the gyro's and brauts. Mom and grandma headed for the crepe booth in search of a nutella slathered masterpiece. Once we all had our fill, we headed back to let our food digest and increase our knowledge base though the discovery channel.
After the Bike adventure we headed for the Tram that takes you to Glenwood Caverns and the Adventure Park. The Park was so fun! We watched 4-D movies (your chair moves and you get air and water blown in your face while you watch a 3-D movie), ran a race through a giant maze, played laser tag, took a tour of the caverns, rode the alpine coaster (picture to come- I haven't scanned it in yet ;) ), and. . . . were rocket launched over the edge or the cliff in a giant hydraulic swing (talk about ADRENALINE RUSH!).
Kel couldn't ride the swing because it was fairly apparent the he would likely hurl and he didn't think it would be fair for anyone to experience raining vomit so he opted out of the giant swing, but he did ride the bull. . .
By the end of the day we were are sufficiently exhausted and spent the rest of the evening dozing in and out of sleep.
On Tuesday we slept in and then headed into the village to check out the shops and do a little shopping. We found some great deals on hooded sweat shirts and ended up with two each (oops ;) but the are super cute!). After shopping we decided to Rollerblade back into town and down past Lions Head. Again for those who are unfamiliar with me, I love to Rollerblade and I'm not terrible. . . but I can't stop. Our first obstacle was the giant hill right outside our condo. We started out slow and Kel was holding my arm while he braked and I attempted to do something which obviously wasn't breaking because I started to speed out of control and all my weight shifted back as my legs hurled forward wrapping around Kels feet and leaving the pavement just as my back and head cracked into the asphalt while kel landed in a slightly less serious heap. I have to admit this was not an enjoyable part of the vacation, in fact for a few moments I was concerned that some of my brain may be spilling out of my head and sliding down the steep grade of the hill (it hurt that bad). The stupid part (well there were a few stupid parts but one of the most stupid parts) was that my first concern was not for my own well being or even that of my poor husband but for my new sunglasses that had lept from my face and were lying several feet from where we had landed (granted- they were my first pair of Oakley's which I had just gotten prior to our trip and prior to their purchase I had never paid more than seven dollars for a pair of sunglasses in my entire life). I slowly sat up and heard myself whisper "Where are my sunglasses. . .did you get my sunglasses" (pathetic, I know). Then the pain hit and the thought occurred to me that my glasses were probably not the greatest concern of the moment. Luckily Kel had landed on his posterior end and suffered only minor bruising and soreness and luckily for me my brains were not spilling from my head, though I did have a huge goose egg on the back of my head(big enough that Kel commented that I appeared to have very thick, voluminous hair), a large bruise on my left cheek (no- not on my face), scratches on my hands, and a fairly pounding headache. Sadly my glasses did not escape unscathed. As they skidded across the pavement they encured a few small scratches :(. Despite our disastrous begining, we continued on and bladed into lionshead and back home.
That evening there was a free break dance performance at the outdoor amphitheater by Break FX (they were on America's Best Dance Crew) and so we all trekked down to watch. It was actually pretty cool, there was a 12 year old boy that was utterly incredible (full 2 minute head spin). On the walk home I began feeling slightly nauseated and by the time we were home I was praying I wasn't going to throw up. I was able to eat dinner and probably ate too much for the way my stomach had been feeling. I went in and laid down on the bed feeling worse than I have felt in a long time. Within the hour I was paying homage to the porcelain throne as my entire body went weak and my body violently expelled what I had eaten. This continued through the night and by 5am I was drenched in cold sweats laying on the cold tile floor of the bathroom wishing I could escape. By six I finally fell asleep and slept until 5pm on Wednseday. By the time I woke I was incredibly weak and terrified to eat anything for fear of a replay of the night before. Luckily Gatorade stayed down and I spent the eavening curled in a chair watching TV.
Thursday was white water day and I was skeptical as to whether I should attempt that adventure of not. In my head I kept thinking of what I would say to one of my girls if they told me that they had gone white water rafting the day after being violently ill ( I would have said "ARE YOU CRAZY!" and likely moved them to a red activity level). Despite these thoughts, the draw of the river was too much for me to ignore and I chose to go telling myself that if I got to Glenwood and didn't feel well I could just stay in the car and rest (like that would actually happen). So we rafted the colorado as we have every year since we began coming and it was worth the risk despite being a cold stormy day and my body feeling like a limp noodle for most of the trip (I had not eaten anything solid since tuesday night and what I had eaten that night was not long lived).
After the trip I was exhausted and slept most of the rest of the night though I was able to eat some dinner and keep it down. We packed right before bed and headed home with Dusty the next morning. It was SO good to be home! SO that concludes another Vail Saga ending in my sudden illness. . its sad to love a place so much but also fear going because of what it does to you.
Returning to work was less than appealing and as I have no one to cover for me I had to complete 2 weeks worth of work in 3 days because we took the girls camping the following thrusday and friday. That could be a blog entry all in its self but suffice it to say that I was NOT excited to go and even happier when it was over. Thank goodness for Laurel who keeps me sane on those things!
I have to say this entry has taken me longer to post than all of the others put together so I guess its about time to post. :)
My Poor Mewanie friend! I am glad you survived the Vail trip. Love you so much and miss you guys like crazy!!
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