My apologies for the late post....
For New Year's weekend we went to the Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. We booked this trip very last minute (earlier that week); therefore, there was no availability to stay Friday night for New Year's Eve. But that was fine. We decided to drive up Saturday morning and then leave Monday night.
Because we were leaving earlier on New Year's Day, our plans for New Year's Eve were pretty low key. We went to watch the fireworks in Boston, which were phenomenal. To avoid the crowds, we decided to watch from East Boston, which is across the harbor from downtown. It turned out to be a great place to watch and there were only a handful of people around, so we could easily set up our tripod and take some pics.
Anyway, back to our trip...
I always love the drive to New Hampshire. The view is so beautiful and there is actually some distance between cities, which is a nice change. We arrived at the hotel on Saturday afternoon. The hotel was built in 1900 and is one of the last Grand Hotels in NH. This hotel is so beautiful and the customer service was fantastic. The staff really went above and beyond. We felt pampered all weekend: from the valet parking and bellboy service, to the fresh juice and tea brought to our room each morning. Our room was very nice and larger than I was expecting. We also had a fantastic view of Mount Washington.
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| Hotel from the back |
After we settled in, we wanted to explore the hotel. The lobby sort of resembles that from the Shinning....but don't get your hopes up, it's not where the movie was filmed. The hotel is apparently haunted though, and it was featured on Ghost Haunters, which is pretty cool. However, we didn't experience any hauntings.
Next we went for a late lunch of pub style food at Stickneys in the hotel. The hotel was extremely busy, and the restaurant was packed, so we ended up eating at the bar. It was actually great. The bartender gave us impeccable service (he kept topping up my wine). Our meal was delicious too! We ordered some clam chowder, mozza sticks, and some seafood sliders. mmm delish! Lunch was followed by more exploring...
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| Hotel from the front |
Later that evening we watched the Winter Classic from The Cave, which is the hotel bar. It is a cellar type looking place. It was also somewhat colder in The Cave, which was nice because the rest of the hotel was quite tropical.
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| Watching the game at The Cave |
Sunday morning, we had room service for breakfast and then took the hotel shuttle to the ski resort. I must say this whole resort is pretty incredible. There are several hotels, as well as snow shoeing, skating, sleigh rides, cross country skiing, dog sledding, and of course skiing.
Anyway, the skiing area was very close to the hotel, so it was a quick hop on the shuttle and we were there. It actually rained a bit in the morning, which didn't turn into snow on the mountain. The rain made for very sticky snow, and if you've ever been on a snowboard, you know sticky isn't fun. The area had been dumped on a week earlier, so although there wasn't powder, the snow was still fairly soft and the coverage was pretty good.
After our day of boarding we headed back to the hotel. The previous night, we attempted to watch the Winter Classic on the tv in our room, but it was very fuzzy. We called up maintenance and they couldn't fix it. So what does that mean you ask????
....It means upgrade to a corner suite!!! So when we returned from boarding, they moved us into this new suite. It was amazing!! Comfy king bed, a fireplace, and lots of room. We loved our room so much that we decided to order up room service and eat dinner in our room, in our plush robes.
Later than night we went down to the lobby, which was much more quiet than the night before. There was a singer and pianist in the conservatory. We sat and listened near the large fireplace, while playing scrabble. We also wondered around the hotel and took some pictures, which I love to do in a place with so much character.
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| Gingerbread town |
Monday morning we left for our second day of alpine exercise. Only this time we decide to ski! Pat and I have been talking about learning to ski for a while now. We figured it would be a great time, since the resort was dead....meaning less people to collide with.
After we rented our skis I was a little apprehensive. I put them on at the base and felt completely out of my element. It was to be expected I guess, but not really welcomed. I wanted to be an expert already. We had to maneuver ourselves slightly uphill to get to the "learners" chairlift. We should have really just taken of our skis and walked, but it didn't seem that hard.
Let me tell you, it was quite a sight! I felt pretty stupid...decked out in my boarding gear, but could barely ski a few feet. My legs were as far apart as they could get, while trying to dig my edges into the snow, so I could make my way up this tiny hill. I'm sure the chairlift operator has seen it all, but I'm sure he still found it amusing. We finally made it onto (and off of) the mini chairlift, without any accidents.
Our first trip down the "learners hill" was not exactly pretty. I knew what I needed to do, I've seen countless skiers make parallel turns, and I wanted to do the same. I am stubborn and had already made up my mind that snow plowing didn't cut it! So I was SLOWLY making my turns, but every turn my back foot wanted to stay behind and not meet up with my front foot. But after a few more times down, we started to get the hang of it and both felt more comfortable. So we decided to take the next big step and take the regular chairlift up to do some runs.
The first part of our first run down started out a little shaky! We were moving at a snails pace....especially me. But then all of a sudden, about half way down, we both turned into superstar skiers. Well that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it was like night and day. We were both making parallel turns and were moving at a decent speed. It was like someone flipped a switch. I was pretty impressed with our new found skills! The rest of the day was pretty fun, even though it was a little icy. We really enjoyed skiing and will definitely do it again.
And here's proof:
A return to the Mount Washington Resort will definitely be in our future. Maybe next time we'll take a trip during the summer to take advantage of that wrap around veranda!
