Mission: Ski The East

...is coming to an end.

Stowe really is a ski town and I think because the whole city's economy depends on tourists they really planned the city around that. There are plenty of restaurants, free transit to the mountain resort and everyone is super friendly.

The ski resorts aren't half bad either - Jay Peak is still probably King of the East though. Driving an hour away from Stowe seems to make a huge difference in the ski conditions, but the bitter cold didn't change much though no matter where you went.



The only downer is that there isn't much of a night life in the so called town. Once the shuttle stops you gotta drive or hoof it to the restaurants, but that's a bit of a mission when its -10ºC at night. It could have been that we were there mid-week, but even the locals say the best chance for a party is in Burlington (I think the largest city in VT) but that's a good few miles kilometers away.

As a ski town, the resorts/villages are way less commercial/busy than say Whistler or Tremblant around the same time of the year (both Intrawest resorts (for the time being)), but we still managed to find some decent watering holes with some friendly people...



You can't see it but the person on the right had a kid in a booster seat on a bar stool next to them. Stay classy VT. Marcin almost got into a fight with New Yorker that night as well.

There are plenty of local grub and drink, and remember: if a super friendly fat store owner with a big beard takes the time to talk to you and recommends something, its probably good.



The 12% beer caused a bit of a train wreck because it tasted so good, but at least we heard the legend of it in person from that jolly guy I mentioned...and it was brewed just down the street.

One other thing about being a Canadian visiting the States is that people from the States seem like they are sure are proud of being in the States. You gotta remember that this area is pretty touristy and there are people from all over coming to ski. So when some kid at the Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop comments,"Wow you can buy a sundae with 3 liters of ice cream in it", but then some adult shouts, "Liters?! What?! This is America!" at him you would think that he could have been a little friendlier about it.





All in all though VT treated us pretty well and I wouldn't mind coming back for Jay Peak since its just as far as Tremblant. The drive is pretty brutal but at least it was pretty easy (for me) and I wouldn't mind doing it again.

Now that the "skiing" portion of the vacation is pretty much over the sports portion continues with the UFC and Super Bowel Bowl and more excessive-ness.