Estes Park had a hidden gem if a ski area called Hidden Valley. It was in the Rocky Mountain National Park. My Mom was a ski instructor there on the weekends.
In my eyes, my Mom was a great skier. I remember that she would take me up to Hidden Valley every weekend. When she was teaching, I would stay at the on-site daycare. However when she was not teaching, she was teaching me how to ski. Rumor has it, she had skis strapped to my feet the same year I learned to walk, and I believe it. I could parallel ski before I was three.
My Mom dated (and eventually married) a very prominent doctor. He, of course, was friends with a lot of other prominent doctors. One was Roy Machida. Roy was a plastic surgeon and worked on all the stars in Beverly Hills. During this time, we lived in Cherry Hills Village and also had a condo in Snowmass. The day after Christmas, Roy and his family would meet us in Snowmass, every year. One year, he was days late. Apparently a big star in Hollywood (will remain nameless) had been in a car accident and went through the windshield. His whole face needed to be reconstructed and he died a few times on the operating table. He did pull through though. Another year, he had to remove the stitches from one of his clients surgeries. She lived in LA and Snowmass. She invited us all to her house (not to watch, but just to hang out). We got to her place, and low and behold, Lucille Ball answered the door. This time, I knew who Lucille Ball was (unlike my knowledge of Walt Disney) because I watched her shows when I was home sick. She insisted on us calling her Lucy. she lived across the ski slope from us. We had a blast that night and she said whenever we wanted to drop by, to just drop in. Often when I was done skiing for the day, you could find me at Lucy’s house (with my parents permission).
Eventually my parents sold the condo and divorced, so the only place I had to ski at was Hidden Valley. By this time, I was much older and my mother no longer was a ski instructor. My Grandma bought me season ski passes for a Christmas present every year. Typically I was pretty hard to buy presents for, so I just told everyone what I wanted and everyone pitched in to get me the one or two things I had my eyes on (new skiis, new boots, etc). I quickly made some new skiing pals and being youths, we were into skiing fast and jumping. We became known as the “Air Patrol.”