Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Just a hint
My surprise has to do with a visible part of my clothed body. I've almost said too much.
Snowshoe was an absolute blast and they had some newly built studio apartment/condos that started at $159,000. I didn't get to see one but it would be cozy but at the top of a year-round use mountain. Skiing and winter sports when the weather cooperates and some wicked mountain biking and hiking in the summer months. There are a few downsides though and I'll cover those in my following "Staying at Snowshoe" tutorial.
So you want to go to Snowshoe huh? Winter or summer it's a very cool place. Staying in the Village Center is a bit pricey but you're right in the middle of everything. Don't worry if you're a bit further away, there are shuttles that run regularly from 8 am to 10 pm (but you should probably double check those times). I'm assuming that you're not made of money or don't want to eat out every meal. You're gonna need to stock up. Bring a cooler because the closest grocery store is at least 20-25 minutes away from Snowshoe in Marlinton, WV. It's the Fas Chek in Marlinton. You get to shop where the locals shop. They had some nice locally grown bell peppers, some shipped oranges and other vegetables. They had frozen pizza and lots of canned veggies and soups. No deli counter, no meat counter, but they had some packaged meats. Basically if you want something beyond very standard grocery store food, bring it from home. Elkins, WV is the closest "large" town and they have a Kroger and Food Lion, according to Google Maps. The Wildcat Provisions store at the top of the mountain is a glorified gas station, with remote gas station prices to match, although you can rent movies there.
Our room at Rimfire had both a VCR and a DVD player, so be sure to bring a few movies along with you.
So now you have some food and in-room entertainment. We tried the Foxfire Grill for appetizers one night, J had some sort of empanada thing and I had the delicious S'mores dessert. It came with several marshmallows, a Hershey bar, graham crackers, some caramel candies with the marshmallow middle and some Mary Janes. I didn't know what they were either, but they're chewy and peanut buttery and made a very good S'more. Our spot at the bar received many jealous glances as I slow roasted my 'mallow over the Sterno fire. J was close to getting S'mores banned from every restaurant by flinging a flaming marshmallow across the dining room, but saved it at the last second. Southern Living had a feature on Snowshoe and recommended the mac & cheese. J being a mac & cheese fanatic, obviously wanted to try it, but once we looked at the menu and saw the $25.99 price tag, she decided to abstain. Oops, apparently it's also correctly spelled Foxfire Grille. So why is the m&c so much?
That's why and throw in the middle of nowhere surcharge and that's some pricey cheesy pasta.
We also tried the Cheat Mountain Pizza Company (no dedicated website for them) and I would HIGHLY recommend the cheesy breadsticks. They were super cheesy and had a nice crunchy exterior to the warm bread interior. Their white pizza with chicken, onions, peppers and mushrooms were good but the red onions they used had a spicy bite that I didn't like. Sautee those onions and it would've been transcendent.
Red Rover offers a wine bar/hot dog option that I'd never seen before. Unfortunately we never had a chance to stop in.
Another added feature of Rimfire, we had our own key card access door leaving Starbucks going right into the lobby in front of the elevators. Big time. (Speaking of which, Clemson has officially arrived, our Starbucks served its first latte last week. I would've stopped by to support it but everyone else seems to be doing that for me.)
We never did go swimming at our outdoor hot tubs or at the Split Rock Pools, but they seem to be a popular evening activity.
Snowshoe was an absolute blast and they had some newly built studio apartment/condos that started at $159,000. I didn't get to see one but it would be cozy but at the top of a year-round use mountain. Skiing and winter sports when the weather cooperates and some wicked mountain biking and hiking in the summer months. There are a few downsides though and I'll cover those in my following "Staying at Snowshoe" tutorial.
So you want to go to Snowshoe huh? Winter or summer it's a very cool place. Staying in the Village Center is a bit pricey but you're right in the middle of everything. Don't worry if you're a bit further away, there are shuttles that run regularly from 8 am to 10 pm (but you should probably double check those times). I'm assuming that you're not made of money or don't want to eat out every meal. You're gonna need to stock up. Bring a cooler because the closest grocery store is at least 20-25 minutes away from Snowshoe in Marlinton, WV. It's the Fas Chek in Marlinton. You get to shop where the locals shop. They had some nice locally grown bell peppers, some shipped oranges and other vegetables. They had frozen pizza and lots of canned veggies and soups. No deli counter, no meat counter, but they had some packaged meats. Basically if you want something beyond very standard grocery store food, bring it from home. Elkins, WV is the closest "large" town and they have a Kroger and Food Lion, according to Google Maps. The Wildcat Provisions store at the top of the mountain is a glorified gas station, with remote gas station prices to match, although you can rent movies there.
Our room at Rimfire had both a VCR and a DVD player, so be sure to bring a few movies along with you.
So now you have some food and in-room entertainment. We tried the Foxfire Grill for appetizers one night, J had some sort of empanada thing and I had the delicious S'mores dessert. It came with several marshmallows, a Hershey bar, graham crackers, some caramel candies with the marshmallow middle and some Mary Janes. I didn't know what they were either, but they're chewy and peanut buttery and made a very good S'more. Our spot at the bar received many jealous glances as I slow roasted my 'mallow over the Sterno fire. J was close to getting S'mores banned from every restaurant by flinging a flaming marshmallow across the dining room, but saved it at the last second. Southern Living had a feature on Snowshoe and recommended the mac & cheese. J being a mac & cheese fanatic, obviously wanted to try it, but once we looked at the menu and saw the $25.99 price tag, she decided to abstain. Oops, apparently it's also correctly spelled Foxfire Grille. So why is the m&c so much?
Foxfire goes uptown down south with this creamy blend of Five Cheeses, Roasted Garlic and Tomatoes, with Penne Pasta and Lump Chesapeake Crabmeat, topped with crunchy Panko and Asiago Cheese
That's why and throw in the middle of nowhere surcharge and that's some pricey cheesy pasta.
We also tried the Cheat Mountain Pizza Company (no dedicated website for them) and I would HIGHLY recommend the cheesy breadsticks. They were super cheesy and had a nice crunchy exterior to the warm bread interior. Their white pizza with chicken, onions, peppers and mushrooms were good but the red onions they used had a spicy bite that I didn't like. Sautee those onions and it would've been transcendent.
Red Rover offers a wine bar/hot dog option that I'd never seen before. Unfortunately we never had a chance to stop in.
Another added feature of Rimfire, we had our own key card access door leaving Starbucks going right into the lobby in front of the elevators. Big time. (Speaking of which, Clemson has officially arrived, our Starbucks served its first latte last week. I would've stopped by to support it but everyone else seems to be doing that for me.)
We never did go swimming at our outdoor hot tubs or at the Split Rock Pools, but they seem to be a popular evening activity.
Labels: family vacation, restaurant reviews, skiing, snow
Friday, January 11, 2008
Who wants a Slushie?
Sorry I vanished for the past week, I was on vacation. In this day and age of internet, I figured it was better to not tell the world that my wife and I were leaving our house vacant (with ATTACK CATS!) for 4 days. I can't imagine it would be difficult for someone to figure out where I live, so I erred on the side of caution and didn't tell you about our vacation. Yes my seminar is coming up but this trip was planned before that, and I even took some work and actually worked on it some. My seminar has been pushed back a week without my knowledge and hopefully my adviser can make it to this new date.
J and I went skiing in Snowshoe, WV. I have never driven in West Virginia before and was struck by its pastoral peace and beauty. It's all rolling hills and farmland interspersed with small towns and villages. Nice. Quaint. Heart of America. One hand-painted sign I saw said "No Farms, No Food" which is spot-on. The roads were paved using the natural roll and pitch of the surrounding land which made them really fun and interesting to drive, even with the rain creating wet conditions for our arrival and departure. I prefer wet mountain roads to icy mountain roads any day of the week.
We stayed at the Rimfire Lodge in a studio. It had a large bed, comfy couch, lots of spare pillows and blankets and had a full kitchen. The bathroom might have had heated floors, or crappy insulation so the unit below us heated the floor, but either way the rock floor of the bathroom was always pleasantly warm. The gas fireplace was nice (and on a timer, an excellent idea for any gas fireplace) and even warmed the room up a bit. The weather was pleasant but not great snow-making weather. Sun-Wed highs were in the upper 50s to lower 60s and the lows were in the mid-40s. It finally dropped to freezing on Tues. night and made everything nice and icy after slushtastic conditions Sun-Tues.
My back hurts, my neck hurts and my legs hurt. I think that crash on an icy blue slope on Wed. did me in. If the slope was in the sun, it was nice and slushy but if it was in the shade it was icy and nasty. I tried to stop where I shouldn't have and flew backwards and whacked my helmet contained melon pretty good. That was enough skiing that day. Thurs. morning we awoke to a drizzle and a high of 28, so we opted to go home before road conditions got worse and skipped another icy ski day.
I know I rail against Big Pharma fairly regularly here but some of their products work and I proved that yesterday. I took a couple of J's prescription pills and drove the entire 7+ hours home without incident. I love driving on that stuff.
I was way overdue for a speeding ticket and a polite NC State Trooper took care of that streak. He clocked me at 82 in a 70 and dropped it to 80 in a 70 for a revenue generating ticket of $135. Luckily I slowed down to 5 over because not 10 miles later in Virginia I passed another state trooper and almost doubled up on tickets that day. It didn't ruin my spirits because I was overdue for a ticket and was amazed that I received a ticket at 8:30 am on a Sun. morning just a few miles from the NC/VA state line.
More tales tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be revealing another surprise this weekend. No clues, just suspense.
J and I went skiing in Snowshoe, WV. I have never driven in West Virginia before and was struck by its pastoral peace and beauty. It's all rolling hills and farmland interspersed with small towns and villages. Nice. Quaint. Heart of America. One hand-painted sign I saw said "No Farms, No Food" which is spot-on. The roads were paved using the natural roll and pitch of the surrounding land which made them really fun and interesting to drive, even with the rain creating wet conditions for our arrival and departure. I prefer wet mountain roads to icy mountain roads any day of the week.
We stayed at the Rimfire Lodge in a studio. It had a large bed, comfy couch, lots of spare pillows and blankets and had a full kitchen. The bathroom might have had heated floors, or crappy insulation so the unit below us heated the floor, but either way the rock floor of the bathroom was always pleasantly warm. The gas fireplace was nice (and on a timer, an excellent idea for any gas fireplace) and even warmed the room up a bit. The weather was pleasant but not great snow-making weather. Sun-Wed highs were in the upper 50s to lower 60s and the lows were in the mid-40s. It finally dropped to freezing on Tues. night and made everything nice and icy after slushtastic conditions Sun-Tues.
My back hurts, my neck hurts and my legs hurt. I think that crash on an icy blue slope on Wed. did me in. If the slope was in the sun, it was nice and slushy but if it was in the shade it was icy and nasty. I tried to stop where I shouldn't have and flew backwards and whacked my helmet contained melon pretty good. That was enough skiing that day. Thurs. morning we awoke to a drizzle and a high of 28, so we opted to go home before road conditions got worse and skipped another icy ski day.
I know I rail against Big Pharma fairly regularly here but some of their products work and I proved that yesterday. I took a couple of J's prescription pills and drove the entire 7+ hours home without incident. I love driving on that stuff.
I was way overdue for a speeding ticket and a polite NC State Trooper took care of that streak. He clocked me at 82 in a 70 and dropped it to 80 in a 70 for a revenue generating ticket of $135. Luckily I slowed down to 5 over because not 10 miles later in Virginia I passed another state trooper and almost doubled up on tickets that day. It didn't ruin my spirits because I was overdue for a ticket and was amazed that I received a ticket at 8:30 am on a Sun. morning just a few miles from the NC/VA state line.
More tales tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be revealing another surprise this weekend. No clues, just suspense.
Labels: Big Pharma, family vacation, skiing, speeding, ticket
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
I wanna be non-profit!
I think J and I should start a non-profit organization. It's such a great tax shelter and you get to help people while dodging taxes. Not that we pay tons of taxes but still. I keep hearing about all these pro athletes that have non-profit organizations and it's such a great idea. It's definitely a win-win-win situation. The athlete wins because he pays less taxes because he donates lots of money to his organization. His family gets a paycheck by running the non-profit and they give back to the community. Lastly the community wins because there is a non-profit helping them out and they can get some national coverage fairly easily because they're connected to a pro athlete.
Of course I don't think any of that would work if you didn't actually want to help people. The non-profit that helps no one but has lots of money only helps themselves. You gotta give back.
It would probably revolve around promoting reading to kids and adults, or spaying and neutering feral cats, or helping the environment. I think a non-profit that helped improve public parks and land would be really cool too but I don't have the botanical knowledge for that. I don't know. I do know that I have to get out of grad school so I can start implementing all these plans.
I really want to start a hydroponic garden. I don't know why but I'm really drawn to the idea of growing things without dirt. Plus I could recycle the water and hopefully make it eco-friendly too. I have also heard of aeroponic where you grow things in air, but that seems a bit too crazy for me.
It was almost freezing this morning. Ski season is just around the corner! J and I are planning our late Honeymoon for mid-January and we'll be going skiing. I can't wait. Hopefully it snows like mad in early January.
Of course I don't think any of that would work if you didn't actually want to help people. The non-profit that helps no one but has lots of money only helps themselves. You gotta give back.
It would probably revolve around promoting reading to kids and adults, or spaying and neutering feral cats, or helping the environment. I think a non-profit that helped improve public parks and land would be really cool too but I don't have the botanical knowledge for that. I don't know. I do know that I have to get out of grad school so I can start implementing all these plans.
I really want to start a hydroponic garden. I don't know why but I'm really drawn to the idea of growing things without dirt. Plus I could recycle the water and hopefully make it eco-friendly too. I have also heard of aeroponic where you grow things in air, but that seems a bit too crazy for me.
It was almost freezing this morning. Ski season is just around the corner! J and I are planning our late Honeymoon for mid-January and we'll be going skiing. I can't wait. Hopefully it snows like mad in early January.
Labels: business idea, skiing
Sunday, March 11, 2007
I usually prefer Icees.
Skiing was excellent yesterday. We went to Sugar Mountain, which is near Banner Elk, NC. Our chemistry grad student organization paid for transportation and lift tickets and if you helped out with concessions and selling goggles, they even paid for your rentals too. Just a little incentive to get people to help out, which is surprisingly difficult considering the pluses.
I got conned into driving one of the 3 12-passenger vans, but luckily Protege and the talented and lovely J were also in my van. And also some new characters, of which the husband works near me and the wife graduated from dear ol' Clemson, who we'll refer to as their given paparazzi name, Gregber. And a Chinese couple and an Austrian post-doc. I would tell you where everyone sat on the way up and back, and I might've even done it in an interesting way, but I don't have the time or want to right now, but J rode shotgun on the way up and was navigating while she wasn't asleep.
The behemoth of a van had a radio complete with tape deck. No one had any cassettes on them, so we went all radio, all the time. If I had known ahead of time I might've [huh, we had a discussion about this very thing and I claimed to have never heard it. Gregber said that someone said "might could" as in "I might could go get some dinner at Shoney's tonight". And I just used "might have". Is this a regional thing? Am I crazy?] gotten a cassette adapter for J's new shuffle. I think.
We left 6 minutes late which was impressive. I find as I get older, most people get more responsible than say, high schooler. On the road, no breakfast for me cuz we got up at 5:20ish to leave at 6:06.
Get on the road. Speed limit or just 5 over. Another guy in the dept. got a wreckless endangerment ticket in VA for going 77 in a 70 in one of these big vans, so that is clouding my thoughts and restraining my normally heavy right foot. That and it's got some sweet cruise control action which takes all the pressure off.
I'm hungry. I should've made a to-go bagel but didn't. It's okay, I wanted to stop at a gas station and stock up on some portable snackage for the slopes. I wasn't really planning on stopping for lunch to get maximum ski time, but it happened anyway. Fortunately there was a McDonalds connected to the gas station and since it's a road trip the "no eating out during Lent" is put on hold. We're still here so I guess She didn't mind too much.
Back on the road, pass the other van and make it to the lodge in about 3 hours and change. Not bad. Tickets, change clothes, ski pants, ski boots, jacket up, gloves on and then walk over to the nice easy green slope. Crap, I remember doing this but it's been a year. Pizza, french fries. At least I remember that and that mostly gets me down the first time. The next time up I'm watching people and trying to get tips. Oh yeah! Keep your skis together when you're carving. Ah, ok, it's all coming back. Hey there's J on the lift! I'll catch her next time down. She was supposed to get a group lesson but missed the start by 5 minutes, but they're every hour, on the hour, so no biggie.
We ski the green slope a few times, snuggle on the lift going back up, then I ask if she's ready to move to another slope. The middle lift goes to the very top of the mountain but has an easy drop-off and an intermediate drop-off on the way up. If you'll remember from last year's adventure, this is where we had some trouble (also please excuse the spelling and grammar errors in the linked post) so I made sure we both knew when to get off and how. Success! We stayed on this slope for a bit and then I think we ate lunch. Decent food, decent prices. Nothing pro sports/amusement park expensive. Reenergized we got back out on the slopes. A few more times on the harder green slope and then I asked if she wanted to go further up the mountain. It's faster and steeper but no black diamonds, so it's a good challenge. She concedes and we head up. Man it's scary going that fast, but sometimes you just have to do it. It's really scary carving at those speeds but it's the only way to slow down. Pizzaing hurts too much and falling would hurt more, so you have to rely on your technique and hope it works.
I didn't really have any bad falls, but I did fall. One guy that went with us hit a tree! Yeah, a freakin' tree. I guess he's okay, he was still on the slopes after it happened so I guess it wasn't too bad. No bad accidents and every made it off the mountain alive.
Thankfully Protege offered to drive some, so I got us out of the mountains and he took over at the interstate.
Excellent trip and I wish I could ski more often and maybe on some fresh snow created by nature and not a hose and a fan.
I got conned into driving one of the 3 12-passenger vans, but luckily Protege and the talented and lovely J were also in my van. And also some new characters, of which the husband works near me and the wife graduated from dear ol' Clemson, who we'll refer to as their given paparazzi name, Gregber. And a Chinese couple and an Austrian post-doc. I would tell you where everyone sat on the way up and back, and I might've even done it in an interesting way, but I don't have the time or want to right now, but J rode shotgun on the way up and was navigating while she wasn't asleep.
The behemoth of a van had a radio complete with tape deck. No one had any cassettes on them, so we went all radio, all the time. If I had known ahead of time I might've [huh, we had a discussion about this very thing and I claimed to have never heard it. Gregber said that someone said "might could" as in "I might could go get some dinner at Shoney's tonight". And I just used "might have". Is this a regional thing? Am I crazy?] gotten a cassette adapter for J's new shuffle. I think.
We left 6 minutes late which was impressive. I find as I get older, most people get more responsible than say, high schooler. On the road, no breakfast for me cuz we got up at 5:20ish to leave at 6:06.
Get on the road. Speed limit or just 5 over. Another guy in the dept. got a wreckless endangerment ticket in VA for going 77 in a 70 in one of these big vans, so that is clouding my thoughts and restraining my normally heavy right foot. That and it's got some sweet cruise control action which takes all the pressure off.
I'm hungry. I should've made a to-go bagel but didn't. It's okay, I wanted to stop at a gas station and stock up on some portable snackage for the slopes. I wasn't really planning on stopping for lunch to get maximum ski time, but it happened anyway. Fortunately there was a McDonalds connected to the gas station and since it's a road trip the "no eating out during Lent" is put on hold. We're still here so I guess She didn't mind too much.
Back on the road, pass the other van and make it to the lodge in about 3 hours and change. Not bad. Tickets, change clothes, ski pants, ski boots, jacket up, gloves on and then walk over to the nice easy green slope. Crap, I remember doing this but it's been a year. Pizza, french fries. At least I remember that and that mostly gets me down the first time. The next time up I'm watching people and trying to get tips. Oh yeah! Keep your skis together when you're carving. Ah, ok, it's all coming back. Hey there's J on the lift! I'll catch her next time down. She was supposed to get a group lesson but missed the start by 5 minutes, but they're every hour, on the hour, so no biggie.
We ski the green slope a few times, snuggle on the lift going back up, then I ask if she's ready to move to another slope. The middle lift goes to the very top of the mountain but has an easy drop-off and an intermediate drop-off on the way up. If you'll remember from last year's adventure, this is where we had some trouble (also please excuse the spelling and grammar errors in the linked post) so I made sure we both knew when to get off and how. Success! We stayed on this slope for a bit and then I think we ate lunch. Decent food, decent prices. Nothing pro sports/amusement park expensive. Reenergized we got back out on the slopes. A few more times on the harder green slope and then I asked if she wanted to go further up the mountain. It's faster and steeper but no black diamonds, so it's a good challenge. She concedes and we head up. Man it's scary going that fast, but sometimes you just have to do it. It's really scary carving at those speeds but it's the only way to slow down. Pizzaing hurts too much and falling would hurt more, so you have to rely on your technique and hope it works.
I didn't really have any bad falls, but I did fall. One guy that went with us hit a tree! Yeah, a freakin' tree. I guess he's okay, he was still on the slopes after it happened so I guess it wasn't too bad. No bad accidents and every made it off the mountain alive.
Thankfully Protege offered to drive some, so I got us out of the mountains and he took over at the interstate.
Excellent trip and I wish I could ski more often and maybe on some fresh snow created by nature and not a hose and a fan.
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