I Made It In ONE Piece...Whew....

Arms, Legs, Ankles, Knee Caps, and Neck...still intact! Whew....Skiing is definitely not for the light hearted!  


But I am still here and THAT is a good thing.

So this Florida girl went skiing.  I had some private lessons, and mastered the bunny slope they call a "green", I call it what it was....an easy, bunny slope, and I was ok with that.  No pride hurt. YAY!  They were like, "you strong like bull, you go blue.."  Um no thanks.  I shake my cotton tail and tuck my bunny ears in my helmet.  Perfectly content. But I will have to say, I am still not enamored with skiing as it will take a few tries and a few years before I can come to a complete conclusion of either "hated it" or "loved it." (or somewhere in between!)

But I will try again.  Saddleback Resort in Rangely, Maine was great and I am so glad that my first go was here.  It was nice, good Ol' New England skiing.

I will say I was more chicken about me possibly losing and tearing my ACL which, according to my ski instructor, Bill, happens when you fall backwards...(I am like..."duh, is there another way?")...he was very descriptive..."oh, with skis on your feet, if you have to fall, you have to try to not  fall backwards because that is how your ACL will simply just go *snap*" - the magic two words...."ACL" and "snap" exactly what I was terrified of.  My eyes glazed over.

My kids, who have never even seen snow, well, they were naturals.  I swear kids do not fall.  SO not fair! Well, my son had to be ski patrol-assisted at one point, but the upside is he was not medi-vac'ed via helicopter like one of the other kids in our group did.  That kid was ok and suffered just a slight concussion.  A rogue snowboarder came out like a bat outta hell and smacked into this 9 yr. old boy....and kept going.  Not cool!  But my son, he kept at it like a champ and was skiing blacks by day three.  Still falling - but with a confident SMILE on his face.  Love that chutzpah!

Maine also had record high temps the week we were there that ranged from the mid-70s to a high 81 degrees on Thursday.  It was record breaking for that time of year as the second highest temperature ever recorded at that time of year was 67 degrees. Some of the teens that were skiing in our group were skiing with Florida-style clothes.  Adriana and Mish were sweating in their t-shirts and they thought...hey...why not? So off they kept peeling layers by layers until that photo above.  They even made it on the news!  A few others started to follow suit.  Having not ever been to Maine, I so did not pack correctly.  Eh, you live and you learn.  I am sure next time I WILL under pack and I will hate myself for it too!

So I did not run for 9 days, but we had a terrific Spring break. Wearing ski boots kept my quads and calves in shape. We met some wonderful people from Maine and New Hampshire and some Tampa folks I would not have otherwise have ever met, made this trip so wonderful.  Also, our friends that have invited us, The Berry Family, which happen to be one of the owners Saddleback Resort, were such gracious hosts.  Their daughter, Lilly, attends my daughter's school and are great friends.

Well other than some there is some alcohol induced confidence in doing karaoke, my friend Supha decided to take videos of us.  Yes, after reviewing, I chose not to post.  You will need to come up and make your own memories....but keep in mind, if you HAD a favorite song, like say, "Stand By Me" it may no longer be your favorite song after the video.  But the list went on, and on "I Will Survive", "Friends in Low Places" and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and "Buffalo Soldier" were quite memorable.  They got people either laughing or dancing or both...good times, good times!


Amita, you and I owned the stage - submitting to Def Jam Records as we speak! Wha? Wha?

I highly recommend this resort if you do not want the glitz and name dropping like Aspen or Vail....I have been to both and I love them, and would love them more if I had won the lottery and have endless amounts of green to drop on lift tickets.  BUT there is something nice about a quaint and rustic lodge with some real good down home folks, awesome beer and spectacular slopes and views.  I would definitely go back!

The whole crew hailing from Florida, New Hampshire and Maine!  Spring Break 2012

Aaaah, still relishing it.  Next week, true training begins and I will conquer Iron Girl (grrrr) in 3 weeks.  NO JOKE, now, N-O J-O-K-E!