Jason and I actually took advantage of living in Durango today and went skiing! (JR stayed home with Ayi since she'll only be here 2 more weeks.)
When we lived in Beijing one of our favorite things to do was go to the markets and haggle. After they would give us their first price we'd roll our eyes and put on a big production about how we were "local" and not "tourists". We'd then tell them they needed to be giving us "the special price". Well, seems that "the special price" also works for locals in Durango. Jason and I love hollering out we're locals (although I usually let Jason do it because I know my accent will give me away). And since were locals, we were able to rent all our ski equipment today for $6. $6 Total! I was a little nervous about getting my ski legs back; we haven't been skiing in 5 years. But luckily skiing is a lot like riding a bike. It came back pretty quick.
Going skiing also gives us a chance to tell 2 of our favorite stories. As soon as we sat down on the first ski lift of the day I said, "Okay! Time for my Pentecostal skiing story." So the very first time I learned to ski (which was in college) there was a group of Pentecostal girls in our group lessons. Since Pentecostal women don't wear pants, all the girls were dressed in long, denim skirts. They were doing good for the first part of the lesson (better than I could do in a skirt), but then came time to learn how to get on and off the lift. They were a few chairs ahead of me, so I had a front row seat for the whole show. They actually made it on the lift without a problem, but getting off the lift...not so much. Their skirts got hung up in their skis as they were trying to get off and they all crashed in a big heap. They had to turn off the lift to get them all up again. They weren't hurt so the whole thing was absolutely hilarious! But I do give those girls tons of credit, there's no way I'd even try skirt-skiing!
Our other favorite skiing story is from when we went to Banff, Canada with my parents and Jason's mom. My dad would sit in the living room of the house and watch all the snowboarders walk around town bumming rides to the mountain. My dad thought all the snowboarders were really cool, and by the end of the trip he told us, "I think I could have been one of those snowboarders when I was young. You know, I was a really good roller-skater." My mom being ever the #1 fan of my dad replied, "Oh John! You would have been great! Jan, your daddy was the best roller-skater there was!" Jason and I still laugh about my dad the snowboarder/roller-skater!