Frigid Fun in WV

We had a fantastic weekend in the mountains of West Virginia celebrating my great friend Connie's 27th birthday. We played in the snow, got really drunk, played games, went tubing and skiing, and made some new friends on our much needed, relaxing weekend away.

On Friday, Ryan picked me up from work around 3:15 and we had to stop at home because I forgot the coffee grinder. Ryan slipped on the way in to the house (because our landlords see fit to not provide us a proper walkway), and it took a while for him to get cleaned up, but at least only his pride was really hurt (and his suit pants). We were on our way at about 4:30. After trudging along with the traffic heading west on Rt. 66, and a long and treacherous drive through several inches of snow in the mountains, we finally completed our mere 150 mile trek to the roomy 4 bedroom cabin at Canaan Valley, WV at about 8:30. Connie, Jelani, and their friends Jennifer and Chu were already there, anxiously waiting to play in the snow. So, Ryan and I quickly changed clothes and joined their snowball battle with ice pieces, since the snow wasn't so good for packing.

While waiting for Sandi, Shawn, Jenny and Jun, we tried (for a second time as a group) to light the fire but were unsuccessful, unpacked the food and had some snacks. Connie and I went to the main lodge to get more fire starters, extra towels and pillows. The woman was so rude, which we realized throughout the weekend, was the norm for the resort. Sandi and Shawn arrived around 10:00 and we tried again to light the fire, unsuccessfully I'm afraid. Then we began tasting some wine, 14 wines in all (including two ports). They were all pretty good, the Schmitt Sohne Riesling (a huge hit) and Jest Red being my favorites, as usual. Jenny and Jun arrived a little later and had to catch up on the tasting.

We began making a spaghetti and chicken parmesan dinner with salad and rolls...at midnight. Starving and tipsy as we all were, we made 4 lbs. of pasta (enough for about 32 people). Mostly to Jennifer's credit it was a fantastic meal. After dinner, we played Taboo (girls vs. guys - girls kicked butt) and Scattergories (couples) until we were all falling asleep, sometime after 3:00am. I have to say it was one of the funniest nights of playing games I've ever been involved in....that was, until Saturday night, which was even more hilarious!

Saturday, I woke up around 10:00 and Jenny, Jun, Ryan and Connie were already in the process of cooking a huge, delicious breakfast of eggs, pancake-muffins (the batter stuck to the pans, so Ryan invented the muffin form), sausage, and the best bacon we've ever had (Schwann's Pepper Bacon). Shortly after breakfast I went back to bed for a hangover nap, so I'm not positive what everyone else did, but I think mostly everyone took a nap and Ryan and Shawn headed to the lodge to check it out. By 2:00, everyone was awake and getting ready for our tubing experience. We headed out at 3:15 to purchase tickets and had an hour to waste, so we went to the gift shop and then to the pub for a drink, because that always makes tubing more fun!

We mostly raced each other, first by couples (Ryan beat me 3-2 in our best out of five....which I was sure I could win) and then men vs. ladies...it was a blast. The highlight was Jelani, winning each race, no matter which lane he chose, every time...smashing into the barrier that was meant to be a 'just-in-case' stopper for everyone else, and bouncing several feet back into the lanes (once on top of Ryan). I can't imagine how fast he must have been going or how much energy he had to exert to get that much speed and power. It was a sight to see! Most of us had winter clothing galore, but it was absolutely freezing, and the snow was blowing so hard we couldn't even see anything coming down the hill, toward the end of the session. It was awesome...we were the only people left on the track by the time our session ended at 6:30.

Saturday night, I took the lead in cooking the chicken and nachos for the fajitas, Ryan scrubbed the pans so I could use them and cleaned up so there wasn't much left to do after dinner, Shawn and Jennifer cut the veggies and Jennifer made guacamole from scratch, while Connie and Sandi supervised (just kidding, they helped too). All in all it was a team effort and we had it all put together in about 20 minutes. The food and company were great...and we prepared for another night of drinking and games.

This time, Connie made them drinking games and it turned into an interesting evening to say the least. We started with Taboo, each team drinking when they said a Taboo word or passed on a card. This time around, we picked teams at random. Jelani, Sandi, Jenny, Shawn and I were winning, but Jennifer and I decided it was time to surprise Connie with her birthday cake. We didn't mean to, but the interruption ended Taboo, so there was no real winner. Shawn and Sandi insisted on a game called Kings, which now may be one of my favorite games ever for a larger group! The concept is too long to explain, but it truly is a very fun game! I went a little camera happy (they say I drunk-photograph instead of drunk dial) so you'll have to check them out on shutterfly. The evening ended with Jenny, Ryan, Chu, Jennifer and I making a snowman. Shawn was more or less....funny as can be, and Ryan was close behind, but passed out cold on the couch before too much fun could be made of him.

Sunday was an early morning for most everyone but Jelani, who we didn't see before leaving...he took advantage of his vacation and slept in. Sandi, Shawn, Jenny, Jun, Jennifer and Chu all headed out very early for their drive back to Northern Virginia and Maryland, and I didn't even see them to say good-bye. Ryan got up shortly after they left and cleaned the cabin a bit. Connie and I were up around 10:30. The three of us had breakfast and Ryan and I headed for the slopes around noon. That's when the fun ended for me.

Ryan is a dare devil at heart, and a pretty good skier too I must add. I, on the other hand, am a big chicken. I've been skiing before, several times. But I'm really scared of heights, and even more scared of hills (you know, like on roller coasters). Every place I've been skiing, I have found less steep hills (not the bunny slopes) and fairly small ski lifts (in comparison to what I encountered yesterday)...basically, I've been nervous, but not scared when skiing in the past. At Canaan Valley, they have two green circle courses and I opted for the larger, because the other was called sissy-hill or something like that. On the way to the top, I realized I was in over my head...but I've felt nervous like that before when I was nearing the top of the mountain. We found the correct path and I was definitely nervous, not having skied in the past 5 years, but it was a nice, gently sloping trail. About a quarter of the way down the hill, I noticed how steep the hills were getting. I was getting increasingly nervous, but it wasn't until about half way down that it started to get very icy. So I started to get pretty scared...then I worked myself up so much that I started to cry. About three-quarters of the way down the hill, I'd fallen (and couldn't get up), my legs were starting to hurt from snowplowing so much and had myself so upset that I was convinced I couldn't do it at all. I was then sobbing and started to side step my way down the hill...all the while Ryan was so encouraging and tried hard not to laugh at me. To make this long story short, I finally got to the end, so upset and hurting that I'd given myself a headache. I couldn't bare to try any other hills. So, Ryan went alone a few times and we left. I felt terrible that I was so excited and then when it came down to it, I couldn't do it. He did agree that those were way steeper hills than any green circle hills he'd encountered before, but I think he was just being nice. He flat out said he didn't have much fun by himself, and I knew it was my fault. As we drove home, I felt pretty down on myself for being such a baby and I still kind of feel foolish. But it was light most of the way home so we got to see all the mountains and snow. It really was beautiful. We stopped for dinner on the way home. Shortly after, I curled up under four blankets and fell asleep by 7:30.

We're both exhausted and sore from yesterday. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend! We had so much fun, that we want to make it a yearly tradition to take a weekend each winter and go somewhere new. Any suggestions? (They must have smaller green circle hills!)

Thanks Connie, for organizing such a great trip! We hope you had a great weekend. Thanks to everyone else for contributing, time, money, food and for helping to make it such an enjoyable weekend for all! Can't wait to do it again!

Here's a link to ALL the pictures...they are absolutely hilarious! share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8BZM2zlq3csLk