A Loon-y Trip

My cousin Ian works as a mechanic for Southwest Airlines. This job comes with certain perks -- free airline tickets among them. He was kind enough to share some with us on Monday, when we headed up to New Hampshire for the day to go skiing.

Yes, for the day. The only other time I flew anywhere for the day (and as people who know me know, I fly a lot) was 1993, when I flew from San Francisco to San Diego (ironically, on Southwest) for the day. The only other thing I can compare this to is when I was visiting my parents in England in 1994 and had a train pass. So I had a free place to stay, but only if I got back home for the evening. I spent a lot of time riding trains.

Anyway, we left home at 5:15 in the morning, met Ian at the airport, and flew off to Manchester, New Hampshire. We rented a car and drove an hour and a half north to Loon Mountain.

While the Pennsylvania resorts we usually frequent are desperately trying to keep their snow from melting, Loon Mountain had great conditions. Well, actually, Ian said they weren't as good as what he had seen on past visits. But it matched the best conditions I've seen in the mid-Atlantic. We had a fantastic time, and made it back home by around 10 pm. Forthwith, some pictures of our skiing adventure.