Ski Bus Trip Jan 10th, 2025

By Karen McFarlane from Jan 17th, 2025

On the bright, cold early evening of January 10, 2025, 24 hearty souls boarded the Miramar luxury limousine (aka bus) for a wonderful trip up to the lodge. 6 equally hearty souls were already ensconced in the lodge. At the helm was our driver, Mike, filling in for Al, who had the nerve to be spending the weekend working in sunny, warm Florida, instead of freezing his patooties off with the rest of us. Our trip leader was Blythe, ably assisted by Kaz as staff and SIT’s Laura and Alan – on his first trip as an official member!!.

We woke up Saturday morning to a balmy temperature of 15 degrees, plus the sight of beautiful snow, drifting down upon the trees, meadows and mountains. We all had a lovely day of packed powder skiing, followed by a fabulous happy hour, during which Bill Bernsten stopped in directly from his world tour to say hello. As usual, our chef, Matt, prepared a spectacular dinner of vegetable soup, salad and rolls freshly warm out of the oven, followed by giant sized slabs of delicious chicken parmesan, creamy pasta, succulent squash (I’m guessing a lot of butter and garlic,,,???!!!) and chocolate pudding cake for dessert. The evening’s entertainment was a rousing game of left, right, center with 14 participants and a lot of spectators. Ethan Strell emerged as the victor, coming home with $39, which he generously decided to donate to… oh well, maybe I got that wrong…!!!

As is lately sometimes the case, Miramar apparently did not shtup the Killington overlords enough, so we were not granted a parking pass for our bus for Sunday. Instead, after another 4 star breakfast by Matt, we had dropoffs/pickups at both Sugarbush and Mount Ellen. Everyone had a great time in the frosty 18 degree weather, which included gale force winds at Mt. Ellen (note to self: next time, check the weather conditions before saying, “oh, it doesn’t seem windy, so I won’t wear my facemask…!!!”). With everyone safely packed up on the bus, we proceeded home. At our happy hour, we had a Miramar innovation (so hard to come by sometimes…): Janice decided to eschew making the usual bottle of screwdrivers and, instead, surprised us all with Tequila Sunrise, which went down very handily and was much appreciated by all!! This was followed by our delicious dinner, carefully curated by chef Daniel Boulud at the gourmet kitchens of Panera.

A lovely time was had by all and it was discovered by some (and secretly known by others) that when the bus parks on 24th. St. to avoid the cops, we can actually enter through the 24th. St. door to get to our locker. Thanks again to Blythe and her crew for a great weekend!!