Shreddin' for Realz

 Because both the boys and I had Inauguration Day as a holiday, and with the hope that folks would not travel mid-week, Maceo and Cassius and I drove off to far western Maryland to try some winter sports. We left Tuesday afternoon to break the drive up and have a fun night at a B and B. It was a picturesque old stone cottage on a working farm, and the boys had fun in the afternoon exploring, trying to get the cows to come see them, and nearly falling in the brook that ran past the building.

You might think it's not cold, but that's just
Cassius refusing to wear a coat.

Luckily, the boys are early risers, so we were up at 6:10, and at 6:30, we jumped in the car and drove off to Wisp Resort in Western Maryland. There was a 75% chance of snow, according to the weather report, and boy, did we hit it! There were whiteouts as we drove, I did some skidding around to excite the boys, and we went more slowly than the travel app had predicted, but we were on pace to arrive at 9:30, giving us enough time to make the 10 o'clock lesson from a professional snowboarder/instructor! However, 9 minutes from the resort, we ground to a halt. It was difficult to see what had happened in front of us, but it seemed like a truck had slid and blocked the entire road. We backtracked and got to the resort about 20 minutes later, but that meant we had missed the first lesson. 

We got our lift tickets (which nowadays are basically keycards like at a hotel!), got our rental equipment, and made our way to the bunny slope. The boys had all of one run under their belt when it was time for their lesson! So exciting! I dropped them off with Steve, a crotchety old man from Missouri, and I went off for a few runs on my own. I made it back after about an hour and a half to get the boys and have lunch.

They were chattery and excited and didn't really want lunch. I asked them if they liked their teacher. "Yes!" said Cassius. "I do, but he's pretty stern," said Maceo. "What's his name?" I asked Maceo. "I have no idea," he answered. I forced pb and j sandwiches on them with some hot chocolate and pieces of cheese pizza and then, bam! They were back out on the slopes. In the afternoon, the snowstorm stopped and the sun came out. The boys grew confident enough to insist we try some "real slopes", so we headed over to the chair lift. They managed the getting on and off pretty well (I had to life Cassius on and carry him off and Maceo fell on dismounting), but then we were on the grown up slopes! The only trails down where we were were blue squares, though! And those are (dum dum DUM!) Intermediate! I didn't tell the boys until later what they were going down, and though they both had moments of anger and frustration, by the time we were on the last third of the descent, Maceo was cruising along ahead of us, and Cassius was consistently looking for "jumps" and places where he could "drop in." (He's got all the lingo.)

Now, Maceo has told me three times, "Next time, I want to try skiing" and Cassius has insisted we invite friends to come next time we go.