This weekend Zach and I went down to Alyeska Ski resort in Girdwood for the annual Slush Cup challenge and Spring Carnival.
I had gotten the idea to go to the Slush Cup last week by one of the Mom's of Zach's classmate. Kyle's Mom wasn't keen on skiing, but was hoping to find someone who could chaperone her kids Kyle and Kyra on Saturday. I had skied with Kyle (Zach's friend) before and she gets along well with Zach, so we made a plan to go down and it hit the slopes one last time. We invited another one of Zach's friends (Gracie), who also likes to ski and is friends with Kyle. Gracie's Mom was stuck in training all day, but was super excited about us taking her down to ski one last time. It was shaping up to be a day of baby sitting on the slopes, but . . . I knew we would all have fun!!
Zach and I picked up Gracie at her house at 11:00 and drove down 35 minutes to Alyeska. We parked, got our lift tickets and got on our gear. As we were walking into the Daylodge to use the restrooms, we ran into my buddy Matt and his son Jack. Matt helps teach underprivileged kids how to ski, and was going to be tied up with 25 kids very shortly. He asked if I minded skiing with Jack for a bit while he helped manage the group. Sure, I said . . . what's one more!!
It actually worked out fine. Kyle and her sister had not left Anchorage yet, so Zach, Jack, Gracie and myself headed up the mighty Lower Mountain (chairs 3 & 7) trails, for some bunny hill fun!! There were only four of us, so we could all ride the same chair.
We did around 6-7 runs before we started thinking about food. The center of the Alyeska Village is the Sitzmark Bar & Grill. The organizers kind of wavers every year as to weather kids are allowed into the Sitzmark during the festival, and this year unfortunately, they prohibited anyone under 21 from going into the bar. That meant a bit more walking back and fourth to find food, bathrooms, etc. We were able to find a hotdog stand that had food that the kids liked. We were ordering when Kyle and her sister showed up to join our group. This coincided with Jack's Dad, Matt showing up. It was kind of crazy at first. Trying to have a conversation with Matt, while trying to coordinate with Kyle's Mom on the events of the day. In the end the timing worked out. Matt and Jack went off to ski, leaving me with 4 kids, just one more than I had earlier. I just kept buying food for the kids as they came and went and in the end, everyone was happy.
We now had our group. From left to right - Gracie, Kyra, Zach and Kyle. The kids had a fun time wandering around the vendors at the base of the mountain. They had an especially good time tormenting the Taco Bell sauce packet!
Kids weren't quite ready to head back up the hill, so we caught the tail end of the Slush Cup preliminary auditions. A group of costumed contestants were each trying to convince the judges to allow them to fill the remaining 25 spots. If accepted, each would be ready and willing to hurl themselves down the slope at a high rate of speed, launching over a snow ramp and into a 90 foot pond where they would skip (hopefully) across the near freezing water.
As we walked up. the judges had pretty much made their decisions on who they would allow from the group to participate in the event. They were still on the fence about one of the potential contestants that had decided to show up in a rather reviling costume. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we were there to witness him swim the length of the pool, proving to the judges that he was worthy of participating in the Slush Cup. The unfortunate part of this situation was his outfit. He was only wearing a small cardboard loin cloth positioned over . . . well, not much else. We all know what happens to cardboard when it gets wet . . .well, you get the picture. So, I'm there with 4 children, all under the age of 9, with a near naked man in a swimming pool! The dude does his swim, gets out and strolls past the 4 wide eyed children in my charge. As he is walking by, one of the kids asks him "hey, what is your costume suppose to be?", to which he replies "I'm "That Guy", stay in school and don't grow up to be "That Guy", or you'll find yourself here, wearing this (indicating his outfit, or lack there of), swimming across a freezing pool, on a ski slope, in front of strangers!" Pretty cleaver I thought, especially considering the situation.
Another shot of the pool . . . brrr!!
Selfie by the pool with the "crew".
Gracie had been at a sleepover the night before and had some pretty crazy hair to show for it.
Zach was a good sport. The girls didn't want to wear their helmets as they walked the booths and went looking for a good spot on the hill to watch the event. Zach brought his backpack, which I packed some snacks and waters in . . . well, this of course became the collection point for unwanted gear. Helmets, googles, gloves, neck thingies, extra coats and whatever else the girls didn't want to wear, got attached and shoved into the backpack. His backpack was pretty heavy when they got through, and it had at least 4 helmets hanging off of it. He was s a good sport and schlepped around the girls gear without too much complaining.
We found our spot . . . and, another kid. Bastien is another one of the Rilke 4th graders and is in Zach's class. Bastien just watch some of the event with us, but didn't go skiing.
Pretty good view of the event. From our spot we could see the racers coming down the hill and then the carnage as they hit the water.
We watched maybe 10 -12 racers come down the hill, but after half an hour, I could tell the kids were getting restless. I decided to gather everyone up, and go back to skiing. After all, this is probably the last skiing we'll do for the season, and that is what we are REALLY here for, right!?!
We went up the hill and skied right up until 6:00 when they closed. I called Kyle's Mom to meet up for the kid exchange and had told Gracie's Mom we would have her back by 8. That meant we still had enough time for dinner at the resort. Well . . . we didn't quit make it back to Anchorage by 8:00. I ended up visiting with Kyle's parents for a while in the beer garden while the kids got their faces painted. I then offered to take all the kids out for pizza at the resort. Kyra decided to stay behind, so it was just the 4.
We dropped our gear, loaded in the car, and headed over to the Alyeska Prince Hotel. The hotel was unusually busy with people down for the weekend events. Our timing was good however, as the restaurant in the resort had a table open up right as we walked in. It was busy, so the pizza took about 30 minutes to get there, but the kids didn't seem to mind, and were quite entertaining as they told me about . . . "stuff". The four of us had a really nice conversation, and I really got to hear the "full story" about what is happening in their 4th grade class. It was funny to hear all about their social lives and who the good kids are, what the bad kids are up to, and who has crushes on who. We talked about music, what they wanted to be when they grew up, and favorite vacations. 30 minutes flew by as I learned all about the modern life of a 4th grader. Oh to be young . . . and have so few problems in the world.
Pizza was good, we were all hungry by then.
After pizza I took everyone out for ice-cream.
By this point it was 10. I called Kyle's Mom to let her know where we were, and Gracie's Mom actually called me just to check in. Kyle really wanted Gracie to stay the night in Girdwood at the cabin her parents were staying in for the weekend. At this point the plans were pretty fluid, we had already blown our initial time estimates anyway! We went over to the "cabin" to drop Kyle off and say goodbye to the parents before heading back to Anchorage. Yeah, well . . . I made the mistake of saying "Hello/goodbye" and accepting the offer of a beer whilst dropping off Kyle. One beer would have been fine to still head back, but I could feel the group getting their claws in me and cohering me to stay. I am the worst when it comes to peer pressure like that. It doesn't take much to convince me to hang out, especially when it is something fun, and there are interesting people. and then there was the offer of a Manhatten! That was it . . . we were staying. I don't even like hard liquor, but he party was just getting started and I didn't really want to drive home in the dark anyway. The cabin (house) was AMAZING, and Gracie was spending the night with Kyle anyway, so what the hey, Zach and I settled in for a fun night of socializing. I called Renee to let her know our plans. She didn't mind, as everyone was heading for bed at home anyway. So . . . Zach and I stayed up WAY to late, got to know some nice people, and had a great time!!
We managed to get to bed before the sun came up. This was my view from the bed that I got to sleep in. Loved the woodwork in the house!! The "cabin" was more of a mansion than a cabin. It had 5 bedrooms, a huge kitchen, valeted ceilings, movie room, plus it is walking distance from chair 5 at the base of the mountain. Nice to see how the "other half" live sometimes.
That morning Zach and I didn't want to wear out our welcome, so we helped clean up a bit, thanked our hosts, and headed home around 9:00.
It was snowing on the way out of Girdwood. We were hungry and I needed a cup of coffee ASAP, so we stopped at the Bake Shop on the way out of town and ate donuts in the car. All was well at the Huntman household upon our return and we spent the rest of the day running errands and getting ready for the week.
We had a wonderful time at the Slush Cup. The group was great, and Zach had a fun time with his friends outside of school. Sorry to say goodbye to winter, but looking forward to summer!! We met some nice new friends and I am looking forward to getting to know them better in the future. Weekend didn't quite go as I had expected, but it turned out better than I could have planned. Life is good!!
