I am going to attempt to finish this blog post today from earlier in the month where i met up with my best friend and her family for a family ski vacation in the mountains of the Appalachia’s. My nieces are in a coop and they were able to get a group rate for the kids to take ski lessons if they went as a group. The bestie decided to turn it into a family trip and found a good price on a hotel over looking the ski hill and then made sure that there would be room for me if I was able to get the time off from work. Thankfully I did have the time off still and was able to fly out right after getting back from Japan.
I flew out a couple days before the drive. Kelsey was able to get everyone packed, house cleaned and sanitized down ( the kids had been sick- which seems to happen anytime their is a vacation), groceries and meals prepped so that way we wouldn’t have to worry about eating out for every meal and to not have to stop on the drive for snacks and food. The hotel Kelsey found had a kitchenette so we brought a crockpot for chili and for a roast. We made sandwiches for lunches on the hill.
We left Sunday afternoon with the drive total being about 6 hours and a little more with us stopping once for gas and then stopping for pizza outside of Winston-Salam. We finally arrived at the hotel somewhere around 20:00. We got settled in and then went to bed to make sure we would be ready in the morning for a full day of skiing.
Moon-bug was to take her group snowboard lesson with Willow doing her lesson with mom and dad on her ski’s. It did not work out that way. The girls passed out and laid on picnic tables out in the sun all morning with Kelsey watching while Marcus and I went and took our turns on the hill. After lunch Kelsey packed up the girls to take them back to the hotel room to rest and to get them to eat and drink more.
Moon-bug was sad that she didn’t take her lesson and Willow was trying to figure out how to keep herself inside the next day rather than learning to ski. The youngest one was asking for a snowboard like her dad and big sister.
I did some more laps with Marcus and then called it for the day at the top of the hill for a beer before we went back down the hill for the night and before heading back to the hotel.
Tuesday was up in the air- depending on how the girls were on whether or not we would stay the full day or leave half way. The girls ended up perking up. Moon-bug took her group lesson and then did some runs on the learning hill with her dad. Learning how to get on and off the lift and learning her edges. Willow was still a bit more of a struggle to get out there and to learn. I think with her it may take another season to persuade her that it is in fact fun and enjoyable. She needs to be persuaded more of it warrants. The toddler was asking why she didn’t have a snowboard and was wanting to hit the slopes herself. She’ll be learning next year. Kelsey and Marcus didn’t realize it but the resort at Beech didn’t have rentals for 3 year olds. She did find out that there was a rental place close by that did do rentals for 18 months and older. So next year I’ll most likely have more on where to rent ski gear for toddlers.
While the family was learning and teaching I went and took my turns and re-adjusting myself back to skiing once again. The day before i had skied till all of my leg muscles screamed out at me. So Tuesday for me was more of a slow ski day. I enjoyed the sunshine, the beers on deck and the runs i took. After so many years of not skiing pushing myself to the brink just isn’t it anymore. Eventually we called it and then the girls got to go take their turns on the tubing hill. After we headed to Boone where we finished off the day with pizza before driving to Raleigh where we stopped half-way for a night at a hotel.
Tickets for a full 8 hour day is $50 for adult tickets
Rentals for ski’s start out at $45 for adults
Helmets-$15
All together the mountain resort has 8 Lifts
With 17 Runs total
Elevation -5,506 ft
For a resort out east and in the Appalachian mountains this is a great place to learn to ski or snowboard. Take a family weekend, girls trip or guys trip. Boone has a local campus so we saw plenty of college students up skiing and working at the resort. I would go again and I believe we are already planning on going again next year.
The weather was way warmer and more in that spring skiing temps. We were all roasting by the afternoon, and the hill got pretty slushy and icy. I only fell a couple times and might have had trouble the second day getting off the ski lift. I suppose i was trying to show off for a guy who was not my brother who was on the chair up with me. I got humbled real quick and then cooled my ego off with a beer in the Yurt bar at the top of the hill.
Well that’s all i got folks.
With love,
Jess
JessicaRaye 