Today Kaitlyn skipped ski school to spend the day with Mom and Dad. She said that was what she wanted. We think she’s bored at the ski school. Yesterday when Bill picked her up, the teacher said that she had just goofed off all day with Tess and Zoey. What we’ve seen of it, the school they insisted on putting her in isn’t as challenging as the one she’s done in France. We thought about signing her up for private lessons, but decided instead to move her to a different of these Mickey Mouse ski gardens. There are three and the one closest to our hotel is the lamest. We’ve moved her to one that has a small butt tow and an actual hill to ski down. Of course, they say they won’t put her in the level above the stupid lame ski garden until they get a chance to see her, but right off the bat they seemed more reasonable and at least said they’d evaluate her.
So, since she didn’t go to ski school today, it was her day to pick what we did together. First we went ice skating. That’s the winter sport I can do better than Bill can. Kaitlyn did really well; I think that the roller skating lessons this fall at school deserve the credit. They had contraptions that are kinda like walkers for skaters that she could push and use for balance, but she actually found she did better without it. I would have liked to have skated longer than we did, but man, did my feet hurt in those skates. Brand new rental skates are not comfortable.
Next, she wanted to to sledding. Sleds here are not the plastic saucer variety. They are wood and look serious. Bill wants to buy one; he thinks it would look cool on display in the house. (I think the wool blanket I saw in a shop window would look cool in the house, too.) He asked Oliver’s wife at the hotel where to go and she gave him the name of the best sled shop in town. How lucky, it is right down the street from the ice rink.
The sleds are all wood, with metal covering the bottom of the runners. There’s no real steering. The more expensive ones give a little more; that’s supposed to allow steering. Ah, ha. They also start at a couple hundred Swiss Francs… and go up to about 600. Even with the dollar doing better than the Franc, that is a lot of money for a sled with no clear steering mechanism. So we decided to rent two for a test run. There are a few special toboggan runs at the ski resort.
We took Kaitlyn up the mountain in the telepherique. I don’t think they could have squeezed as much as one more small dog into that thing. Kaitlyn enjoyed the ride. I did better with it than I’ve done in similar rides in the past. All those people seemed to make it swing more than it had a couple of days ago on the same ride up. I didn’t panic or even feel particularly scared, so I’m making progress.
We ate lunch with Kaitlyn at the same mountain restaurant we ate yesterday. Bill ordered the cordon bleu (no meat specified) and he didn’t care much for it. Kaitlyn had fries and a fried chicken patty. I had soup. Mine was good.
Once our tummies were full (or full enough), we headed off toward the toboggan run. We dragged our sleds along a hiking path that took us past several of the runs we’ve been skiing the past few days. It was neat to see them from the different vantage point. Made me fairly impressed with myself.
When we got to the toboggan run, Bill and Kaitlyn got on one sled, and I got on the other. How do I steer this thing? With your feet. Oh, sure. Your feet. What a crock of crap that is. So you go down this narrow, steep run with little but a few inches of snow to keep you from zooming out of control down a mountain and you are supposed to control the entire thing with your feet. Judging by the number of people, including some old people and small children, it is possible. But I have no idea how. It was scary and horrible. Bill and Kaitlyn got tired of waiting for me at the bottom.
After that nightmare, I sent them off to a different toboggan run on their own. Even Kaitlyn said she wanted to go again, but without Mommy. So I came back to the hotel for a hot shower…. during which someone elsewhere in the hotel apparently flushed the toilet and I nearly scalded my belly. Doesn’t matter, that was still better than going on another sled ride from hell.