Joanne's Perspective January 27, 2001

A couple of weeks ago, our family renewed the tradition of a week long ski vacation.  This year, we traveled to Smuggler's Notch in Northern Vermont.  Smuggler's Notch is famous for the smuggling that took place in the area.  First it was used to smuggle British goods during the days when no British goods were allowed into this country.  It was used again during prohibition to smuggle alcohol from Canada into the New England States.  The natural caves and crevices made it the perfect place to hide these illegal goods.  A natural passage through the mountains created the ideal smuggling route.  This sounded like the perfect place to take our vacation.  We rented a slopeside condo and began a week of fun, soreness, and adventure.  This picture is a view from outside of our condominium.  The mountain that you see is Mt. Sterling.

Each morning we would simply strap on our skis right outside the condominium and ski down to the lifts.  What fun it was to leave our car parked for the week and simply ski to wherever we wanted to go.  See the smiles on Gary's and Katie's faces....this is before the pain of skiing five days in a row took over.

For the most part, everyone had ALOT of fun.  Long days of skiing, however, began to take their toll.  Everyone started to get tired and cranky after a while.  It even got to the point where Katie and Molly couldn't stand to ride up the chairlift together.  10 minutes alone, riding up a mountain side, did wonders to improve attitudes!

See what we mean!...the attitude followed us in from the slopes.  This one we call...Snow Crab!

And this one is Mogul Mouth!

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