Winter Wonderland, just six hours away

Back in November, my daughter got the big part of the wishbone after Thanksgiving. She was excited about her wish coming true, and would not let us know what she wished for, fearing that would ruin the wish. In the car yesterday, on the way home from North Carolina’s High Country, she excitedly announced that her wish did come true. Her wish was to see snow this year, and while it did not snow at our house, the trip to Boone and Sugar Mountain ski resort was more than enough to quench her thirst for snow, and make her wish come true.

After the warm weather we have had in the eastern Carolinas for the past few weeks, it was hard to believe that such good, wintry conditions are so close. The drive to Boone was a pleasant 6 hours. We arrived at night, and woke my daughters when we arrived at the hotel. They were amazed at the icy parking lot and the snow on the ground, plus the chilly mountain air. Five inches of fresh snow had just fallen the night before, and all I could think of were the perfect ski conditions that were waiting for us.

This was a very important trip for my family. My wife and I had been avid skiers before we had kids. It has been years since we have been skiing, and we really wanted our girls to love skiing as much as we do, so we can make ski trips part of our annual vacation plans. Well, it worked! We arrived at Sugar Mountain nice and early and quickly got rental skis. Since my daughters have never been on skis, and have rarely seen snow, they went straight to ski school. This gave my wife and I a chance to go to the top of the mountain and get in some harder runs without the kids. The ski conditions were perfect, nice soft snow, and it was not too cold…. Temperatures ended up in the 40s. We spent the rest of the day skiing with the kids, and eventually took them off the bunny slopes, and up the ski lift. They LOVED every aspect of the ski experience!

That night, after dinner in Boone, and a dip in the hotel pool it rained pretty hard. That washed away most of the snow in Boone, but there was still plenty on Sugar Mountain. We went back in the morning to try out their tubing runs. The rain the night before and the cold weather that moved in that morning created the fastest conditions possible on the tubing hill! We had a great time, and warmed up with some hot chocolate before starting the drive back to South Carolina.

This trip was a test to see if my daughters would enjoy skiing. They loved it, and can’t wait to go back… plus now they know that breaking the wishbone really does work.

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