Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Snowboarding Adventures

This past weekend, Kristi and I went snowboarding at Sugar Mountain Resort near Boone, NC. Kristi's birthday was on Friday so this was our attempt at celebrating it. She had been sick all week and I was starting to feel bad towards the end of the week, but we muscled through it!

We both left work early on Friday and made the trek over to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The weather was disgusting the entire time - cold and rainy - which meant that people were driving even more erratically than normal. I saved us from getting in one accident on the way there. Kristi was impressed while I was just seething with anger.

Anyways, we got there around 9 pm and were starving so decided to eat at Woodlands BBQ. That restaurant served THE best pulled chicken BBQ that I have ever tasted in my entire life! We both got a "tray" that came with slaw and hush puppies - and it only cost 5$. I mean really... I could eat there 3 meals a day! They sold bottles of their sauce and I'm really kicking myself for not purchasing one.

The next day, the weather was still iffy so we decided to go shopping in the downtown area of Blowing Rock. We also had to search for ski pants because... ding ding! I left mine at home. (They were anxiously awaiting my return on my bed.) There was a Tanger Outlet Mall conveniently located about a mile from our hotel so you know I had to stop in and say hello. We got a couple of good deals but didn't go too crazy.

Once the weather cleared, we headed up the mountain to ice skate and to go tubing. It was cold but so much fun! Kristi and I would hook our two tubes together and one of the workers would fling us down the hill. We spun 39448 times and laughed until we cried. I think Kristi's tears actually froze to her face. We are far too old to have that much fun :)

On Sunday, we were finally able to hit the slopes! By the time we packed the truck and checked out of the hotel, it was around 11. I think we got to the slopes around 11:30. We decided to wait another 30 minutes and purchase a half day lift ticket. That gave me time to find a pair of sunglasses in the gift shop and check out the cafe. Once we purchased our tickets and got all of our gear, we were off! To the bunny slopes.

First off, we were wearing far too much clothing for this adventure. The high that day was 45 and I felt like my body was on fire. I ended up stripping down to just a t-shirt and ski pants before the day was over.

Secondly, whoever told me that snowboarding was hard has lost their mind. I don't know if it's because I'm athletic and pick things up easily, or if it's because I'm awesome at pretty much everything I do, but this challenge proved easy. That's not to say I'm a master - I could definitely use more practice. But I picked it up far faster than anyone else I know. Aside from Kristi.

Kristi tried skiing once and hated it. I, however, grew up skiing and love it. It was a bit of an adjustment for me to get used to moving my legs as one unit; Kristi knew no different so she had no obstacles to overcome.

We started off by keeping one foot loose and the other strapped into the board. This was fine for about 10 minutes. It's much easier to learn with both feet strapped in. We had watched one YouTube video about how to stop and that was all we needed! We figured out how to turn and all that jazz on our own.

By the time our ticket expired and we got back to the truck, my knees were swollen and I was super tired. We decided we needed to eat before the drive so we stopped at a sushi restaurant we had seen advertised on some billboards. Everything was going fine until we realized that it was 6 pm and we hadn't received our bill yet. Apparently the computer system was down so they had to manually add our tabs. By the time I finished arguing with the waitress about how and why I didn't feel comfortable leaving them with my credit card number on a piece of paper for all the world to see, it was 7 pm. The manager finally gave me the ok to write a check. So I did and we were on our way. (I can't tell you how close I was to walking out without paying. We were so irritated!) Needless to say, I was exhausted when I got home around 11.

But, all in all, it was a successful trip! We plan to go again soon. And when I say soon, I mean in like 3 weeks.

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