Ski Heavenly, California

So we pulled the kids out of school last week and took off for Heavenly, a beautiful ski resort that straddles California and Nevada at the southern end of Lake Tahoe.

View of Lake Tahoe from the Tram

Riding the tram from the California Lodge base

View of Lake Tahoe from Skyline Trail

The Comet Express Chair

We found this resort to be absolutely fantastic.  First off, it is one of the largest ski resorts in the U.S., with 4800 acres of terrain.  It has 4 separate base areas; two in California and two in Nevada.  Click HERE for a detailed trail map.  From almost every run, there are stunning views of Lake Tahoe or the Nevada desert.

View from Mott Canyon looking towards Nevada desert

Glade skiing in Powderbowl Woods

View from Gunbarrel Express chair

The mountain has large, well-marked trail signs throughout the resort and we loved the trail maps found imprinted on the safety bars of many chairlifts!

Entrance to the Pinnacles Run

Easy to read signs

Lodges/restaurants are scattered throughout the mountain, so you can always find a good meeting spot.  Tamarack Lodge, a 15,000 square foot lodge located near the top of the gondola, even offers snow tubing, sledding, snow-shoeing, and snow bikes for rent.  Click HERE for more information.  East Peak lodge (Nevada) and Sky Deck (California) both have large outdoor grills for BBQ or exotic burgers respectively.

Outdoor deck and grill at East Peak Lodge

Exotic grilled burgers at Sky Deck

There are so many trails/terrain parks for all levels of skier and boarder, making it a great family destination.  The snow was light, fluffy and abundant (five feet of new snow during our stay!).  We particularly loved the variety of glade skiing throughout the resort and the double black runs at Mott Canyon are a great challenge for expert skiers.   Killebrew Canyon looked too daunting for us to even try!

One of the gate entrances to Mott Canyon

 

My daughter entering Mott Canyon

Milky Way Bowl

There are many accommodations nearby.  Click HERE to view lodging options.  We choose to rent a house about 10 minutes drive from the California Lodge base.  This worked out perfectly for us and gave us plenty of room to stretch out and relax, for less cost than a hotel.  We found the house on Homeaway.com.

As for apres-ski, we are a family that skis hard all day and goes to bed early (boring!).  But we noticed the shops and open-air ice skating rink at the base of the Gondola, and the Fire and Ice restaurant (also at the Gondola base) was recommended to us as a fun dining experience.  Of course, there are also the casinos that on the Nevada side.

Open air skating at the Gondola base (photo courtesy of www.skiheavenly.com)

Select your own ingredients and the Fire and Ice Restaurant will cook your meal on an enormous grill (photo courtesy of www.fire-ice.com)

Some tips if you go:  From the California side, you can take the Sky Express chair up to the top and then ski the Skyline Trail (a rather flat cat track) over to Nevada.  But be warned; this chair is sometimes closed if there are high winds and this chair is the ONLY way to ski from the California side to the Nevada side.  Skiing from the Nevada side to California is somewhat easier via the California Trail run (accessible from more than one lift).  Free shuttle buses do run between all the base lodges.

Parking at the California Lodge base is ample; some of the other other base lodges have more limited parking.  However, descending back down to the California Lodge parking lot at the end of the day takes a little planning:  you can take expert runs down to the base, or a cat track run called Roundabout (labeled a blue run but it was fairly flat).  Another option is to ride the tram back down to the base, or you can descend down on the Gunbarrel Express chair.

Similarly, the Gondola base lodge (on the California side) requires that you ride the gondola up from the lake shore to the main part of the mountain and ride it back down at the end of the day (you cannot ski down to the Gondola base lodge).

In contrast, the Boulder and Stagecoach base lodges (on the Nevada side) are more skier-accessible, with wide groomer runs back down to these base lodges.

Finally, consider buying your lift tickets in advance online--great savings.

And for those of you craving some more local flavor and steep runs, try skiing at nearby Kirkwood.

My son about to drop off a cornice at Kirkwood

The Wave run at Kirkwood

The author received no compensation, discounts or products in exchange for writing this post.

Ski Jumping in Salisbury, CT

From February 22-26, the Junior Olympics in Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined will be held at Satre Hill in Salisbury, CT and at Mohawk Mountain in Cornwall, CT.  This is your chance to see top young athletes soar over 200 feet into the air and try to stick a landing wearing tremendously long skis!

long skis!

great form!

it's a long way down!

This is the 85th year of ski jumping in Salisbury at Satre Hill and it is the first time that the Salisbury Winter Sports Association will play host to the Junior Olympics in ski jumping on its new Olympic-grade 65 meter ski jump, the only one of its size on the East coast.

Jumpers start at the very top of the ramp

Get ready, get set. . .

Go!

We visited Salisbury last weekend for its three-day Jumpfest, which comprises the U.S. Eastern Championships in ski jumping and is the final selection event for the Eastern Junior Olympic team.  Here's a little taste of what you can expect to see at the Junior Olympics.





The Junior Olympic events run Tuesday through Saturday, February 22-26, and  will include separate individual and team scoring jumping competitions and cross-country ski races for the Nordic Combined titles. Nordic Combined adds a cross-country ski race to jump results to determine winners. Nordic events will take place at the Mohawk Ski Area in nearby Cornwall. Click HERE for a complete schedule.

So grab a cowbell and come cheer on the athletes!  Admission to the ski jumping at Satre Hill is $10 for adults.  Children age 12 and under are free.  There are a few bleachers, or you can bring a folding chair (most people chose to stand when we visited last weekend).  A food shack will serve hot food and drinks every day starting at 10:00am.

 

Satre Hill is located on Indian Cave Road, off Route 44 in Salisbury, CT.  Click HERE for a map.  Signs in the center of Salisbury point the way to parking areas.

The author received no compensation, discounts or products in exchange for writing this post.

Cookware and Cooking Classes at Chef Central

Chef Central is located in Hartsdale, New York and is quite an amazing store.  Here you will find over 21,000 square feet of pots, pans, whisks, deli slicers, and just about anything the aspiring home cook could ever want.

45 S. Central Ave., Hartsdale, NY

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Glassware, cookware, cutlery, chef's clothing, cooking tools, bakeware, spices, oils, books, you name it and you'll probably find it here.

Whisks galore!

Glassware and china

A row of cast iron skillets

We had loads of fun roaming through the aisles and discovering all sorts of kitchen gadgets.

Egg separators

Rolling pins

French dragees and sugar crystals

The store also offers an endless schedule of cooking classes in their large in-store kitchen.  There are classes for kids, teens and adults, and even teens cooking camps in the summer!   This month's classes include sushi-making classes for adults, mini-valentines cakes for kids, a bread workshop for adults, cake decorating for teens, cooking a Valentine's dinner for couples, knife skills for adults, and many, many other classes.  Click HERE for a complete listing and registration information.

Classes are held at the in-store kitchen

Another shot of the kitchen counter area

Chef Central is a fun store for aspiring chefs, both young and old! 

The author received no compensation, discounts or products in exchange for writing this post.

Kids' Night on Broadway

Now is the time to head into New York City and take your kids to a show.  Kids' Night on Broadway offers deeply discounted tickets to Broadway shows, from Feb 6-10.

kidsnightonbroadway.com

For the price of one regular ticket, kids (ages 6-18) attend a show for free!  At the time of this posting, there were still tickets available for The Addams Family,  Mary Poppins, American Idiot, Billy Elliot, Chicago, Driving Miss Daisy, Good People, Jersey Boys, La Cage aux Folles, Lombardi, Mamma Mia, Memphis, Million Dollar Quartet, Phantom of the Opera, RAIN: the Beatles Tribute, and Spider Man.

Simply go to the Kids' Night on Broadway website and follow the links to purchase tickets using a particular promotional code.  Tickets must be purchased in multiples of two, one for an adult  and one for a child.  Each ticket will print out at half price, indicating your discount.  So I was able to purchase two tickets to Mary Poppins for the price of one:

Two seats in the orchestra section for the price of one.

Granted, a lot of the showtimes are on Superbowl Sunday, or on a weeknight in the evening, which is awkward and can be difficult with school schedules.  But here's an added bonus that might sweeten the deal: there are several participating restaurants that are offering a free entree for each child accompanied by an adult who purchases a regularly priced entree.  For a list of participating restaurants, click HERE.

In addition, there are some fun events running in conjunction with Kids' Night on Broadway, including discounts at Bowlmor Times Square and free admission for kids to Madame Tussaud's.  Click HERE for details.

There is even a flat rate parking discount of $10-15 for Kids' Night participants.  Click HERE for details.

So if you were ever considering taking the kids to a Broadway show, this might be a perfect time to do it!

The author received no compensation, discounts or products in exchange for writing this post.