I Love Vail, But I Didn't Always
“Vail is just a ski resort town, lacking any real small town character and I'm not sure how I feel about it.”
-Journal entry: November 20, 2011
A year ago this week I find myself in Vail, Colorado for the first time and I do not think much of it. My friend Alise and I had been hitchhiking around the country, searching for a place to spend the winter.
What we want: a little town with a great coffee shop, good scenery, and some folks who aren't obsessive snow freaks
What we do not want: an adult disneyland built next to a busy interstate filled with dudebros and functional alcoholics
Our last night in Vail we go to a party at a CouchSurfer's condo. Three guys live in the place and it is a serious mess. Beer bottles piled in the corner, dishes overflowing in the sink, something sticky on the table...I sit on the sagging couch and try to keep my feet off of shag carpets that I suspect haven't been changed since the place was built in the 70s.
“Thank god we're leaving,” I write in my journal the next day as we head to Boulder. “Vail just doesn't feel right.”
Ten minutes later, the Sous Chef from Terra Bistro calls. I had gotten his number from a friend and knew he was hiring a pastry cook. The chef wants me to come in for an interview, and because I can't say no when I'm flustered, I say yes, despite the fact that we are now several hours away and had no intention of returning to the Vail Valley EVER again.
We head back to Vail the next day.
This time we stay.
I take the pastry position, Alise takes a job at Loaded Joes, and we rent out floor space for our camp pads at the CouchSurfer's condo, make great friends with our dudebro roommates and cry a little bit when the season ends and we have to move out of our 70s swinger house.
What do you think of those odds?
