Sunday Dec. 16
The travel to Stowe was not looking good as we boarded the plane to JFK. Two major snowstorms had been in the forecast for days – and the travel advisories were up in full force. Sure enough as we arrived at JFK around 3 PM, it was snow turning to rain. All the northbound flights from JFK were cancelled, except one – ours to Burlington Vermont. We only faced a 2 hour delay which gave us time to explore JFK’s food choices. We arrived in Burlington around 5 PM (it gets dark around 4:30 PM) and picked up our rented Mitsubishi Galant to head to Stowe at the tail end of the snowstorm and 2 full feet of Snow. The drive up to the Trapp Family Lodge (a family business of the Trapp family from the “The Sound of Music”) was a nailbiter. As I kept the gas on the floor with the wheels spinning and the motor revved at 100% - the car was slowing to crawl. It must have been pure luck – the little car made it up the mountain. After a nice dinner at the Trapp Lodge – we headed to our cabin, turned on the TV and wound down – tired from the excitement of the day long travel.
Monday Dec. 17
This was the least eventful of the days. The snow was still not cleared from the roads – but we did venture to the grocery store where we stocked up on food for the week and also bought some snow disks for sledding. That afternoon we tromped through snow, sledded down hills and explored the area around the lodge which was still pretty much snowed in.
Tuesday Dec. 18
It was time to learn how to do cross country skiing. The Trapp Family Lodge is known for some of the best XC skiing trails in the country and also expert instruction. The entire family got to learn all about XC or Nordic skiing – our instructor (Larry) was great and we made it through our lessons. After some skiing and lunch (we could ski right to our cabin)– Catherine and Linda decided to do the snow shoe adventure while Anna and Ron tried their hand at the ski trails. XC skis are “squirrely” to say the least. We moved well – but Anna spent the better part of 3 miles on her butt, and I was having trouble with controlling the skis on the downhill. Still we had fun and were quite tired by the time it got dark. Time for some relaxation as Tuesday would be the start of downhill days.
Wednesday – Friday
Mt. Mansfield had 3 feet of natural snow and also plenty more man-made. Linda started with lessons getting good instructors on both Wednesday and Friday. We put the kids in mountain adventure school, and they learned both skiing (Anna’s strength) and snowbarding (Catherine’s strength). Linda improved so much from lessons – that I decided to take a morning lesson on dynamic skiing (thanks to Jonathan, my instructor – he was awesome). After the lessons even the hardest slopes that I had found challenging earlier – were now easily handled. All the nuances that I had been missing were now solid. I spent the afternoon trying all the slopes that looked too steep or slick – and never felt uncomfortable or out of control. I did fall once – it is still tough to hit a mogul on a steep incline. Linda had improved greatly also – she still does not like steep – but she controls the ski’s on the green slopes. Catherine had mastered the basics of the snowboard. All three days had good weather with temps ranging from about 5 F – 15 F, good ski weather.
Saturday Dec. 22
This was our last skiing day and I wanted to give XC one more shot. The weather was also a lot warmer – about 20 F. Anna and I headed out on some more strenuous slopes, while Linda and Catherine went off in snowshoes again. After 3 days on alpine skis I found the XC skis difficult to handle, they love to slide all over the place, I even feel 3 times though not from going fast – simply slick ice and snow and unstable legs in the skis. Anna fared much better, mastering all the down-hills and up-hills we faced in the XC skis. We then picked up some snowshoes and went back and did a family snowshoe hike. Just for reference – you still sink in the snow and even a short distance in snowshoes is quite a workout. Another good night of sleep.
Sunday Dec. 23
Traveling in the north in the winter is always a challenge. We stopped by the Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream factory for a fun tour on the way to Burlington. At lunch I got a phone message from delta that our flight from Burlington to JFK was cancelled due to bad weather in the area. A heroic effort from a Delta gate agent diverted us to Cleveland and then to Atlanta where we missed our connecting flight to Orlando. Luckily we were able to book a later flight (lots of flights between Atlanta and Orlando on Delta) and finally make it home.
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