Just got the official hours for Lime – the new cantina in the Village at Winter Park. Here they are. You can hang out until 2am with a limited menu:
Menu Includes – flautas, scorp
app, chili chz fries, guac,
and breakfast burritos
The Fraser Valley Rec Center has a roof on and is coming along nicely for the expected opening this summer. Check out the floor plan with all of the details. We are excited about the fancy indoor “leisure” pool as well as the basketball court, gymnastics area, 4 lane lap pool, running track and daycare! Finally, any visitor that doesn’t have access to a pool, can pay a minimal fee to get enjoy some swim time.
After this opens, I will no longer have any excuses for not being completely buff. If you’re in the area this Spring, you can watch the progress as you drive from Winter Park to Fraser. The first building on the left as you leave Winter Park is a new gas station/convenient store. The Rec Center is the next unfinished building on the left.
Well done, Fraser Valley!
Kelly, our friend and guide on the slopes
Our friend Kelly, a 20-year local in Winter Park, gave us a tour of the mountain this week. We thought we knew the resort well until then. As we were skiing down easy greens we have skied countless times, Kelly would veer off into the trees in what seemed randome until we followed him and realized we were in a great open area of powder. I wish I could tell you exactly where these spots were but Kelly swore us to secrecy.
The secret for you is to find a local on a lift and follow them or ask them to show you these spots. Or watch the ski patrol – they also were in these areas so they obviously play around there too. Most are happy to let you in on the secret as long as you don’t blog about it. 
And you may wonder what’s up with Kelly’s gloves. That’s another local thing he told us – to get those cheap gloves he’s wearing at Ace Hardware in town ($20 max) and then spray them to waterproof. Everyone writes different words on theirs so they can find them when all the locals are hanging out at the Pub after skiing and the gloves are in a pile. Kelly is “PUNK ROCK” as you can see.
Thanks for a great day on the slopes, Kelly!
As you stroll thru Winter Park Village or are clipping your skis on at the base lifts, you may see nice folks smiling with coats like the guy on the right in the photo. These are Winter Park Resort Hosts who volunteer daily to help guests find their way, answer questions, give advice, and just help out overall.
ONLY 51 DAYS LEFT IN THE SEASON! GET OUT THERE!
That’s right, there are only 51 days left to ski in the Winter Park ski season. It’s hard to believe that the end of the season is so close. The good news is, Winter Park gets most of it’s snow in March, and the temperature is a bit nicer for skiing too. It’s really the best time of year to ski. So far this season we have received 257 inches of snow, and our average is 360 inches per year. That means we still have over 8 1/2 feet of snow to fall. And 8 1/2 feet of snow to ski and ride. Like Warren Miller says, “Have skis, will travel”!!
We’ll see you in the Park soon!
With all the snow on the ground up here in Winter Park it is a little hard to think about golf at this time but we have been having some warm days up here this week so my my mind is starting to make the spring switch. Here in the Rocky Mountains it seems we go from one week of spring skiing at Winter Park Resort and the next week playing golf at Pole Creek Golf Club (do you play golf or just golf?). I think the three nine hole courses are out of this world. Sarah and I live only a three minute drive from the clubhouse which makes it all the better.
Here is a brief description of the course from Pole Creek’s website http://www.polecreekgolf.com/index.html:
“Pole Creek Golf Club is one of the few public 27-hole courses in Colorado and the only one in Grand County. Pole Creek’s 7,107-yard course meanders through lush fields replete with native wildflowers, drastic elevation changes, vast bent greens and water challenge shots over two ponds and five lakes. The Ridge 9 course challenges experts to a rigorous game with 3,603-yard shots and tree-lined holes, while the mellower Meadow 9 and Ranch 9 - indulge all playing levels. All three courses play to par 36. Pole Creek Colorado Golf Course is a member of the Colorado Golf Association.”
Here are some of the awards the course has won in the last few years:
2006 – Zagat Survey – Best course to play in the Rocky Mountain Region including CO, ID, MT, NV, UT & WY.
2005 – Avid Golfer Magazine:
2004 – Denver Post, Colorado Peaks – Best Mountain Golf Course
2003 – Rocky Mountain News – Top Mountain Golf Course – Top of the Rockies Award
1995 – Golf Digest – Americas 500 best places you can play – Colorado #1 Pole Creek
The clubhouse restaurant is Bistro 28 at Pole Creek Golf Club. The Sunday brunch is fantastic! They have remodled the clubhouse and bar this year so we will keep you posted how that turned out when they open up here in a couple of months.
Pole Creek Golf Club is also a great place for weddings. From our back deck of our house we can hear the celebrations going on over at the Club.
We here at Winter Park Lodging by Owner (WPLBO) are looking to partner with Pole Creek in the near future. In the mean time we will match any of their summer play and stay deals.
Now lets go hit the driving range and wash the winter rust off the swing!
We here at Winter Park Lodging by Owner, most of us being former restaurant/bar owners or employees and such, have decided to come up with our very own top ten ten list of restaurants for the Fraser Valley area. With a couple of restaurants opening in the new Winter Park Village we know competition for the dining dollar is only going to get more fierce up here in WP. So here goes our list in no particular order. We don’t want to offend any of our fellow citizens!
Tabernash Tavern - upscale comfort food with quality that you can’t believe here in Tabernash. Great atmosphere also. It has taken over from Devil’s Thumb Ranch as our upscale favorite! Cheaper too!!
Hernando’s Pizza - an old time favorite that just seems to keep getting it right. They have the all time best Hawiian Pizza with sliced almonds.
The Winter Park Pub - Sometimes you need to get down and dirty with some live music and draft beer. If it was an epic day on the slopes don’t forget the Jager. Give Jeff, the owner, a holler tell him his WPLBO neighbors sent you over.
Fontenot’s – A little cajun up in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Great gumbo and jambalaya and they put up with our food throwing twins!
Shanna Lalley, Real Estate of Winter Park
We’ve gotten to know the realtors around town and wanted to share those that we feel do the best job for their clients. They know the area well, are connected to reputable firms, and are nice folks!
1. Shanna Lalley (photo to left), Real Estate of Winter Park, 303.210.5241, shanna@rewinterpark.com, Website: www.rewinterpark.com, Shanna’s a good friend of mine and a great realtor. She loves Winter Park and knows the area well.
2. Gary Glenn, Prudential Winter Park, 970.726.3500, gglenn@pruwp.com, Website: www.winterparkre.com , I’ve only talked to Gary on the phone but he seems very interested in the well being of his current and past clients helping them get the maximum value for their properties.
3. Kristen and Nick Meyer, 970.531.2335, Kristen@kristenlmeyer.com, Website:
Kristen Meyer, C21 Realtor
www.kristenlmeyer.com, Kristen and Nick have worked hard on the Base Camp on Jane Creek development and done very well selling those units as well as helping several of our other owners purchase and resell their properties. Great peeps!
4. Cliff Anderson, Real Estate of Winter Park, 970.726.2602
cliff@rewinterpark.com, Website: www.rewinterpark.com
5. Lisa Waldorf, Real Estate of Winter Park, 970-726-2609
lisa@rewinterpark.com , Website: www.rewinterpark.com, Her son was born the same day as our twins so I feel a baby connection with her! She’s also a fabulous realtor. Turns out she helped another friend of ours buy a great condo up here and we just made that realization a few weeks ago. They loved her too.
6. Christian Infantolino, Century 21, 970.531.0408, Christian also runs an excellent cleaning company on the side. Buy real estate from him and then contract with him to do your cleanings – what a good pair! We love this guy – nice and hard working.
Christian Infantolino of Century 21
7. Katie Reimerscmidt, Real Estate of Winter Park, 970-726-2605, katie@rewinterpark.com, website: www.rewinterpark.com, I first saw Katie on the Winter Park TV channel – she was all over it and I thought man, this lady must sell every piece of real estate in Grand County. Then I finally met her (works with Shanna) and she’s as nice as she seems on TV.
8. Victoria Baker, King’s Foot, vbaker@kingsfoot.com, 970.531.2003, www.kingsfoot.com, Victoria helped us buy our first condo in Winter Park in 2003. Now she’s having twins so I’m giving her lots of advice. She started King’s Foot and has been very successful. They are located next to Safeway in Fraser.
9. Playground Destination Properites – they are all nice and you can go in and see models of the future development in their office/display center right in front of Zephyr. (866) 722-5560, info@lovewinterpark.com,
10. Jeff Martin, King’s Foot, jmartin@kingsfoot.com, 970.531.1460, Website: www.kingsfoot.com (plus, he owns and runs the Dog Sled Rides of Winter Park! see previous blog for details)
Know of other great realtors in the Winter park area? Comment here!
It’s official – the first restaurant is open in the new Winter Park Base Village. We’ve tested the margaritas and the food and all tests out well in our opinion. It’s cold in there though (we let them know!) so bundle up when you go.
The small margarita was $7.50 and the big one was $10. We had spinach con-queso which was awesome and Amy especially likes the chips – they are homemade fried flour tortillas. We also had a burrito and tacos – both great! Salsa is authentic too and yummy.
We’re going to set up a discount for our guests in there, so we’ll let you know when we have that set up!
I just gotta brag a bit about my boyfriend Paul’s restaurant, the Mirasol Cantina, in downtown Winter Park. I stop by a few times a week on my walk home from work and get hooked up with yummy taco dinners all the time, and seriously, I never get tired of it. The locals of Winter Park and Fraser love this place, so even though I usually pop in by myself, I’m never alone. I just slide up to the bar, where I am bound to find some friends, and sip on the best mojito I’ve ever had (every time).
I usually get a tuna ceviche taco, the roasted veggie with fresh hummus, or a fried tilapia with the spicy tartar. My favorite shell is the lettuce shell, but you can get a soft flour or crispy corn shell, too. So goooood. When I’m really hungry, I order the massive burrito smothered in green chile and cheese. Aptly named the “Big One,” this giant burrito has got to be four pounds. He’s going to weigh it for me tonight, so I’ll let you know .
I just talked Paul into giving Winter Park Lodging by Owners guests 15% off their total bill, whoop, whoop! Just mention Winter Park Lodging by Owner, or print out a coupon. Say hi for me. You might just see me there, too!
