Ow! There goes my back!

The past week has brought an endless snowfall to Pittsburgh’s lovely hillsides. The city looks like a Christmas card from a distance. So, what are two city girls to do when there is 6 or so inches of snow on the ground? Go sled riding, of course. That is just what we did this past Saturday.

We set out sharply at 11am on Saturday morning dressed for warmth and filled with enthusiasm. The first item on our agenda was to purchase sleds. You’d be surprised how quickly sleds sell out when there is snow fall in da ‘burgh. Strike one, two, and three until we finally ventured to Walnut Street in Shadyside to our favorite toy store. The toy store pulled through, just having received a fresh shipment of both toboggans and saucer style sleds. We purchased one of each and set out for Schenley Park’s disc golf course.

We weren’t the only Pittsburghers amped up for some sledding, but there’s no question that we were the oldest. This didn’t bother us one bit because we are still children at heart. We each grabbed a sled and began flying down the hill with reckless abandon. Rachel decided to be adventurous and go down head first like she was an Olympic skeleton racer. Sarah decided to snap some photos of this historic event just in case these would be the last breaths that Rachel ever took. While Sarah proudly stood at the top of the hill photographing Rachel’s triumphant run, she was mistaken by several women as another mother with a small child. “Which one is yours they asked?” As she giggled and shyly confessed that she was kidless.

We quickly befriended a 4 year old boy who was at the hill with his very cold mother and older sister. This kid had the cutest smile, conned Sarah into carrying his sled up the hill, and was always up for a race. Let us tell you that running up a snowy hill time and time again is utterly exhausting. Like, every-muscle-aches-we-need-massages-desperately type of exhausting. After a solid 45 minutes of flying down the hill and climbing our way back up, we were drained and ready to head home.

We may still enjoy fun like children but we certainly can’t keep up with them. Gone are the days when we spend entire afternoons zooming down our yard, while our cocker spaniel Brittany tried to rescue us by clenching on to our coats and ripping us from our moving sleds. Two solid cups of coffee weren’t enough to rescue us from the exhaustion and aches and pains of a day out in the cold.

We’re totally stoked for the next big snowfall, our sleds are ready, but maybe we’ll hit the gym first.