Whistler, BC - Day 2 and 3

The pictures from day 2 are here.

Elias and Miranda decided not to do the ski school on Sunday, so we all went up together. We took it a little too easy in the morning (especially waiting for the two teens) and wound up seeing a HUGE line for the gondola, so instead went for the Fitzsimmons Express instead. At the top we popped right onto the Garbanzo Express up. A quick trip down Lower Whiskey Jack and we took the Emerald express to the Roundhouse lodge... were we immediately wound up having lunch.

Elias had been concerned about the chair lifts, but a few lifts with mom and papa and it was all good.

After lunch, Ruben and Matthew headed off to the terrain park. Pablo and Andy had gone off before - Andy's doing terrificly well with linking her turns. Elias fell often at first, but really got the hang of it after a while. He's very good at pointing himself down the mountain. Jonas had a bit more fear of pointing himself downhill (wouldn't any sane older person?) but he was much better at stopping himself.

Elias, Jonas and Lauren who were making their way down the mountain to the learning center (at mid-mountain) slowly. At one point the camera guys stopped and asked if we wanted a picture of the boys. They snapped this terrific picture.

Soon after they spotted Matthew and Ruben heading up the Emerald Express chair lift. Jonas decided to take that chairlift back to the Roundhouse and then take the Gondola down because his knee was hurting him. In retrospect, that was a very wise decision. Lauren and Elias continued down to the learning center.

Ruben and Matthew split up and Matthew went down the mountain. Ruben caught up with Lauren and Elias just as Elias was starting to get a little tired and the snow was getting icier. This was problematic for Elias who was falling more and more. Shortly after Ruben caught up, Elias fell hard on his back knocking the wind out of him and really hurting his bottom. One of the instructors who was coming down the mountain heard him cry and asked if we wanted him taken off the mountain. He set Ruben's skis up in a cross - while we evaluated Elias. We were pretty close to the mid mountain gondola entrance, so Elias said he'd have papa ski him down.

Ruben carried Elias while skiing down, which was a bit scary on the icy conditions (for me who was behind them). But they made it down safe and sound. Next time Elias gets a helmet.

Ruben took Elias down to the hotel, while Lauren took the gondola back up to the Roundhouse. From there she took the run to the Harmony Express. At the bottom of the run (a very easy green run), she saw they were closing off the Harmony Express, so she skated as hard as she could and slipped in just before they taped off the entrance to the lift line. She got on the lift at 2:59 pm exactly - the lift purportedly closes at 3pm, but they let the people in line behind me get on as well.

The run from the top was a good one - not nearly as windy as the last run the day before and the snow wans't quite as beautiful, but it was completely enjoyable nonetheless. There were very few people on the run, which made her nervous being up there "alone" - still she had no problems and didn't fall until she was 5 feet from the bottom of the mountain.

Exhausted she called Ruben for a "boot rescue." He came (with Devon in tow) bearing boots, and a very welcome apple for some energy. Then they all went to the Columbia Sportswear shop to help Devon choose a new jacket.

Learning from our mistake of the previous day, we left for dinner around 5:30 pm and had dinner at the Mongolian barbecue place.

After dinne we went to watch the Sunday night "Fire and Ice" show - where various folks who work at the mountain jump through a firey hoop.

The next day Ruben and Pablo woke up early and paid extra for "First Tracks" - breakfast and the ability to be the first folks on the mountain. They skied more Monday morning than (practically) the first two days put together.

Meanwhile Lauren, Devon and all the kids had breakfast in the village.

Noon had us checking out of the hotel and heading southward. We wound up stopping in Vancouver for some Crepes and almost had our car towed by being parked in a place we shouldn't have been at 3pm (around rush hour).

The rest of the (long) drive home and dropping off the skis was completely uneventful. All and all a fabulous trip.

Whistler Ski Trip

I should preface all this with the fact that Ruben went to Tahoe for a skiing trip just a week ago with an old buddy of his. He had a great time, skied a bunch of runs for his first time on the newer parabolic skis.

One of his goals of his sabbatical was to take me and the kids on a trip to go skiing - like up at Whistler. I was a bit resistant at first - basically not wanting to take another trip, yet here we are.

We left a little late from Seattle (seems familiar no?) - around 4pm after collecting Matthew's friend Jonas from his house and then Elias from school.

Traffic in Everett sucked as usual. It took us nearly 2 hours (at least 45 minutes longer than normal) to get to Mt. Vernon - our first scheduled stop - to pick up the lift tickets at the Haggen grocery store.

We got off at the main exit for Mt. Vernon and found the Haggen, up the hill a couple of miles. We also stopped here for dinner at their cafe - which was quite nice.

Little did we know that there was a Haggen JUST off the very next exit. Oh well, live and learn.

We hit a bunch of traffic at the truck crossing border (there's road construction up here), and even with the rainy, foggy weather and twisty windy roads, we made to to the Village at around 10pm. This means that a normally 5 hour drive took us 6 hours. Oh on the way we saw the 7-11 in Squamish where you can also buy the tickets for less money than on the mountain.

We arrived and checked into the Coast Whistler Hotel - the rooms are nice, clean but a little small. We do have 5 people in this little room, but it works. We just have to schedule bathroom time.

Today we got up at 7 to get Elias up and ready for his full day snowboarding lesson. Pablo (our friend from CA who met us up here with his family) brought us yummy fresh pastries and even yummier hot out of the oven croissants.

Elias was with his ski school at 8:30 and we ran back to the hotel (about a 3 minute walk) to get our gear on. Pablo, Ruben and I got back to the gondola around 9am and after 40 minutes of waiting in line (and quite a few interesting discussions, including a very existential one) we were actually on the thing. I could feel once we got above around 4500 feet because I started to feel a little queasy.

Ruben's GPS kept track of our movements for the day - I'll link to that when I can upload the data. We started out by going straight from the top of the Gondola down the Marmot or G.S. to the Harmony Express (quad) lift to the top of the mountain

At the top we were treated to an amazing view of the peak (picture to follow). It was windy and cold, but not too bad. We went "off the back" side of the slope through the Sun Bowl - which is a black diamond. Pablo attacked the run. Ruben was confident, but it was a little much for me - first time on parabolic skis and still learning how to deal with good turns in deep(er) powder. Ruben and I "escaped" on Burnt Stew Trail (because I was burnt) and we missed the turn that would have taken us to the Symphony express chair. That was probably for the best though - I think that whole back area would have been too much for me. I was already bonking and it was our first run.

Ruben and I stopped at the base of Harmony and got some water and a cookie. This helped me tremendously. I think the altitude issues were being exacerbated for me by dehydration.

Ruben and I contacted (by SMS) Matthew (and Jonas) and Pablo to tell them to meet us at the top of the Gondola at The Rendevous for lunch at noon. Then he and I went on another run of off Harmony, even though the lines were huge. The wind and clouds were picking up at the top and I did overhear someone say "you can really feel the storm coming in." Now I knew that there was more snow on the way, but I didn't think it was coming in that early - I thought we'd be getting a pretty good day of skiing in.

We took the Saddle run down to the T-bars, then those back up to Pika's traverse and the Ridge run. A quick swoop down and we were at a lunch table at 12:05.

Lunch was fine - uneventful. Ruben and I stuck with Matthew and Jonas for 2 runs - but it was obvious that Jonas' cold was not helping the fact that he has less experience on a snowboard than we do on skis. We took the Jolly Green Giant run to the Emerald Express lift, back up and then we went down Marmot again to Harmony.

Along this route I heard someone comment "wouldn't it be nice to have some kind of magnetic binding?" - So Ruben and I started to figure out if electromagnetic ski bindings would work... my comment was that the battery would have to be in the boot.

At this point it was really obvious that Jonas needed to head down the mountain for some rest and recuperation. Matthew was also tired, so they headed down the nice mellow Sidewinder while Ruben and I waited in line one more time for Harmony Express. In hindsight this was exactly the right thing to do.

We hooked up with a guy who was from east LA (Chino Hills) on the lift and chatted with him. He, Ruben and the other guy had all been to Tahoe and could compare notes about the runs there. Meanwhile, the weather was frightfully cold. I bundled up the best I could, but it was still biting through everything - the wind was intense. Towards the top the ice spray burned and the winds were pushing us UP the hill on the chair lift.

We immediately got off and followed signs to the Harmony Ridge run. The blowing snow was ... well it was intense. I suddenly could understand how people can get lost in bad snow conditions very quickly on a mountain. I even (at one point) looked for a spot of shelter out of the wind and made the mental image of clearing out a nice spot to keep the wind off of us.

No one else was on the run. I did feel very alone - but the snow was incredible. I felt very isolated, but at least Ruben was with me. He and I just kept plowing down the mountain, enjoying and yet fearing the solitude of the slopes.

Finally we got back down to the Harmony Express chair to find the line completely cleared out and the chair not running. It was only 2:43 - the chair wasn't supposed to close until 3! As we skied past we heard that they had to close the entire top of the mountain due to high winds: at least 70kph.

The run down from Harmony via side winder was ego skiing, except that there were so many people. Quite a contrast to what we found at the top. Also the run was a bit chewed up from all the skiers and snowboarders. There were a lot of mountain safety type hosts on the mountain tot make sure people weren't being stupid.

A little bit down the hill the snow turned to the round ice granuals that you mostly see in Snoqualmie pass. Still, good skiing, if a bit more icey in patches.

The bottom was a MESS - too many people and slush for snow. Still we made it down just after 3pm - in time to pick up Elias from camp (around 3:30). Ruben returned to the hotel with the skis and cleaned up while I waited for him.

He had a great time, but didn't want to do a 2nd day of classes. We'll take him up to the magic carpet and family ski area tomorrow. Pablo and Devon picked up their kids too - we all reconvened at the hotel and hung out until dinner. We were surprised by a BIG basket of fruit and snacks sent to us by my parents. It was incredible and perfectly timed. The fruit was a hit.

We attempted to go to dinner around 6pm - big mistake with 5 hungry children. We opted for plan B - get the kids pizza (and the bigger kids Japanese food), pay the bigger kids and go out to eat a placed called Seven for tapas. It was very very good - and the hotel supplied van (and driver) to get us there was a huge win in the pouring rain.

Tonight we're all tired, but the plan is to go back up tomorrow. The time and the configuration of kids and adults will all be dependent on the weather. But more tomorrow... right now everyone is asleep except stupid me :)

Photos from the road

They're located here.

This time we're on the road to California - first to the bay area to visit friends, then to east LA to visit family. Our hope was to get on the road early enough to make it all the way, but we didn't leave Seattle until 10:30 am... We stopped once in Portland to see a friend, and another time just north of Roseburg, where Subway was a hit with the little one for dinner.

The Siskiyou pass was completely clear and bright. Actually we only saw a little bit of snow - some on the side of the road just south of Portland (like it had just snowed earlier - or maybe the fog had frozen everywhere)... And then a couple of clumps in the pass.

The bambino started to get car sick just north of Redding so we stopped here for the night and stayed at our "usual" place - the Red Lion Inn on Hilltop. This time no McDonalds for breakfast though (the last time we did that both of the guys got violently ill).

Where have we been?

Lauren
(who lived in the NE and drove to Washington via the Northern route).



Ruben
(who lived in CA and WA, and has driven across the country via the southern route and back via the northern route)

create your own visited states map or check out these Google Hacks.


Lauren



Ruben

create your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Never again through Heathrow part II

We woke up really early, and caught the shuttle to terminal 1/2/3 at 6:20. We were at the terminal around 6:30 and took the free shuttle to Terminal 4. We were there more than 3 hours ahead of time for our 9:55 am flight to Amsterdamn. International flight. 3 hours right?

KLM wouldn't let us check in. There was an earlier flight. They had a limited number of workers checking people in.

So we waited and had breakfast. We got in line early, before our alloted 8am time. Given the crowds, that didnt' seem like long enough, so we snuck in line early. But we couldn't tell which line was which - there was a flight to Africa that was going through check in at the same time and it was also a very long line right next to our line.

Once that was sorted out, we waited and waited and waited. There was one set of people checking in that had to completely rearrange their bags to get under the 25kg weight limit. I swear they spent 1/2 an hour with 1 person behind the counter. Then 2 of the maybe 5 attendants were shifted to working for Air Malta instead of KLM. There was still like 2 of them on the "business and first class" section, but only like 2 or 3 for coach.

All in all it sucked.

On the counter when we finally got to it was a notice about planes being delayed for bad weather and they couldn't guarantee connections. We had maybe a 1 hour layover. If everything went well. Bad idea on our part.

They booked us on the flight, and said we'd just have to check in Amsterdam about our flight.

We got on the flight and the on board computers that showed connection information were saying we had to check our arrival gate. It also showed that the Seattle departure gate as E17.

E17 was empty as we rolled passed when we finally landed. The plane had left. And it wasn't even due to leave yet. It left 15 minutes early.

So we had to work with the transfer agent who was going to put us on a plane that went through Minneapolis and got us into Seattle around 12:30 am. That would be 10 hours later than our original arrival time. I asked if there was a flight through Detroit and if so, what time did that leave. She said 5 minutes before the Minneapolis flight. I asked for that one, but she said that there were no connecting flights to Seattle that same day. I asked for it anyway, because my parents live 30 minutes from the Detroit airport.

So much to Matthew's chagrin (he wanted to get home on Sunday), we stopped in Ann Arbor for a night. My parents were so happy to see us! We flew home the next day and arrived about the same time (one day later) we would have if we had caught the direct flight from Amsterdam to Seattle. So all in all that worked out - Amsterdam's airport rocks.

Never again through Heathrow (If I can avoid it).

Now this has nothing to do with the recent terrorist activities or terrorism in general. I just can't believe the incompetence. I mean we saw it just a bit when we first got to London two weeks prior and it took for ever for the Enterprise rental shuttle to pick us up. That should have been the hint. But I'm getting ahead of myself

Yeah, we started the day again with breakfast (with, surprise, more bread!), packing up and checking out but storing our bags for a few hours while we did a little shopping on Grafton and playing at St. Steven's Green. We met back up at the dorms at noon and took a very cramped cab ride to the airport. The ride took about 1/2 an hour but cost us <>Oh and that wonderfully tastey Irish brown soda bread? It got lost. Well not really. Kate and Michelle wound up with it over night and left it with the people at the desk at the Jurys Inn the folllowing morning. Well they were completely useless and didn't pass it on to us, literally 1/2 an hour later when we checked out.

At dinner we discussed some of our favorite parts

Ruben: The Castle (Bunratty)
Elias: The London Eye
Matthew: The Food
Lauren: Meeting Sheila and her family and seeing David and Sian and Cambridge.