If you sign your kids up for lessons at Mount Seymour (maybe 30 minutes from Vancouver, BC), you’ll see 3 little words that all parents dream about in their sleep. Parent Free Zone.
What does this mean? It’s simple. When you drop your kid off in their ski wear, you don’t even have to fight help them with their skis and boots. You might even run and get coffee if you want to. Or put on skis yourself. And then they get returned back to you in a couple hours just the way you sent them in. Except tired. And less bouncy. They might even nap.
Most likely on the first day you’ll worry a bit and you’ll stand in a big line with all the other newbie parents as your kid falls on his/her face a few times and you wonder if your a horrible parent because you paid for people to do this with your kid.
And then you might find the birds like I did, or even grab your hubby and ski a run or two yourself because it’s half off if your kid is taking lessons.
By the third day you might even be able to do a whole bunny hill run as a family. We even got to go on this magic carpet ride/ski escalator thing that I really wish we had when I was growing up. No more rope tow for this generation. It’s like this lovely space age ride up the mountain. (Now wouldn’t it be fabulous if they passed you a latte at the bottom too!)
And though I think we’re probably done with skiing for this year (I’ve had enough cold-especially with all the hockey time I’ve been putting in) next year, I’m definitely bookmarking this as a must re-do for our Vancouver trips because it makes for such peaceful afternoons. You can’t imagine how lovely a nice restaurant meal turns out in the evening after the kids have been thoroughly tired out in the morning.
Oh and by the way, my favorite stop post-ski on Seymour is Bean Around the World at the bottom of the mountain. (Maybe a 15 minute drive.)
They have great pastries, decent coffee and yummy sandwiches. And it was one of my favorite places in my college years so I can reminisce. If only one could be 17 again or 4 with a magic carpet instead of a rope tow. At least there’s a magical parent-free zone that exists on the top of a freezing cold mountain.
(PS. Skiing is one of three things I’m glad someone else taught my kids not me. The other two are ice skating and swimming. Thank goodness there are professionals for all these scary sports!)
That looks like a great time! How far a drive from Seattle? Living in Tacoma Im thinking this might be more of an overnight vs day trip. Maybe Snoqualmie has something similiar, this I will need to look into.
Seymour is a little far from Seattle for a day-trip. It’s about 3 hours to Vancouver then another half an hour to the mountain. We stayed at the Residence Inn Vancouver this past visit. Another great not-fancy all suites Vancouver hotel is the Sunset Inn when you travel with kids.
Oh and if you find anything in Snoqualmie please let me know. I would love to have my guys ski more next year!