okay, this is the last installment…
i promise.
i’m sure you’ve all had enough of
my birthday.
me, meghan, brianne, and maren
went away to a ski resort in the
mountains of upstate new york
for the birthday fortnight finale.
march 3rd-6th
we stayed at the thompson house.
it was a great place. we had the
jacuzzi suite. it had two big rooms
including a living area,
game area (well, that’s what we did
in the area), and a large entryway
for our wet/snowy/muddy boots
and jackets.
it was perfect!
we rented a car for the road trip.
it was 2.5 hours from the city.
these are a few lisa, brianne, and meghan
roadtrip traditions:
*stop at starbucks for breakfast and coffee
on our way out of town.
*road trip snacks=beef jerky, triscuits,
and jalapeno chips.
*i start the trip by driving us out of the
city and brianne ends it by driving us
back into the city.
*meghan falls asleep sitting up in the
back seat.
all of these things happened like clockwork
on this trip.
i missed a key exit just past the george washing
bridge and we had to take a big loop through
jersey. OOPS!!! b and m couldn’t have cared
less, but i was stressed about it. there were
so many signs and it was all so unclear!!! but,
with a few illegal u-turns we got back on track.
AND we had some excellent music to get
us there. good road trip music always
makes the trip go faster. brianne made
me a cd full of songs that came out in
1979, the blessed year of my birth.
that one cd took us most of the way
there since every song is about
15 minutes long!!
maren met us there 20 minutes after
we arrived!! perfect timing!
that afternoon meg and i went to scope out
the slopes. it was COLD that day. but i was
more than stoked to be on a mountain!!
i would have given anything to shred
down just one run that first afternoon.
that night we played and hung around
the thompson house until dinner.
well, we thought we’d go out and get
something to eat around 8-ish.
it might have been even earlier.
i checked out the menus in the lobby.
nothing delivered but the pizza place
up the road and it was already too late
for them to deliver. 8pm…too late to
deliver. we were certainly in a foreign land.
we took ourselves into “town” and
NOTHING was open. no stores, no restaurants…
it was like a ghost town. we drove around the
dark town and up a hill into a dark
neighborhood with big creepy (only
because it was night) houses. we did
this mainly to freak meghan out. she
kept telling us that scary movies are
set in places like this.
so all was not lost on our hunt for food
because we found a subway.
and it wasn’t just any subway.
it had an ice cream shop, antique
store, AND movie “theatre” in it.
we got our sandwiches and ice cream
and headed home. dinner and games
for the rest of the night.
day 2:
breakfast
rent equipment for lisa
snowboard a lot
(walmart for brianne and maren)
dinner
more games
meghan took a lesson. she didn’t have
the brightest instructor, which was a
shame, but by lunch she made it down
the bunny hill alone and without falling.
maren and brianne met us for lunch at
the lodge at the bottom of the mountain.
wearing snowboard gear,
eating grilled cheese and tomato soup
with these three girls
and the beautiful mountains set behind us…
i was one happy 30 year old!!!
i spent some time on the bunny hill
with meg. she was sore my the day’s end.
she totally ditched the idea of staying on
one edge and leafing across the hill and
back. she pointed her board down the
hill and went, and fell, and went and fell.
i was so happy to see her on the board,
but she was not ready for a lift yet. one
more day and she’d be ready.
we decided to get out a bit earlier for dinner
this night. and it was
CINCO DE MARCH!!!
each year we celebrate the 5th of march
with yummy mexican food and margaitas!
okay, actually it was the 4th of march,
but the place we wanted to have dinner at
wasn’t open on wednesdays, so we
jumpstarted cinco de march
and celebrated a day early with a
mexican dinner.
a trip in the car on dark mountain roads
proved to be super fun and lovely. we
took the superduper long way, but at
least we found it at all. this place claimed
to have
“the best mexican food this side of the
border.”
we weren’t sure if they were referring to
the mexican border or the canadian
border. it might be a true statement if
they were talking about the canadian
border.
it was, in fact, delicious. maren ate a
burito the size of her head, brianne
and a ham and cheese burrito, and meg
played it safe with the chicken quesadillas.
on the way back we passed an old
dilapidated drive-in movie. we started
to pull in and turned off the car lights
to freak meghan out again…and boy did
she!!! woe!! she forced me to get out of
there and not get us all murdered.
funny story:
so after we all had some pretty serious
mexican food (i mean, maren had a
burrito supreme 2/3 the size of a
bowling ball!!!!) we had some toilet
problems the next day. the problem
was that we broke it. none of us wanted
to go to the front desk to ask for help.
so…
after some pretty good critical thinking
(three of the four of are are nurses,
after all) we figured out a way to fix
the toilet and i volunteered for the
job. we wrapped my fist in several
layers of plastic bags and i became a
human plunger. we were ecstatic when
it worked. we are brilliant!!!!
and you know we were almost crying
in laughter before, during, and after the
whole thing.
day 3:
it didn’t look too dissimilar from day 2.
meg was super sore and decided to bow
out of boarding this day.
it was a beautiful day.
i tried to make friends and ride with
people, but it didn’t work…until the
end of the day.
i became a stalker. once i saw these
two boarding chicks who looked cool,
so i followed them down the mountain.
no, i didn’t talk to them…i just followed them.
at one point we were flying down and they
stopped to talk. i kept going and right after
i passed them i totally wiped out. it was so
embarrassing i had to keep going and left
my new non-friends.
this happened again with a few sets of people.
i followed three young guys across the mt
into the park. that’s where there are jumps
and poles and stuff to grind on. that’s where i
took my first jump of the trip. i didn’t die…or
even fall. i was surprised.
at the end of my day i rode a lift with sean.
he is a snowboard instructor for the
mountain, but is out sick with mono.
yep. he is a SERIOUS boarder.
he’s not cleared by his doc to work,
yet he’s shredding up runs all day.
he just graduated from college in
long island. so nice!
at the top he taught me to ride switch.
it’s where you ride with your back foot
as the lead foot. it feels weird at first, but
to do jumps and tricks you have to be
able to do it.
he was an excellent teacher!!!
he went through the park and we said
we’d meet at the bottom. but i couldn’t
find him. i was so sad. i called him my
snowboard angel; here to help for one
moment, then gone. i was thankful for
his help and temporary companionship.
that night we went to a restaurant on the
side of the mountain with an amazing
view.
i went into the bathroom. and the worst
thing that could have happened…happened.
i dropped my iphone in the toilet.
i do not want to relive this tragic event again.
so please see my previous post about it.
splash
after dinner we decorated the canvas tote
bags maren and brianne got for us from
their walmart adventure. we did them up
80’s style with shiny puff paint circa 1985.
i was last at the table. even ugly puff paint
has to be just right.
i know,
i have issues.
then as a birthday gift to me we played
yahtzee texas hold ‘em.
i always beg to play this game every time
we get together to play games and i’m
always brutally rejected by the crowd.
so brianne kindly brought the game for
us to play.
and guess what?!!
everyone agreed that
IT WAS FUN…REALLY FUN!!!
i must say it can go a bit long, but
besides that we all enjoyed it. i
went all in at the end and because
i don’t understand all the rules
i took all of my chips and brianne’s
chips because i won the hand.
thought i got everything…that’s
what all in is, right? not exactly.
but i did the the two armed scoop
action to take in my winnings and mixed
all the chips together. so i may not have
actually won the game…but it ended.
opps!! sorry, brianne!!
thanks for playing girls!!
i really appreciate it!!
day 4:
breakfast again
1/2 day of snowboarding
drive back to the city
each morning the sweet thompson house
people set out breakfast and even homemade
muffins one morning. there is a fire place and
a pretty view of the mountains.
quite enjoyable.
we decided that i would go snowboarding and
meg and brianne would pack up and come get
me on our way out. this was the best idea
because snow turn to be horrible slush in the
40 degree sunny weather. it was close to
miserable. east coast skiing/snowboarding is
quite different from the rockies, where i grew
up skiing. i won’t go into the gory details, but
it was ugly. half a day was plenty. i took some
pretty nasty falls because of the ice. i had a
mild ice-burn scratch down my face for a few
days because of a spill. that one hurt!!
and guess what!
i ran into my snow angel again. we talked
and took a few runs together. this time he
taught me how to take the jumps. i was so
glad i found him again!! we went through
a few parks together. again, it was too short.
but i did get a picture with him.
then brianne and meg came to pick me up.
they were there for my last run. i came to
the top of a park that was visible from the
base of the mountain. they got in position
to take some photographs and i showed
them what i’d learned from sean.
when i got down the mt the conversation
went a bit like this:
me: DID YOU SEE ME??!! DID YOU SEE
ME TAKE THOSE JUMPS?!! DID YOU SEE
ME?!!!!
meg and brianne: yeah! that was awesome!
we got a couple of pictures.
this written log of the convo doesn’t do it
justice. it was sort of like a little kid on a
playground who did something inconsequential
like sliding down the slide by themselves and
the genuinely excited parents respond with a
kind, “that was just great, honey.”
we returned my board and boots to the rental
shop and headed home. the drive back was
much shorter than our first drive. it may or
may not have been the loop through jersey
that first time around…i’m not sure.
did i mention we had a SWEEEEEET rental
car? we always love driving out of the city
and miss being in cars. but on our way in
there is crazy traffic and we have to find a
gass station and parking and blah blah…
so by the time we have to return the car we
are so ready and very thankful that we live
in a place with such great public transportation.
who needs a car?!!!
not us!!!
we had a GREAT time on the birthday
snowboard trip. i was the one who did
most of the snowboarding, but we all
had a wonderful time. thanks girls!!!!
for more pictures of the trip and other
birthday fun please see brianne and
meghan’s blogs.
THE END
of the birthday fortnight, that is.
however, gifts and cash are still
always welcome.
