Ten Years After – Volume 3 – Home Sweet Home

Chapter 11 – Big Bear Mountain – Day 3 

Saturday morning, was an unusual morning. Bette woke up at day break and went to the kitchen to make coffee. She looked out the back and noticed there was quite a bit snow accumulation. The foot prints which Daniel on the had made just after dinner had been covered over with fresh snow. There would be no hiking today. There would be no electric bike riding either. If they had their snow suits and some cardboard for a make shift sled, they may have slid down the hill only to climb back up and repeat the process. But the clothes they had would be soaked with a trip or two.  Hardly worth the effort Bette thought.

Bette saw the world was now white with pristine snow. It had been a while since she and the family had been on a winter vacation where there was snow. They had gone to Vermont one year during the Christmas Break and to Vail once with Helena and Dylan. The children were young then. Daniel was about 5 years old and Angie was 14. They had fun. Angie more so than Daniel as she had a crush on her ski instructor. Daniel had been placed in a class of similar age kids and they could out ski any adult around. Daniel said that he was constantly stopping to check on people who had fallen on their skis and asking if he could help. When he was out of ear shot, Tina had commented: “That’s just what a 30-year-old beginning skier wants is a 5-year-old skiing up after you fallen on your ass and making the perfect hockey stop and asking, if he can help. That is kind of humiliating.”  Bette had thought: leave it to Daniel to be the gentleman. All he needed was a Saint Bernard with a flash of whiskey.

Bette and Tina were moderate skiers. They loved it, but they found that the resorts were rather crowded during the school breaks and making reservation and wrangling children was a lot of work. And in recent years, the Rockies had very little snow and Vermont was experiencing a very short season. So, they chose other destinations.