It was colder today, and the amount of
overnight snow – particularly when it came to how that piled up on the slopes,
was both wonderful and a challenge for us mid-westerners.
Needing the extra time for getting around
between the hotel and the slopes meant that we stayed at the hotel for another
forgettable continental breakfast, but it was food; so maybe the food-snob in
me should just shut up about it and not complain! ;^)
Everyone that lives and works around here
is used to dealing with these snowfalls, so it’s no big deal to them, and I
mostly found it amusing to know that the forecasts for this much snow – plus what’s
still expected this week – would have the news media freaking out about another
storm of the century; while here, it’s just another Tuesday.
Perspective is a wonderful thing!
I can also tell you that snowboarding in
lots of fresh powder is amazing! That
was particularly true this morning when we were able to blaze new trails down
the slopes for a while; and I can’t really describe very well how great it felt
to be blasting down the mountain, kicking up waves of snow higher than our
heads; and there’s something magical about the mountain air that comes with a
lot of new snow that you just have to experience to understand.
If you’ve never done that; put it on your
to-do list! ;^)
Since this has been our third day on the
slopes, I’m not going to do another big report for the snowboarding, but we had
just as much fun again today, and I guess if there’s any news to add; it’s that
we’re getting better every day with using the lifts and moving around to
different parts of the mountain more easily than we did on Sunday. That means that we were able to get in a few
extra runs; we burned off more energy; and we’re more tired now.
Well, there are other reasons that we’re
tired; but I’ll get to that in a moment.
Before I do that, though, I will talk food again – and this time; it’s
about the food options at the Winter Park Resort.
I can’t comment on the adult beverages that
are served around here; though I will suggest that drinking and snowboarding is
even dumber than drinking and driving – at least from a personal safety
standpoint. We also stayed away from
Starbucks; though that’s strictly a personal choice – and not meant to be a hit
on the company. There are a handful of
restaurant choices here, but because we’ve wanted to eat fast and run; we’ve
gone with the comparatively fast food – pizza; and soup and sandwiches. That didn’t stop us from polishing off a fair
bit of food – especially Tim and Michael; but we didn’t do much sitting around
and waiting to get our food. Some of the
members of our group have been at more of the restaurants, and have mostly been
happy with the food and service too, but the four of us apparently have a need
for speed – whether that’s while snowboarding or having our lunch break!
You could say that we had a need for speed
at dinnertime too, but that was because we didn’t have much time for that meal
before we all headed for the local movie theater and bowling center. With limited fast food options that worked
with our evening entertainment plans; that meant another visit to
McDonalds. The kids loved that; and the
orders for most of the teen boys were frightening – especially for some of the
parents with group bills! Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I are paying for all of our own meals while we’re here, so we aren’t
adding to the scary bills thing for our chaperones, but it is a good thing that
Michael and Tim put in the extra time working ahead of this trip. It’s also really great that we’re doing a lot
of exercising this week – or the guys might be using Tim and Michael for
weights when we go back to school next week instead of doing weight training
with them. I didn’t want to spoil
anything for them, though; and didn’t mention how many thousands of bad
calories they took in during dinner.
There are only two movie choices here, so
it’s funny that some of us had a tough choice over which movie to see. The kids didn’t have that problem; and went
to see Zootopia. Some of the teens and
parents wanted to go and see that too – and did; but the rest of us opted for London
Has Fallen instead – and that was entirely because the guys wanted to go with
the movie where stuff gets blown up and bad things happen to politicians. Then again, from what we heard later about
Zootopia, the contrast between the action flick and the sloth scenes would have
been too much of a shock for the adrenaline junkies among us! ;^)
Ha...
...Ha...
...Ha...
You’ll need to watch Zootopia – or at least
the sloth scenes – to get that; but we got to hear all about it after the
show. I won’t pick on anyone’s sense of
humor either; though I will suggest that you can only do that slow act for so
long before it just isn’t entertaining anymore – and I’m already there for
hearing the jokes and sloth imitations.
The end of the movies was also the end of
the entertainment night for about two-thirds of our group, but the Palmers
stayed with a group of us so we could try out the bowling; and we played two
matches. That was a bit too much for one
day, which is also why I’ll be ready to crash and nap as soon as I’m finished
with this update; so Michael is only going to be here for a cuddle buddy
tonight.
Yes, I know, Aunt Leanne – that’s such a
waste of a perfectly good opportunity to spend some quality play time together;
but it’s the way it is – and Michel and I are good with that.
We came straight back to the hotel after
the bowling, and while that was fun too; the only comment I’m going to make
about my game play is that I had to cheat so that I didn’t bowl perfect games. I don’t play many games like bowling, so I
don’t actually have a lot of experience with that the way Mom does with billiards,
bowling, and likely a half-dozen or more other similar sports and games; but it
isn’t the same as it is for playing baseball or other sports that you don’t
have full control over. I know that
normal people would say that you don’t have that much control over a game like
bowling even if they might concede that’s possible on a pool table; but I
expect that most Magi Masters do have total control.
That’s a combination of using our passive
senses along with the capacity to work out all of the math with certainty;
which is why luck had nothing to do with it – whether I was bowling a strike;
making spares; or missing splits. I drew
the line at throwing gutter balls; but then we did have a handful of Magi with
us; so that didn’t happen much anyway. I
did win both games for our foursome, and Rowen and I had fun with that; but Tim
just insisted that he and Michael had been too busy enjoying the scenery to
play their best. He was definitely only
half-joking about that, since Rowen and I did look pretty good for our night
out; so he’s likely right about that affecting their play too.
I’d better not go there; or I might start
thinking that I’m not as tired as I am – and we have a busy day planned for
tomorrow!
When we got back to the hotel, we all came
straight up to our rooms; I’ve been doing my bedtime computing that’s included
some family business work; and Rowen and Michael will be doing the roommate
swap thing soon. I don’t have any news
from the work side of my computing, but have had some emails from home and
elsewhere. The weather has been a lot
warmer back home, and while they’ve had a bit of rain today; Ethan and Ehlana
have been enjoying a lot of outdoor time with Naomi, Aiden, and some other
friends. Doing some biking and playing
at the park with them would have been great, but then if we’d been home this
week; Michael, Tim, and Rowen would have all be doing extra work with their
part-time jobs; so that wouldn’t have been as much fun.
Michael and I wouldn’t have been able to
get away with nightly sofa sleepovers either; so that works out better for us
too.
That sleepover with Michael is now at the top
of my to-do list, and I don’t have any other news from today; but I should
mention that we won’t be on the slopes tomorrow. Instead of doing that; we’ll be having a hot sulfur
springs and shopping play day. The sulfur
springs experience will be a first for most of the members of our group; but it’ll
definitely be more fun for me to do that with Michael, so even though we won’t
be having an extreme fun kind of day; it is going to be great – and I’m glad
that we’re getting to experience more than just the snowboarding while we’re
here.
I can write all about that tomorrow night,
though, and you can flip the digital page to read all about it right away; so
let’s wrap this up and I’ll get started on my cuddly winter’s nap with Michael!
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
