Team Kane Street takes it to the mountain

February 11, 2007 by karen

Alex and I headed up north last Wednesday for a few days on snow. We had planned on taking a trip somewhere when Dennis so generously offered to let us stay at his house at Mount Snow. We ended up picking last week to go, which coincidentally happened to fall during the same week as the Google ski trip. Spouses are not invited to go on the ski trip, but since we weren’t staying on Google’s dime, we figured it would be cool if I came along for the Thursday snow trip.

On Wednesday afternoon we embarked on what should be a four hour trip to Vermont. We made a few stops, but were racing the clock in order to get to the house by 8 p.m. for Friday Night Lights.

We arrived just in time to cook up some dinner and settle in on the couch by 8:03. Around midnight, Dennis came knocking on the window begging to be let into his own house.

Thursday we kicked off the morning with a couple of eggs in baskets and then found our way to Stratton, 25 minutes from Mount Snow. Alex and Dennis picked up their employee goods, I geared up for the 8 degree weather and then we headed up the mountain for my very first gondola ride ever, which was a godsend on this very snowy day. I have learned that lifts are for cold losers.

We had a great first day on snow. It was pretty snowy, so the visibility was poor, and quite cold, but Stratton kept the snow guns going all day so the snow was soft and the trails were clear of people. I met a few of Alex’s cowokers along the way, all easy to identify in their Google scarves, and all very nice. I noticed the non-Google guests liked to tell the Google guests that they “use Google every day. It’s my favorite search!” Ha.

By the end of day one, we were pooped from our first day on snow and headed back to West Dover for showers and food. We had dinner at the Dover Inn, an old farm house restaurant with delicious food.

They had a (free!) raffle for lift tickets at Mount Snow. When they called the winning number: 006! I was just one number off at 060—I was almost tempted to make sure they weren’t inverting their numbers.

Friday led us back for another great day of skiing at Stratton. We spent most of the day with Dennis, and had lunch in the Stratton Grizzly Lodge, where they served up great bloody mary’s and a couple of pounds of nacho heaven.

The afternoon turned out to be crazy windy up on the mountain and they closed down the gondola, which led us to spending the remainder of the afternoon on the lift and then weaving down the mountain through the gates that were left up earlier in the day for a race - pretending we were running a Super G. It turned out to be super fun until Michelle and I found ourselves on a closed, rocky trail. Oops.

Before we left, we took a stroll through the Stratton Village, sort of like a mini Olympic village, and then headed back to the Mount Snow where we ordered pizza and passed out on the couch waiting for Dennis’ friends to arrive.

By Saturday morning Alex’s knees were making a weird squeeking noise so we decided to head home a day early to give his knees a rest from skiing, but not before grabbing a Team Kane Street photo from the porch.

As we left town we made a quick stop at the Country Deli for the best pulled pork sandwich I have ever consumed.

As we made our way down 91, I decided a good pit stop would be Trinity College, Alex’s alma mater. We used the facilities, checked out campus a bit and even grabbed coffees at the coffee house Alex used to manage in college!

Overall it was a great couple of days north, so much so, we invited ourselves back to Mount Snow for another trip in March :) We’ll see you soon enough, pork sandwich!

For more photos, check out my flickr set or Alex’s.

Tags: alex, dennis c., karen

Posted in Friends, Travel