Weekend at the Beech

Ah, the best of intentions can be killer...or is that a killer?  The plan for the "weekend" trip to NC was to get the boys off to the slopes for a bit, and to become more familiar with the impending daughter-in-law.  A short visit to the Charlotte Casa was in the mix as well.  And we thought it would be cool for Winnie to see (and play in) some snow, since we obvious weren't going to get her out to Colorado in her present lifetime.  Thought sure the two parts of her genetic make-up would LOVE the snow...turns out, not so much.  Maybe if she had been younger, who knows--Sassy had a great time, but Winnie was pretty miserable.  Might have been the 49 steps from the house to the road that got to her (and to me, who shovelled most of them after the first snowfall).  The place was pretty much like all rental units in NC, very Timbers 6-ish, but with better decor. 

Jane and I got there the night before the kids, so we had a chance to scope it all out, and I got to ride all day Friday by myself, since B and S got held up in town (natch).  Beech Mountain is...how to say....small and mostly flat.  The "black" runs they had were actually one longer bluish run split into 2 (maybe 3) trails.  One good thing, it was the least crowded of all of them. And that was a big issue on Saturday when B and I  went out.  The slopes were so covered with participants, it falls into the "I wouldn't say your mother is fat, but..." school of hyperbole: I wouldn't say it was crowded, but at the base I couldn't fall down without hitting at least 2 people sitting on the snow. And that was the best result, because when they were upright, they were positively dangerous.  Really. 

There seemed to be some nice houses on the slopes at Beech, but location, location, location.  There's a reason that big houses on or near the slopes in the west command millions of dollars--that's were the good snow is.  Ah, well, another experience to remember.  B and I had as much fun as we could, and Shelley (who was injured) spent a good bit of time with Jane and learned to knit.  A good result all around.  Now to start planning the wedding!