PHL Dispatch #3: Ski Day at Blue Mountain AND C = 12!

We left off at the Blue Mountain Lodge on Wednesday, where J/C were snowboarding while I hung out with A & G. As it turns out, C ended up preferring skiing (probably because he is already a pretty decent skier and with snowboarding he was basically starting from scratch and falling every couple of minutes).

We drove 30 minutes to the town of Jim Thorpe (extremely cute, and the inspiration for the setting of The Cortlandt Boys!) to stay at the Y on Broadway, which was great — inexpensive, clean, pleasant, roomy. In its past life, it was a YMCA but has been converted into a cute and homey hotel. We got two rooms next to each other and stayed 2 nights. I am typing this from their downstairs breakfast area right now while everyone else is still asleep . . .

ANYWAY! On Wednesday night, Josh and I had a mini-date at the hotel bar, and then we walked over from our hotel to Myst, a sushi/gastropub Josh and Cameron had gone to on a trip years ago. It was great!

Thursday we had a relaxed morning and then headed to Blue Mountain for skiing! I had definitely skied there as a teen/tween though in my mind all of the Pocono mountains are mixed up (Big Boulder / Jack Frost / Blue / Montage / Shawnee / Camelback / etc). (My family did not ski, but I learned through the school ‘ski club’ which took bus trips on various weekends at really low cost. I also tagged along with one of my friend’s family on their day trips up, too.)

Anyway, I wasn’t sure what to expect — Big Sky is so enormous and is the only place our kids have been skiing (4 seasons now). It was definitely a different experience, but the PA snow was decent by Pocono standards (some brown spots, but mostly well-covered) and hey — it was nice to ski in 40 degree weather and not be cold at all!

The terrain was definitely a bit tamer but we still stuck to greens / blues for the most part (C/J did some blacks). Very much unlike Big Sky, we could ski them all in just a few hours, which was kind of satisfying! They were shorter runs too AND no shortness of breath from altitude. So, an entirely different experience. I would do it again! (But still not giving up Big Sky!)

We did lunch at their restaurant at the top of the mountain which was relaxing and uncrowded, and then headed back out for ~2 more hours:

At 5 pm some of us would have been happy to keep going (the mountain is open late with lights on – also different than Big Sky, which shuts down every night at 4 – 5 pm) but certain kids were giving us strong signals of done-ness . . .

It was a really fun day and I would totally come back again!

After driving back to Jim Thorpe everyone was tired, so Josh and I made the executive decision that we would keep dinner super low key — we walked over to the pizza place 3 doors down and took out a pizza and brought it back to the hotel. Everyone watched various TV and then fell asleep hard.

. . . and that brings us to this morning!

C = 12

It’s Cameron’s bday!!!! We will be celebrating in a pretty major way tonight with family but I have to give him official tribute here 🙂

C’s current favorites: basketball, collectibles (Pokemon, coins — anything where he can track the value), video games (Car Dealer Tycoon on Roblox currently . . .), watching almost anything on TV (though currently into The Simpsons, good thing there is an 800-ep backlog to peruse), doing anything that is just a little bit risky. (Somehow, his fracture count is just 1 minor one, lower than either of his siblings!).

He is (by far) our most ‘up for anything’ kid. He’s having a fantastic year academically, after transitioning from a school with no tests or grades to one with all of those things!

AND HE IS 12!!!!!! AHHHHH!!! Happy birthday C!!!!