Now THIS is Whiteface

Yesterday's skiing was "magical", as Clarke is found of saying. Sunny, warm, with loose granular snow, very little ice. There were few crowds and we were all feeling great. We went to the summit for the first time this year (4,600 ft) and just skied and skied. We don't venture all the way up to the summit too often - if conditions are at all windy or icy, it is certifiably scary. But days like today make me want to venture up more often. It is utterly spectacular. The runs are great and open and the view is breathtaking. We thought we'd stay for a few hours and head home but ended up about closing the place.
We will be back up in a few weeks to ready the house for the arrival of 16 of our closest friends. (Luckily our new friend Spyder Dupree will be renting us his cabin up the lane to help with the spillover!) For 13 years now, we get together with the same group of people (take or leave a few ex-girlfriends/boyfriends, one time visitors, busy teenagers) and rent a house to downhill/cross country, snowshoe, etc. We cook huge dinners and sit around the table until all hours. Truth be told, we consume a lot of frosty beer (chilling in a snow bank), brandy Manhattans (thanks Mark!) and have dabbled in fresh mango and rum snow cones, "pingha" - a roadside liquor from Brazil (with about 300 limes), Irish coffee, and various scotches over the years. We look forward to the trip all year and it's so much fun to see new marriages new babies, new careers, growing kids. I remember when Joe and I would take turns skiing while the other was on nap patrol, or toddler-chasing patrol. We'd be lucky to ski an hour or two the entire trip. I remember being exhausted, after skiing, and staying up late, and waking up with babies all night. I remember Joe's back being broken by skiing with toddlers between his legs. I remember pulling sleds around the foot of the mountain and the first time on a lift with Clarke. I pressed my arm over his chest, so scared he would just slip out, he was so little. Most of the years, the trip, which we still call Porkies Fest, was at the Porcupine Mountains in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, another magical place, far from civilization. The boys learned to ski there. It was so remote, never crowded with guaranteed great snow. If you can imagine driving 9 hours NORTH from Milwaukee, you can imagine how far north this place is. Right on the shores of Lake Superior, which looks like a scene from a horror film in the winter. The mountain has not much "vertical" or quantity of runs but perfect family skiing. We made a few trips to Gore Mountain with the group before we bought our house. (by the way, we had the absolute best house in Gore Mountain if anyone needs a recommendation). We always look for a place a little off the beaten path, as the big marquis resorts wouldn't fit in with vibe (or the budget). This is the first trip to Whiteface for many of our friends and it should be a blast. We are so grateful everyone is willing to fly across the country to check out The Barn. What do you think the chances are that the trapeze will not be in use? Stay tuned....

The Belles of the Ball

So we donned our sweaters and headed to Whiteface for what we hoped would be a fabulous evening of fun for everyone. Welllll........................not so much.
First, it was billed as having a separate kids's party with hikes, and food for kids and activities. We walked the kids over excitedly and found some lackluster teenagers, essentially running a daycare. Rubber hamburgers on the table. Great idea to have babysitting but if it had been billed that way we may have made alternate plans. Our big mistake with kids was not bringing their skis as they were going to have night skiing but we all thought the boys would like to try some other stuff. The organizers were also adamant about not having kids in the main lodge so we didn't get to see or mingle with the kids, as they were in separate building. Again, if it were adults only, period, Joe and I love and appreciate these kind of events but it wasn't billed that way. The kids would have liked the music and the food and we might have paid extra for them to be able to hang.
The next problem was organization. After about an hour, Joe said "so, which line do you want to stand on next". Lines for everything, not enough seats, mediocre food- though I didn't try a lot because we would have literally been in a line all night. Joe and I decided to trek over to check on kids and loved what we saw. They had found (smuggled) a cafeteria tray and were trekking up one of the darkened ski hills and riding the trays down the mountain, having a blast. Joe and I headed back to sweater land and sat outside to watch a 1950's promotional film for Whiteface, really great and a nice touch to have the outside viewing with fires going. After that, the kids were freezing and we were kinda done. We decided to not stay for the snowcat parade or the fireworks. I kept saying, more simple, better executed would have been my druthers. We were home by 10pm, and ended on a high note watching The Wire on DVD

Enough

Of this trans-continental stuff, let's get back to the barn, shall we? Heading up this weekend for the ski ball. Two of Clarke's friends were unavailable so we are going to postpone his boy weekend and to be honest, I am pretty happy about that. I am pretty sure that there are still remnants of Christmas ruins throughout the rooms which I need to attend to. Really, is there anything more depressing than Christmas in February? Hopefully a little skiing and a little organizing.

Private sidenote to Whiteface Mountain: YOUR WEB SITE IS DOWN!!! HELLOOO??? It's the weekend before your big event! It looks like someone forgot to re-register your domain or pay the serving bills. If you'd like any help with your website and marketing, I can highly recommend this firm www.splitrocknewmedia.com..... :-)

Quick Trip Review - Madrid

Making a 13 year old almost speechless was fun.
The Surprise
We loaded Clarke into a taxi and and then told him to open his presents.
Clarke: "In the taxi?!"
Us: "Yes."
He opened a Madrid guide book
Oscar, the imp: "we know you'd like to learn more about Spain.".
Clarke: "thanks....."
He is obviously getting confused at this point. He then opens his next present, a map of Madrid and says "wait a minute...".
The piece de resistance, though, was the present from my sister Mary Jo (aptly nicknamed The Peach) who had fedex'd him some euros inside a spanish-language card.
Clarke: "MOM, ARE WE GOING TO SPAIN?!!"
mom: "Yes"
Clarke: "When?"
Mom: "Right now"
Clarke: general freak-out ensues

Day 1:
We headed to the airport and took an overnight flight. After not too much sleep by anyone (except Clarke) we landed at 11:30 am in Madrid. We checked into our great apartment, (thanks Jose!) and Joe and I insisted upon a quick 45 minute nap. By 2pm we were out and wandering the streets. It was sunny and we just walked and walked and stumbled upon a great restaurant. We met some really nice people inside who were very proud of Joe for ordering the local specialty which was a special shrimp cake with all the bones and shells and innards. Joe, as you can imagine, was thrilled to learn this. We then walked through the Latin Quarter, past the Royal Palace and checked out our local plaza San Domingo. We just hung outside and had drinks and another small snack and successfully stayed awake until 9pm Madrid time.
Day 2
Alarmingly, we did not move until 10:30am but decided it was ok, as we'd be staying up late for tapas anyway. We walked down to Puerto Del Sol to gets churros & chocolate and cafe con leche. We decided to walk to Retiro Park to hang out. It was beautiful day and a lovely, long walk. We picked up sandwiches and snacks for the park and just hung and people watched for a bit. Oscar, who must compare everything to his New York, thought Retiro Park was on par with Central Park, which is a grand compliment. Clarke needed no comparisons and just loved Madrid unequivocally. Period. When we visited Costa Rica, Clarke stated that when he grew up he was going to live there his whole life, and now, he is determined he is going to live in Madrid. So adorable. After Retiro Park, we headed to El Prado. The boys slightly protested but I told them they'd make me turn in my parent ID card, if we went to Madrid and didn't visit our friend El Greco and his pal Goya. As I knew, they ended up really liking and being very intrigued with all the dark images, especially the religious. We kept it quick and light and they could decide when and if they wanted to stop to look longer. They found 1 or 2 "cool" paintings in each collection. Afterward, we collectively agreed that it was truly amazing museum but we were a MOMA type family and wish we had the time to see Reina Sofia. We then decided to try out the metro, as we were all exhausted, and successfully made it back to our apartment for a little siesta before our first night out. At 9:30 pm we headed into the throngs, and walked down to Santa Ana neighborhood to check out the tapas scene. It was insane. Our limited spanish was a bit of a hindrance but we finally found some great spots. We made it home around midnight!
Day 3:
OK, another sleep in but we were starting to dig this night owl scene. We headed over to the Royal Palace. This was tons o fun. The boys loved every minute of it and had some very good questions about monarchy and wealth. We walked through the armory which of course was super cool and they noticed that medieval spanish knights were very tiny. :-). We had a great paella lunch and then started on a crazy path trying to find the football stadium for the night's main event. Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid (think Mets/Yankees). After a 20 minute metro ride mistake, we found the scene...and immediately ran for the hills. I don't know if it was the M80 exploding at our feet or being shoved by the riot police but we decided we'd gladly watch from a bar. We then found this really cool street with cave bars. We found one specializing in football and belgium beer and had a lovely time with our Cuban waiter, watching the game with some insane locals. Of course, Oscar backed Real Madrid, Clarke had allegiance to Atletico Madrid and the waiter promised chocolate to the winner. Oscar made it look like the most delicious chocolate he had ever had...
We were darn exhausted by now but decided to skip siesta as we were leaving the next day. We walked through Plaza Mayor and made our way to tapas again. More yum, more nice people. The amount of sausage, pork products, olive oil, and bread we consumed was fairly staggering. We stumbled home exhausted around midnight and prepared for our departure. It was a fantastic trip and the boys were such great travelers. They are already planning our next trip so if you have any rich uncles, send them our way.

So.....Madrid!

So much to tell. So much fun. So tired.

Shhhhh

Team Williams is embarking upon another crazy adventure this weekend but we have to keep it on the down low because it is a surprise for Clarke, our dearest first born, who turns 13 this weekend. Once the cat is out of the bag, we will provide fun details and pictures. Clarke's party will be up at the barn next weekend and thankfully just a few friends "chillin". Amazingly, Whiteface is throwing a great party called the Ski Sweater Ball (free for kids..hello?!) and we will append Clarke's party to theirs while Mom and Dad also have some fun!

Our Clarke is an artist at heart with a temperament that fits perfectly in the Adirondacks and not always perfectly in the city. If he were any more mellow, he'd be living in reverse. Clarke was born in Milwaukee which has something to do with it, I think; he really loves the vibe at the barn. Oscar - different story. He storms the Adirondacks with the energy of a cracked out investment banker. He is dawn to dusk activities and feels free to make suggestions for Joe and I about how we can optimize our inefficiencies and improve things in his life.

Back to Clarke, against his nature, he is working so hard at a very challenging school. Each night he has hours of homework and still manages to get in at least an hour of guitar (his true passion). He is an intellectual, not always interested in the grades as much as the subject matter. And we love that, except when we don't. His sense of humor is exquisite and he loves the absurd. After a heated debate on music last night (he seems obsessed with something called neo-classical, which is hurting my ears), he called my music "strummy dummy" which I thought was the most accurate and funniest thing I have ever heard. As a child of immigrants who is a pragmatist at heart, I don't always "get it" but I sure have learned from him. Most of all he is a good soul and what more could we ask for.

So here's to Clarke. Raise your chocolate milk for a toast to our new teenager (oy).

A First

Growing up, my brother used to joke about his night guy and his day guy. He always ended up staying up too late and the next day he'd lament about his night guy screwing over his day guy. His night guy was a really fun guy, but sometimes irresponsible. His day guy was often quite tired and angry at the night guy.

Today our city guy screwed our mountain guy. We are supposed to be half way to the barn right now. As is our usual plan, when the boys finished school, we would all meet up, grab the car and head out. The first nail in our mountain coffin was a meeting rescheduled for me at 4:30. We still kidded ourselves that we'd head out around 5pm. Then I had still had tons of work to do. Joe was going to arrive home around 4pm and at 5:30, he still hadn't come home. We hadn't gathered anything, and knew traffic was escalating. At 6pm, we were collectively exhausted and bailed out. This is a Williams first. A Sad One.