late for the train

Well, I figured most of you would be far too focused on Christmas to worry about this ol’ travel blog. So I took a day off … at least from writing.
While most of you were drinking egg nog, opening presents and feasting, Sarah and I were laying our lives on the line for you at Arizona Snowbowl in Flagstaff, one of the two largest ski areas in Arizona. Yes, we have snow in Arizona!
Now, skiing purists will often turn their noses up at Snowbowl because it only has four lifts and a pretty limited number of runs. They will wax poetic about Sunrise, which is near Greer, Ariz. I admit that Sunrise has more more runs, and generally better runs.
However, Snowbowl is more than the sum of its runs and lifts. See, at Sunrise, there is really nothing up once the skiing is done. Snowbowl, though, is based in a college town rather than in the middle of nowhere. And you don’t have to drive as far to get there. You can get to a bunch of great food once you’re done skiing for the day, too. Better accommodations, less driving, better food, better atmosphere – yes, I prefer Snowbowl, especially for getting my ski legs on for the first bunch of runs for the season.
As for this trip … well, Snowbowl was in fine form. Seventeen new inches of beautiful powder! But it kept coming down, and it was a wee bit windy, so we had near whiteout conditions [...]