Writing tonight from CT, not Turkey Cir. Ski season is over for us. Time for spring sports, which will tie up weekends through mid-June. We hope to sneak in a few overnights at Turkey Circle now and then in the interim. Then we'll spend quite a bit of time up there in the summer.
Big news from our last weekend of skiing was that Callie is back in action! She got back on the snowboard two months after her broken tibia, and did just fine. So, she's back in the saddle and anxious to have at it again next winter. Right now it's time for her to keep getting stronger for lacrosse and soccer!
See you in the summer!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Middle-School Party
I apologize for my failure to post last weekend. We had a great weekend with not 5 but 8 kids. We had 3 kids' friends in tow, 2 8th-graders and 1 7th-grader. All had a great time. Full day of skiing on Saturday and a few great hours of skiing in a light snowfall Sunday morning before we had to head home.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Valentines Day 2009
As Patty will confirm, Jimmy really knows how to do Valentines Day right!
We skied for a couple of hours in the morning. Conditions were decent. Not too cold. The fresh man-made snow was a bit odd. Some spots a bit sticky, and others somewhat icy. It made for some challenging runs. Cameron only wiped me out once getting off a lift.
After feeding the kids early, we headed to the Cuckoo's nest. We've been meaning to stop in there for two years. Turns out it's a nice place. Not quite the character of the kinds of traditional Pennsylvania taverns I prefer, but very pleasant. The interior was fairly modern, recently renovated, no odd smells.
I think everyone in the bar (but us) knew each other. Shortly after we sat down at the bar, one of the lead locals walked down to the end of the bar and pulled twice on a chord hanging overhead. Pulling the chord blew a whistle that made a coo-coo sound. He did this to indicate that he was buying a round for the bar. Very nice guy. He and another local explained that they'd been partying all day on a local frozen lake. As it turns out, it was our lake, where our beach is. Apparently a bunch of locals gather there every year on the Saturday of President's Day weekend, to ice-fish, snow-mobile, ride four-wheelers, drink beer and the like. The news this year was that the lake was very icy. Yes, the frozen lake was icy. Who would have thought! Turns out what this means is that whereas a frozen lake is often snow-covered and therefore not especially slippery to walk on, this year it's a sheet of ice because there has been no snow since the recent warm weather and rain glazed it over. So slick that our new pal didn't even bring his snowmobile out, just his 4-wheelers.
Also of interest is what the folks needed to do to be able to walk on the slick ice -- they screw machine screws through the bottoms of their shoes!
We didn't talk too much about racing and the '500 after I made two mistakes: mentioned that we're Indy-Car fans and that I was from Indiana and hence something of a Jeff Gordon fan.
We had a nice quesadilla and a couple of drinks and then were on our way. We'll need to take the kids there to play pool and have lunch one of these days.
Next stop: the Summit, the restaurant at our ski lodge. At this point, I was not really hungry, Patty said I looked like I should switch from beer to diet coke. When we sat down, I didn't feel sick, and the Dite Coke tasted ok. But, when Patty suggested that we split a prime-rib-pesto pannini, something went badly wrong with my stomach.
Less than 3 minutes later, I was back from the restroom to report that I had been sick. Happy V-Day, Sweetie!
Anyhow, we went home; I went to bed, and Patty made herself Cup-O-Noodles for her Valentine's Day dinner.
I got plenty of sleep, and have felt fine ever since. Some sort of bug is clearly to blame, as JP strarted throwing up around 11:00. He's not been as lucky as I -- he's been sick about 8 times since.
If he's feeling better this afternoon, we may take the kids to the Cuckoo's Nest today to watch the '500.
We skied for a couple of hours in the morning. Conditions were decent. Not too cold. The fresh man-made snow was a bit odd. Some spots a bit sticky, and others somewhat icy. It made for some challenging runs. Cameron only wiped me out once getting off a lift.
After feeding the kids early, we headed to the Cuckoo's nest. We've been meaning to stop in there for two years. Turns out it's a nice place. Not quite the character of the kinds of traditional Pennsylvania taverns I prefer, but very pleasant. The interior was fairly modern, recently renovated, no odd smells.
I think everyone in the bar (but us) knew each other. Shortly after we sat down at the bar, one of the lead locals walked down to the end of the bar and pulled twice on a chord hanging overhead. Pulling the chord blew a whistle that made a coo-coo sound. He did this to indicate that he was buying a round for the bar. Very nice guy. He and another local explained that they'd been partying all day on a local frozen lake. As it turns out, it was our lake, where our beach is. Apparently a bunch of locals gather there every year on the Saturday of President's Day weekend, to ice-fish, snow-mobile, ride four-wheelers, drink beer and the like. The news this year was that the lake was very icy. Yes, the frozen lake was icy. Who would have thought! Turns out what this means is that whereas a frozen lake is often snow-covered and therefore not especially slippery to walk on, this year it's a sheet of ice because there has been no snow since the recent warm weather and rain glazed it over. So slick that our new pal didn't even bring his snowmobile out, just his 4-wheelers.
Also of interest is what the folks needed to do to be able to walk on the slick ice -- they screw machine screws through the bottoms of their shoes!
We didn't talk too much about racing and the '500 after I made two mistakes: mentioned that we're Indy-Car fans and that I was from Indiana and hence something of a Jeff Gordon fan.
We had a nice quesadilla and a couple of drinks and then were on our way. We'll need to take the kids there to play pool and have lunch one of these days.
Next stop: the Summit, the restaurant at our ski lodge. At this point, I was not really hungry, Patty said I looked like I should switch from beer to diet coke. When we sat down, I didn't feel sick, and the Dite Coke tasted ok. But, when Patty suggested that we split a prime-rib-pesto pannini, something went badly wrong with my stomach.
Less than 3 minutes later, I was back from the restroom to report that I had been sick. Happy V-Day, Sweetie!
Anyhow, we went home; I went to bed, and Patty made herself Cup-O-Noodles for her Valentine's Day dinner.
I got plenty of sleep, and have felt fine ever since. Some sort of bug is clearly to blame, as JP strarted throwing up around 11:00. He's not been as lucky as I -- he's been sick about 8 times since.
If he's feeling better this afternoon, we may take the kids to the Cuckoo's Nest today to watch the '500.
Friday, February 13, 2009
First Post
So we're now blogging from Turkey Circle, our place in Penna. Prompted to post by our experience this evening at a local tavern.
Most of you have probably heard me say that I would like to, before I die, pay a visit to every tavern in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Even if I some day come close to accomplishing that, I'll never find a more classic, authentic, enjoyable venue than the one we visited tonight, Rohman's Inn, in Shohola PA.
From www.explorepahistory.com:
"Rohman's Inn
Once called Shohola Glen Hotel, Rohman's Inn was established in 1849 and rebuilt in 1885. The old tavern is a favorite stopping place for canalers, quarrymen, lumberjacks and railroaders. A second floor four lane bowling alley built in 1941 still requires manual pinsetting."
We didn't meet any lumberjacks, but there's no doubt that the last major renovations to the place were in 1885. It's awesome.
We bowled a couple of games, set our own pins (Patty and the kids did, I kept score), and chatted with some locals. The $14.75 prime rib dinner looked awesome (we may go back for Valentine's Day dinner). We didn't eat there, but had a few rounds of drinks and bowled a couple of games, spent about 2.5 hours, and spent only about $70. Not a bad evening of entertainment. If you're in the Shohola area, you really must check it out.
Apparently, you can hire someone to set your pins. We didn't, but experienced a little local hospitality when an old-timer at the bar grabbed three Shirley Temples off the bar in front of me and carried them up to the bowling lanes for us.
All in all, it was a relatively un-productive day. We didn't ski. The weather was clear and cold. The stars are very bright tonight, so we may have a short astronomy lesson before bed-time.
Most of you have probably heard me say that I would like to, before I die, pay a visit to every tavern in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Even if I some day come close to accomplishing that, I'll never find a more classic, authentic, enjoyable venue than the one we visited tonight, Rohman's Inn, in Shohola PA.
From www.explorepahistory.com:
"Rohman's Inn
Once called Shohola Glen Hotel, Rohman's Inn was established in 1849 and rebuilt in 1885. The old tavern is a favorite stopping place for canalers, quarrymen, lumberjacks and railroaders. A second floor four lane bowling alley built in 1941 still requires manual pinsetting."
We didn't meet any lumberjacks, but there's no doubt that the last major renovations to the place were in 1885. It's awesome.
We bowled a couple of games, set our own pins (Patty and the kids did, I kept score), and chatted with some locals. The $14.75 prime rib dinner looked awesome (we may go back for Valentine's Day dinner). We didn't eat there, but had a few rounds of drinks and bowled a couple of games, spent about 2.5 hours, and spent only about $70. Not a bad evening of entertainment. If you're in the Shohola area, you really must check it out.
Apparently, you can hire someone to set your pins. We didn't, but experienced a little local hospitality when an old-timer at the bar grabbed three Shirley Temples off the bar in front of me and carried them up to the bowling lanes for us.
All in all, it was a relatively un-productive day. We didn't ski. The weather was clear and cold. The stars are very bright tonight, so we may have a short astronomy lesson before bed-time.
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