Winter Vacation 2009

For the first time, I believe, since we are married, and definitely, since Faith was born, my family and I decided to take a winter vacation. We headed north, at first to Lake George to spend some time at Christine's brother's house. We did some sledding there, which was a lot of fun. We also skied on West Mountain. Not the biggest of mountains in NY, to be sure, but I had not skied since 1987 and Faith had never been on skis in her life, so it was just about right for us.

At first, Faith did quite well on skis, but a scary trip down the highest part of the bunny hill, ending in a fairly spectacular wipe-out, did her in. She couldn't quite get the hang of controlling her speed with the "pizza" (when I learned, it was called the "wedge"). I think she might try it again with some coaxing. Hopefully next year.

As for me, it was just like riding a bicycle. Not that I was ever an expert at it, but the basics came back to me quickly. After about 5-6 runs on the bunny hill, I headed off to the rest of the mountain for some fun with my niece, Jessica, who, as it turns out, is far and away the best skier I have ever skied with. We did quite a few runs down the more challenging parts of the mountain and I only fell 3 times, one of which was in the last 50 yards of our last run of the night. Overall, I think I did well and I KNOW I had a lot of fun. Sorry...no pictures on skis - I had the digital camera in my own pocket. :(

It was then off further north to Lake Placid. What a beautiful area. We saw all the "Olympic" stuff: the torch, the ski jumps, the outdoor skating oval, the hockey area(s), the bob sled track and Whiteface mountain.

Christine even went on a gondola ride to the top of Whiteface (well, the smaller peak), which, if you know Christine, you would respect what kind of feat that is for her! Faith loved skating on the oval, and so did I. We rode a dogsled around the frozen Mirror Lake and tobogganed down a chute onto the lake as well.

We really had a great time.

As for eating, I have to say that I surprised myself. I was able to make some great choices while still enjoying myself. I ate at the breakfast buffet 3 times, one of which allowing myself to use my 35 weekly points. I ate at McDonalds as well as Quiznos and did not have to "go over" on any day. And according to my unofficial scale at home, I lost almost 3 pounds while on vacation! I am quite proud of that.