We had a lot of fun, but truthfully (and this seems to be the case a lot recently), it’s good to be home!
We had rented a 7 room chalet in the little village of Le Bettaix, situated just below the ski town of Les Menuires, a part of the large ski resort of “Les 3 Vallées” in France, the largest ski resort in the world with over 600 km (410 miles) of ski slopes. We were joined by a whole group of friends, including my sister Tori, my cousin Leah (pronounced Lia :), my friends Brian and Lynn, Robert and Joanda, Joanekke, and Jeroen. Also joining us all the way from the States was my good friend Martha, who brought along her boyfriend Adam and their friends Ray and Julie.
We started on our 1,100 km (700 miles) journey at 6.30pm on a Friday night by picking up Noa from the daycare and Joanekke from her house. Both Margreet and Noa were suffering from the stomach bug, and Joanekke had a bit of a cough, so we weren’t off to the best of starts. We had planned to stop somewhere halfway and stay at a roadside motel to make the trip easier, and we were planning to make good use of our portable DVD player and newly purchased Dora The Explorer DVD’s! By 1.30am, we had found a hotel about two thirds of the way there and settled down for the night.
On Saturday morning, we made our way up the mountain with (it seemed) millions of other winter sport holiday makers. In Europe, people tend to go on a week-long ski vacation, whereas in the US (according to my memory), we tended to go for a few days or a long weekend, and typically, you book accommodation from a Saturday to a Saturday. Therefore, Saturdays tend to be very busy on the roads leading up and down the mountain, and this time was no exception.
However, we did make it by sunset and managed to find the chalet and even managed to go shopping for some food as our friends started to arrive.
Pictures of chalet:
On Sunday, we rented our skis and headed for the slopes. As usual, I had a hard time finding ski boots that fit well, and I only had a few hours of skiing before my shins were hurting too badly that I just had to go back to the ski shop and get new ones. I think that I will invest in my own ski boots at the end of the season. Hopefully, I'll find some good deal :). The first day of skiing was absolutely wonderful (apart from the pain). The sun was out and it was rather warm, but there was a lot of snow. On Monday and Tuesday, however, the weather had turned a lot colder and wintery. It was snowing heavily, and as you climbed to the higher slopes, the conditions were quite blizzardly. I had taken Robert, Jeroen and Brian up to one of the top slopes of the mountains, and it was a scene from a National Geographic Himalayan Expidition - very cold, very windy and very snowy. The run was a red one, but it was a little bit icy, so it ran a bit more difficult. I was well bundled up, so it wasn't such a problem for me, but poor Jeroen only had his hat with earflaps and his goggles, so his whole lower part of his face was exposed and looked like it was going to fall off from frostbite. Luckily, he toughed it out and we made an hour long ski ride all the way down the mountain.
Another time, I was skiing with Robert, Jeroen and Joanekke in very cold wintery conditions, and I noticed that we were always waiting for Joanekke. Then I noticed that Joanekke was only wearing sunglasses, while we were wearing ski goggles. I also noticed icycles forming around her eyebrows, but she didn't complain at all, just made her way slowly down the mountain. Feeling galant, I offered her my goggles. What a mistake! Skiing only 20 seconds in her glasses was pure torture! Biting cold around the eyes and snow getting into them! Now I understand why she wasn't going that fast: the faster you went, the more painful it was. The nearest ski shop was at the bottom of the hill, and there was no way I was giving back her sunglasses, so I (tried to) bite my tongue and make our way down the mountain. I have to give it up for Joanekke, she's more of a man than I am - I couldn't stop complaining! At the bottom of the mountain, and Joanekke 40 Euros poorer, we enjoyed a nice drink (hot spiced wine) and I enjoyed having my goggles back!
Some pictures of the mountains:
Margreet and I atop the mountain
Margreet, Joanda, Robert and Jeroen taking a well-deserved break
Leah and Tori
In the chalet after a long day of skiing, how nice is it that we had our own indoor jacuzzi and sauna, which was put in good use by all of us every day! A bit of a shame that the water wasn't so hot, but not cold enough to stop us! On a few days, though, I really needed hot water to sooth my thigh muscles, so I forwent the jacuzzi and used the nice whirltub in our bathroom. Ahhhhh. Lucky for me, I have a short memory and can forget what happened on the second night of our stay. Margreet and Noa were having a bath together, as they do every-so-often, when Margreet noticed Noa having a concentrated look on her face. As she asked Noa if she needed to go poo, Margreet noticed a little brown log floating by. Then came the diarrhea. You have never seen Margreet get out of the bath so quickly! It seemed that they got out unscathed (so-to-speak), but I guess that cleaning the bathtub comes under daddy's duties (lucky me!).
But we were in fact very lucky as we had a lot of willing Noa-sitters, including Tori, Leah and Lynn who all took their turns to stay in the chalet with her. They also took her out to the snow on the sled with she enjoyed quite a bit. She also looked very cute in her oversized snow outfit, I almost confused her with a telletubby!
Margreet with Noa
Leah with Noa
Leah and Noa on sled
Lynn and Noa on sled
In the evenings back at the chalet, I tried to get a poker tournament started. In the end, we had a tournament on 4 of the evenings (compared to almost everyday on the other ski vacations). The first one was our most populous one, with 11 players, then twice with 10 players, and then, on the last night, only 6 of us hardcore players played. The first tournament was won by Leah who beat Joanda for her first ever ski vacation tournament win! (Go Leah!). The next day, Joanda beat Jeroen heads-up to add another notch in her consistently strong showing. The next day, Robert beat Jeroen in a game where Robert was down to the felt at one point and had to make quite a comeback to take it. The last night was one by yours truly (me!). I had to beat Brian to finally win a ski vacation poker tournament. This was quite a momentous occasion for me - in that although I'm a professional poker player (and the only pro poker player on the ski vacation), this is the first time I have ever won a ski vacation poker tournament! The last hand was quite memorable: we were three players left, with only 2 spots getting paid. I had the biggest stack, followed by Brian, then Joanda. Then I get pocket Aces on the button and raise. Brian gets Jacks in the small blind and reraises. Joanda has pocket Queens on the big blind and calls. Well, natually I go all-in and get called in both spots. The board comes all low cards and history is made! Next up: World Series of Poker! Margreet, one of the stronger poker players in the group caught a few unlucky breaks but managed to come in 3rd place twice and bubble once (bubble is the poker term for the last player to be eliminated before the money).
Some hardcore poker action (and softcore scrabble action too!):
On Wednesday, we were joined by my in-laws, Riek and Jan, who drove the 6 hours from their second home in Le Morvan in central France to spend the night and take Noa with them, so that Margreet and I could enjoy a few days without Noa, sleeping in and skiing together, which was VERY appreciated! Thanks again Riek and Jan!
The last few days were back the warmer sunnier conditions, with a lot of snow from the previous few days to ski on! Luckily our injuries were minor, with Joanda suffering a shoulder strain on the first day, but was back out by Tuesday. A few sore knees and burnt faces, but overall, nothing serious. The last day saw me out of action due to the stomach bug that also caught Leah.
A few more random pictures:
Radioactive Leah
Joanda enjoying her birthday cake (prepared by Tori)
Tori showing off her moves
Me with Margreet, Leah and Tori (guess who didn't use sunscreen?)
Noa looking cute (as usual)
Me ruining a perfect picture of Martha and Adam
Then on Saturday, after a long week of skiing, it was time to head home. This time, we were headed to Le Morvan to spend the night at my in-laws and pick up Noa, then drive all day Sunday to arrive home at 6.00pm. Oh, it's so nice to be home!
For those whose appetite for pictures was not quenched in this blog post, feel free to browse all 200 pictures of the 400+ collected by Brian from everyone and posted to his Flickr account.
Click to see all pictures
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