The Kids and their Mom are skiing for Ski Week… how can I compete?
Ski week is upon us, and the kids will split their vacation time equally between their mom and me. The first half of the week she’s taking them skiing at Lake Tahoe. She has everything they need – snowboards, ski suits, goggles, helmets, walkie-talkies, and 4-wheel drive for safe mountain travel. She takes them to the snow once or twice a month, and they all have season lift passes. Oh, yeah, did I mention she owns a ski cabin?
How can I compete?!
Don’t get me wrong – the kids would love to ski and snowboard with me, even if we had to get a hotel room (the CalNeva has slot machines in the lobby), eat in restaurants, borrow gear from their mom, and rent an SUV (I’m not keen on driving my hybrid in a snowstorm). They wouldn’t care, they’d be happy to hit the slopes, pleased to do something fun with me.
While I do enjoy skiing, I’m not a fanatic. I go to Tahoe only once or twice a year. (Which is why I don’t own a ski cabin.) And with so many schools taking the same week off, Tahoe resorts are packed during ski week. Long lift lines. Crowded runs. Not my cup of tea.
So, how can I compete?
A four-day trip to Maui would be nice… or a weekend in Cabo San Lucas… maybe San Diego with Legoland, SeaWorld, the Zoo… or Disneyland… DisneyWorld!… EuroDisney!!! (er, scratch that last one)…
How can I compete? Tit-for-tat parenting… I can’t. I shouldn’t. I won’t.
I love cycling, and it just so happens that during ski week the Amgen Tour of California is taking place. It’s like the Tour de France, only shorter and closer to home, with many of the same riders: Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie, JJ Haedo, Ivan Basso, Big Jens Voigt; and some of the biggest teams: CSC, Rabobank, Gerolsteiner, Astana. (And who doesn’t love Team Jelly Belly?)
Last year when I suggested attending, the kids were less than thrilled. True, they’d enjoyed watching the San Francisco Grand Prix, with its multi-lap circuit course and plenty of opportunities to see the peloton go by. But for the Tour of CA, we’d be watching a finish in San Luis Obispo (waiting hours for the pack of riders to show up, then whiz by in an instant), and the Solvang time trials (watching one rider go by at a time.)
“Boring,” my daughter said. “Can’t we just ski?”
Our family life is very kid focused – weekend soccer and lacrosse, scout camping trips, time on their own to hang out with friends. But part of being a parent is giving them new experiences, even if they have to be dragged along.
We drove three hours to SLO and headed downtown to stand at the last corner turn of the race. There was a huge crowd, jumbotron TV, free blow-up clappers with colors and logos from the team of your choice, an announcer who worked the crowd into a frenzy. The kids warmed to the event and got in the spirit of things. Then the riders came – but in a flash, they were past – and the race was over. We drove three hours for that? At least we could wander over to the finish area and take close-up photos of some of the cyclists.
Things picked up that night when we visited a hotel restaurant where the riders were eating. My son was allowed into the dining room and got to meet members of Team Discovery and Team CSC. They even signed his napkin.
While pro-cyclist Levi Leipheimer ate a huge serving of broccoli, and George Hincapie (Lance Armstrong’s right-hand-man in the Tour de France) downed dessert, one of their teammates asked my son if he rode a bike.
“Yeah,” my son said. “A BMX bike with pegs for doing tricks.”
The other riders at the table chuckled.
“Do you have a road bike, like the ones we ride?” the cyclist asked.
“No,” my son said. “But my dad does. He rides a Bianchi.”
Nods of approval. (Dad points scored!)
“Does your dad race?” the cyclist asked.
“No,” my son said. “I think he’s pretty slow.”
Ouch.
Time trials the next day were a blast. Staggered starts meant a new cyclist came by every minute, for over an hour. Some of the faster riders made up that minute and passed the next rider, often right in front of us. (We were well positioned on an uphill climb.) Nearby a spectator with eagle wings mounted on a helmet waved a huge American flag. German photographers took action shots of T-Mobile riders. My son sprinted along with each of these famously pink-shirted cyclists, hoping to get his face in a German cycling magazine.
Ski week is upon us, and are we heading to Tahoe to ski? No way. We’re going to watch the Tour of CA again. Already, my kids are talking about it, eager to go. Forget ski week. This is cycling week.
Meanwhile, summer vacations are starting to be planned. I think their mom might take the kids someplace exotic, like Costa Rica. Rainforests, beaches, volcanoes, zip lines, parrots, monkeys, mangoes… Which of course gets me thinking…
How can I compete?
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Comment by Robin
| February 19th, 2009
You’re right — you don’t compete. Because, in part, it’s not a competition. Love them and support them in their interests, bring them along w/ your interests in age-appropriate ways (such as you did here, yeah!), and be happy for them to be able to share time w/ the other parent in fun and worthwhile ways, too….. I was worried when I saw the title for this particular blog post, but I’m not after reading this. It’s all for the kids themselves, and if they can get something out of time with both parents (ah, separately), then that’s even better for them. Even if I loved Lake Tahoe when I was there…… sigh.
Robin´s last blog post..Within 6 words.