Okay, I know, I’ve been the slacking blogger lately. Originally I thought that I’d be home much earlier yesterday, but with the crazy weather, plans changed.
In case you were wondering, yes, it was warm and pouring rain on Monday at Jiminy Peak. It was monsoon-like. We took a walk that morning and it was so warm and so wet that I had no hope at all about any more skiing (we had skied a bit on Sunday night, and M & her dad rode the mountain coaster). Everything was closed, and when we finally found a sign that said “Arcade Openâ€, my friend went to check it out and saw some guys bailing water because it was beginning to flood. There was a big group of us and everyone else was more optimistic than me, so I stayed, even though the prospect of just hanging out all day with the promise of only-possibly-skiing-on-Tuesday seemed pretty bleak.
We had a wonderful time. I feared that Monday would be a Day of Television, with 2 tv sets in each suite, but they actually didn’t watch too much. The kids, who ranged from a 5th grader to a 4-year-old, enjoyed traveling as a pack from room to room. For quite a while they were all hanging out in the large balcony area over the hotel lobby while the grown-ups sat just downstairs chatting by the fire. Whenever the noise level got too high (or disquietingly quiet, for that matter), someone would pop up to check on them. They also loved swimming—the outdoor pool and hot tub are warm enough to be comfortable, while running out through the chill made it seem somehow forbidden and thrilling. Really, the only drawback was that by the time Tuesday came, everyone was getting tired.
Amazingly, it got colder and they made snow and groomed the hills like crazy, and we had a lovely and warm day of skiing on Tuesday. M says her favorite part of the super-fun weekend was ski school. In our group, 2 out of 3 kids enjoyed it. Both of my girls improved quite a bit. If I were a regular skier there, I might have been disappointed that so few trails and lifts were open, but since I ski so infrequently these days, it was just fine for me.
But most of all, it was a great deal and very easy for families. We stayed in the Country Inn for $175/night. It was a suite with a kitchenette, so the grown-ups had their own bedroom with a king-sized bed and the girls shared the pull-out couch in the living room. Paying for two nights got us the suite as well as free lift tickets for all four of us for 3 days. It was right at the bottom of the hill, so we paid $0 for food—we brought everything potluck. The kids loved “shopping around†to see who had the best snacks. Yes, we dropped cash on ski school–$110 per child, which included rentals and lift tickets—and on the mountain coaster. But for me, what I hate is when you’re on vacation and there are all sorts of incidental expenses that you didn’t plan for, and that didn’t happen. We got four vouchers to make up for Monday, and we can’t wait to go again.
Incidentally, we usually go to Mt. Snow, Vermont, where we have family. There’s actually a deal this Sunday: you get one free kid’s lift ticket per adult ticket purchased.
