We just returned from our traditional MLK weekend ski trip to a glorious day basking in the excitement of this monumental Inaugural Day!
Brian Kofi
Daniel Diop
The Boys
Dad and the boys
There are only two weeks until my one year lockiversary. My how time flies.
Close up
Even closer up - Texture shots
I remember my first 'skiing with sisterlocks' post, while pre-sisterlocked. I was so impatient to get my sisterlocks installed and quite annoyed that I had to wait a whole month with only test locks to play with!
Brian Kofi and me
This year we went to Sugar Mountain in Banner Elk, NC. The elevation is not as high as Beech Mountain, but because the boys are no longer neophyte skiers, we had a ball.
Not far from Asheville and Charlotte - About a five hour drive from Atlanta
Sugar Mountain trail map
View of Sugar Mountain Slopes, in Banner Elk, NC
Gas is still pretty cheap and friends let us have their condo for the weekend. Add discount lift tickets and a ski rental coupon and voila - 'vacationing on the cheap' - which makes it twice as enjoyable.
SugarTop Mountain Condominiums
We spent the MLK weekend in Beech Mountain, NC. My husband and my son, Kofi, drove up. Their flight was cancelled due to the snow that fell in Atlanta (a whole 1/8 of an inch!), but Diop and I flew a different airline into Charlotte.
I will never fly again. Once we got to Charlotte, we had to drive 2 and 1/2 hours up to Beech Mountain. Mike and Kofi made it there in about 5 hours from Atlanta by car.
My boys were awesome! After just 2 days of ski school they were fearlessly riding the lifts to ski the blue trails! On Saturday night Diop said, "Mom, I really think I'm ready to ski the black diamond runs, really."
Fortunately, the black runs remained closed all weekend so I didn't have to fight that fight.
Beech Mountain is located high in Western North Carolina. Ski Beech has the highest elevation of any ski area in Eastern North America rising to 5506 ft. above sea level.
We arrived on Thursday evening and were off to the slopes early Friday morning. I enrolled the boys in ski school and hung out in the play yard for a while trying to decide whether or not I should take a refresher lesson.
B.C. (before children) we skied every year for 10 years or so - Pennsylvania, Vail (Colorado), Park City (Utah), Michigan - but that was over 10 years ago!
I finally decided to take the J-bar up the bunny hill to see how I would do...
...I discovered that I hadn't lost much. It's kind of like riding a bike, swimming or riding a horse. I was glad I didn't spend the money on a lesson.
I took the blue runs with relative ease, falling only once on Sunday when I hit a patch of ice. It was 1 degree below zero Sunday morning and pretty icy in several places. My roots were coiled and twisted on this trip. You can sweat while skiing.
On Saturday, I went with Mike and the boys over to the resort to get them to ski school, but promptly went back to the house. What a great day full of nothing!
I stayed in bed, googled sisterlock photos and read about loc care. (See my favorite hair care book list in the sidebar).
I was in heaven...and I'm getting more and more excited AND impatient to get my sisterlocks installed.
