New Life Hiking Spa
Snowbirds certainly have the life, don’t they? Winters in Naples when our weather is just about perfect, and summers up north, while we swelter down here and our ice cream melts into soup during the five-minute drive home from the grocery store. But it’s not just retirees who are living this double life. Increasingly, families with children are juggling schooling, work and housing as they divide their time between Naples and locales to the north.
The LeSages are one such family. Jimmy LeSage launched New Life Hiking Spa in 1978 in Vermont. New Life, based in Killington, Vt., operates during the summer and fall, which allowed Jimmy the flexibility to begin splitting his time between Vermont and Naples in 1997. He married Kathleen, who he met in Naples, in 2003, and the couple continued the bi-annual moves. Kathleen uses the skills and experience she gained from a career in marketing to promote New Life.
New Life is a hiking spa that Jimmy describes as an “all-inclusive, rejuvenating vacation” New Life focuses on healthy eating, exercise, and helping guests make positive lifestyle changes. It has garnered a bucketful of awards and recognitions in three-and-a-half decades, including its recent selection as the #7 spa in the top 100 list of “Spas of America” and has been recognized as one of the top 25 pioneer spas by SpaFinder Wellness.
A smooth transition
While it may seem as though starting a family would make the snowbird lifestyle more difficult, the early years went smoothly. Kathleen and Jimmy’s son James was born in Vermont in August 2004 and just two months later, the family was back in Naples. In November 2007, daughter LeAnne was born in Naples and six months later the family went back to Vermont.
Between 2004 and 2009, the LeSages spent six months in Naples and six months in Vermont. “It was really great living in two places when they were babies and toddlers,” says Kathleen. “It was so nice being able to go for a walk with the stroller without having to deal with mittens and hats. We all traveled together and we had a lot of friends in Naples with kids who were just there for the winter, but as the years go on, everyone who was snowbirds with kids have decided to stay up north.”
The next several years were a mix of homeschooling and schools in Vermont and Naples for James and LeAnne, but it still meant significant chunks of time apart. Last year, the children started attending a new school in Vermont. “The kids really loved it, and it was the first year they really started talking about how they didn’t want to leave Vermont,” Kathleen says.
Moving “does get more difficult with the kids related to schools and friends,” Jimmy notes.
A cultural advantage
For the LeSage children, being a snowbird is a way of life. “It’s what they know,” Jimmy says. “James was born in August and was on a plane in October. It’s part of their life. Up to this point, they’ve been happy to go. I think they’ve enjoyed it.”
While she notes that the moves are exhausting, Kathleen has no regrets. “Looking back, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. We were able to experience so much as a family and really experience two completely different ways of living. Vermont and Naples are very different places and we have been able to really experience everything in depth … more than when you just go on a vacation somewhere.”
Staying together
This year, the entire LeSage family moved back to Vermont in March, to prepare for the 2014 New Life season. Jimmy and Kathleen have learned that amidst all of the change, there needs to be one constant: being together.
“We made a choice,” Jimmy says. “We found it’s more important to be together as a family and move back and forth, than to be apart and have the kids stay in one place. We’ve always thought that being apart would be harder on them than the move.”
For more information on New Life Hiking Spa:
2617 Killington Rd, Killington, VT 05751 (866) 298-5433
Leigh Ann Newmann is the Copy editor of Neapolitan Family Magazine as well as the owner of ABC Swim School. She can be reached at (239) 272-0529.