Ski Trip Notes
Feb. 22nd, 2018 10:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckro- We went to Hunter Mountain, which is only a 2.5 hour drive from Jersey City. ARR, desperately in need of naps he refuses to take, slept in the car halfway there and almost the entire way back.
- On Monday afternoon we went to the snow-tubing park, which is a relatively small area off to the side. $20 gets you all the rides you can squeeze into two hours, and I think we made very good use of it, despite the fact it was raining. ARR could nonetheless be quoted as yelling, “YAAAY! THIS IS SO FUN!” while coming down the hill.
- We stayed at Villa Vosilla which, while clearly in need of some renovation here and there, had everything we would have wanted. We went in the indoor pool, played shuffleboard and mini-bowling, and had chess, ping-pong and billiards as options if we wanted them. The restaurant serves Italian food, which severely limits ARR's meal choices, so we went out for dinner. Their breakfast was lovely, though, and all of the staff members were very friendly and helpful.
- We had dinner at American Glory BBQ which, while not quite matching Hamilton Pork, was very good. The three of us shared the “Q for Two” and didn't quite manage to take it down. The sauces are all very tasty; the smoked chicken was super tender and the pulled pork was excellent, and the cornbread was sweet and cakey.
- It was 50 degrees on Tuesday, but there was still plenty of snow on the mountain and it was a bright, clear day, so we went skiing with significantly fewer layers than originally planned. I saw people skiing in just short sleeves by mid-afternoon. The trails started icy and got slushier as the day went on, but the conditions weren't actually that bad. And it felt pleasant—though falling into snow without gloves on is weird.
- Skiing, like riding a bike, comes right back to you. Which is more useful, I suspect, when that doesn't mean rapidly going though all of your mistakes and bad habits from a decade ago in the course of a single trail. I recall being reasonably comfortable on blues by the end of my last time skiing, and my second-to-last run on this trip was down a blue, which I managed without wiping out despite the icy bits.
- (What I did forget was how to get off a ski lift without getting smacked in the butt and falling down. That was embarrassing. All three times.)
- ARR spent the morning at a “porcupine level” kids lesson, where he learned how to get skis on and off and how to slide around in them without falling down. Then they practiced turning on very gentle inclines and how to do the wedge. After lunch, we took him up the bunny slope. He thought the ski lift was cool and not at all scary, but was anxious about actually going down a big hill, even holding hands or poles with us. (His sliding backwards into a mud puddle did not help.) Jethrien eventually had a brilliant idea of holding him between her legs in a wedge position and skiing them down in tandem. He thought that was super-fun, and she managed a very impressive two runs like that. (I didn't even try—I knew I couldn't do it.)
- ARR's class included stretching. Jethrien and I forgot that part. My legs are actually fine walking and biking (I use those muscles a lot and they're nice and strong) but weird parts of my calves hurt when I sit.
- Should it come up and you are confused, ARR refers to his heavy mittens as “Cheetor gloves,” because they look like the paw-hands of [Beast Wars Transformer] Cheetor's Transmetal form. I encourage this, because it gets him to wear them in cold weather.
- As the goals for this were: 1) ARR has a good time and has a good opinion about skiing, 2) Jethrien gets to go skiing which she's wanted to do for years, and 3) I prove to myself I can still get down a mountain without dying or panicking, I think it was totally a success.
- On Monday afternoon we went to the snow-tubing park, which is a relatively small area off to the side. $20 gets you all the rides you can squeeze into two hours, and I think we made very good use of it, despite the fact it was raining. ARR could nonetheless be quoted as yelling, “YAAAY! THIS IS SO FUN!” while coming down the hill.
- We stayed at Villa Vosilla which, while clearly in need of some renovation here and there, had everything we would have wanted. We went in the indoor pool, played shuffleboard and mini-bowling, and had chess, ping-pong and billiards as options if we wanted them. The restaurant serves Italian food, which severely limits ARR's meal choices, so we went out for dinner. Their breakfast was lovely, though, and all of the staff members were very friendly and helpful.
- We had dinner at American Glory BBQ which, while not quite matching Hamilton Pork, was very good. The three of us shared the “Q for Two” and didn't quite manage to take it down. The sauces are all very tasty; the smoked chicken was super tender and the pulled pork was excellent, and the cornbread was sweet and cakey.
- It was 50 degrees on Tuesday, but there was still plenty of snow on the mountain and it was a bright, clear day, so we went skiing with significantly fewer layers than originally planned. I saw people skiing in just short sleeves by mid-afternoon. The trails started icy and got slushier as the day went on, but the conditions weren't actually that bad. And it felt pleasant—though falling into snow without gloves on is weird.
- Skiing, like riding a bike, comes right back to you. Which is more useful, I suspect, when that doesn't mean rapidly going though all of your mistakes and bad habits from a decade ago in the course of a single trail. I recall being reasonably comfortable on blues by the end of my last time skiing, and my second-to-last run on this trip was down a blue, which I managed without wiping out despite the icy bits.
- (What I did forget was how to get off a ski lift without getting smacked in the butt and falling down. That was embarrassing. All three times.)
- ARR spent the morning at a “porcupine level” kids lesson, where he learned how to get skis on and off and how to slide around in them without falling down. Then they practiced turning on very gentle inclines and how to do the wedge. After lunch, we took him up the bunny slope. He thought the ski lift was cool and not at all scary, but was anxious about actually going down a big hill, even holding hands or poles with us. (His sliding backwards into a mud puddle did not help.) Jethrien eventually had a brilliant idea of holding him between her legs in a wedge position and skiing them down in tandem. He thought that was super-fun, and she managed a very impressive two runs like that. (I didn't even try—I knew I couldn't do it.)
- ARR's class included stretching. Jethrien and I forgot that part. My legs are actually fine walking and biking (I use those muscles a lot and they're nice and strong) but weird parts of my calves hurt when I sit.
- Should it come up and you are confused, ARR refers to his heavy mittens as “Cheetor gloves,” because they look like the paw-hands of [Beast Wars Transformer] Cheetor's Transmetal form. I encourage this, because it gets him to wear them in cold weather.
- As the goals for this were: 1) ARR has a good time and has a good opinion about skiing, 2) Jethrien gets to go skiing which she's wanted to do for years, and 3) I prove to myself I can still get down a mountain without dying or panicking, I think it was totally a success.
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Date: 2018-02-24 02:19 am (UTC)