Becoming Van Gogh and Skiing Beaver Creek
It was a long holiday weekend so we packed in some family time and culture by seeing the Becoming Van Gogh exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, and then hit the road to ski and party in Beaver Creek with some friends.
I had heard that Becoming Van Gogh was an exceptional exhibit and so when The Boy’s Mom wanted to visit us and take us to the exhibit we were trilled. On Saturday we made a big Mediterranean-style pot roast for dinner with artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers and lots of garlic, enjoyed some wine, and then went to the exhibit. Given that it was the last night of the show, even with timed admission the exhibit was very crowded. The exhibit was beautifully done and did a great job at exploring Van Gogh’s evolution as an artist. He was self-taught and initially only used short strokes in black and white. Upon moving to Paris he was influenced by the color and pointillism of the time and was also inspired by the perspective and styling of Japanese prints. Progressing through the exhibit you could see how all of his training and experiences culminated in quite unique yet masterful art. Very cool.
Sunday morning we woke up very early to go skiing at Beaver Creek. We hadn’t been to Beaver Creek yet and our friend has a mansion that is ski-in/ski-out so we couldn’t turn down his offer to stay, ski, and hang out. Regrettably the trails were really icy and it was 40 degrees out! Hot for skiing! There were some girls skiing in bikinis, which might have been premature, but given how bad the snow was I could understand why they’d want to keep things interesting. I officially realized this weekend that I am now a ski snob, after I was disappointed by the snow and was unable to find the cookies that were rumored to be in the lift lines. Insult of insults! 😉 But really, Beaver Creek is beautiful and super fancy. At the lodge at the base where our friend’s house is, it’s not only passcode protected, it also has fingerprint verification! We were also surprised to find that the cheapest beers we’ve found at a Colorado mountain were at the Ritz Carlton- it was so warm that we drank outside before catching the last chair.
Our non-Ritz-based après ski consisted of drinking wine, eating cheese (keeping with the fancy theme, apparently), and watching football. We had a killer dinner of salad, asparagus and chicken burgers and I got to unwind with a long soak in our jacuzzi bath before going to sleep (and took another before I went to breakfast). All in all, another amazing weekend in Colorado.
