Ski Liberty

Despite being up late last night for our Burns Supper, we arose early to hit the slopes at Ski Liberty in Pennsylvania with Jim and Lisa. Ski Liberty is pretty convenient, just one hour north on Highway 15. And though everything was brown as can be when we drove up there, we were surprised to find the mountain covered in snow! (Thank
God for modern technology!)

We immediately placed ourselves into lessons: Eddie and I taking the skiing lessons, and Luke and Becky doing the much more challenging snow boarding lessons. Our instructor, Susan, spent almost two full hours with us, really making sure we knew what we were doing before cutting us loose. I was glad to have the lesson, even though I have skied back when I was Eddie's age.

Eddie seemed to take to the skiing right away. He was very coordinated, and seemed very natural on the slopes. This was nice to see, since Eddie is not always interested in sports. But he really enjoyed the skiing!

We only caught glimpses of Becky and Luke throughout the day. For the most part, Luke seemed to be enjoying himself, while Becky spent most of the time on her very sore backside.

After our lessons were through, we took lunch at McKee's Tavern, giving our feet a much needed rest, and enjoying hot clam chowder and sandwiches.

Then, after lunch, it was back up the slopes for a few more runs before coming home. At this point, Luke was chirping away, "Maybe we should do four more runs. Two on the left side, and two on the right."

I said, "We'll see how you do."

So the four of us set off together. Immediately, both boys raced down the mountain, while Becky was struggling to move. Again, I'll reiterate, she was doing the more challenging snow boarding, so I give her 100% credit for even trying that madness. I mean, everybody, EVERYBODY who did snowboarding went down that mountain on their asses. And coming off the chairlift, the people on the skis gently skidded to a nice halt, while the snowboarders somersaulted ass over heals until they came to a rest. So, yes, it was harder.

Like the brave and wounded soldier, Becky waved us on, telling us to go on without her.

So the three of us boys reached the bottom together and figured we had time for another run while waiting for Becky. Up the chairlift we went. As we went up, we passed over Becky. We hollered and waved our hellos to her, but she shook us off, obviously concentrating on her technique. She had removed her back foot from the snow board, and was using it as a brake to keep her speed down. This seemed to work pretty well for her, as she was able to stay up for the entire time we passed overhead.

As we reached the top of the slope again and started down, fatigue set in. We had been on the slopes for something like six hours, and Luke was spent. Finito. No mas. It was like flipping a light switch. He kept falling over, and his bindings weren't tight enough, and he was generally miserable. So we were done.

And, tired as we all were, both boys agreed it was a super fun day. We'll definitely be doing this again in the future.

(PS - I apologize for not getting any photos of Luke. My camera battery died halfway through the day.)