Hitting the Slopes!

Saturday morning, managed to wake up a little before 7am. Got dressed as fast as i could to make the 7:30 bus ride to the mountain. But of course manthan held us up, couldn't find his contact solution. Turned out he left it at my house. Bastard. So we missed the first bus but that gave us more time to pig out eating breakfast. Ended up getting on the 8:30 bus ride. i guess an hour later doesn't hurt.

Last year manthan and i started on the smaller mountain, but not this time. We headed straight to the top of the big one. The trail we took was called Toll House Road...or something like that, it isn't important. An hour and 20 minutes later we made it back to the base lodge. On the way down there is a church, no pastor for it though...just whoever happens to be a pastor on the mountain leads the service that Sunday.
Improved our time by 25 minutes from last year. i believe we did another run before hoping on the gondola to the smaller mountain to meet the girls at 11.

It was snowed all day, pretty much the best conditions ever to snowboard...but manthan and i spent 2 hours trying to meet up with these people. One of the girls has skied all her life and decided to snowboard for the first time...this should be good. She should have taken some lessons, but for some reason manthan and myself thought we would be instructors for her. Soon found out we don't have any idea what we're talking about. We decided to take baby steps and hop on the Magic Carpet. A conveyor belt that takes you up about 100 ft up the lamest slope ever. Some how manthan and i missed the Magic Carpet last year, even though we walked by it several times.
Manthan and i decided to graduate the two girls to a real trail and hopped on the lift. Normally it would take a decent snowboarder 2 minutes to go down this thing, but with these two girls it took about 40 minutes. Didn't take long for the one girl Jen to ditch the snowboard and trade it in for some skis. But Katie kept with the snowboard.

After that fiasco we all decided to hit up the fire pit and take up the free s'mores and hot chocolate. Even found a little ice shelter to chill in...
Stowe managed to supply the shortest sticks to roast marshmallows on, you burned your hand before browning the marshmallow. Everyone ended up just lighting their marshmallow on fire. If only i had some string i could have lashed two sticks together...you can pretty much fix any situation with a little string or rope.

After hanging around the fire pit for a bit, manthan and i talked the five girls into following us to the big mountain and going down the super long trail we finished earlier. Three snowboarders and 4 skiers, had our own little posse...i hate posses (3:10 to Yuma reference).

Manthan and Jen..

Bridget and her silly face she made a million times during the whole trip...

Beth and Jen...Katie looking like a snowboarder...
Turns out that Manthan and i are horrible instructors. About 8 minutes down the mountain, right when it looked like Katie was getting the hang of it she fell off the trail and towards some trees. Scared the crap out of me but she was fine. Walked a bit after that. But she soon hopped on the bored and "ripped it" hardcore down the mountain. Pretty awesome for like the second time out. Maybe i would have improved by that much if it wasn't for my limbo injury...
I thought going down the small hill took awhile...going down this thing took forever. It was pretty much all Katie's fault but would have felt horrible if i ditched her. Plus manthan and i promised we wouldn't leave her. While taking my time down i managed to do my first jump! i only got like 5 inches of air, but i'm going to count it because i landed it...so i'm pretty much a pro now and you'll see me in the next winter x games.

Manthan wasn't thinking (as usual) and had us follow down this other trail that doesn't lead to the base lodge. It took us to to a lift where you go up again to another trail that will take you to the base. Of course Katie wasn't happy about that, she ended up walking to the road and taking a shuttle. Manthan and i jumped the lift and snowboarded to the lodge/bar. Took us about 20 minutes, would have been faster if the lift wasn't so slow...
After having a beer in the bar, Katie finally showed up. Took her about 30 minutes taking the shuttle. Probably would have taken her longer if she decided to take the lift...so maybe that was a good call. Around 5pm got back on the bus and headed to the lodge we were staying at. i managed to miss the free food. They said it was open from 5-7...turned out it was 5-6. They had tacos, nachos, and quesadillas. Ugh i was so hungry for that too.

The next destination was the Rusty Nail Bar. Before heading in there Manthan and i hit up the Japanese restaurant next door. Ate at his place last year..but instead of just getting sushi i thought i'd try something new and get some chicken tempura. WORST IDEA EVER. Random deep fried veggies and chicken that tasted like ass. i didn't even finish it because it was so gross, and i always finish my meal. At least the spicy tuna rolls were delicious.
Manthan wanted to try some sake. That turned out to be a bad idea too, the sake we got was milky looking and gross. i can't remember the last time i had sake...probably will be awhile before i'll have it again. Definitely i won't be having Nigori Sake again.
Some random drum banging, looked like a barrel Donkey Kong would throw...
After consuming a bunch of water and sake, it was time for me to visit the bathroom. After taking a leak i turned around to wash my hands and was welcomed by this...
Of all the places to put a freaky statue, why would you put it in the sink in the men's bathroom? i'll never know, there is probably a person following me around pulling these pranks...started with the big mac.

The damage at the sushi place was 95 bones...ugh that tempura was so gross. Should have stuck with sushi, oh well. Time for the Rusty Nail! Katie challenged me to a game of pool. Of course i won.
There was air hockey too, i beat Melissa, Katie, Manthan, and i believe someone else...i'm pretty much a big deal, people know me. For live music there was some lame band, but the lead singer looked exactly like Donal Logue in The Ex (aka Fast Track). Sorry, couldn't find a picture of him in the movie...you'll just have to watch it.
There were some freaks on the dance floor. One of the guys, maybe two, dance exactly like Elaine from Seinfeld.

So that was entertaining...the band thought we were taking picture of them, and tried to get us on the dance floor...but all of us were having plenty of amusement watching these people making fools of themselves dancing. We even got to see the making out couple on the dance floor. Not sure what the guy was wearing...had these crazy shoes. The looked almost like boots but really looked like wrestling shoes, and had his jeans tucked in them...he also had his shirt tucked in without a belt...we all know what that tells us about a persons character...

When we finally got back to the rooms, i we welcomed by * vomiting outside the lodge. Apparently after 35 years of partying you don't know when to cut yourself off. :P
It was about 11:20 when we got back...i told myself i would just have a little bit to drink and maybe sing a karaoke song...then head to bed. That didn't happen, didn't get to bed until 4 am...ugh i knew i was going to hate myself in the morning.