LOCATION: Sundown Mountain, Dubuque, IA

ATTRACTION: Snowboarding

We had just got a bunch of snow dumped on us and Jill had been talking about wanting to try her hand (or feet) at some snowboarding. I have been snowboarding since college, but Jill had only been skiing before. Years ago I had told her that I felt skiing was easier than snowboarding. I suggested that she stick with getting better at skiing rather than trying something new as we are approaching our 40’s, but my baby is a determined lady, so when I ditched work early to hit Sundown Mountain with her, she rented a snowboard.

At first, I was completely useless to her as a teacher. I’ve helped other people learn, but they had already tried and had some reference point. Here, we were starting at square one. I knew I was in trouble when she was inching away from the bunny hill like it was a double black diamond hill. So we went to the less steep side of the bunny hill and just… went. She took some falls, and she got back up and eventually, she figured out how to gradually turn. Mostly on her own, I might add, as I was not much help in her learning.

She was kind enough to ask me to go on some of the steeper hills by myself while she honed her skill of cruising down the bunny hill. I rather enjoyed the fresh air and freedom of flying down the hill. Sure the cold air bites any exposed skin as you rush down the slope, but its so worth it. It had been a long time since I’ve felt that feeling of “losing your stomach” like you do on a roller coaster and I made sure I found some good dips and kickers so I could experience that longed for rush before the day was done.

When I came back, we went down the bunny hill together and she caught the back edge of her snowboard and smacked her keister right on the not-so-forgiving snow. With a bruised ego and bruised tailbone, we decided to warm up at the bar.

Sundown has a cool bar called Tips Up Food & Spirits that has a nice fireplace and sometimes even has live music. It was nice to warm up and sip on a little liquid courage by the fire. I think for the first time ever, Jill had two beers to my one. We went back out after warming up and she ended up doing really well. We both had a great time.

I really enjoy Sundown. It is no Snowbird, Utah or Keystone, Colorado, but it has a nice range of slope grades and some nice terrain parks if you’re looking to get a little airtime (or a lot if you are braver than me). I think we’ll be doing this again sometime.