What is your definition of Luxury?
This question and a couple of others were presented to me by
Shannon, the Editor of the inspiring blog, The Simply Luxurious Life. She presents such questions to her readers and features their responses in a column in her newsletter.
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| Celebrating the Haute Route and the Matterhorn |
While this may sound like an easy question to respond to, I found it actually took me awhile to come up with my answers. I guess I find the word “luxury” to be a little loaded. I wrote an answer, but then I had to go back and edit {way too} many times, just trying to articulate my most honest and accurate definition.
When I was finished and sent in my final response {thank you for your patience, Shannon!}. I realized that this was a great subject to ponder at the beginning of the new year. Taking the time to define “luxury” for myself was taking the time to identify the things and situations that I enjoy most in life. To read my complete definition, visit the thought provoking newsletter, The Simply Luxurious Life.
Following is a story I included to help explain my definition, what a surprise ~ it’s focused on food!!
“Elegant food in a rustic setting” is my idea of a luxurious dining situation, one that can please all of the senses. I always want to have fabulous food, be it refined or casual, but somehow it tastes better to me if it is presented in a rustic or unusual setting or manner. I guess that explains why I have a special affection for high mountain huts.
This affection inspired me to ski the Haute Route across the Alps last spring, from France to Switzerland, staying at a different hut along the route each night. After a long day of ski touring, my friends and I would convene in the dining room to share the local mountain fare with an international blend of skiers. It was a true luxury for me to be able to glide and climb across this historical route and to thoroughly experience and absorb authentic Alpine culture and cuisine.
On the first night of 2011, I was fortunate enough to experience my favorite dining situation again, a little closer to home. Our local ski area has a rustic gem of a restaurant with wonderful cuisine, perched at 6,872 feet and surrounded by miles and miles of undeveloped forestlands. I have skied to lunch at the Summit House restaurant many times, it’s the highest restaurant in Washington state and offers an astounding view of Mt. Rainier.
This year, Crystal Mountain built a gondola to bring people (with or without skis) directly to the summit to enjoy the view, lunch, and now, dinner. The “Mt. Rainier Gondola” began operating on 1/1/11. I loved watching the shiny red cabins float overhead as I skied beneath them that day, and I felt so excited, knowing that I had reservations for dinner that evening.
Our friends came over for black-eyed peas and champagne before we bundled up, boarded the gondola and were lifted up into the darkness. We watched the small village below disappear,
sipping champagne and staying warm beneath a classic striped woolen blanket.
Then, slowly, the twinkly lights of the restaurant above came into view. We disembarked from our cabin, walked up a snowy bank and into the warm and inviting restaurant.
The evening was splendid, and every element, the fire, the fellow culinary adventurers, the food, the service, was all the more exquisite because of the rare opportunity to travel in a gondola, full of friends, on a cold and clear winters night to enjoy a meal together at the highest restaurant in the state.
So, how do you define Luxury? What would you like to experience more of in 2011??
I found it interesting to read fellow readers responses to Shannon’s questions in other editions of her newsletter. Like me, most said that what they found to be luxurious wasn’t so much expensive “things”, but more the almost intangible comforts and joys of life.
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| Fireworks over Crystal Mountain on New Year’s Eve |
Thank you Shannon, for featuring me in your newsletter and for always providing me with ideas for living a better life!!
How clever of Shannon to choose you! I remember your talking about both your alpine ski trip and the Summit House – both seemed simply luxurious to me!! Will hop over to see your official response.
Emily, thank you very much for such a complimentary mention. It was a pleasure working with you on this activity because it was evident that you were taking to heart exactly what you shared. Thank you again for participating. 🙂 So happy that we have met and I look forward to working together again in the future.
How wonderful that must have been! Nothing like a cozy mountaintop restaurant especially when its snowing….went to Zacks Cabin in CO. and will never forget it. New to blogging, love finding your blog. Please visit my new one….
http://www.theenchantedhome.blogspot.com
Thanks!
I so agree. One of my favorite memories was about 14 yrs. ago…we bought French cheeses (one blue i can still taste) some prosciutto, honey, fruit and a few baguettes…
and then laid our coats down in a nearby field of lavender just adjacent to a church in Provence. That's when we feel that we're really living, I suppose.
Lovely to read your luxurious memories. Thx for sharing. 🙂
love this… and i cannot meet wed… sorry. tonight? xx
Thank you all for your visits and comments.
EH – I visited you blog and loved it, count on me to be a regular.
Shannon – my pleasure, of course (thank you!). I look forward to staying in touch and I am sure we will meet someday.
RT – so close, and yet so far!! It will happen. What about coffee on Friday morning??
Q – I LOVE our shared passion for the Alpine.
A – I wish I had been with you. What is it about these random. rustic settings that makes everything more enjoyable??