Was that a blue square or a black diamond?

Happy Valen-resident's Day weekend! (See what I did there?)

Back in January, we decided we wanted to go on a trip. Why not? We like to travel, hadn't been anywhere in a while and needed a change of pace for a weekend. There were two, three day weekends coming up so we jumped on President's Day weekend and ran with it. Scott started looking into cheap flights and found a ridiculously cheap flight somewhere within the continental United States and asked me if I wanted to be involved in the planning or let it be a secret. Hmm, let me think, school, work, PT volunteer hours, early mornings, late nights...? I'll let you plan it! So he did and kept the whole thing a secret from me and I was thrilled! (Side note: Scott also kept our Honeymoon a secret from me until the night before we boarded the plane to Mexico so I knew he could do it and I'd love it no matter where we went. Also, Scott is a fantastic trip planner!)

So for the entire rest of January and half of February I didn't ask questions about the trip or look at the bank account since he'd been booking flights, rental car and hotel. The week before we left he told me we'd be going some place cold and if I could to bring my snowboard. I went right out and bought a snowboard travel bag, something I'd been thinking about for a while so it was good timing anyway. I packed up my bag with cold weather gear for walking, snowboarding and other snowy activities and off we went!

Once we got to the airport, I said, "Ok! I have a guess!"
"Where?" he mused.
"Vermont!" I exclaimed with glee.
Pause. "Ultimately, yes we are going to Vermont. Right now our flight is to Hartford, CT where we'll get the rental car and drive to Vermont."

I guessed Vermont because Scott's family got wind of the trip and started guessing locations for me and Utah was on the list and that was a no and I learned that this local would be getting snow this weekend and I knew New England was set to get snow (hey-oh Boston!) so I took a stab at a cheap flight destination up north that would be worth a skiing trip. Since we've only skied/boarded in Utah we are kind of snobs about where we go for that sort of thing.

We arrived at the Hartford airport around 9pm, got the rental car and drove 2 hours and 20 minutes to Manchester, VT. In the morning we drove up to Stratton Ski Resort and hit the slopes in -9 degree weather. Not only was it our first East Coast skiing experience but it was definitely the coldest. At the summit the temperatures were hitting -30 with the wind chill. Pretty brutal. But the snow was perfect! They had received a lot of snow recently and a local we sat with on one of the lifts said it was the best ski conditions he's seen in 10 years. So we got really lucky. Not only that but the resort was pretty quiet so we had pretty much all the runs to ourselves.

Now, the difference between East and West coast skiing is pretty noticeable. One thing I expected was the actual ski runs themselves. I knew there would be some black diamonds that, to my West coast skills, would be laughable. I was somewhat correct. There were black diamonds that felt like they should be blue squares and we hit a few double blacks that felt like single black diamonds but they were significantly short so not worry-some. Another expectation was the vertical drop of the mountain. We were both pleasantly surprised with the 2,000 foot drop and the vast variety of runs that it was a plus. Sundance (our main Utah resort) has a vertical drop of 2,150 feet so it's comparable which is ultimately why Scott chose it in the end. The one thing I didn't anticipate were the greater numbers of skiers to snowboarders. That never crossed my mind. At the rental shop we didn't even see any boards! And the rental guy asked me in a classic New England accent, "What are you gonna do? Watch him?" "No I have my board in the car." "Ach! Boarders!" It was great. It seemed like it was 80% skiers and 20% boarders. In Utah, just to give you an idea, its closer to 50-50 or maybe 60-40 boarders to skiers. So a little bit of a shock for me.

BUT! It was an incredibly fun time! After the resort closed at 4 we made our way to returning rental gear and into the village for some food. We found a pizza place and after what seemed like forever devoured our pizza. Back at the hotel, a quaint Econo Lodge, we relaxed and watched TV which is exactly the amount of energy we had left. We'd also discovered some made in Vermont ice cream at a local grocery store and happily ate the whole pint.

These wooden bears were all over the resort

Saturday morning we made our way back to the resort this time for something a little bit different. While all the crowds were going to the slopes, we made our way to the Nordic Center for snowshoeing, a first for both of us and it defintely lived up to the hype! We scheduled a tour but when the other two people didn't show up, we headed out with the tour guide. It was snowing softly and it made it so picturesque and quiet. We went through some deep snow and worked up a sweat quickly. After about an hour and a half, we made it back to the Nordic Center and turned in our snowshoes.

For lunch we headed back to the Village and ate at fantastic deli that served Philly cheese stake sandwiches. One came with mac and cheese and if anyone knows about my obsession with mac and cheese knows that I didn't look twice at the other ingredients before I ordered it. And it was incredible! It got better with every bite which is rare for some meals.

With lunch finished, we went to the snow tubing area for some sledding. We paid for tubes for one hour of use and got about 1.5 hours of fun since they didn't check our tickets and we lost track of time.

Scott spinning perfectly to meet the camera

Walking back to the car, we decided to climb up one of the huge piles of snow in the parking lot and have some fun before cleaning up and having our Valentine's dinner.

Yup, totally buried.

Valentine's dinner was spent at a diner. Bob's Diner to be exact. It was right next to our hotel and always had cars in the parking lot which means the locals like it so it must be good. And it was. The mac and cheese was some of the cheesiest I've ever had! When we finished dinner, we drove back to the resort for their fireworks show. They were doing this because of the three day weekend and Valentine's Day. It was our first time seeing fireworks over the snow and it was so cool to see the whole mountain side light up with different colors.

Sunday we drove to New Hampshire for church because Scott had never been to New Hampshire. Well, lds.org had the church time wrong so we missed church, not for a lack of trying so we drove around and found lunch then made our way back down to Hartford by way of The Yankee Candle flagship store in Massachusetts, the Dr. Seuss Memorial Garden in Springfield, CT and the Mark Twain house in Hartford.

A kissing bridge! How cute!

Beautiful snowy landscape in Vermont. I could live here.

At the Yankee Candle Factory store. No I didn't buy it.

Scott meets lego Mark Twain

Early Monday morning we flew out of Hartford and landed in DC. We unpacked, did a little studying and got ready for more snow. Tuesday was a snow day! which turned our 4 day weekend into a 5 day weekend and we made a trip to IKEA to celebrate.

It was a fantastic weekend and we loved every minute of it!