Titti's profileTitti's spacePhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
|
March 09 SteamboatBack to work after a week in Steamboat. Trip didn't start out great - first I got a flat tire on my car the night before we were leaving. I am grateful it only happened as I drove into the garage, and not at work / gym / store, but still... Then we missed our flight... Woman at check-in gave us grief for having "items of clothing" in the boot bag, so we had to negotiate with her for several minutes - no one is saying anything about us then having to hurry. Expedia showed the flight leaving at 7:30. We get there at 7:10, and the flight has taken off! It turned out it was scheduled to leave at 7:15 (David had even called Expedia day before to check on time - lesson learned, go directly to airline...), but they decided to take off early and pulled out at 7:09. I find that very strange - we were checked in at the airport, and had checked in 5 pieces of luggage - I thought flights weren't meant to take off w/o the passengers of checked bags??? Anyway, no other flights available to Steamboat that day with any airline, so we ended up taking a United flight to Denver and then renting a car for the 4 hour drive. We get to Steamboat, go out to airport to pick up our luggage, but only one bag had arrived. We called Delta, who said it was not their problem as we had flewn United, and that we should have made the claim in Denver (???? At that point we didn't know the luggage wouldn't be in Steamboat!). Anyway, several calls to United (very helpful) and Delta (much less so), we found out our remaining luggage was in Salt Lake City, and "looked" like it was due to go on Delta's flight the next day. We couldn't decide whether to rent gear/buy clothes and have the airport deliver the luggage, or go out and mean the plane (due 12:15) and then hit the slopes for an afternoon - we ended up doing a combination - we rented board & boots for me (my binding was broken, so needed to be fixed) and then went to the airport. Luckily, the luggage arrived fine, and we hit the slopes around 2 pm. My rented boots were too small, so I went back to the condo to change into my own and managed to do one more run before they closed the lifts.
The rest of the week was fine! Only one day with fresh snow, but that was a great morning. Of course, it has now snowed for a couple of days straight there, and forecast says it will snow a few more days. Typical - oh well, nothing wrong with our own slopes - Stevens got 20 inches last night, Baker 17  November 30 Snowboarding season has started!Snow has dumped over the Pacific Northwest. Went up to Baker for the first time for the season Sun, Nov 13 - earliest I've ever skied/boarded! David and I also headed up to Whistler for Thanksgiving. I boarded 3 out of the 4 days - not fit/strong enough to keep going day after day - need to work on that. Whistler was OK - when we got to the village there was no snow in the village or on the hills coming down to the village - but it was OK on top, and it got colder and snowed while we were there, so each day was better then the last. I'm still a wimp at the traverses (narrow/flat)... April 11 Fresh snow @ CrystalTook the day off and went up to Crystal - hadn't been there all season due to lack of snow, but with the recent snow fall and a snow report of 4-6 inches of new snow overnight, we headed up. Arrived 9:15, which was pretty early to be us. Pretty bare at the bottom, but once we got up Queen Express - it was heaven! It had snowed all night, and the sun broke through when we were there. I guess some of the slopes hadn't been groomed since Sundays' snowstorm, because they were entirely untouched and deep! March 27 Last time boarding this year?30 inches of new snew over 4 days last week - David & I took Friday off and went up to Mt Baker. Snow was OK, but it was quite bare at the bottom - twigs & some rock. I fell and hurt my shoulder - will be fine, but it made me nervous about falling = didn't really push myself. Saturday was pouring rain, so stayed around the B&B. Went up this morning, and while it had snowed it was sooo wet. Went from lift 3 down the cat track to lift 6. At the top, at almost 6,000 feet it was raining!. Went down from there via Austin - went down the steeper part that looked like it was nice with plenty of snow (not groomed), and it was just too heavy - so climbed back up to the groomed cat track on that side and slided down to the bottom, and then walked the flat road back to the lodge and called it a day! Not a great ending (?) of the season... January 09 Baker again...Well, after hearing that Baker got 20 inches of snow on Friday, we just had to go back - couldn't find accomodation so went for a day trip on Sunday. Got up at 6 am (amazingly David got up w/o complaints!) and headed out - in a snowy Seattle. We must have seen at least 10 cars in the ditches during the first 20 min - after that, I guess the weak were weeded out... Past Everett it was clear for the rest of the way. It hadn't snowed @ Baker over night, so it wasn't new powder, but lots nicer then last weekend. There were lift lines of 5-10 min @ the first two lifts, after that "normal Baker", i.e. board (for me = shuffle along) straight onto the lift (look at the pic of David skiing - note the one (1) person behind him in the slope). It was sunny the first time up the lift, heavy snow the third... Personal first for me - I got up from sitting, twice! January 03 Sun @ Mt BakerWere able to get B&B at Glacier (closest place to Baker ski resort for accomodation), and left Saturday morning - decided to make the very first day a half day. Basically no snow on the way up, the roads were clear. Baker has the most snow of all ski resorts in Washington state, I dread to think what the other resorts are like! For the first time ever, I experienced icy patches @ Baker. First day was good, stayed on lift 7 and 8 and could avoid the bad spots. Sunday wasn't so lucky - we decided to go from 7 to 5, and that path was almost entirely in ice - I slided down most of the way on my knees... Stayed at lift 8 after that, so ended on a much better note. We stayed at the Duck Inn B&B, which I can highly recommend. Booked another stay in Feb!
December 28 Sun & snifflesLast two days has seen wonderful weather, Mt Baker is in full view - wish I was there! But, no - home with sniffles & a slight fever. Drugging myself enough to go to work, but don't think it would be wize to be out on the slopes - but just got ourselves two nights B&B Sat/Sun @ Baker. Picture "stolen" from Baker website. December 15 Broadband on SAS - was on premier flight!The SAS flight from Copenhagen to Seattle turned out to be their premier flight with Internet Broadband onboard! Hadn't brought my laptop so couldn't try it out Lucia in SwedenBack in Seattle after a week in Sweden. Timed it with the Swedish Lucia celebration, and was able to catch both Louise's & Lina's processions at school/day care. Also met the rest of the family at my niece Åsa's 14th birthday - my parents didn't know I was coming home, they only knew I wasn't coming home for Christmas! If you think Seattle has few daylight hours in the winter try Sweden! And Göteborg is in the south part - there was at least an hour difference in both morning & evening, and when the sun does rise it is very low on the horizon.
December 11 Celebrating my niece's birthdaySaturday evening (Swedish time) - celebrating my niece's birthday with the entire family. She got a USB cabel to get her cell phone pics into the computer, so helping her with that and creating her MSN Space. December 05 Weekend in LeavenworthSpent the weekend in Leavenworth celebrating Dawn's upcoming birthday.
Testing blogs - Taking Thursday offTaking today off, doing some early x-mas shopping |
. Not sure if it is a good thing or not - used to be a nice excuse to not being reachable for the 9-10 hours in the air... 30 journalists onboard, can't find a single article on the topic!|
|
