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**IF YOU ENTERED MY VALENTINE'S DAY POPCHIPS GIVEAWAY, CHECK YOUR EMAIL! I JUST CONTACTED THE WINNER!**
If you're sick of me talking about skiing and travel, you might want to take a break from my blog and come back in a week or two. Just kidding. Don't leave. I would miss you too much.
On Friday, we headed up north to Boyne Mountain for a ski weekend. My husband finished work a little early, and I was able to work from the car, so we left in the afternoon for what should have been a zippy 3-hour drive up the coast. It ended up being a 5-hour terror-filled drive with icy conditions and whiteouts.
We survived. :)
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| Driving conditions? Not impressed |
Once we were finally settled at the resort around 8 or 9, we headed out to a restaurant that is on the resort grounds, called Pierson's. It was PACKED, so we waited about an hour for the table we got, but I was poured a mighty stiff Old Fashioned, so I forgive them.
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| Cheers, strangers! |
Saturday morning, we were up bright and early (meaning my husband managed to shake me awake after an Old Fashioned-induced slumber). We had gotten over a foot of snow overnight, so my Mr. G was adamant that we experience the fresh early morning powder.
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| Yes, we are obsessed with our dog. |
We got dressed in our slope-ready garb, said goodbye to the pup, and headed out. We are blessed to stay in my in-laws' condo, which is ski-in, ski-out, so it is pretty easy to get onto the slopes without wasting too much time.
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| View from the bedroom we stay in |
We took a few runs before our friends showed up to ski/board with us. While we waited for them to get their gear, we headed inside the lodge for some coffee. In our haste to get out the door, we failed to imbibe in the obligatory pre-slopes warming ritual. Tisk tisk.
The rest of the day consisted of skiing, skiing, and more skiing, and then a late lunch and a few drinks at one of the restaurants on the resort grounds.
...followed by my now rituatlistic post-ski hot soak. I have now had two baths in the past year, and this is a lot for me! I am going to call this a success.
Post-soak, I got ready to go to dinner with my in-laws. They had reservations at Twisted Olive in Petoskey.
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| We will have one of everything, please. |
This place is so supremely cute, I just couldn't get enough. They set out a bunch of pastry-like desserts on the fireplace mantle, and had me salivating from the moment I walked in the door.
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| Hey, you're not an Old Fashioned! |
I started with a delicious, islandy cocktail and then moved on to a charcuterie plate before the main course...
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| Chanting *Don't think about Bambi* *Don't think about Bambi* |
...venison. I have not had venison in a while, so I don't have much to compare this to, but it was amazing. Very tender, kind of like a well-executed pot roast. I forced myself to eat it slowly, because it was just that good.
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| Pretty sure my husband wishes he married this instead of me ;-) |
One more thing: chocolate cake. When the server mentioned that it was "lava cake"-like, we were all over it. This is pretty much my husband's favorite edible thing on earth besides bacon, so we had to have it.
After dinner, we hit up The Snowflake Lounge for one more drink before hitting the hay.
Sunday morning, I somehow managed to sleep all the way until 9am. This is very rare for me nowadays, but apparently I needed it after a day of skiing and 4 drinks. I had planned to hit up the spa for a workout and some sauna time before heading out of town, but by the time I ate breakfast and woke up from my hibernation, it seemed like a waste of a spa day, so we hit the road in stead.
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| Goodbye spa, hello gas station. |
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
- Do you ski? Snowboard? Have you tried both? I've mostly skid but snowboarded once. I definitely am more comfortable on skis, but want to push myself to learn better snowboarding form.
- Have any rituals for after a physically exhausting day? I love a glass of wine and pajamas, but when I am having a ski holiday, I am all about the baths!
