Ski Trip Babymoon

Snowshoe Mountain, West Virginia

I've never skied in my life but my husband has and is apparently pretty good at it. He never went skiing after he met me over three years ago so my wedding present to him was a ski trip. We originally planned on Colorado or Park City, Utah but since he knocked me up so quickly after the wedding and I wasn't going to be able to learn to ski in my condition, he decided on Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia. We went with Pat and Hannah, Joe's friend from high school and his fiance. They live in Tennessee, about six hours from the mountain, an equal distance to our drive from Cleveland, Ohio to the mountain. Joe and I left on Thursday night and drove until we stopped in Dover, Ohio and found a local Italian restaurant for dinner. It was called Carbonne's. They had an Italian buffet and the dessert area had tapioca pudding. Joe tried tapioca pudding for the first time ever. He scrunched his face up like a five year old does with broccoli though. Come to think of it, he scrunched his face up like when I made him taste broccoli and cheese. He's very picky. We then continued to Marietta where we had made a reservation at a hotel there. We checked into the hotel around 9:30, contemplated going swim and ended up skipping the pool and going to sleep by 10:30. That was a good decision since Joe wanted to get an early start in the morning. We got on the road by 9 and by the time we got to the resort, Pat and Hannah had already arrived and checked into our condo.

My trip started with a spa appointment. Ah, the pre-natal massage. It was wonderful. It was probably the best massage I've ever had. The spa left something to be desired. It was nice and all but it was in the basement of the resort. Someone had attempted to make the basement cinderblocks look fancy by painting a faux marble finish on them but cinder blocks are cinder blocks and there is just something not right about having them in a spa bathroom/locker room.

The weather on Saturday was horrendous. As I said before I am not a skier, and I was not born for cold weather, being born in California and all, but I don't think even skiers born near the North pole would have enjoyed this weather. The day started with freezing rain, high winds and pea soup like fog, We could barely see the trees that were about 20 feet outside our condo's patio door and when we could see them they were being bent in half by the wind. In light of the weather, Joe, Pat and Hannah decided no skiing or snowboarding that day so the four of us had a leisurely breakfast and lounged the whole morning. Joe was leafing through the resort and area pamphlets and decided we should go see a satellite dish. (Yes, you read that right.) Near (well an hour near due the pea soup fog) the bottom of Snoeshow Mountain is a government complex called the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. We had just missed the 1 o'clock tour and sadly (woo hoo) the next tour didn't start until 3 pm. There was a small exhibit area that we walked through. Basically, this place is in existence to listen for aliens. And, we pay our government to do this.

Added on September 20, 2011 - I wrote this post back in February or March and never finished or posted it so I am posting it now.