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Craftsbury Nordic Center

Ringing in the New Year

As we drove through the Commons, we noticed a street named Auld Lang Syne. At that moment it became clear that we had made the right decision. This New Years Day, determined not to wallow in the post holiday blues, we packed the car with skies, sleds and kids and hit the dusty trail or rather the snowy one! We were headed to the quintessential Vermont town of Craftsbury Commons, our final destination: Craftsbury Outdoor Center.

Know originally for its superb sculling program, Craftsbury Outdoor Center is a thriving four season resort that allows you a peaceful and down to earth setting while enjoying a variety of outdoor activities such as cross-country skiing, running and sculling, just to name a few. For years, my husband and I have been enjoying the freshly groomed cross-country trails of this long established business, located in the heart of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, but we were about to discover that the Craftsbury Outdoor Center is much more than a cross-country ski area, it is a virtual winter playground for families.

As we pulled into the parking lot we noticed that it was full. It seemed that others too might be making good on their New Years resolutions: spending more time with the family, getting more exercise, returning to the great outdoors. Crowded as it appeared, it was far from the overloaded, highly fashionable parking lots of the nearby downhill ski areas. We quickly found a spot, unloaded the gear and headed towards the touring center.

We paused briefly as we approached the ski center(warming hut) to allow a line of children, imprinted to their instructor like ducklings to their mother, to glide by on their skies. The group was heading towards the teaching area which was embellished with a variety of snow structures to serve as an obstacle course. Although we all knew how to ski we couldn't help to imagine how fun that lesson would be.

One of the wonderful things about Craftsbury Nordic Center is that to spend a day there with your children won't break the bank. Adult tickets for a full day start at $16 without rentals and $30 with rentals. Kids under 12 can ski for about $8 without rentals and $18 with the full rental package. What can you do now days anywhere that will only cost you $8? The beauty of it all is that skiing is not the only thing to do!!!

Just when our kids had had enough of being bribed with m&m's for one last ski run, we sent them off to the sledding hill. Despite my shrieks of be careful, gaining air off the makeshift snow jumps remained a popular theme of the afternoon. fortunately, everyone managed to escape any real injuries.

And if the skiing and the sledding does not quite exhaust and/or exhilarate you enough, it is only a step(literally) from the touring center to the skating pond. If you have your own skates by all means pack them. However half the fun of the skating at the Center is stepping into the skate room and looking for a pair of skates that will fit you. In the skate room you will find, arranged in no particular order, a collection of skates that may very well contain a pair of skates as old as your grandfather. Just tell the kids that uncomfortable skates are prerequisite for a true ice skating experience! Once you have found the golden pair, grab a hockey stick and get out on the ice. There is always a pickup game of hockey between adults and their kids in full gear. Just don't shoot the messenger the next day when you have difficulty rolling out of bed.

Well... we certainly made good on our New Years resolution this New Year's Day. Grabbing one last hot chocolate for the ride home we packed the skis, sleds, skates and kids back into the car. We drove off just as the sun settled behind the hills and cast a beautiful orange glow across the snowy trails of the Craftsbury Nordic Center.

Four Wings and a Prayer

Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly

By: Sue Halpern

Sue Halpern is brilliant when it comes to choosing a title for a book and equally talented in the writing of a unique memoir and travel adventure. For anyone who has ever been moved by the sight of the well know orange and black butterfly, Daaus plexippus, usually referred to as the Monarch, Four Wings and a Prayer is a must for your library.

Part memoir, part travel adventure, Sue Halpern takes you on a journey into the wild world of mystery surrounding the Monarch. It is her pursuit for better understanding of the power that this small creature holds on both scientists and amateurs (like myself) alike, that makes Four Wings and a Prayer such a fascinating read.

Just days after promising her mother that she would not drive through Mexico at night, Halpern finds herself spending a week in a car, in Mexico, driving at night, with a total stranger. But this was no ordinary stranger. Bill Calvert is really more of a "legend" according to Halpern. It is Bill Calvert who twenty seven years earlier, had made one of the greatest discoveries in modern science; the winter roosting sites of the Monarch butterfly. He is one of the many intriguing scientists and passionate individuals that cross back and forth through the pages in Halpern's journalistic account of the life of the Monarch.


Whether Halpern is humping through Mexico's Transverse Neovolcanic Mountains trying to catch a glimpse of the monarchs winter roosting site or driving fifteen miles per hour along Hawaiian roadways in hopes of spotting a white monarch, a rare genetic variant, she reveals eloquently her own passion for her literary muse in this captivating book centerd around the mystery of the Monarch butterfly.

Medelise