If the ski boot fits...

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Last week was our annual ski trip and I ran around beforehand getting ready and have been chasing my tail ever since trying to catch up. I look forward to this trip every year--its four days of good friends (there are nine of us) good food (waaay too much junk food-- all that yummy stuff I ordinarily at least try to stay away from) and, of course, skiing.

We go to the Mazama Ranch House in the Methow Valley in northeastern Washington State, and at the best of times it's a six hour drive once you factor in stopping to eat, taking bathroom breaks and getting coffee. (And trust me, those last two are big factors. The standing joke is that the soulmate knows where every Starbucks is--and I know the location of every bathroom in the state). This year our area has been hit with record breaking snowfall and a pass that we usually take was closed due to a series of avalanches. So we took an alternate route and I won't bore you with what an ordeal that turned out to be. I will say, however, it took us ten hours to reach Mazama.

But like childbirth, I forgot the pain as soon as I got there. Because--I know, big surprise to those of you who know me--I'm a cross-country skiing fool.

(Here's my friend Martha and me in front of the ranch house. I'm betting she's lovin' this pic, because her shadow almost makes her look tall :)

This sport is my drug of choice. It's quiet and oh-so beautiful out on the trails. You use your own body rather than gravity to move, and that keeps you warm. But X-country also throws in some downhill action for the always fun cheap thrill.This year we mixed things up a little, too, which was fun. The ranch house is a ski-in/ski-out establishment. I love that, because you don't have to drive anywhere; you can simply throw on your skis and take off. But it also limits you to the 40 k of trails around you when there's 220 in the system. So instead of going shopping with the women after driving the guys up to Sun Mountain to do the ten mile series of trails down to Winthrop, I decided to ski with the men instead. The last mile and a half kicked my butt, but the rest was great, even my spectacular wipe-out on a U turn at the bottom of a longish hill, which resulted with me on my back with a gallon of snow up my shirt. Another day we took a long, partly riverside trail that I've only been on once. And we started from the opposite end. It was fun putting a different spin on the same old pattern and stepping out of my rut.

Give me a twenty degree sunny day with freshly groomed trails and a couple of friends to share it with and I'm a happy girl.

That's Martha's husband Gary. I loved the birch trees on this trail.

What makes you smile and feel at one with the world? Is it a person, a hobby or sport? Tell me. I love hearing about the things that give you all peace and happiness.