Get together with your LUG friends without ditching your family.

Bill Malchisky has been working really hard to organize a different kind of 'LUG and I think it's got real potential. He's just announced SKILUG for 25-27 Feb 2011. The idea is to mix a FAMILY weekend with both conference and fun. Bill has been organizing ski club trips for years and wanted to mix that up with a user's group meeting. The concept is outstanding.

He's arranging for airport transportation shuttles, food, lodging, group rates for skis, rentals, ski school for the kids (and parents if need be), and all that stuff.

The place he's picked is about 90 minutes drive from my home, and I know it well.

Things to note:

The Bethel Inn, here in Maine, is fantastic. It's an old-school traditional New England inn. I've stayed there several times with family. When we go, we usually rent one of the two bedroom condos. They're huge, with spacious living rooms with fire places and so on. Some welcome pets as well, so bring the dog. The outdoor pool is kept heated to something like 90 degrees. You enter while indoors and swim out to the cold air. After a day skiing this is amazing.

Sunday River is one of the best ski mountains in the east for both skiing and snowboarding. It's much more relaxed than the ones in Vermont and New Hampshire because you don't get the day trippers from Boston on NYC. It's a family mountain, but it's got plenty of big slopes as well. It also has the absolute best ski school for both kids and adults anywhere. They have programs that start with kids that can barely walk, and go all the way to helping us old guys get out on the mountain. They even have a lot of the mountain open for night skiing under the lights.

There's other stuff to do besides skiing. A snow-tube park, cross country skiing, snowmobile rentals, etc.

SKILUG : 25-27 Feb 2011