Thanksgiving in Summit County

Skiing at Breckenridge was such fun. Conditions were nearly perfect -- several inches of new snow, sunshine, and 25 degrees. The view is awesome for us flatlanders. The thing I like best about ski trips, though, is the opportunity it gives you to have fun with your teenagers.

Quick Tips:

Virgin Island Ski Rental in Silverthorne was a great place to rent skis. We saved 40% over the prices "on the mountain." They have all sorts of skis -- used and new, regular or high-performance. You can pick them up the night before so you don't have to waste time in the morning. It is a full service ski shop that stocked everything that you could possibly need. It is located in the shopping center near McDonalds on the south side of I-70 at the Silverthorne/Dillon exit.

Best Way To Get Around:

The resorts will bring you from the Denver airport if you are staying in their accommodations. There is also bus service. If you want to visit several of the ski resorts in the area, a car is the only practical way to get around.

Best Things Nearby:
Breckenridge, Keystone Mountain, Vail, and Copper Mountain.

Best Things About the Resort:
Numerous ski areas within 35 miles.

Resort Experience:
The unit has a television with cable and VCR, a gas log stove/fireplace, a full kitchen, and laundry facilities. It is two stories with the living areas downstairs with a half bath/laundry room, and two bedrooms and two baths upstairs.

The downstairs living areas are open and spacious. The unit has two outside doors. The front door opened into the dining room, but we most often used the "back" door, which opened into the living room because it was more convenient to the parking lot. The gas log "fireplace" in the living room put out a lot of heat. The decor was a bit dated, and there were two very mismatched pictures hanging together on the living room wall. The girls slept one night on the sofa bed in the living room. They said it sloped and opted to just each take one of the sofas after that.

The kitchen was well-equipped. There were six of us, so we washed dishes after every meal. There is a microwave and a coffee maker. The refrigerator had an icemaker. The only tool I really missed was a good potato peeler. I cooked a real Thanksgiving dinner in this kitchen without too much inconvenience. I did buy a foil pan to roast the turkey in. The garbage disposal plugged up once while we were there, but maintenance was very prompt in fixing it.

The dining room was spacious and had a table that easily accommodated six people. It and the living room had windows.

Off the dining room was the laundry room/half bath. The fixtures in here were basic. The washer and dryer did not match, but they worked.

An open stairway in the living room led to the bedrooms upstairs. One bedroom was quite large with a queen-sized bed (not very comfortable), large closet, and a TV. There were large windows with mountain views. At the top of the stairs was a bathroom with a sauna. The double sink area was separated from the bath area. The other bedroom had twin beds and an attached bath.

We had difficulty regulating the heat, partly because we are used to a central gas heating system. The thermostats didn''t seem to regulate the temperature except the one on the gas stove downstairs. Turning the knobs on the baseboard units seemed to do more good, but it wasn''t an exact science!

There was an outdoor hot tub a few doors down. It was quite cold, so only our teenage girls tried it. Their pictures show the steam rising around them. They nearly froze on the way back to the room - Texas blood runs thin!

Parking is limited here. You are allowed only one vehicle. Any other vehicles you would have to leave in a parking lot somewhere in town.

This is not a Gold Crown property, but the unit was clean. None of the furnishings were exceptional, but everything was functional. It was spacious enough that six adults got along for a whole week! We were satisfied -very happy to be able to trade for a unit in such a great ski area.

The office people were very friendly and helpful. All questions and requests that we had were handled cheerfully and efficiently.

I was worried about grocery stores in a place with such a small population, but there was a large City Market in Dillon (which will take your Kroger card) and a Safeway down the freeway toward Breckenridge in Frisco.

If you want to attend church while staying in Dillon, I can recommend the Dillon Community Church. It''s a very pretty little church with friendly people and a somewhat contemporary worship style. We enjoyed worshipping there.

• Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
• Activities: Not Available
• Amenities: Good
• Unit Satisfaction: Good
• Family Friendliness: Very Good
• Service: Excellent

There are miles and miles of paved trails along Lake Dillon. You can park your car at the Dillon City Park on Lake Dillon Drive. There is also a marina where you can rent boats in the summer. The trails are open to walkers, joggers, roller bladers, and bicyclers.

There are several places to access trails as you drive from Dillon toward Breckenridge on the road that crosses the lake dam. The trail in the immediate vicinity of the town was cleared of snow. We only walked a mile or maybe a little more so I can't speak for the paths on the other side of the lake.

The views are awesome. As you can see in the pictures, the amount of sunshine makes a huge difference in color.

The altitude here is 9-11,000 feet. I recommend letting your body adjust a day or so before you hit the slopes. The runs here are long, and they seemed steeper than other greens we have skied.

The bus picked us up in the parking lot very quickly. The workers even helped load our skis on the racks on the side of the bus. Buses made the rounds of the parking lots and base areas every few minutes.

Two in our group had not skied before so they signed up for a lesson, which lasts all day. The lift to the easiest slope was closed on the Monday before Thanksgiving so they never got to practice getting on a real lift. They only used the "Magic Carpet" all day. Had we skied Breckenridge before, we would have taken our beginners there for lessons. However, our one that stuck with the lesson all day, did very well on the green slopes at Breckenridge the next day.

Since this was very early in the season, only a third of the mountain was open. We skied the greens and blues off the Argentine and Montezuma lifts. If you like long runs, Schoolmarm coming down from the summit is about 3 miles of skiing! It has some pretty steep sections, but they don't last long. The snow was great -- 8 inches the previous night. They said the snow was at January level in November.

There are numerous restaurants in the area. If you want to "dine," eat in the village. There are many choices--sandwiches, burgers, soups, salads, pizza, BBQ--at the Mountain House base area and at Summit House. We ate in the food court at the Mountain House Base. The soup and bread were wonderful--filling and hot. Allow about $10/person for lunch. You can bring your own lunch if you are on a budget.

Don't buy daily lift tickets at the mountain. If you know at least 2 weeks in advance when you will be there, buy tickets through the Peaks program from the website. Multi-day tickets are much cheaper over the internet. We got 2- and 3-day lift tickets for early season at $29/day compared to individual tickets of $39 and $49 for the days we were there. These multi-day passes are good also at Arapahoe and Breckenridge. Five-day tickets are also good at Vail.

Breckenridge is a picturesque Victorian town established in 1859. Many of the old buildings have been refurbished to house shops of all kinds.

Besides the usual t-shirt shops and resort name clothing typical in all resort towns, there are shops that sell unique, high quality clothing. Beautiful sweaters and other cold weather clothing was available in several shops along the main street and in the mini-malls opening off Main Street. Joy of Sox had ordinary and wild, crazy socks for the whole family. I found darling "frog" socks for my two-year-old grandaughter. They also had many accessories, stuffed animals, etc. The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory was also next door!

Other shops that interested me were a children's shop that had high quality clothing of a variety I don't see in Houston. There were several shops with home accessories with Western styles and themes. Breckenridge Photo had one-hour photo service.

If you aren't into pricey resort-type clothing and beautiful, but expensive, art and crafts, drive on over to the outlet shops in Dillon/Silverthorne. There's shopping in Summit County to fit most tastes and budgets.

It's no wonder that Breckenridge is considered one of the places to ski. We've skied a number of times, but this was our first visit to Breckenridge. What a magnificent place!

Breckenridge is huge and has runs for every member of the family. The greens are wide and gently sloped. There are plenty of blues for the intermediate skier and, I'm told, extremely challenging blacks for you experts and daredevils.

Only Peak 9 was open on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving; Peak 8 opened on Wednesday. My husband and I skied mostly greens on Peak 9 while the girls tried some of the blues and felt they became progressively harder as they moved to the right.

We packed a lunch and ate it at the Ten Mile Station on Tuesday; I think you're really supposed to eat outside on the patio area if you bring your lunch, but it wasn't crowded so we took ours inside to eat and no one said anything. A little squirrel had found a way to get inside the building and he ran in and out while watching us carefully; eventually, he dashed across the floor to pick up some chips and then disappeared outside. The dining room and the restrooms were very clean and well-kept. Wednesday the girls had pizza at the base of the peak.

The snow was wonderful; the workers said it was more like January than November. The mountain views were gorgeous and sometimes I just had to gawk. All in all, it was a very memorable skiing experience.

If you plan your trip in advance, join the PEAKS program to get discounted multi-day lift tickets; other discounts are also available as you earn points. A two-day lift ticket is good at Breckenridge, Keystone, and Arapahoe Basin. Three- or more day tickets add days at Vail or Beaver Creek.

Call 1-800/842-8062 or visit Breckenridge for more information.