Goodbye Mezz

After traveling all around the globe, chatting with folks from different countries and different cultures and learning a handful of life's little secrets, I've realized one very important thing: everybody needs a local.  :P  You know, a place that's close by, a place where you can relax and order "the usual", a place where everybody knows your name...haha!  That place for me is Mezzaluna in Vail, and it's so sad to see it go!

For years, I have joined friends over Coronas and Red Stripes, chatting about our days on the hill: from the stellar and unathletic students we taught, the inches and feet of freshies and the knee-deep stashes we uncovered, the blurry late nights with DJ Latenite at Ski Bar, the fast-approacting certification exams, the wild summers and the impending plans for next summer, and answering the the never-ending question of "What's for dinner".  For years, I never needed to ask anyone what or where they were going after work, because we always knew we'd find each other here.

 

Rumor has it, Mezz will no long be Mezz in the coming years.  Their lease is up, and likely a new tenant will occupy this gorgeous ski-stop with a view.  If Mezz does come back, it will be in a new location.  As I understand it, Mezz is closing, just like I witnessed the late and great Sundance Saloon close during my first season.

So, I thought it would be appropriate to host a toast to the place many friends gathered, where we've seen new kids become old kids and pale faces become shaded with raccoon masks.

Here's to years and years of memories...and all the friends who have been a part of the adventure.

Here's to goggle tans
Great styles
Generous pours (from the regulars and the ringers...the margaritas, Joey's Juicy Booty, Detroit River Water, the StanFish, White Russians and whatever the flavor of the moment was)


Plenty of pizzas

 

Goofy stunts

And most importantly, lots of laughs

 
  
 

   

We may not have taken a piece of the bar home with us...but we did leave a piece of us there!  ;)

Closing Day in Vail

The final day of the ski season is always a sad day, but also a happy one.  It's a holiday, one with many great traditions...like wearing gaper suits, and snowboarding down the last run with your pants at your feet...renting the smallest kids boards you can find (like a LTR 90cm) and surviving a few runs to the base....and toasting to a great season at the top of Chair 4 amongst herds of costume-clad revelers. 

This year, we started a few new traditions.  Like snowboarding around with Jose's a**, a giant donkey piñata, which was a huge *hit* at Mountain Top.

Dustin's 80's version of the GoPro, the "GoBro," made headlines with hundreds of onlookers in awe.

And the usual suspects posed for a few bazillion photos throughout the day.

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Thanks, buddies, for another great season in Vail.  Oh, and I almost forgot to nod to Seinfeld's George Costanza for posing in the photo behind the couch at the George.  Hilarious!
 

See ya next year!