Month: September 2007

Although I’d heard of Smugglers’ Notch and knew it was a ski resort in Vermont, I had no idea it was a year-round family-oriented resort. Even after reading the website and brochures, I was still surprised at how much the resort tries to be a truly “family” destination, with something for everybody.

Part of our vacation package** included day camp for the kids. It seemed a little strange to be sending them off to spend the day without us! I was a little worried, too, about sending each boy off with a separate, age-appropriate group as they’ve been together all summer long and I was worried especially Simon would balk about being left alone with strangers.

I needn’t have worried. Both boys went off to join their respective groups without a backward glance. Frankly, I think they might have been glad to get away from each other, and from us as well. Beloved and I, too, quickly adapted to our child-free status with a leisurely breakfast bagel at the Green Mountain Deli (yum!) before heading off to join our Segway class and tour.

Ahhh, the Segway. I *loved* the Segway! There were five of us in a little tour group, one other set of parents from New Jersey and a girl of maybe 17 or so. (You have to be 12 years and older to join the Segway tours.) We had a quick orientation session with Bruce, the owner and operator of the Segway tour at Smuggs, who also runs a program for the day camp specializing in video production. (Bruce is one cool guy!)

Although I’d heard of the Segways and seen them on TV, I’d never seen one in person. They’re way wicked cool, and more fun than I had even imagined! The Segway has an internal gyroscope that keeps you balanced on its two wheels, so when you first step on it, you can feel it shifting back and forth as it searches for and accomodates your centre of gravity. You go forward by leaning forward, and slow down and stop by leaning backwards. (You can read more about them on the official Segway website.) In the “first generation” Segways that we were using, you turn by twisting one handgrip, but the newer ones you lean to the direction you want to turn. They also have four different keys that allow you a progressively higher speed as you get more comfortable with the machine. After a just a couple of minutes’ practice, we were already on the second key, which allowed us to go a breezy 6 miles per hour, and we set off on our tour.

I kid you not, I took to that thing like a duck to water. Me, the ungraceful klutz with the bulging belly to offset my already precarious centre of gravity! (Fryman, stop laughing. It’s TRUE!) I was a natural on that Segway, zipping along happily at maximum speed at the head of the group while the others trailed behind, searching for their own personal comfort zone. At one point, cackling madly as I zipped down a trail, I turned back to throw a glowing grin over my shoulder at Beloved and had to laugh at his rather pinched facial expression, which clearly showed a markedly lower level of enthusiasm. (But as we moved along the tour, I could see him quickly acclimatizing to it.)

Bruce took us on a six mile loop (across more than 1200 feet of elevation changes!) around the outskirts and various communities of the resort. By the time we were on our final key, the Segway’s top speed was a peppy 12 miles per hour, which I figure converts to at least 90 km per hour or so, based on the wind in my face and my relative exhileration. Okay, so not quite that fast, but I was traveling at a darn good clip when I opened that puppy up on a nice straight stretch!

Bruce would stop us every now and then to allow everyone to catch up, and to chat with us about everything from the philosophy behind the Segways to the history of Smuggs and the mountains around us. (The stopping was as much fun as the going. Rather than just resting in place, you can rock the Segway gently back and forth, spin in place, or make happy little loops around your husband and his Segway.) Bruce did a nice job of tying the environmental message of a sustainable resource like the Segway with the environmentally protectionist philosophy of the resort. Frankly, he was just a personable and interesting guy to spend some time with, Segways or no.

By the time the tour wrapped up, Beloved and I were both on a wicked adrenaline rush. Late for our lunch date with Karen, part of Smuggs’ PR team, we chattered excitedly about maybe arranging for a second tour that afternoon, or ditching the kids the next day so we could rent a couple of Segways for an hour or two. It was that much fun.

I don’t know if everyone at Smuggs is as friendly and personable as are Karen and Bruce, but they sure make a great couple of ambassadors for the resort. Our lunch with Karen stretched on for a leisurely two hours as we chatted about Smuggs, blogging, family vacations and the world at large. She told us that as a ski resort, it’s been around for more than 50 years, but in recent years has really focused on both its summer and winter appeal as a destination for families. I was surprised to hear that Smuggs was around 2/3 capacity on the weekend we were there, because it had a wonderfully spacious and uncrowded feel to it, and the only place we ever waited in line was to check in or out.

After our lazy lunch with Karen, we hiked back up the mountain the short distance to our condo – just enough of a hike to wind us on our full bellies. We had enough time for a quick nap – ahh, what a life! – back at the condo before we had to pick up the boys from daycamp. I wish we’d had more time to enjoy the hiking and walks that Smuggs offers. We simply ran out of weekend before we got to do half the things we would have liked to try.

Coming up next: the canoe trip that seemed like a good idea at the time.

**Disclosure: I was offered a complimentary visit to Smugglers’ Notch Resort after Smugg’s PR folks read my Ottawa to Bar Harbor posts earlier this summer. Our condo and all activities were complimentary but in no way conditional on a favourable review.

We’re freshly back from our weekend getaway to Smugglers’ Notch Resort in Vermont.**

First of all, I’m thinking of ditching my career as a public servant and joining the professional Segway tour. What, they don’t have one? Seriously, this has been one of the best summers of my life, and the best 90 minutes of an amazing weekend during a fabulous summer may just have been those spent zipping around Smugglers’ Notch Resort on this Segway. Who knew – turns out I’m a natural! But more on that later…

We got off to a slow start. We were about an hour late leaving Ottawa, and had to turn back after 15 minutes when our first portable DVD player crapped out on us. (I think there was a short in the adapter.) So we turned around and went back to get our backup DVD player, which crapped out on us outside of Montreal, about 1/3 of the way into the trip. Then we chose Autoroute 20 instead of Autoroute 40 to get through Montreal, which I’m sure added another 45 minutes to our trip.

Despite the fact that I had ground my molars into a fine powder by the time we reached the Canada-US border, the rest of the trip was so gorgeous – through pastoral countryside, alongside winding streams through charming small towns and up into the Green Mountains – that I had once again achieved inner peace (or at least unclenched my jaws) by the time we arrived at Smuggs about five hours after we left.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the condo we stayed it superceded just about anything I could have possibly imagined. First of all, it was HUGE! We took one look around and almost called Granny and Papa Lou back in Ottawa to tell them to pack a bag and get down to Vermont to join us – there was more than enough room to share, and it was immaculately clean. The living room, bigger than ours at home, had a gas fireplace, a sectional sofa that pulled out into a double bed, and a dining room table that would comfortably seat eight people.

Lookit all the windows!

The second bedroom had two single beds AND a double bed. (I’m sprawled on the double as I take this photo.)

The master bedroom had a king size bed and its own ensuite with a whirlpool bath.

There were four(!) TVs placed strategically through the condo, including one perched on a shelf high above the whirlpool tub… perfect for a leisurely soak while watching COPS – or, erm, whatever else you might want to watch on a Saturday evening.

It was late in the afternoon by the time we finished wandering openmouthed around the condo, waiting for someone to leap out with a camera and say, “Surprise, we were just kidding you. You really think we’d give you all this for FREE**? Hah! Not friggin’ likely!” Nobody did, and so we set off to do a little bit of exploring of the resort itself.

Smuggs is sprawled over the base of three mountains: Madonna, Morse and Sterling. There are several ‘communities’ of condos, some owned outright, others owned and rented out through the resort. The condo we stayed in was in the Sycamore group in the West Hill community, and had its own pool and playground adjacent to the condos.

It didn’t take us long to find the Funmeister’s Clubhouse, a small arcade with video games, ping pong tables and the boys’ new favourite summer pastime, air hockey.

Smuggs has no less than eight pools and four waterslides! On that first afternoon, we tried the Mountainside Pool with its Little Smugglers’ Lagoon, a shallow pool (not quite waist-deep on the boys) with caves for exploring and spraying fountains.

Since the condo’s kitchen was better stocked with cookware and tools than my kitchen at home (including a glass-topped range, dishwasher, blender, toaster and – wait for it – en suite washer and dryer!) we could have easily just made dinner back at the condo. But, of course, we didn’t. Instead, we dined on pizza and pasta at Riga Bello’s, one of several restaurants at Smuggs. Given that it was cafeteria-style counter service at resort prices, it was a surprisingly good meal that the boys actually ate. Nothing like fresh air to stimulate the appetite!

So how do you end a day like this? With Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, of course.

Can you believe I was a Ben and Jerry’s virgin before this trip? After sampling Simon’s chunky monkey (it’s as if they named it after him!), Beloved’s chocolate chip cookie dough, and his own chocolate, Tristan voted my berry sorbet to be the best flavour of the lot.

And all that was just the first six hours!!

Coming next: Segway tours, day camps, and the world’s longest canoe trip…

**Disclosure: I was offered a complimentary visit to Smugglers’ Notch Resort after Smugg’s PR folks read my Ottawa to Bar Harbor posts earlier this summer. Our condo and all activities were complimentary but in no way conditional on a favourable review.