Yesterday started out well. We dropped Ty at the mountain around 7:45 to meet his buddies and spend the day boarding on the hill. Lori and I then sprinted down to Denver where she had her hair colored and is now ready for Hawaii. Around 12:15, with the car gassed up and lunch to go in the car, we headed home to get ready for the big dinner. All day long we had heard about the wind and it was quite windy driving back up to Vail. About half way up I said to Lori that I hope they don’t cancel the dinner due to the wind. Once we hit the tunnel, I noticed the ski lifts at Loveland Pass were running fine and they were going to the top of the Continental Divide so we then relaxed.

We were really looking forward to the dinner all day as dishes from Chef Bocuse were going to be amazing. About 15 minutes from home though, my phone buzzed and there it was, a text from our friend who runs the restaurant saying the dinner had been cancelled due to extreme weather! I knew this was going to happen! The winds were too strong for the gondola’s to run, so the ski patrol and operations people shut them down. What a bummer.

For the next few hours I texted with Brooks (who runs the restaurants) trying to find out what they were going to do. Finally around 6 we decided to drive over to Keystone to drop some wines we had as they decided to reschedule the dinner for tonight. I don’t know how they’re going to do this as they had been cooking all day and who knows if people can make it a day later. Some people flew in for this dinner. Anyhow Lorenzo, Jen, Lori and I drove over and met him and one of his workers, and I dropped some wine. Unfortunately we (Lorenzo or I) cannot make it tonight, so we educated Brooks on what to say. He was so apologetic as Lorenzo flew out here for this. We told him don’t worry about us, and that we were sorry for him. In the end, it’s all good but we didn’t get to eat the great meal!

We drove back to Vail and the town was packed. We snuck in the backdoor to La Bottega and managed to get four seats at the bar. My long time friend Steve who owns the place was telling us about when he ate at Bocuse’s restaurant in France about 5 years ago. Steve and Liz (his wife) own the place and Steve’s the chef. All places were jam packed due to the holiday weekend but we had a great meal including beef carpaccio, orange glazed duck, linguine with clams and more. We finally finished a little after 9 and took Lorenzo and Jen back to their hotel. This morning they’re on the shuttle to Denver at 10.

Jag right now is somewhere over the Pacific Ocean and will land in Los Angeles around noon. They then have a 6 hour layover (ugh) before catching their flight to Denver where they’ll arrive around 9 pm. We’ll drive down late this afternoon and check into the Marriott by the airport and then go pick him up when he lands. He’s had a remarkable trip but is excited to get home. Here’s the latest post from him. He’s so grown up and this trip seems to have been life changing. Check this out,

We started the day early as we rose at 5:30 am to find our Nai Nai (Grandmother) already making us breakfast. She was making us a delicious soup with egg and chopped up bits of sausage. After slamming down as much as humanly possible, we headed to the Retreat center to get a formal understanding of what we would be doing for the day. The plan was to walk to the Temple, and to have everyone walk two minutes apart, in order to have a walk in complete silence. One we arrived at the Temple, we started to do a reflection of our Spiritual and Religious Beliefs while we waited for the sun to rise and the Temple to open.

Once we passed through the Temple we had made the group decision to hike up to the Giant Alter surrounded by Prayer Flags. As we had begun to hike, I had decided to make myself the leader. We continued to walk with no issue until people had begun to get weary and uneasy of the path that I had led them on. Garrett had suggested that we should go straight down, and some people wanted something new, so they waited for him to try it. As he began to descend, he almost immediately slipped, and at that point, people were again following me. During our hike, I used the time to think about why exactly I was in China on this trip, including some of the bigger questions, such as what is ultimate purpose of me existing and living. I kept this in my mind as I hiked for the rest of the day. Once we finally arrived at the Alter, everyone was very relived and began to take in the scenery. After, we began to descend back down. We found a road that led to a path that we continued to take, and while on it we found flags with some characters that we recognized. After some guessing the LaoShi’s, (Teachers) told us that we had actually found apart of what used to be the Silk Road, yet another happy surprise of our trip.

After returning we began to talk about what exactly it was that Buddhist Monks believed in. We talked about the cycle of reincarnation and how to escape it, and what keeps you in it; which seemed very relevant to what I was thinking about earlier. They told us how it was Ignorance, Desire, and Hatred; all three linked; and that all three would prevent you from escaping. I applied this to my thoughts about my purpose as I thought about how I could avoid these things and find what I so desired. Ultimately I had reached my own conclusion and realized that listening to others, focusing on experiences, and letting things go would help me find what I want, happiness. To do this I would need to take an uncomfortable step forward in order to help expand my knowledge and understanding, and know that it is MY choice to be happy, and realize that I can and want to make this choice.

Pretty profound for a 16 year old kid. Lori and I wish we would have discovered some of the things Jagger has at such a young age. Jennifer said he’s like a Renaissance Man as he’s so wise for his years. Anyhow, we ‘re just thrilled he’s coming home today as Lori, Ty and I all miss him and he really misses us. It’ll be great to have us all together again.

By the way, have you noticed in all pictures, all the kids have their coats and hats on? There’s little to no heat anywhere in these towns and villages and hot water is also hard to come by unless you boil it! A different way of living for sure. Funny some of the things we take for granted like heat, grocery stores, hot water, electricity, and more. The majority of the World does not have the luxuries we do! Have a great day and God Bless.