Like all good travel weekends, it starts the Sunday before with a damn good brunch. One I can highly recommend in Monterey is a place called Crema. With unlimited mimosas, what more do you need?!

My professor was traveling this week so I did not have any classes from Wednesday to Sunday. Making it the perfect time for a road trip. We left Monterey early on Wednesday around 10am. Unfortunately, traffic is rough all the time in California so the expected 7 hour route took about 9 hours. gahhhh!

But as we climbed in elevation, we laid eyes on our first snow fall of the season. OMG it is was so exciting!

We were staying at the Village Lodge, which is the fancy hotel that pretty much makes up the entire ski village in Mammoth. It was a bit more on the expensive side but very convenient as we were located in the heart of everything and able to walk everywhere we were going.

Because it took us so long to arrive in Mammoth, we didn’t do much that night, just had dinner and ended up at a dive bar with a bunch of the locals. It was an early morning rise so we could hit the slopes early. woo!

The next morning we were up early on Thanksgiving day and were headed out to the slopes. This was the view from our room that morning.

Oh man, OH MAN! Getting ready to skiiiii. This is the earliest I’ve ever been able to hit the slopes and I was pretty excited about it. Of course, not all of the lifts were open but about 1/3 of the mountain was and Mammoth is made up of over 3500 acres, so that’s a big area.

Decided to take the gondola all the way to the tippy top of the mountain for the first run. Nothing but black diamonds up there but I just needed to feel that exhilarating rush I always feel when I ski up to the edge of a steep slope. The peak was very steep, but it was amazing and within one run I’m pretty sure the wind burn was already present on my face.

The SNOW is here and I was so excited about it!

Stopping for a lunch break at McCoy station, listening to music, eating soup, and enjoying the good ski weather.

After the last run of the day we caught the bus back to town (the red line about 4 miles away from the village) and headed straight for the hot tub. One of the best after-ski activities other than apres ski, but if you can drink and sit in the hot tub then you have the best of both worlds.

We had a Thanksgiving dinner lined up, so after catching up with family, and getting ready we walked to dinner in the village.

I started off with a gin drink, go figure, and forgot to take photos of the actual meal. haha. We drank and went to the same dive bar after Thanksgiving dinner, which was fun.

But first, how about some bourbon and a “new world cigar, yes please!”

That moment of reflection when you realize just how grateful you are for so many people and things.

Of course a quick cigar shot. 🙂

The early bird gets the worm..!

The next morning we woke even earlier to ski, ski, ski! Which was a very good idea because the powder was great around 8am and I was flying down the mountain. It got pretty busy around 10am, but I had hit the slopes early and got a few great runs in.

I ski’d until conditions got pretty bad, the powder was gone, and rocks were coming through on the trails. Then headed back into the village and straight for the hot tub. Tonight they were having a live band and a tree lighting ceremony for the season.

Walking around town taking a few of the sites in.

Man, it gets pretty chilly at night in Mammoth!

Huddling around the fire, until the band “Sweet Thang” kicked off. Weird name, right?

They were pretty good though, and got us all excited for Santa and Wolly the Mammoth’s, arrival. eee!

I can definitely get used to mornings in Mammoth. We decided to hit the road pretty early on Saturday around 11 because of the long drive we had on Wednesday. It was a good thing too because a blizzard rolled in early in the afternoon.

What the?! It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas..! We blasted Michael Buble and enjoyed the drive. There would be no snow in Monterey. It was also Christmas tree pick up day.

Part of the game was to count all of the Christmas trees we saw on our way home. There were 36 total trees that I counted and some cars even had more than 1!

We arrived in Monterey Saturday evening after 8pm, and I brought all of my crap inside the door but crawled right into bed.

Now get me through this finals so the Christmas festivities can begin!

This article appeared first on The Cassey Excursion.