Winter Fun !
Approximately three years ago, Danny, Daniel and I made the trek to the mountains to take a stab at snowboarding. I had never boarded before -- I did have quite a bit of experience skiing in my teens, but had never tried a snowboard. Daniel was new to it, as well.
We took lessons on that day, with Daniel and Danny progressing to the point that they could take the larger hills with a reasonable amount of confidence. However, I floundered. For whatever reason, I just could not get the hang of it. I fell, over and over again, once landing on my hip so solidly that I needed to visit the first aid station for a painkiller. It was then that I decided that I needed to go back to skiing.
This winter, we decided to make another trip, and brought Jacqueline along with us for her first snowboarding experience.
We left the house at the ungodly hour of 5:30am and drove to the mountains. It is typically a 3-4 hour drive depending on the conditions. We all took lessons - Danny, Daniel and Jacqueline snowboarding, and me on skis. I took a brush-up lesson because it had honestly been about 20 years. Amazing how time flies.
Regardless of the fact that it was Jacqueline's first time on a snowboard, she picked it up very quickly. Even the instructor was saying she did very well for her first time. There were 4 other boys in the class that were the same age as her, and she did better than most of them. :) She still fell, and was wary of the bigger hills, but she did well on the smaller hill nonetheless.
Danny and I took turns on the bunny hill with Jacqueline and on the bigger hills with Daniel.
During my lesson, I remembered all my skills relatively quickly, and was tearing it up after that. I didn't fall once. Not bad for not being on skis for about 2 decades.
We stayed there until the lifts closed at 4pm, then drove down the highway a bit and stopped at a turnout. We had a snowball fight, built a snow dog (instead of snowman) and then headed home. We dragged ourselves into the house at about 10pm.
And the greatest thing about it ?
We have awesome weather all year round in the Bay Area, and yet we can drive to the snow, do all our fun winter activities... then leave it all behind us and drive home. That is truly a thing of beauty.
Here are some pictures:
Putting on snow chains in shorts and slippers !
Us with all our gear. Except my jacket, which I had left upstairs in the lodge.
Snowball fight !!!
We took lessons on that day, with Daniel and Danny progressing to the point that they could take the larger hills with a reasonable amount of confidence. However, I floundered. For whatever reason, I just could not get the hang of it. I fell, over and over again, once landing on my hip so solidly that I needed to visit the first aid station for a painkiller. It was then that I decided that I needed to go back to skiing.
This winter, we decided to make another trip, and brought Jacqueline along with us for her first snowboarding experience.
We left the house at the ungodly hour of 5:30am and drove to the mountains. It is typically a 3-4 hour drive depending on the conditions. We all took lessons - Danny, Daniel and Jacqueline snowboarding, and me on skis. I took a brush-up lesson because it had honestly been about 20 years. Amazing how time flies.
Regardless of the fact that it was Jacqueline's first time on a snowboard, she picked it up very quickly. Even the instructor was saying she did very well for her first time. There were 4 other boys in the class that were the same age as her, and she did better than most of them. :) She still fell, and was wary of the bigger hills, but she did well on the smaller hill nonetheless.
Danny and I took turns on the bunny hill with Jacqueline and on the bigger hills with Daniel.
During my lesson, I remembered all my skills relatively quickly, and was tearing it up after that. I didn't fall once. Not bad for not being on skis for about 2 decades.
We stayed there until the lifts closed at 4pm, then drove down the highway a bit and stopped at a turnout. We had a snowball fight, built a snow dog (instead of snowman) and then headed home. We dragged ourselves into the house at about 10pm.
And the greatest thing about it ?
We have awesome weather all year round in the Bay Area, and yet we can drive to the snow, do all our fun winter activities... then leave it all behind us and drive home. That is truly a thing of beauty.
Here are some pictures:
Putting on snow chains in shorts and slippers !
Us with all our gear. Except my jacket, which I had left upstairs in the lodge.
Snowball fight !!!
posted by Andrea at 12:20
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