Ski Trip 2011

Ski Trip 2011 was by far the best one yet.  It was epic.  

We drove up to WV Wednesday night.  We got pulled for speeding shortly after we crossed the VA border.  I prayed for the officer to be lenient and show us mercy and guess what?!  It worked!  We didn’t get a ticket.  Later it started snowing and we had had to stop to put a tarp over the stuff in the back of the truck.

Around 8:30 pm, we stopped the cutest little town- Harrisonburg, VA to eat dinner.  We ate at a yummy Greek restaurant called Dave’s Taverna.  The Duke/Carolina game started at 9, so we even got to see a little bit of that.  (Duke/Carolina games are like national holidays in this state.  BIG.  HUGE.) 

Oh and I was jealous because I saw one of my absolute favorites was going to be playing in that town on Sunday!

We listed to the rest of the game as we took one of the scariest drives ever.  First we went through what I will call Dragon Forest, then it was up and down like 3 mountains.  Hairpin turns.  Steep inclines and declines.  All while it is snowing and dark.  I was so thankful to not be the one driving because I might have had a panic attack.

We finally got to the bed and breakfast around 1 am.  It was 6 degrees and about a foot of snow and ice on the ground.  We didn’t even unpack the truck and just slept in our clothes.  The Inn was cute though and we had a yummy breakfast the next morning.

We went grocery shopping in the town’s one little grocery store in the morning- the good ol Shop n Save.  Then we made our way to the house.  We got lost a few times but finally found the house at the very top of a very steep cul-de-sac.  It was HUGE!

This was the most perfect house for our group.  It was huge, had an indoor pool/hot tub, basketball goal, pool table, outdoor hot tub, right on the slopes, 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, amazing views, right on the slopes, almost everyone had a private bedroom and bathroom…it was perfect.  Here are a few pictures I took, but if you want to see the whole house tour go here.  (Really the pictures do not do it justice.  It was huge!)

There ended up being 28 of us there I think.  But it was not crowded at all.  We were right on the slopes, so we never had to drive anywhere.  It was like a house party with your bestest friends that lasts for 3 days. 

There were tons of funny moments including learning how to dougie, 5 guys in a tiny sauna, body shots, lots of card games, a spontaneous strip tease by the guys, and tons of funny dancing and singing.  A lot of people have video cameras so we got tons of great video and would watch it back the next night and laugh at our crazy selves.  We’re trying to figure out how to create a private channel to share all the videos among just our group.  We even watched a video from our 2009 ski trip.  One day we will have to make a whole compilation of the footage over the years.

The highlight of the weekend for me though was learning to play chess.  I am obsessed now.  Kelly’s husband taught us how to play and we played each other twice I think.  Both times it lasted over an hour because you really have to think 3 steps ahead and be very careful with your moves.  I don’t know how people play speed chess!  Every time one of the guys would play I would watch the game to learn new strategies.  I’m a little competitive.

The lowlight was crying all the way down the mountain.  We were right on the slopes and we had to figure out which trail took us back to the house.  We found a blue trail that led back and I was fine with that.  I prefer to stick with green, but have done blue in the past.  Well, this blue should have been a black.  It was straight freaking down the mountain with no end in sight!  I hate going too fast because it feels like I am going to lose control (they even nicknamed me “Slow Bunny”).  I was in tears the whole time and I was having a panic attack and I could not move my body.  I had to slowly slide down inch by inch. It was a real workout for my legs!  I fell once or twice and my ski popped off.  Let me tell ya, getting that thing back on when you are on a steep decline is super hard!  I did decline a ride down from Snow Patrol and finally made it down to the house.  Luckily we found a green slope to cut across to get back to the house after that because there was no way I was going down that thing again!

It was a great weekend.  I LOVE my friends and am so thankful to have found a group that gets along so well!  I felt very blessed the whole weekend!

(Sorry for the lack of pictures.  I realized after I got back that I barely took any!)