It was Ryan’s birthday weekend and we were in for a treat – we got enjoy the Steamboat Springs Winter Carnival! I mentioned it at the end this post, but to explain it further, basically it’s the local townsfolk celebrating winter by watching their children being dragged down Main Street on skis by horses and then allowing them to play with fire at night. Okay, that sounds a little crazy (not to mention dangerous), I know…but in all honesty, that’s the carnival. And it’s pretty entertaining. You’ll see what I mean once you check out the videos.
Anyway, since Steamboat (“ski town USA”) is a bit of a drive from Golden, we wanted to break the trip up a little bit and also celebrate Ryan’s birthday. So Friday night we went up to Winter Park to stay overnight with Laura and Jared which was a little less than halfway to our destination. We ate some delicious pizza at Hernando’s and went back so I could make some birthday cupcakes for all to enjoy – chocolate with buttercream frosting, per Ryan’s request. The only regret: we forgot to sing “Happy Birthday” to the birthday boy! I blame the PS3.
The next morning, we awoke groggily and a bit begrudgingly at 6am in order to make it in time for the start of the carnival at 8:30. What a joy that was. But it was a pretty drive despite the ugly time – since we were up before the sun, we got to watch it come over the mountains and even got a glimpse of purple mountain majesty when the light hit the peaks just right. Mmm. And we arrived just in time! Steamboat time, that is. Meaning we were basically the first ones there at 9:30am even though it technically started at 9:00. We are learning that schedules are more flexible here in Colorado. So not only did we get great parking but we had time to window shop, too.
All I need is some plaid and fringe.
Some good old fashioned Lincoln love.
My "mane" man.
Shortly after we arrived, our friends, Brad and Sarah, (who told us about this event) joined us in watching the mayhem. The main events of the day were street slalom, three-legged race (with skis), ski joring, ring and box, donkey jump and shovel race. Since I cannot possibly begin to adequately describe what those were like, I’ll let the videos speak for themselves. Enjoy!
Ski slalom trickery.
Ski slalom catastrophe.
Donkey jump with a little twist.
Shovel racing foolishness.
All of us were famished after watching crazy kids and even crazier adults fly down the street behind horses, so we went to Johnny B. Good’s, a 50′s style diner to enjoy some yummy burgers and good conversation.
Sarah was happy, I promise.
To walk off our lunch, we wandered around town and checked out Howelsen Hill where we got to watch some ski jumpers preparing for the next winter Olympics (Steamboat has 17 Olympians this year!). Then we went back to the condo the Nelson’s and their friends had rented for the weekend to rest up and play some games before the evening events commenced.
Now introducing: the Lighted Man. Basically, the highlight of the evening is a man donned in LED lights who kicks off the festivities by skiing down the mountain with fireworks lighting off on top of his head. However, there was a glitch in this spectacle – his firework display didn’t light! So after being a bit confused and then disappointed in the much-anticipated performance, we were still able to enjoy a variety of pyrotechnic ski-downs from all of the local ski clubs, including a great ball of fire. It was a flare and firework extravaganza. And just as we thought things were wrapping up, out came the Lighted Man once more for a second attempt – success! Although, we were much more impressed by the previous performances we’d seen, so sorry, Lighted Man…we just weren’t that wowed. Here are a couple of the better videos to give you an idea of what we witnessed:
So that was our Saturday in Steamboat Springs for the 97th Annual Winter Carnival – an entertaining and fiery experience.
Love,
Laura