Mountains, snow, shopping, syrup and no moose

Vermont....what a weekend! I think I drank more water than normal this weekend because my mouth was gaping open the entire time from the breathtaking scenery. I spent the weekend looking for moose and skiing Stratton and Bromley mountains in Southern Vermont. Not so successful with the moose part, but I enjoyed skiing and my legs are certainly letting me know that I'm only getting older each winter! So, a little play-by-play of the weekend:

Day 1 - Friday - 9 hour car ride from DC to Londenderry, VT. Andrew was my traveling companion this weekend - I provided the car to get there and he provided his family's home 10 minutes from the mountains :) Very nice deal - he saw his family/I skied/he snowboarded/I shopped/he shopped/I got to check another state off my travel list/neither one of us had to spend 9 hours in a car alone/and we both had a ton of fun in the process!

Day 2 - Saturday - skied/boarded from 9am until 3pm! Whew! Stratton is a gorgeous ski resort (www.stratton.com) and the mountain incredible! It was crowded but the slopes didn't seem like it at all because there are so many trails and the runs are very wide. The top of the mountain was brutally cold and windy....we skiied some at the top, ate lunch at a mid-mountain lodge, and skied some on the bottom half of the mountain. One of the coolest things at Stratton was the "starting gates" for the chairlifts. Every lift had what looked like horse racing gates where the skiers/boarders would go through the line and when it was your turn to get on the chairlift, you skied into a little pen and just before the chair swung around, the gate opened and each person glided into the path of the chair to sit. If the chairlift was a quad there were 4 gate pens, a 6 person high speed lift had 6 gate pens, etc. It was so cool! After our legs gave out from a long day on the mountain, we went shopping in Manchester at some amazing outlet stores!!! J. Crew, GAP, Burberry, Coach, Ann Taylor, Factory Brand Shoes, Banana Republic, etc....never seen such low prices at these stores!

Day 3 - Sunday - Back out on the slopes but this time at Bromley Mountain (www.bromley.com). Another beautiful mountain for skiing with a much different feel than Stratton. Bromley is the "local" mountain...no fancy village or chairlift starting gates, but nice people and nicely groomed slopes. It was a perfect choice to take it easy and enjoy a leisurely afternoon on the mountain....and again, let our legs rest just a bit! Ha! We shopped in the morning, so by the time we arrived at Bromley, the morning crowd of skiers was thinning and we didn't have to wait in lines much.

Day 4 - Monday - Another exciting day in the car for 9 hours! Oh, but we did manage to stop for some shopping on the way out of town :)

So, it was a great weekend with awesome skiing and fun memories. I was sad that I didn't see a moose, but bringing home real Vermont maple syrup quickly replaced my disappointment!