Beyond the 18 Summers: Raising Kids Who Still Want to Adventure With You

Season 6 begins with one of my favorite conversations yet.

This week, I'm joined by a favorite travel partner—my daughter, Chiara.

At 21 years old, she's old enough to look back on a childhood filled with ski racing, family ski trips, endless weekends in the mountains, and now our annual mother-daughter adventures exploring America's national parks.

Like so many moms, I've spent years packing the car, replacing outgrown ski boots, planning trips, and wondering if my kids would someday appreciate all the effort that goes into creating these experiences.

In this conversation, I finally get my answer.

We talk about what it was really like growing up skiing, the lessons ski racing taught her about resilience and hard work, and why she still chooses to travel with me as a young adult. We also share highlights from our recent trip to Acadia National Park, including favorite hikes, biking the famous carriage roads, where we stayed, and the small traditions that make our adventures so memorable. And this is the bag we mention.

If you're spending your weekends driving to ski races, hauling gear, convincing little legs to keep hiking, or wondering whether all this effort is making a difference, I hope this conversation reminds you that it is.

The memories you're creating today don't end when your kids turn 18.

Stop by Salem, Woburn, or Framingham, and head to skihaus.com to check store hours and get exact locations.

Register by August 15, 2026, and use code SKIMOMSRETREAT to save $100 on your trip.

Visit www.theskimoms.co/events to see the 2027 lineup and reserve your spot.

Get the best gear recommendations and trip-planning tips directly to your inbox. Head to skimom.substack.com to subscribe. Join for free—or upgrade for all the premium perks. 

Premium subscriptions start at just $5 a month and get to listen ad-free and unlock exclusive content, including insider travel guides, packing lists and more. 

Transcript

peaker A: Welcome to season six of the Ski Moms Podcast. This year, we're saying yes to new adventures, new experiences, and a whole lot more fun. Because skiing shouldn't be that serious. It's all about making memories.

Thanks for listening and let's get started.

Welcome back to season six of the Ski Moms Podcast. Today is a really special summer episode because I'm joined by my travel buddy, my daughter.

It's a special way to kick off our sixth season.

Sarah will be back very soon in the podcast booth. And for now, I want you to meet Kiara. She's 21, which feels impossible.

And it also feels like we have packed a lot of adventure into those 21 years, from weekends spent ski racing to family ski trips, and most recently, our passion for exploring the national parks of this beautiful country.

As moms, we spend so much time planning adventures for our kids. But one of the greatest gifts is realizing that those adventures don't have to stop when they grow up.

That whole you only have 18 summers stuff, well,

I'm going to call BS on that one.

In many ways, our trips are just getting started and they're getting better.

Today we're talking about what it's like traveling together as adults, how ski racing shaped her confidence,

and why she keeps saying yes to new adventures.

I hope that this podcast inspires more moms to take time to travel one on one with their kids,

whether they're 5 or 25. So let's jump in.

Hi, Kiara.

Speaker B: Hi.

Speaker A: Welcome to the Ski Moms Podcast.

Speaker B: Thanks.

Speaker A: So we always ask our guests first where and when they learn to ski. Do you even remember?

Speaker B: I don't remember learning how to ski, but I do know the story, which is that at 18 months old, you guys put me on, like, the tiny little skis with the edgy wedgie where I could barely stand upright in solitude.

Speaker A: Yes, that is facts. And it was beautiful.

First day was cold, but there was some fresh powder. Not too much.

And it was just the just right experience.

Pretty awesome.

As a kid,

did you ever feel that it was strange that so many of our vacations were snow related and outdoors related versus going to traditional places?

Speaker B: I think that you and dad put a big emphasis on the outdoors and how freeing it could be to move your body and how movement is medicine. So I don't think I ever really found it to be strange per se.

It's definitely interesting. Like, looking back on it now, a lot of my friends would go to Disney World or, you know,

go to the beach with their family for vacations, which we made Time for sometimes. But I think prioritizing like hiking or skiing brought us a lot of joy. So I don't think it was weird at all.

Speaker A: Looking back now you're at the old age of 21. Congratulations. You made it to adulthood.

Do you think there's anything that you appreciate now that maybe you grumbled about when you were a little kid about all the adventures we dragged you on?

Speaker B: I really wanted to have a strong, like, middle school experience, especially with like, all the bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs that happen and all the dances you miss out on. But I had a goal to work towards which, you know, I didn't achieve being an Olympic athlete, but,

like, missing all that social time to be a hard worker.

I think I didn't really appreciate that back then when I was middle school, but looking back on it now, I think it built a lot of character and made me to who I am today.

Speaker A: Okay, that gets us to kind of the next section of this interview, which was talking about ski racing and your experience.

Do you remember how old you were when you started racing?

Speaker B: 7.

You guys were introduced to Mohawk at a very, very early age. It's a really small mountain in Connecticut, more of a hill, actually.

And I grew up doing the weekend program there. It's called like Tigers or something like that.

And based on what I know from the stories, it's. It was. My coaches thought I was, or I guess they're more like counselors at that point. Thought I was, you know, good enough to try out for my mountain ski team, which I did.

Fell in love with the sport.

It was like very silly. Connecticut Racing and U10 and U12,

a lot of like, hot chocolate, a lot of chili,

not so actually much training. I was off giggling with a lot of my friends. And I think kind of around age 11 and 12 is when I really started to take it seriously.

That's when I first started traveling to Vermont and Maine for ski camps that weren't within the program.

Speaker A: So. Yeah,

so you mentioned that your Olympic dreams did not come true,

but what do you think you learned? I think you were in ski racing from age,

let's say seven through 18. 18.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: That's a long time.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's 11 years. And I. I think so just to give a little bit of background on

Speaker A: my story, other than the bunions.

Speaker B: Yeah.

I grew up skiing in Ohawk, then moved to Vermont to go to Stratton Mountain School, their winter term program for two years,

which was,

you know, I was in school in Brooklyn Monday Through Wednesday afternoon.

Speaker A: Ish.

Speaker B: Was very, like, had a lot of doctor's notes, a lot of sick notes that year.

Interesting parenting there,

but it was all to pursue a dream. And I would ski Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then go back to the city Monday. So from a very early age, I was learning how to balance work and skiing, and then it just really, like, wasn't working out.

I was unhappy with the amount that I felt like I was missing out on skiing and the amount that I was missing out in school. I wasn't getting enough of each.

And I think, like,

I.

I really pushed you guys to put me into a ski academy, which,

I know it was a big internal debate between you and dad, but.

Yeah, I went to a ski academy for five years, which was. I mean,

you don't get an experience like that anywhere else. I really learned to do so much there. I mean, we're training in the off season roughly six hours a day with an early morning block at like, 7:45 of three hours of cardio or agility, and the afternoon is endurance or strength for another two and a half,

and then classes in between.

So it's just an experience you don't really get anywhere else.

Speaker A: I do remember back to that one thing you were saying that you were neither here nor there for those couple years at Stratton. And I remember we would sometimes take the train back to the city.

I guess we would be training to Albany,

and I would let you just vent. Do you remember this?

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: I would say, okay, you've got a half an hour. You can complain about how hard your life is. Let's get it out of your system. Do you remember that?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think, like,

to go back to my, like, fifth or sixth grade self, it is hard feeling like you're missing out on everything in both parts of your life.

But I think I share this with a lot of kids who,

you know, are professional athletes now or played D1 sports in college. It just takes a huge time commitment and you have to make sacrifices. So.

Speaker A: And what, briefly, what are you doing now to make your athletic dreams come true?

Speaker B: Yeah, so after high school, I,

you know, I really love playing sports. I think. I'm not saying that being an athlete is my identity, but I really enjoy the camaraderie and the hard work that comes along with sports.

So after playing squash,

growing up in Brooklyn and trading it for ski racing, I traded ski racing back for squash.

And then between the summer of my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college, I Played squash almost every single day, twice a day,

really grinding it out,

which I'm no stranger to hard work.

And I Now play Division 1 squash. In college,

I kind of. I essentially walked on the team, kind of begging the coach to take me. And now I'm going into my second year of being a captain.

Speaker A: So you're a superstar.

Well, I'm inspired by your story,

and I'm inspired by you every day. And you taught me so many things as a mom.

One of the things was about national parks. So tell me how your interest in national parks started.

Speaker B: I think, like, just kind of growing up with you taking us doing a lot of hiking. We did a lot of, like, we live very close to the A T,

so being able to do a lot of hiking on, which is the Appalachian Trail. Sorry.

And then also in high school, all of my orientations were hiking.

We did.

You know, we hiked a large chunk of a long trail in high school for, like, almost a week.

You know, that's a lot of vertical in Vermont.

And the long trail is a trail in Vermont, by the way. Then in college, my school is centered in the Adirondacks, so I think, like, it's a very big hiking culture up there.

And after my sophomore year,

I had a pretty superstar year in terms of my grades. And,

you know, you were kind of like,

well, what do you want as a treat? Like, what's something we could do together? And that's kind of how our little national parks trip started was like, when I make dean's list, we get to go to a national park.

Speaker A: So that is correct. And I had not been to a national park before, so it was really new to me. So it was fun to plan this trip together and not just be the person in charge of trip planning, which is usually my role.

And why did you pick the first parks that we went to?

Speaker B: The first parks we went to were Bryce national park in Utah and also Zion.

I think Zion is just really iconic. It's, you know, known for the Angels Landing hike, which is, like, basically a precipice over a large ravine that was terrifying that we both climbed up of.

And I think Utah is one of those places in the US that just kind of feels otherworldly.

And I don't know, I think it was just like, I love Utah. I think it's a beautiful state.

Skiing is great, obviously.

And so I just kind of wanted to see a different part of the state, I guess. So that's. That's how I picked Utah and see

Speaker A: it in the summer. Which we'd been to Park City before,

but we'd never done the national parks. And we made it a little bit of a road trip,

which was also fun because we drove from Zion down to Bryce.

So we had some long stretches of road where we had deep conversations.

Speaker B: Yeah, the 80 mile an hour speed limit's kind of crazy for an east coaster.

Speaker A: And rejuvenating our love of Harry Potter and listening to some Harry Potter.

Speaker B: Yeah, we love Harry Potter this year,

Speaker A: mostly what I wanted to talk to you about today was planning our. And executing our Acadia trip. Yeah, it was such a big hit, I think, our trip last year and doing the road trip that this year, I said,

okay, May's coming.

What do we want to do this year?

And why was Acadia on your list?

Speaker B: I think this year getting out west, a lot of national parks are out west, and it's hard to get there for sure.

This year, I think I kind of wanted to do something on the east coast. I love Maine. We do a lot of skiing in Maine.

So we are looking at Acadia and then also Smokey.

And I mean, Maine is cooler than Tennessee is,

so I think that was a big decider.

Speaker A: Hot take.

Speaker B: Good one. Good one.

And,

you know, we were looking at Bar harbor, which is this beautiful, beautiful town, which is right within the national park.

And that's not really something you get with a lot of the other national parks, which I think is really unique to Acadia.

Some of the things that we. That really stood out to us were the carriage trails, the amount of, like, hiking there is, and the variety of hiking there is.

And then also just, like, being by the water. I think it's.

That's also something that's unique to Acadia. A lot of other national parks have lakes, but Acadia is on the ocean, so.

Speaker A: And to execute the trip, we drove

Speaker B: from Vermont to Maine.

Speaker A: Yeah. And we broke it up. We went. We stopped at Camden on the first day, and it was. It was also a pretty long drive.

Speaker B: I think it was five and a half hours.

Speaker A: Five and a half hours to Camden, and then we had another 45 or an hour.

So it was terrific to have two drivers, as we did have in Utah as well.

Speaker B: Yeah. And I will say, like, one big trick with national parks we found is, like,

if you're in a rush to see everything, you're not going to enjoy them. I think no matter where what national park you go to, there's a lot of driving involved because everything is spread out because nature and there's no public transportation so we found,

I think especially that, like, taking our time on the drive and like making time to do that stop in Camden, do the hike, get a beautiful dinner on the water,

and then continue on the drive. Just really made it a lot more pleasant. And I think also, like,

the whole point of going to a national park is taking time to slow down and reconnect with nature, even if your heart rate's not slowing down. But I think that's like just a good philosophy to have going into viewing all these national parks.

It's like, especially with Acadia, I think there's something about, like,

Maine that makes East Coasters really slow down and take their time.

So that would be my, my big advice in terms of getting there.

Speaker A: And then we simplified our lodging because we had stayed the previous year at Under Canvas.

Speaker B: Yes, we love Under Canvas.

Speaker A: Big brand fans, shout out to them,

would love them to come on and sponsor the podcast at some point.

It is a bit of, bit glamping, a bit traditional camping. It's not as glamorous as some of the high end camps that I've been to,

but it is also definitely not roughing it. We had a bathroom.

Speaker B: What's really nice about Under Canvas is that they have food there.

They have food, they have yoga,

bathroom.

And another great thing is how unplugged you truly have to be. And I think, you know, I grew up in a generation that's extremely online. Like, we're all chronically online.

It's terrible and taking time to be really intentional about, you know, the people you're spending time with and doing things in nature, whether it's like painting by the beach, reading a book,

playing cornhole with your mom and demolishing her. Obviously harsh. Actually, I feel like you're better than I am, so I am okay.

I think it's just such a great business model because the people who want to go, you know, glamping and be in this remote place really want to be there. So it just makes it very relaxing to be around everybody else.

And I will say, like, we've found at all locations, the food's extremely fresh.

They try to source it from local farmers, which, you know, as Vermonters we really appreciate because I think national parks have such a big impact on,

you know, tourism and it's very easy to support big businesses. But if you are looking at the smaller businesses and farmers and people who are really, like, local to the area,

finding ways to support them is nice. So it's a nice touch that on River Campus has there too.

Speaker A: We had A great lobster boil when we were there. Your first one, right?

Speaker B: My first lobster, yes.

Speaker A: Very exciting and it is very wholesome. So under canvas's model is they're a bit outside of the park area,

so they have a concession with a bunch of national parks, but they're not right in the park. So we had about a 20 minute drive from all of the experiences we've had at national parks from the under canvas.

But they do. That does make it more affordable as well because you've got a bit more of a drive.

And we've really liked the model of that business model. And we come back there and we'd usually.

Speaker B: Yeah. What's our next one? Yosemite. That's where I want to go.

Speaker A: I'm very keen on the redwood forest, but tbd, we'll have to do.

Speaker B: We'll have to battle it out.

Speaker A: So we talked a little bit about what acadia is. So we're driving in and you drive into Bar harbor and what.

Let's talk about some of the hikes that we did there.

Speaker B: Yeah. So the first one we did was the Cadillac Ridge Trail, which is accessible by car if you can't do the hike up. But if you can do the hike up, even if you're not an advanced hiker, I really recommend doing the hike because I'm a huge hiker, love hiking.

I have never done a trail like that where you,

you know, you're really only in the woods for what, half a mile and then you just have views for the rest of it. In total, the trail, I think was 7 miles and 1400ft of elevation,

which is definitely,

you know, a decent climb, but it's very doable.

We,

you know, we pass the time by chatting. It's. We can talk for hours.

But the parking is very simple. There's a bunch of different parking lots within the park, but you do need to have a permit, which we definitely recommend buying before you get to the park.

And,

you know, if you're lucky like we were, you can get parking right at the trailhead, but if not, there's a parking lot about a quarter mile away, maybe less.

And we went from there up the trail and at the top there's like a nice scenic outlook, which if you,

you can't do the hike, you know, maybe you are recovering from an injury or you're with someone who's older or really little, you can drive up. You need to pass for that, I think a permit.

At the top, there's a beautiful little concession stand that has like ice cream Water, postcards, pins.

Really any little treasure you could want. And360views, which is just spectacular.

Speaker A: And we had our traditional chizapple. What is that?

Speaker B: Chise. Apple is cheese and apple, which we used our ski mom's utensil kit. Very. Came in very handy. We actually used that a bunch over the trip.

Speaker A: We did.

Speaker B: It's very lightweight. Just nice. Very easy to rinse, too.

Speaker A: What. What was that? We had blueberries.

Speaker B: Blueberries.

Speaker A: Another classic hiking snack.

Speaker B: Fresh blueberries. Definitely recommend packing those well, though. And we had a little. We made a little, like, quinoa craisin salad that we brought with us.

Speaker A: We forgot about it.

So I did want to mention that there is a lottery for the sunrise, which it's the first place certain times of the year, not the entire year, to see the sunrise on the East Coast.

And you do need to get online and win a lottery to get to the top of the mountain for the sunrise.

Speaker B: But if you don't get. The views are still great while hiking.

Speaker A: Thousand percent. And you do not have to do a lottery to hike. I guess you could get a headlamp on and hike up there for the sunrise. We did not do that either.

I did use my hiking poles, I will say,

for that hike. And I love my hiking poles. You don't need them because you're younger and stronger than I am.

But I found the elevation gain very gradual.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think we really appreciated that.

Speaker A: And I also want to point out the fun cairns. I think I'm saying that right. The stone formations marked the trails. They made the shape of an A for Acadia. I don't know if that's actually why they were very cute, but they were very cute and very photogenic.

Speaker B: And then the second day,

we went to the carriage trails, the famous carriage Trails.

So I think an important thing to note if you don't like biking at all is that you can drive around the island and access a lot of the carriage trails via other parking lots.

But we really wanted the full Acadia experience.

So we rented bikes. Acadia Outfitters E Bikes.

And there's a bike path into the carriage trails, which I think it was like roughly a mile.

Very safe. Like, you're not driving with cars or anything. You're driving in residential neighborhoods where it's a. There's like, really only bikes and dogs, you know? But then when you enter the carriage trails, it's 47 miles of paved road, something like that.

Oh, sorry, gravel road.

And you're sharing the trails with other bikers, runners, and then Also,

the reason why it's called the Carriage trail is horses pulling carriages.

Very quiet.

Speaker A: Surreal.

Speaker B: It's. It's just beautiful in there. I think in total, we did 22 miles of biking.

We broke it up by doing Connor's nubble hike to the Bubbles, which is the. The iconic hike within the carriage roads. I think in total, we hiked like, four miles.

Speaker A: Four or five miles.

Speaker B: Yeah. With biking in between.

The views there are really cool. And you can really customize the carriage trails to whatever you want to do. We do recommend, like, getting a full day rental for your bike because there's so much to see in there.

Even if you don't want to hike, you can bike around. And then we stopped at the end of our day to go to the Jordan Pond House, which overlooks one of the ponds within the carriage roads.

They have these famous popovers there, but we got just a really nice, refreshing cup of iced tea.

Speaker A: It was blueberry iced tea.

Speaker B: This is delicious.

Speaker A: It was really good. And there were spots to. If you were brown bagging it, as we were. We had our own snacks again.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So we enjoyed our snacks. We got the iced tea, and then you have to make a reservation if you wanted the umbrella seating and the popovers.

And do you remember the unofficial show that we got?

Speaker B: Oh, yeah. There was a break dancer in there. He was pretty awesome.

Speaker A: He was really good. But it was.

Speaker B: He was breakdancing for, like 30 minutes. I mean, not. Not paid for by Katie.

Speaker A: And no, not sponsored. And he. You couldn't hear the music. He had your buds in.

Speaker B: Yeah, we were laughing. It was pretty hilarious.

Speaker A: But there were often people around him, and it was. It was highly entertaining. And I do want to talk about the bike portion for a minute. I am not a strong cyclist by any means.

This is. This was part of probably my second or third time on the bike of summer. You know, I. I don't. I guess I currently own a bike, but I don't use it very often.

I use your bike, and the E bikes are very sturdy and stable. They give you a helmet.

And I want to say that the pack will last you all day unless you're using the turbocharge for the entire, which is unnecessary.

Speaker B: Completely doing zero work if you're turbocharging it.

Speaker A: We were on.

We were on either nothing or eco. But I will say the last two miles of the 22, after hiking all day, I did. I don't know if I was on turbo, but I was definitely on level three.

I was happy to have multiple levels.

Extremely Safe. As you were saying, it's a pretty wide trail.

And we also saw many people who were doing it the more economical way I thought it was. I think it was about 160 per bike for the full day,

a day of reservation. It's probably less expensive if you book in advance. And if you're going peak season, I would recommend booking online. Yes, definitely ahead of time because it definitely gets busier.

But we saw a number of families there who had their burly trailers with their kids or they brought their bikes from home.

So that's the economical way to do it is bring it.

Speaker B: But definitely bring a gravel bike or a mountain bike because it is a gravel road. So it just. It'll be a little difficult.

Speaker A: You want flatter tires. Yeah. And those internal hikes were steeper and shorter. I thought they were pretty accessible for a variety of different things.

Speaker B: Yeah. I think if you want, if you want to just hike the bubbles, there's a trail that's very similar to the trail we hiked in Zion where it's paved and steppe, like very like manicured.

It's a way you can see it.

But overall I thought the national park was extremely accessible, which I really appreciate. Cause I think everyone should be able to see nature.

Speaker A: Completely agree.

And we did stop.

This was definitely a mom stop. I made you. You stop at the Botanic garden inside.

That was recommended by one of my substack community members.

And I'm going to mess up the name. It's like a zoo,

something like that. I'll put it in the show notes.

Yeah.

Speaker B: I think another highlight for us was how cute Bar harbor was.

There's a ton of cute little bookshops in there,

bakeries, coffee shops, a beautiful bookstore,

ton of cute hotels.

And if you're looking to do, you know, a dinner out in Acadia, if you're staying closer to Acadia, not an under campus.

It's. There's. There's a ton of good options there. A lot of fresh lobster,

very fresh fruit. In general,

because you're on the coast, there's pretty close to a lot of farms.

Speaker A: One thing we didn't do that we'll have to get back to was do anything out on the water. We just did not.

We focused on trail related activities. And I think if we had had a third day,

we would have either done a sail or a kayak.

Was there anything that else that you think that you missed that you wanted to do?

Speaker B: I think the sail would have been cool. But that. Not really.

Speaker A: I would have spent another day on the bikes too. Finding more hikes on that, that was really enjoyable. Oh, and we didn't do the beehive.

Speaker B: Oh yeah, the famous beehive hike. We did not do that, which I was a little sad about. But it's okay.

Speaker A: Can't have it all. Gotta have something to look forward to.

And we were giving some good planning tips. I think three days in the park would have been great. We only had two before we turned around a third. A third full day and night would have been fantastic there.

So we could have spent some time on the water. Water. And maybe a little bit more time on the bikes in general.

Do you like staying at multiple destinations or do you prefer having one home base?

Am I leading the witness?

Speaker B: I.

I like having one home base. I think it makes life simpler and more enjoyable as well as vacations more enjoyable. I think it's,

you know, in the case of Zion and Bryce,

it was a little bit different because it wasn't a crazy far drive in between locations and you're not changing states so there's no really packing up to fly anywhere.

I do think having one home base with a variety of things to do is just really nice.

You know, a lot of the national parks out in California have multiple big hikes you can do,

but there are a lot of national parks out there where there's a lot of driving in between them. I know you just went to Yellowstone and you thought it was beautiful, but a lot of driving.

So I really enjoy having the home base. I think it makes the trip more relaxing.

Speaker A: And then what about packing? What were you really glad that you had on the trip to Acadia and was there anything that you thought, I wish I'd had that with me.

Speaker B: I think one of the things I was really glad I had were my ski dub biscuit pants. I think they're really good for a post hike rot or a little glass of wine by the water.

Another thing is super necessary is like a good hiking pack that's not too heavy.

You have one that's like a small backpack. And I have one that kind of sits around your hip bones, but it does not dig into your waist, which is nice.

Flip flops, big. We were big post hike flip flop people.

And then having like fun hair accessories,

headbands, hats.

Speaker A: Yeah, I said I brought my hiking poles. That was really important. We both used our big Nalgene bottles. Those hold 32 ounces and there was a place to refill your water at the top of Cadillac Mountain, which was really nice.

We both had.

You had Solomon trail running shoes. And I have on running trail running shoes because neither one of us had like traditional hiking shoes.

Speaker B: Mine are. They're both very high tread shoes. And I think also if you're hiking during the summertime, it really depends on what you're comfortable with. But I think we've both found that having high tread shoes that are breathable works better for us than having,

you know, big, chunky hiking boots. I will say both of us are pretty advanced hikers. You know, we've. We've been able to cover loft terrain. We know,

you know, when we're looking at a trail, what's stable, what's not.

So I think for us maybe like having a little bit less of a tread is okay, but it's really about like what's comfortable for you. But I really do recommend having a breathable shoe during the summertime or even the springtime when you're hiking.

Speaker A: Okay. What is the best part of traveling with your mom and what's the hardest?

Speaker B: The best part about traveling with you is I feel like you and I can have really good conversations, but we're also very comfortable, just like reading our books and being content with that.

I think the hardest part is sometimes we both like to think that we're right all the time.

Especially me. And I'll admit to that.

And, you know, we're planning out things or time wise or packing for our trip. It's. There can be some slight arguments there, but overall it's very positive experience.

Speaker A: And mom pays for everything, which is good.

Speaker B: But I will say I think Acadia is pretty affordable.

Speaker A: Totally.

Speaker B: There's a ton of these cute little motel cabin vibe things which the further out you go, the cheaper they will be. And it's really not that difficult to get into the park.

Speaker A: $35.

Speaker B: I think Acadia is a very affordable park to visit.

Speaker A: Completely agree. What is something we always do when we travel together?

Speaker B: Listen to Harry Potter. We love Harry Potter on tape. What else? Bring a good book.

Speaker A: Tea. We.

Speaker B: Oh, we love tea.

Speaker A: Yes. And we love to. So we bring our own tea from home. Tea bags. And we also bring. This is an essential. We brought thermoses because we could fill up with hot water at the restaurant we have found.

Speaker B: With all the national parks we had gone to. I don't know if it's just the time of year or the location. I think this kind of goes for all national parks.

It gets really cold at night and we love having tea with us. That's a really good.

Speaker A: That's who I. Yeah. So we would fill up, like, before we finished dinner, we'd fill our thermoses up with an herbal tea, but we'd get hot water at the restaurant, and then we'd bring it back to our

Speaker B: highly recommend tea or hot cocoa packets. I don't know. Whatever suits you guys.

Speaker A: Whatever. Whatever's your jam. Do you think that our trips bring

Speaker B: us closer together a hundred percent?

I think they do. I think,

like, it's really,

you know, like I said before, it's a completely unplugged environment,

so you really just enjoy each other's company.

And I feel like as I've gotten older,

it's like, you're my friend now, not just my mom. So it's. It's really nice to go on trips with you. So nice to hear.

Speaker A: What's the favorite trip we've ever taken together?

Speaker B: Ooh, it's a good one.

Hmm.

Well, I actually had a race series out in Aspen a couple years ago,

which is crazy to say that that's even something that could happen, but it was in Aspen Highlands, which is beautiful mountain if you guys have never skied there. Highly recommend.

Everyone there is a fantastic skier. It's kind of like a local secret mountain as well as Aspen. Aspen is a. Everyone there is a beautiful skier. It's obviously a very expensive place to ski,

but that was a fantastic trip. We just had so much fun. It's the most relaxed I'd ever been racing.

It was great.

Speaker A: That was a good trip. Agree. We stayed at the Limelight.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: Shout out. Limelight. I'm going to say mine from recent memory is when we went to Scotland.

Speaker B: Oh, my God. Abroad. That was so fun.

Speaker A: That was.

Speaker B: That was ridiculously fun.

Speaker A: That was so fun. And we did a hike over. It was really close to Edinburgh, where we were.

Speaker B: Yes. Called Arthur C. Hike. And we went out. After a night of partying out in town, we were.

Speaker A: We went to a. A scotch tasting the night before, and we went to all those sites where J.K. rowling supposedly rose.

Speaker B: We're big Harry Potter fans, if you can't tell.

Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, we're getting to the next portion. Why do you think it's so important to continually try new destinations versus repeating favorites?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think especially when within the US this is just my belief. I think it's so easy to hate a country from the outside,

especially if you live in a city, but if you take the time to see, like, where all the locals live and where everybody else is across the country,

it makes you have so much more appreciation for about where you're from.

I think in a time of a lot of political unrest, visiting places that are in rural America or, you know, places that are not your home makes you feel, like, very proud of your country and almost patriotic.

I mean, I feel patriotic when I go to these national parks. It makes me, like, really proud to see how beautiful my country is. So I think it's really important to travel to new destinations to support local economies that are just trying to care for our national treasures and see what's out there.

Like, you never know.

You meet, like, amazing people at these places, really.

Speaker A: So what's on your adventure bucket list?

Speaker B: Well, I said Yosemite. I would like to see Redwood. And then also Mount Rainier. Washington. Washington. I've never been to Washington.

Speaker A: The state.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: And I think there's just beautiful hiking there, beautiful skiing there. So I think that's. That's probably my next two.

Speaker A: As somebody newly minted adult, what would you tell parents as they're traveling with kids? What kind of advice? Like, think about little Chiara. What would you have?

Speaker B: I think what you did really well as a parent is, like, keeping us entertained,

but also, like, not fighting it when we're kind of tired and breaking down.

And I know with you, like,

it was really small things like bringing a calico critter or maybe like a Lego friend set. It just kind of like, made the trips more enjoyable or even like a craft kit, coloring kit.

There's so many, like,

little affordable things to do that feel like little presents that can make it more entertaining. Telling stories.

That's free.

Yeah.

And I think, like,

you know,

when you're an adult, obviously you have longer legs and children and they're going to get tired faster. So there's.

The whole point of going to a natural park, a national park, is to take time and slow down. And it's.

I think, especially if you're making into a family vacation, like, it's okay to go out, like, you know, 0.5 speed with your little kid and you don't have to do everything.

You can always come back.

Speaker A: So we enjoyed hiking with you guys were little when you were little, and we could put both of you in packs.

Speaker B: Weight training, it was great.

Speaker A: It was rucking before we were rucking.

And then things definitely slowed when you were in your I do it myself phase.

And then we were. We were really slowed down. And I think that's a really good reminder that, you know, that's the time to examine leaves. Leaves and flowers and bugs.

Speaker B: And it's okay that it's gonna take a long time because, like, you are putting. You're investing in our interest in nature.

Speaker A: Okay, you ready for the rapid fire round?

Speaker B: Okay. Yeah.

Speaker A: Or Ink mountains or ocean Mountains, obviously.

Speaker B: That was. That was an easy one.

Speaker A: Sunrise hike or sunset hike?

Speaker B: Sunrise. I'm a. I'm a morning person.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, you've gotten even without adult supervision. You do get up early.

Speaker B: I get up at like 6:30, 6, 15 every single day.

Speaker A: And you've done sunrise hikes with girlfriends?

Speaker B: Yes, all the time. Love hiking with my friends.

Speaker A: Ski trip or national park?

Speaker B: I think right now in my life,

ski trip.

Because national parks, I feel like, are a lot more accessible with, like my friends. But with you, a ski trip is kind of like, takes a little more money and time to plan.

Speaker A: So, you know, tent or hotel?

Speaker B: I actually like tent. I like the glamping experience better than I do hotel. Yeah.

Speaker A: Favorite ski resort.

Speaker B: Ooh, this is a really tough one. I have to go with Big Sky. How? Or maybe Jackson Hole.

Speaker A: I don't know. Okay.

Speaker B: But I think I. I like, love being out west. Big Sky, Jackson Hole, even Sun Valley. Like,

not even Sun Valley. Also Sun Valley. They're just.

You really feel so small and insignificant. Not in like a sad way, but just in like, wow, it's just so beautiful to see out here. And my problems are really not that big.

Speaker A: Love that perspective. Window seat or aisle seat?

Speaker B: Aisle seat. This is a hot take. But I'm. I drink.

I drink so much water. My mom's laughing at this right now. I think I drink more water than like anybody in our family and a lot more people than I know.

By 10am, I've usually consumed around 64 ounces of water. It's ridiculous.

Hydration is key. That's why my skin is beautiful. Window seat for sure. Also make sure to hydrate. This is a good reminder while you're listening to this podcast. Hydrated?

Speaker A: Yeah. Coffee or tea?

Speaker B: If I had to pick one for like the rest of my life. Yeah, it's like only one. Probably tea. Same because it has can have caffeine in it. I also feel like tea is like

Speaker A: so many different flavors.

Speaker B: It's so many different flavors, but it's also like, it's kind of social. Like you sit down to enjoy a cup of tea, whereas I feel like coffee is like an on the go drink.

Speaker A: Carry on or overpacker.

Speaker B: I feel like I'm a carry on.

Speaker A: Totally a carry on girl.

Speaker B: Over. Over. My experience abroad never paid for a carry on bag once. I was poor,

paid for A lot of my abroad experience myself working the summer before.

So it was a lot of carry on. Some special outfits happened.

And I actually just recently got this backpack that is really great for all these national park trips. I just used it from. For Acadia.

Speaker A: The Cal pack.

Speaker B: Yeah, the Cal Pack.

Speaker A: Okay. Should we link to that in show notes, too?

Anything else that you want the ski moms community to know?

They're putting in the work right now?

Yeah, they're loading the car up.

They're trading skis out every year because their kids are outgrowing skis and ski gear and ski jackets.

Speaker B: I think the best thing I can tell them is even though their kids may not appreciate now,

I appreciate now being 21 years old, you know, four years out of ski racing, how much effort you and dad put into giving me all the opportunities, experiences I wanted with ski racing.

So even if they're, you know, complaining about something now and not seeing all the effort that you're putting in,

they do ski in the long run if you raise them right.

Speaker A: Do you want to be a ski mom someday?

Speaker B: Of course.

Of course.

I definitely want to get my kids skiing on. I don't need them to ski race like I did and took a big toll on my body.

Had a lot of injuries in high school,

small ones, but still.

But I think just like skiing, hiking,

running, anything in the outdoors just gives you a much greater appreciation for. For life. So.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Chiara, for talking to me. I love you.

Speaker B: Love you.

Speaker A: I hope this podcast reminded you that adventures don't have an expiration date. Whether your kids are toddlers, teens, or young adults, every trip is another chance to make memories laugh together and learn something new.

If today's episode inspire you, I'd love you to share it with another mom who might be dreaming about planning that next adventure with her kids.

Or maybe a mom of younger kids who just needs to look down the highway a little bit and see what's coming for a little bit of inspiration.

We are so grateful for all of our dedicated listeners. And again, Sarah and I will be back in the booth very soon bringing you more interviews and more inside looks of what it means to be a ski mom.

Speaker C: Hey, ski moms. We hope you enjoyed today's episode and got some great tips for your next family ski adventure.

If you had as much fun listening as we did making this episode, we'd love for you to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on our latest episodes.

And don't forget to rate and review us your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love and helps other ski moms find our podcast.

Plus, we love hearing from you.

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share your favorite episodes with your friends, and let's keep this awesome community growing.

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