surfing in the snow

This winter won't bring us down! This past weekend, the surf report actually looked good, so I mentally committed to DOING IT. Fortunately, Ruth and a bunch of other ladies were also planning on going, so she offered her condo as a meeting and changing spot. She is truly awesome! It turned out to be such a blast. On Saturday, the waves were good, so a ton of people came out. It took me a while to adjust to the freezing water and the heavy gear, so I didn't surf great; wiped out a ton, embarrassed myself plenty, and caught maybe two. But who cares! I was just stoked that I made it out, and I have to admit that I felt pretty bad ass trudging through shin-high snow to the surf. And it was so nice to change in Ruth's warm place and eat pizza instead of shivering on the boardwalk and then huddling in Dunkin Donuts like a hobo. We had so much fun that I left my board and her place and went out again on Sunday. Liz and I had a whole jetty to ourselves, and although the waves were much smaller, it was still fun and I caught a handful of little ones. The best part was when we were heading back to the condo, I hopped over a fence and face-planted into the snow. Ha. All in all, a rad time, and it was nice meeting so many inspirational and like-minded folks. I love people who just go for it!

snowboarding Windham

Since there's no end in sight to this brutal winter, we decided to make lemonade out of the lemons: Last Thursday, Gretchen, Amanda, and I decided to do an impromptu snowboarding trip up to Windham. It was so fun! There was a ton of fresh powder (my board even did that squeaky noise on turns), and I even felt like I kind of knew what I was doing. Since Gretchen is badass, she took off on the moguls while Amanda and I did a little refresher on the green and then advanced to the blues. The runs were pretty empty, and the snow-capped branches looked like white lace against a brilliant blue sky. It was just the little shot of sun and adventure that I needed in my week!

New Orleans!

Early in January, Erik and I were fed up with the incessant snow and sub-freezing temperatures. So when I spotted a cheap fare (less than $300 each!) to New Orleans, we impulsively booked a long weekend on the spot. Such a good decision. We had the best time, and it was such a fun break from the dreary winter.


Man, what a cool city. It has such colorful architecture and gorgeous wrought iron. I joked that everyone we met came straight from central casting, with either a genteel James Carville-like drawl ("'scuse me, pah-dner") or down-home clip. Everywhere you turned, there was someone playing music, dancing, or doing a magic trick. That's partly because we stayed smack dab in the French Quarter, at the lovely and centrally located Omni Hotel. There was a rooftop heated pool, and one morning I did laps while the city was waking up. It was blissful to soak up the sunshine and views!


We didn't have an agenda or itinerary, which was refreshing. Mostly, we ate and drank. Of course, we went to Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets, which pretty much taste like State Fair fried dough to me. (Yum!) We had shrimp and oyster po boys at Johnny's and Mother's, as well as fried alligator and turtle soup. One memorable meal was at Nola, one of Emeril's restaurants, where Erik had the shrimp and grits and I had lots of wine and gumbo.


But perhaps our favorite bite of the trip was the muffuletta at Central Grocery. It's an Italian sandwich topped with olive salad on a thick round bread in exactly the right proportions of meat to salty to soft. Erik was so obsessed that we had it three times in as many days! He also made up a song about the muffuletta that we sang all weekend.


When we weren't eating, we pretty much explored. One day, we rented bikes and cruised all over town, heading up to the Garden District to look at the stately homes and crumbling cemetery. Of course, Erik also insisted on going to a bunch of men's clothing stores to do research for work; I paid him back by making him pose for lots of pictures and dragging him to street fairs. Hands down, my favorite part of the trip was shaking off the winter grumpiness and laughing my head off with my favorite guy.


In conclusion, dear reader, New Orleans makes for the perfect wintertime getaway. It's quite affordable, and there's plenty to do, see, and eat in three days!