We met up with Brian's dad, Barb, and Brandon after New Year's. We had originally planned to visit Winterplace to ski, but as our arrival date got closer we noticed that the weather forecast was unfavorable for skiing in that location. So, on the day that we were suppose to arrive, we changed our whole plan... within a 30 minute time span... while having lunch at Chick-fil-a. We ended up spending three nights in Elkins, West Virginia and skiing in that area. Our first day of skiing was spent at Canaan Valley Ski Resort. This was a nice resort, and I really liked it here. We all wanted to take lessons again because we had only skied once before and needed a refresher. The kids were rocking it in their lesson. I think they could have gotten by without one. Brian and I did much better at the lesson this time than we did last year. Brandon is a really good skier, but even he took a lesson. Since he is more advanced, he ended up being the only one in his class and essentially got a private lesson for a
very reasonable rate. By the end of the first day, the kids and Brian were going down the green slopes. I stuck to the training area, but was happy with the improvements that I had made.
On our second day of skiing, we headed over to Snowshoe. This is a really large ski resort. It was so big that we had to take a bus to get from one area of the resort to another. I had every intention of trying the longer greens on this day, but the snow had frozen overnight and was like a sheet of ice,. So, I wimped out. I spent most of the day on the easy green slope. My big accomplishment was that I learned how to get off the ski lift without falling. Brian, Brandon, and the kids skied the longer greens- and they even did a blue. The kids did really, really well. They were skiing all over the place. I'm so very glad that Brandon was with us. It made me feel better to know that the kids were on the slopes with someone who skis well. It is likely that we will try to go skiing again next year. Everyone really likes it.
After our long days on the slopes, we came back to the hotel and hung out with Poppy and Nana. They didn't ski with us, but we all got together in the evenings to go out to dinner. Even though Elkins is a small town, they had some really good places to eat.
On our way back home, we stopped at the New River Gorge Visitor's Center. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to get in due to the shutdown, but the gates were open. Of course, the Visitor's Center itself was closed, but we were still able to hike to the scenic overlook.
We are so happy that we got to visit with family, and we had a great trip.
At Christmas Universal was running a special where if you bought annual passes, you received six months free (18 months for the price of 12). We have been wanting to go back to Universal, and after checking things out Brian discovered that buying an annual pass was more cost effective than buying regular tickets at the gate. Knowing this, he purchased annual passes for our family as my birthday present. The only catch was that we had to activate the passes by April. So, last weekend we headed to Universal for the day to get our passes. We left our house around 6 a.m., arrived at Universal around 10, had a great day, left the park at 7, and returned home around 11 p.m. It was a busy but fun day. We rode several rides including the Hulk, the Mummy, Gringotts, and Men in Black. We also had a great meal at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. And the most exciting part? We can go back whenever we want! Universal is my favorite theme park and I am definitely looking forward to getting our money's worth out of these passes.
