Impromtu Ski Break

At Planet Bowling, we pride ourselves on our appreciation for spontaneous adventure. Whether that means removing the front door to refinish it on a whim (a 20+ man hour project that taught us much about chemical stripping agents, eye protection, and eye ulcers, which thankfully was not from said stripping agent) or planning a vacation in under seven days. We live for adventure! (And then limp for days afterward in recovery.)

It has been two years since we've been skiing, which is way too long for us. During our extended honeymoon in New Hampshire (where we lived for three years) we scrounged up money almost weekly during the winter to finance skiing. In the last few years, well, let's say having babies is hell on scheduling a ski trip.

With a rodeo in March and work commitments looming for Kim in April, it was put up or shut up time. The decision made, seven days later, we were in Utah.

Where the weather was just dreadful. I mean, it was below freezing and everything!

OK, for non-Houstonites, it was awesome! Powder everywhere, temps in the high twenties and low thirties. Fresh powder everyday. I'm tearing up a little just thinking about it.

Day One: Deer Valley

The first day we skied Deer Valley, a glorious mountain covered in meticulously groomed slopes with real high speed chairs that are all, of course, padded and swept free of bothersome snow. The food is wonderful, there is carpet in the lodges, and sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows are in abundance. The lift tickets are $90. Each.

It snowed all morning but cleared off in the afternoon just after we finished our lunchtime repast.

Solitude

Next up we skied Solitude, something I remember fondly from when I was a kid. Out of our many ski trips, I have this memory of listening to A-Ha on my walkman on the way to Solitude.

It was a good day, although this trip I was singing Free the whole time instead. Dixie, this is the song that Alastair was singing on the fireplace. That kid has good taste. (Go Zac Brown! See you Thursday!)

I found a friendly looking girl at lunch and asked her to take our picture.

The last day of our trip we skied Brighton. My mom claims that we skied Brighton all the time and that we loved it. Of course we also loved Saddleback, in Rangeley, where I learned to ski. Saddleback had two lifts at the time and one tow rope. Brighton claims to have high speed lifts, but we only rode one that was actually fast. So on our shortened day, we had short runs, long lifts, and a lot of snow. We were actually a little fatigued by that point anyway, so it was all good. But Brighton probably won't be our next tour of Utah.

After skiing, we caught a flight home and spent Sunday stumbling blearily around the house. Alastair was really glad to see us and said, "this is the best day ever." When we asked him why, he responded, "because you're home now." Tear. Later in the day he pulled me down to whisper something in my ear. "Mom, you're so pretty," he said, "and I love you." For my non demonstrative kid, that is huge. I think we need to leave him more often.