After taking a couple of days off of work, we were all really excited for our long weekend on the west coast of Newfoundland. We woke up early Thursday morning to start the trip since we had about a 6 or 7 hour drive ahead of us. It actually took us longer than we expected because we ended up stopping at every place along the way for multiple coffee breaks, food breaks, and of course pee breaks. I swear I’m worse than a child on road trips having to stop every hour.
We also stopped at the two most important places before getting to our final destination; the grocery store and, of course, the liquor store. Not knowing we’d be spending the next few days inside with nothing really else to do, now looking back, stocking up on those essentials (alcohol definitely counts as an essential when you’re cozying it up with friends, right?) beforehand turned out to be the wisest decision we’d make the entire time. Unfortunately there weren’t too many good decisions made after this point though!!
We spent our 3 nights in a two bedroom chalet at the Humber Valley Resort. It turned out to be the perfect little spot for the four of us. The place was fully equipped with everything we needed, although we did end up taking our own Keurig machine just to be on the safe side! Major essential! Oh the things coffee addicts will do! We each also had our own huge bedroom and bathroom with jacuzzi tubs, which was definitely a nice touch.
Since it was late that evening when we arrived, we just put on a couple of pizzas and ended the night with some drinks and board games…a theme that would continue throughout the next couple of days!
It had been 5 years since myself and Todd had been skiing at Marble Mountain, so we had been looking forward to hitting the slopes ever since we decided to make the trip. On our first morning there, with sleep still in my eyes, I immediately rolled over, grabbed my phone and checked the ski conditions. When I read the mountain was closed due to the weather conditions, my mouth dropped! But after getting some breakfast and waiting around for a couple of hours, the ski hill decided to open again so we all suited up as quickly as we could and were on the mountain by noon.
After about an hour skiing in some windy and snowy conditions, we were then given the bad news that they were closing again. In fact, at this point, the whole town was shutting down because of the weather. So, back to our chalet again it was.
Being stuck inside on a snow storm with friends and a fridge full of “essentials” in the early part of the day made for quite an interesting night! By the time dinner time had rolled around, we had turned the simplest of board games into drinking games. Trivial Pursuit, Battle of the Sexes, Bounce Off, you name it, we found a way! The rules are really easy actually – you win, you make someone else drink, you lose and you drink.
So needless to say, our plan of getting up and out the door early the next morning fell through…a lot! But after a slow start and forcing ourselves to pull through, we dressed back up in our snow gear and headed out to find some snowmobiles to rent for the day. We should have known that on such a beautiful day, and with the entire town being shut down the day before, we were going to be completely out of luck. And so we were.
The four of us sat in the truck for the next little while debating about what our plan was going to be. At this point, skiing wasn’t much of an option considering we’d only get about two hours in. Since we were all out of winter activity suggestions (and still a little under the weather, might I add), we decided the most logical and practical thing was to find somewhere that served homemade french fries! Ha!!
After a hardy meal, we ended up going back to the chalet where some of us took a nap and some of us decided to take advantage of the jacuzzi. I was in the later group! The rest of the evening was spent watching reruns of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ (another theme that was carried throughout the trip), and we never left again only to go to the closest store because we had run out of junk food! Are you sensing another common theme?
The next day it was time to go back home. We all agreed that we’d push the drive off a little later so we could get skiing for a couple of hours because after all, that was the main reason for this entire trip!! And that was the only thing we actually got right over those last few days – we were packed with the vehicle loaded and the chalet cleaned and on the road to Marble Mountain by 9am. It was a beautiful day and we were all happy to be out in the fresh air again! The cabin fever was officially over!!
In the early afternoon we were on our way back home, and there were a lot less coffee and food breaks this time. Of course there were still a few pee breaks!! We made it home just in time to go straight to bed for work the next morning.
Lessons learned:
– Allow yourself enough time in case of bad weather and hangovers!
– But it’s probably best to avoid the hangover at all costs!
– Make sure you’re stocked up on the essentials and that you have good company if things don’t go according to plan!
– You can always make the best out of any situation!
Until next time.
