Recently I have been posting about the necessity to enjoy each day as we get older. Instead of always planning the next trip, adventure, or whatever, enjoy each day as it comes. You can’t get time back and it is important to grasp each moment of each day and enjoy it for what it is. Not that you can’t make plans or on the flip side, make everything spontaneous( I wish I could), but take the time to enjoy where you are and relish the good day at hand.

Après is a celebration of each day’s events. Usually accompanied by a beverage or two and involving all the folks with whom you did something with that day. These summer days, it is usually with my mountain biking group. We finish a ride, change clothes, grab our coolers and snacks, haul out the camp chair from our vehicles, and relax as the day winds down. The stories that come out are fun and relishing the day’s events with friends is truly the best part of the ride in my opinion.

Après is more famous in the ski setting as most people like to do the same thing after a great day of skiing. Sitting around a fire with a beverage or two and reliving the great conditions of the day, is a major part of the ski experience. The pictures below celebrate après and also our friend Tim Girone’s birthday up in Bend, Oregon this past winter. Janet asked me, ” we are going to sit around in the parking lot and drink beer and eat snacks in the cold?” She was the last one to leave. It was so much fun and an adaptation on the usual après ski venue.

I posted recently about one of my favorite après ski places- The Cottage up in Lake Placid. Another great venue for celebrating the day’s events.

Most often, one of the more humorous parts of après is how the day’s stories grow in size similar to the standard fishing stories. The size of the fish increases as the day wears on and the same with après. The stories get more spectacular the longer you sit in your chair. Like my dad always said,” The first liar never has a chance.” LOL! All part of the après scene.

Après is fun no matter what sport you participate in, and you should make it a part of your outing whenever you go riding a bike, playing golf, tennis, or whatever floats your boat. Celebrate the day and the friendships that you have made. They say if you go out of this world and can count your good friends on your right hand, you are fortunate. Kind of grim, but really drives home the point to take the time to enjoy each day on this planet, and enjoy the friends that make your days special. Après is like the icing on the cake to a great day. It is the signature of the outing, signed sealed and delivered. You always remember the great days of riding and skiing and equally, most of us remember the great après events that followed the days. They are etched in your mind forever when thinking about good friends. The memories, the pictures in your mind, will last a lifetime. Celebrate with après in whatever you do and most importantly savor each day as it comes. They go quickly. Thanks for reading.