Eagle Day... plus

Finally, we are healthy!!! Well...kinda better. Having 2 days of slow workouts, without coughing fits and sleeping through the night I think the flu has now had it's run. Today was a gorgeous day out and we decided to go see the bald eagles up in Farmington at the bird management site near the lake. I think Karen counted 49, toal at the site plus a couple in flight!! It is always an amazing thing to see one of these monsterous birds in flight. Didn't see any fishing, just watching!!

We took a drive down to the end of the dirt road and DID get a reward. We finally saw Owls in the wild! Even one that dove to catch a rodent, then ate it for lunch, yum!! They are the coolest looking birds. Great eyes!! Just amazing to watch them turn their heads, seems like they just keep going!! Anyway, a great afternoon. A great wintertime activity, if anyone is coming out this way!!

rich

Jackson Hole

Rich and I headed to Jackson Hole, WY on Wednesday, Feb 6 until that Sunday for a little skiing and conferencing. Fortunately, for me, Rich had a conference there and I was able to tag along for some skiing. This conference is so harsh on it's participants (not!) as they attend sessions from 7:00 - 10 am. then are off until 4:00 so that they can ski for the day. Nice, huh?

The drive up was great, it takes about 4.5 hours in good weather to get to Jackson and it us about 5 hours this day as it was still a little snow covered and slow. We were fortunate, though, as the next two days brought road closures and avalanches along the way keeping many people from making it to the conference on time. We arrived in the evening, just in time for a drink and some relaxing before dinner. We stayed where the conference was held, at the Snake iverLodge, http://snakeriverlodge.rockresorts.com/info/rr.asp , which was really nice, really really nice. :-) The ski area is all contained in Teton Village, with shops and hotels and restaurants right there. It's small, but nice, with skiing right out of your hotel. We enjoyed a couple of dinners at the Mangy Moose, http://www.mangymoose.net/restaurant_photos.php, and drinks at the saloon.

Jackson is such a great place to ski! The vibe there is very laid back with lots of locals and obvious ski junkies. The mountain has TONS of terrain, seemingly endless, and when we were there, there was no shortage of fresh powder as it had been and was snowing endlessly. We were definitely tired at the end of each ski day!

You might be wondering what the heck is up with the paper cut out of a girl! That is Flat Zoe. Rich's niece sent her to us, it is a project their 1st grade class is doing based on a story called Flat Stanley. The request was to take Flat Zoe on adventures with us and send pictures back so they can display all the adventures of their "flat" classmates. So.... we took flat Zoe skiing with us!

Storm weekend!!

Well, here we are, another weekend and another winterr storm!! Skiied Alta today with fierce winds, some snow and No People. Awesome conditions though. The buttery smooth snow that was blown on the surface covering the face on sunspot and west rustler was incredible. Supposed to get up to 30" from this storm, 12 here on the benches, the nmore this week. How can it get better. Here is some of the bluebird days of past. Today was just white!!

Joshua Tree and San Diego Vacation

So Kathy and I needed a road trip and decided to drive to San Diego, via Joshua Tree NP, to visit our stepsister and her husband, Jill and Steve. For those of you who dont know, Kathy and I are the road trip queens - we love being in a car seeing new things and movin' down the road to new places and experiences. We had another week off of work - Rich had to go back - so we hit the road! Our first stop was to Joshua Tree NP. What a different place! It was really cool - the trees are fascinating to me and it seemed very prehistoric, as if a dinosaur would walk by at any minute. Not much there though, the trees and some rocks. The park is frequented by rock climbers from all over though as the climbing on the big boulder masses is great. The campgrounds were great and plentiful. The next day we had a run through the park and then decided to take the long scenic route into San Diego to see what we could see. We arrived in San Diego in the evening and found Jill and Steve's place. The are just south of the city and only a mile or two from the border. Across from their house is a big estuary, which is nice, you can walk or run through there, and just a couple of blocks down the street is the ocean. The weather was cool, and dry for the first day - Friday - so we went to Sea World. We had often heard how great San Diego Sea World is, and it was really cool. After we went to an historic area of San Diego, called the Gaslamp District, and wandered around and had a beer. The next day it was hurricane rainy so we were pretty much house bound, other than a few short excursions. On Sunday, we headed to Vegas where we were stopping over to see a Cirque de'Solei show and it was awesome!! We saw the Beatles' Love one, not the typical CdS, but amazing and fantastic. We were off that Monday so we headed back and ended a great road trip that evening.

Another weekend, more snow... Yahoo!!!

Well another weekend and more snow on the way!!! Forecasts of 1-3 FEET of snow this weekend in the mountains and 6-10" here on the benches are making it tough to train. Though going up the hill and skiing pow all day gives the legs quite a workout. The hypoxic training of mouthfuls of snow making those sweet silent floating turns more than makes up for not running. Anyway we seem to be in a great pattern of storm, after storm, with more than 3 storms predicted this week.

Unfortunately, Ironman CDA is on the way, now just a short 24 weeks away. That means my days of skiing all day are going to shrink down to half days with some skating done afterwards. Powder days are untouchable however. So, I leave you with thoughts of snow, powder and thus far an epic ski season!!

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas was fantastic! Of course we missed all of our family and friends back home and hope you all had a great Christmas as well. We truly feel fortunate for all the blessings we have and our great friends and wonderful family. Always, Chritmas seems to make us think about that more and feel grateful. Our day started out early, around 7:00 with good coffee, Christmas music and the lights on the tree. Santa Rich passed out presents and it seems we were both very good this year as Santa (the many Santas in our lives) were awfully generous this year! Opening presents brought new skis for Karen so she can carve in that Utah Powder even better, a leather jacket and opera tickets for Rich , as well as an assortment of awesome clothing for outdoor adventure and indoor style, awesome cookware, comfy flannel sheets, homemade artisan pieces, some neat toys for the Vanagon, and much more. Rich, always happy with his Dunkin' Donuts coffee and pure Connecticut maple syrup! Thanks to everyone for all the perfect and wonderful gifts! After opening presents, we had a quick, but yummy breakfast and headed out for the slopes - see the blog entry after this one for details on that! After skiing we had a fantastic dinner with our good friends, who we call family here, and celebrated the day. Jeff and Amy, Tammy and Ian (also from MI), and Andy (also from MI!) came over to share the evening with us. Rich cooked up an amazing rib roast (think prime rib) and we had potatoes - sweet and mashed, spinach salad, green bean caserole, brought by Tammy, a staple for all holiday dinners! Yummy cornbread and apple stuffing made by Andy, and delicious cheesecake brought by Amy and Jeff. Awesome!! Before eating, we all cracked open our "crackers" - these are an English holiday tradition that Rich's family has always partaken in. The crackers (sitting on the plates in the table picture) contain fun little toys and crowns, to be worn during dinner! After we all ate, everyone at the table got a little gift from Santa, and we all went home and went to bed feeling fat and happy. What a great day!

Christmas Ski Day

What would Christmas Day in Utah be without skiing? Our new tradition, started by Rich when I went home for the holiday. :-) His tales of endless powder and no crowds on Christmas day prove true year after year and this year was no exception. Perhaps one of the most fun days on the slopes ever. A foot of fresh powder, the company of good friends and a blue sky day, doesnt get any better. IF there are any of you out there who have never skiied Utah powder, you cant imagine what you are missing. The snow here is so light and fluffy and soft it's just so much fun, I cant ski very well in it, but I'm learning, and it's a blast because it doesnt hurt to fall! :-) We met up with Jeff and Amy for the morning and then at 12:30 met up with Ian and Tammy and Andy, took a break together, our usuall Snickers and a coke, and hit the slopes again. We skied until about 3:00 at which time, exhausted, we came home for a soak in the hot tub, and dinner preparations. Today, another snow storm bringing about two more feet of snow in the mountains and Thursday - another blue bird day to ski. C'mon out and ski with us! We're waiting!! PS, check out the video of Rich skiing!