February 9 to 14, 2025

Trip Included:  Five night stay at the Grand Summit Hotel slopeside ski in ski out

The annual OC Sunday River Trip has come and gone. There were 121 attendees this year. Sadly, my co-leader Tom had to bail due to a knee injury. We had a few others who also, unfortunately, had to cancel for medical reasons. We missed you!! Get healthy for next year!  Rooms are never guaranteed before 5:00 p.m. as it was Super Bowl Sunday, getting unloaded and into a room with a functioning TV by the start of the game was somewhat tricky. Some people headed down to the Shipyard Pub& Brewery next door in the White Cap Lodge to have a bite and watch the game, but their experience was not as it used to be. As OCers, though, we made the best of it and enjoyed the week anyway. The slopes were in good shape with plenty of cover in the glades and woods (much better than the past few years). Unfortunately, Bobby D was the first to crash on Monday in OC favorite Blind Ambition. He is doing much better, but he took a pretty hard hit to the hip and ribs. His wonderful roomie Doug U. took great care of him and even delivered Bobby to the Monday night Dessert Party via luggage cart Uber 😊. We all had a good laugh, even Bobby! Unfortunately, on Tuesday Doug took Bobby home to get X-rays, so they missed the rest of the week. We will let Bobby tell the “Saga of the Subaru” – we are still chuckling. Tom may not have been able to join us on the trip, but his influence was felt with every prize we gave away.(Many were his idea – ok, most were!) We gathered by the fireplace in the South Wing to enjoy some wine, cookies, eclairs, brownies, and a beautiful birthday cake in honor of Jack S. (the blue color from the frosting took 7 washings to get off my fingers, lips and teeth, but it was worth it!). We had 23 Sunday River gift cards($20/$25), 4 Visa gift cards ($50), a Sunday River swag donated by Gail M., and 3 grand prizes: a basket filled with gourmet Italian pasta/gnocchi/seasoning was won by Phil O.; a basket of lottery scratch-offs went to Laurel B.; and a basket filled with wine, Prosecco, cheese, crackers and candy went to Matt Q. Believe it or not, when I was calling out the winners’ names, I was told I don’t speak loud enough – imagine that!?On Tuesday evening 100+ enjoyed a Tuscany Buffet in the Grand Ballroom. The other nights, smaller groups hosted dinners and happy hours in their rooms as many had kitchenettes. Many enjoyed the Ice Igloo by the Jordan lift. The pool and the hot tubs saw our crew fill them up pretty much every day. Sadly, Linda C. slipped while getting out of the hot tub and broke a bone in her wrist. On Thursday we had a wonderful powder day. There was some mixed precipitation early, but the snow was silky underneath our skis/boards. Friday was sunny, but cold and windy. Several braved the cold and hit the slopes for the fifth day. Many of us headed home and the wind came right along with us! All in all, it was a great week.