Back in September 2017 my HuzzzBAE asked if I wanted to go skiing for my 31st bday. Ummm…YES PLEASE! Skiing had been top 5 on my #bucketlist for a while now, we went to work planning the ultimate ski weekend at Winter Park Ski Resort. Here are some tips to help you plan a skip trip of your own:

Winter Park Loding

For our ski weekend chose Winter Park Resort, outside of Denver, nestled in the beautiful scenery of the Rocky Mountains. Thanks to VRBO I found the perfect rental house to accommodate our group. Due to our afternoon flight into Denver we had to drive up the mountain at night. It wasn’t ideal but thank God for traveling grace but choose a morning flight if you can. #MountainViews

Our first full day there it was six whole degrees outside. SIX! Thankfully I was able to find all of our cold weather and ski gear on Amazon. I don’t care about brands, I care about quality and all of my items kept me warm (James too)! Hat, base layers, boots, coat, ski pants, socks and gloves….ALL AMAZON EVERYTHANG!!

Winter Park Ski Lessons

We arrived at our morning ski lessons LATE…the joys of traveling in a group! Thankfully the wonderful staff at Winter Park was willing to accommodate our late arrival and we didn’t have to reschedule our class. They helped us get fitted for our ski equipment and found an instructor just for us. Literally for us! I think he was the only other black person we saw all weekend. His name is Billy and he was hilariously awesome.

It’s a group consensus that he had a crush on my bestie Shay. She got special attention during our class and he made her sit with him on the ski lifts. I’m pretty sure he’d slide in her DMs, if he knew what a DM was! If you ever find yourself at Winter Park please ask for him!

Billy told us to put our phones away so that we wouldn’t be distracted during class. Clearly we didn’t listen. Someone please remind me of this the first time my kid gets caught with a cellphone in class. LOL!

Skiing is the full body workout that no one warned us about. We ended up coming out of our skit jackets an hour into lessons. I’m glad we only did the half day lessons because there is no way I would’ve survived a full day. I’ll also note that the altitude makes you feel like an asthmatic smoker when you laugh. I literally got light-headed and struggled to catch my breath every time one of my friends fell down. #InstantKarma

Where We Ate

That evening we had my birthday dinner at Tabernash Tavern. I decided to go with their Ullrs Lamb Chops and it was phenomenal! The lamb chops were cooked to perfection and the pomegranate relish coupled with the cranberry coulis was everything I needed it to be. I would also recommend their Buffalo Brussels as an appetizer. #NomNomNom

Other Ski Weekend Activities

Our second day was more skiing followed by tubing at Fraser Tubing Hill. I hate the “stomach drop” feeling so I wasn’t too excited about tubing. I was also a little worried that the tube would flip over at such a high speed but it was SO much fun! We snapped some great group shots at the top of the tubing hill as well.

To say that we had during our ski weekend fun is an understatement. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we’re going to try to make it a biennial tradition. James, Michelle, Sachet, Santana, Loko, Bola, Alicia, Melia and Ian thank you all so much, with my whole heart. I had the time of my life and I love you all to the moon and back!!

Skiing is something everyone should experience once, if you’ve never been skiing or snowboarding before do yourself a favor and start planning a trip ASAPishly! If you have questions about the trip that aren’t answered above please feel free to ask. Have you been skiing before? I’d love to hear about some of your favorite resorts, so drop me a line or two in the comments! Check out more travel content!

Until Next Time,

This trip was not sponsored by any of the businesses or vendors mentioned. My opinions are my own.