Stowe, Vermont

We left NYC on Friday afternoon after our workday and grabbed our gear and pointed the cars North on the Thruway. Our destination this time would be the snowy winter resort town of Stowe, VT. The drive up from NY was perhaps the most prolonged frightening experience of my life as it was coming down with freezing rain, the road signs said we should watch out for drunken, sideways riding bicyclists and falling rocks and the visibility was close to nothing. Six hours later, at quarter-after-two, we arrived.

My buddy had made reservations at a house which we rented for the entire party which consisted of 11 people including three couples all carpooling up. It is conveniently located only 30 minutes away from the Stowe resort area. The view from the place was phenomenal as the wood lined cabin was on the top of a hill over the tree line exposing the beautiful horizon. There were three main bedrooms upstairs and one "commoner" room, with four twin beds in the comfortable basement, allowing us to house a small army. If you do the math, one was on the couch.

Since it rained all of Saturday, we made the best of the situation and enjoyed VT's selection of brews, like Otter Creek and Switchback. The latter was particularly tasty.

Sunday, before we made the trek South, we opted to do what we had come to do: hit the slopes. We took the short trip to Stowe and paid the $80 for the lift ticket and the $45 for the board rentals. The lower trails were icy and dangerous. I've got the bruises to prove it. The fun started when we took the gondola up to the top of the mountain where the powder made it easy for even a beginner like myself (it was only my second time ever strapped to a board) to learn more comfortably. It was intimidating, but the soft snow up there made every crash landing bearable. If I did it again, I would have gone straight up there.

Before we left town, we had a bite to eat at Harrison's. The food was well presented, good portion sizes and was good enough to eat. The ambiance was like that of a low lit library, so it made it very relaxing.

We made it back to NYC at 2:30 AM after two of the three cars caught flat tires. We live to work another day.