Tamara's Travels

Day 8 – Siena and the Open Air Market

2010-09-27T01:02:00.000-04:00

While Siena is a great medieval city to sightsee as it was once Florence's rival and has great churches and piazzas, we did none of that today. I have been to Siena once before, though I don't remember it that well beause I was 13 at the time. Today we strictly shopped and dined. So much for sightseeing.

However, we were unable to do either until we found parking. It took us over 45 minutes to find parking but once we did, we realized we had discovered the best parking place in the entire city. We parked at a pay lot for San Franchesco which was dauntingly downhill from the main part of the city. Fortunately, as we started walking up the hills to the market, we discovered a covered escalor. We took it up. Then there was another escalator, and we took that up. And we kept taking escalators up until we were just outside the San Francesco church and it's lovely open piazza! A short jaunty though the closed to cars medieval streets and we were at the market! And in the end, the four hours of parking cost us only 6.40 Euro.

The Wednesday market in Siena is an event not to be missed. Like the market in San Lorenzo in Firenze, there are souvenier shops and leather good shops, but the Siena market also has fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, cheeses, and fish, and in terms of souveniers and leather goods, it has a much larger selection. I can't post what I purchased though as they are gifts, but I will say I got a great deal on them! I love open air markets.

After getting my shopping fix at the market, it was lunch time. The restaurant we chose was called Il Biondo, and rememer that name if you ever go to Siena, because it was amazing! Easily the best meal I've had since I've been in Italy on this trip. Everything that was brought to our table was delicious. Now I'm going to make your mouth water and your stomach rumble just a little bit. We had a spaghetti alla vognole (clams), ravioli “il biondo” that was stuffed with a spinach pesto, and lasagne with a meat and red wine sauce and a souffle top! But the best part of the meal by far was the anti pasti! We ordered a prosciutto e melone which had the ripest melon I've ever tasted and the most prefectly salted and sliced prosciutto. Then the real winner of the lunch was the eggplant parmesean that I will dream about for years to come and try to replicate for even longer. The sauteed eggplant was layered with cheeses, alternating between fresh mozzarella and pecorino. The top layer was a marinara sauce covered in a thick layer of pecorino cheese. Oh. My. Goodness. When I figure out how to replicate this dish, I will share it with you all, and you will fall in love just as I have.

Tomorrow I am traveling back home. I have to take the train from Firenze to Roma, then from Roma to Roma Termini, then get on my plane to Montreal where I will have a three hour layover, then head into Newark where I will land at 9pm. Because I've got such a long layover, I've decided to go ahead and check my bag. I am so looking forward to sitting on planes all day! Can you sense the sarcasm?

Until then...

Day 7 – Firenze on Foot

2010-09-27T01:00:00.000-04:00

Florence to us English speakers if Firenze to the Italians, and it still baffles me why we change the names of cities and countries. Would Firenze mean something diferent than Florence if used in the same context? I don't think so.

We arrived in Firenze at about noon knowing that we would have plenty of time to see all the major sights before leaving for our dinner party at 7:00pm. I've been to Firenze two times previously, so I've seen most of the sights, but it's always amazing to see them again, I just can't get over how old and ornate everything is!

The first stop was Piazza Signoria outside of the Uffizi Gallery. I've never actually been inside the Uffizi or the Accademia where the David is housed, in all the times I've been to Firenze. Is that the sign of the bad traveller? Maybe, but I think it's just that I'm not a giant museum person and there are replicas of many of the famous statues in Piazza Signoria anyway, not to mention you can see the collections in countless art history books and in photographs all over the internet. Personally, I enjoy seeing the replicas outside in natural light. My favorite is Michaelangelo's David (of course). But, I especially love that this sculpture is so well thought out that it is meant to be viewed looking up at it intead of looking forward at it. Michaelangelo designed David improportionate so when you look at it head on it looks like David has some really short legs. But, when you are looking up at him, he looks long, tall, and muscular the way he was meant to be viewed. I took a picture of him in his proper viewing state, which I will show you later.

Next we went to the Piazza della Republica while passing the Orsan. Michele church (there are so many of them in Firenze), the site of the original Roman Forum in Firenze. Then we headed up the main street, Via de Calzaiuoli, toward the Duomo. We sidetracked off to eat lunch at a small restaurant off the beaten path called Mangiafuoco Bracerie where I decided to have a very Italian lunch. I had bruccetta alla pomodori and spaghetti alla carbonara. From our table we were able to wath the futbol game on TV, how very Italian.

After lunch we headed to the Duomo. I decided not to climb the 463 stept to the top of the dome since I had already done it twice. I figured the view hadn't changed much in four year's. I did go into the church part of the Duomo and admire the frescoes on the ceiling though, not that I could see them clearly from 463 steps below.

After not climbing the Duomo we ventured through the market in San Lorenzo where street vendors sell souveniers and lots of Italian leather goods. It's your typical European street market with lots of the same stuff from stand to stand. The Italian leather goods did look enticing though...

Before we continued on our historical walk of the city, we explored the train station as I will have to navigate it when I leave from Firenze to Roma to catch my plane back to North America. I learned where to buy my tickets, which is always a good thing to know ahead of time.

Before continuing our historical walk of the city, we stopped for gelato outside of Piazza Santa Croce. I enjoyed half a cup of crema di limone that had candied lemon chunks in it and half a cup of fragole (English translation: strawberry). I sat in the piazza and admired Santa Croce which is painted in the colors as the Duomo (and other churches in Firenze as well).

Then we walked along the Arno River away from the center of the city toward one of the parts of the original wall that was around the city. After we saw the wall, we turned around and walked along the river towards the Ponte Vecchio, the famed bridge that has jewelry stores built on it. I'm not sure if they were always jewelry stores or if they were something else before (I've heard they were meat shops). When walking on the bridge, you can see it literally sparkle and shine from every angle in the light. It is bellissima.

One thing that you have to watch out for in Firenze is the motor bikes and scooters! They will run you over if you get in their way, and they zip along quite fast, though luckily they are not allowed on all the roads Motor scooters even have their own special sized parking spaces, which is good because there is not a lot of available parking in Firenze. Speaking of two wheeled vehicles, there are also a ton of bicycles in Firenze, and they are parked all over the place. I really enjoyed that this small city had such consciencious residents and commuters. I weren't it weren't so scary to ride bikes in Manhattan!

After nearly seven hours of exploring the city (for the third time) it was time to head to the dinner party at Cindy's (link). Of course my blister joined us as well.

Tomorrow we are going to Siena, a smaller Tuscan city, to go to their market which is much better than the market at San Lorezne in Firenze.

Until then...

Day 7 – I don't want to write about Firenze and Italian and American Dinner Party

2010-09-22T11:28:00.000-04:00

You know how after a long day where you've done so much all you want to do is go to sleep? That's where I a right now. It's just midnight here in Tuscany and I am exhausted. I spent five hours exploring Firenze aka Florecene (and I didn't even go into any museums!) and then attended an American and Italian dinner party. I think I'll write about the dinner party now and about Firenze tomorrow, because that's what I feel like doing and gosh darnitt it's my blog and my vacation.

Cindy is the woman my dad is renting the apartment from in Barberino Val d'Elsa. She is an American ex-Patriot who married an Italian and now lives in Firenze, after moving there from living in this very apartment in Barberino. They have two sons who are my age so it wasn't just me and seven people twice my age. Andrea (the older son) and I even exchanged facebook information. Cindy is a cook! She teaches cooking classes in Italy, so needless to say our dinner at her Firenze penthouse was quite delicioso. We started with fresh tuna ceviche and chicken liver pate toasts (two different kinds, not together, that would be interesting). Then we had home made cheese ravioli in a pommodorro sauce with lots of fresh garlic. After that we enjoyed pork wellington, sautteed eggplant and zucchini, porccini mushrooms, and a green salad with arugula, radicchio, and corn. For dessert we had fresh fruit, a seasonal grape pastry (with San Giovese grapes and LOTS of seeds), and biscotti. Food heaven.

Both Cindy and her friend Jane are American born girls who came to Italy and fell in love with debonaire Italaians and subsequently moved here, got married, and had children. Supposedly, there is an entire “American girl who marries Italian man” community in Firenze and they all know each other and actually have meetings and get togethers, like a book club.

All in all it was a fun dinner party with great food, lively conversation, and an interesting mix tape filled with 70's and 80's American pop songs. I admired these American women for coming to a foreign country on vacation and then essentially never leaving. I've visited many places that I felt I could never leave, but I think that may hae been the “I don't want to go home” string pulling on my heart. I don't think I could ever move anywhere too foreign, Canada maybe, but not Europe, no matter how much I love it.

Tomorrow I will write all about my five hour exploration of Firenze.

Until then...

Day 6 – Coastal Exploration and Mirko

2010-09-21T04:12:00.001-04:00

Every time I explore Italy I am introduced to a place I have never been before. Italy is such a huge country, and even though this is my fifth visit here, I still have not seen all of what there is to see in this beautiful country.

When you think of Tuscany, you think of hills covered with vineyards, olive groves, and sunflower fields, correct? Me too, you are not alone. But, today, for the first time I was introduced to a part of Tuscany that I had never seen before, the Marremma region of Tuscany.

We first ventured to a seaside village by name of Talamonte at the very tip of a tiny peninsula where there is a beautiflu cape and harbor to go along with it. Of course there is a very old walled village as wel, where every apartment has a view of the sea. Net, we ventured south to a mountain named Argrentario off the western coast that is conneted to the mainland with three thin strips of land that form lagunas in between them. On the northern coast of the island is Porto San Stefano where we stopped for lunch overlooking the harbor. Then we ventured to the East of the Island and marveled at Porto Ercole which is guarded by two forts on two hills overlooking the harbor. Luckily it is the off season in Marremma which meant less tourists to navigate through and less seagulls to worry about becoming roadkill.

After exploring the coastal marinas at Monte Argentario, we drove uphill to the little midieval mountail villages with spectacular views of the Mediterranean and Isola d'Elba. We drove through Maglinao, Pereta, and Scansano, all beautiful terraced hillside towns with medieval walls and stuctured. Every time I go to Italy (or anywhere in Europe really) I am awed by how old it really is. In the United States of America we don't have structures or towns or cities half as old as the ones in Europe, and seeing them in Europe (and espeicially when I was in Isreal) reminded me of how old “civilized' human life has existed. It's really fascinating.

After returning back to the apartment in Barberino Val d'Elsa we ate dinner at a restaurant where I dined on wild boar and tagliatelle. The wild boar was caught on Sunday morning with the restaurant proprieters shotgun... The pizza chef at the restaurant, Mirko, is moving to New York City in October to move in with a friend of his and look for work. He wants to make arrugula pizza in Brooklyn just for me (or so I'd like to think), and I think I know just the place for him to create his pizza magic.

Tomorrow we are off to Florence.

Until then...

Day 5 - American Backpackers Brandon and Nick

2010-09-19T14:16:00.003-04:00

Sunday is the day of rest in Italy. Nothing is open, and I decided I would embrace the custom of doing nothing, and do nothing. I came to the Piazza in the morning and caught up on my e-mails (thanks for the comments on the recent entries!) and just as I was preparing to leave and go back to the apartment, I was approached by two American backpackers looking for a winery with an open tasting room. I explained to them that it is Sunday! and that nothing is open, but better luck next time. I told them about Bustecca down the street with yummy pasta and house wine, and they said, "Let's go!" and offered to treat me to lunch in exchange for my knowledge. Count me in.

Brandon and Nick of Reno, NV, a tattoo artist and cabinet maker respectively, both business owners, were happy to share their traveling experiences with me. Highlights so far included bar hopping in London in between flights and meeting and congregating with travelers from around the world (Poland, Canada, and Egypt) at their hostel in Tavarnelle. They are most looking forward to Oktoberfest in Munich and bathing in hot beer while drinking beer in Austria (apparently you can do that?).

Talking with them made me wish I had the guts to go backpacking through Europe. I've thought about it so many times but there is some little fear in me, I think of being alone in the big bad world. Anyone want to go with me? But seriously, I really want to go backpacking in Europe and sleep in hostel beds and carry my big back pack around and use it as a pillow on overnight trains.

Until then...

Day 4 – Panzana Wine Festival and Unlimited Calories

2010-09-18T17:37:00.001-04:00

If there is one thing the Italians love more than their food it is their wine. Or at least the tourists do. Today we went to the Unione Viticoltori di Panzano in Chianti other wise known as the Panzano Wine Festival. Essentially, the festival is a huge wine tasting event where intead of taveling from vineyard to vineyard to taste wine as you would do in Napa Valley, California or the North Fork of Long Island, NY, each taster purchases a wine glass with carrying pouch (think kangaroos) and hops from booth to booth tasting wines from various wineries. This festival has 17 wineries with booths, most booths have more than one wine to taste, so one person could taste about 34 wines, which equates to about seven glasses of wine in total. That's a lot of wine. And all for 12 Euro... for TWO days!

I tasted at eleven booths (I discarded lots of the tastings after one or two sips). This was my first experience of a wine tasting festival. At first I thought all the wines tasted the same, but then I was able to discern what I thought were good wines from the rest. My three favorite vineyards were: 1) Chianti Classico Reserve at Cennatoio, 2) Chianti Classico Reserve at Panzanello, 3) Rose at Vignole. For ambience, there was a band playing Pink Floyd and classic American rock'n'roll covers at the festival as well as wine inspired art painted by Luca Carfagna (with whom I am now in love with) displayed and for sale.

After the wine festival we headed to Badia a Passignano for dinner at La Cantinetta di Passignano where I must have ingested over 2,000 calories, all of which were well worth it. We started with a antipasti platter of Italian meats, cheeses, bruchettes, pates, tomatillos, jams, and arugula. For the primmi piatti we had the “Linguine Chef” which our waiter informed us was always fish based and that no matter what it was we would like. He was right. We were served fresh linguini in squid ink with tomatoes and little clams. I've always strayed from squid ink because it smells so salty in American Italian restaurants, but this was not too salty at all, it was perfect, so perfect I wouldn't let our waiter clear it from the table. For secundo piatti we had beef with fresh truffles. Oh. My. Goodness. And that is all I have to say about that.

Today was a day for my stomach, and tomorrow, with any luck, I will walk it all off. It is raining now (bad for the grapes but good for my allergies) so hopefully tomorrow will bring clear skies perfect for strolling around.

Until then...

Day 3 - Exploring Barberino

2010-09-17T09:58:00.001-04:00

First I'd like to say, that is it so unequivolcaly Italian that the wifi hotspot in this village is at the wine bar. But of course! Where else would the proper spot be? Also, that I can't post photos from here as my memory card is not compatible with my dad's computer, but once I return to NY I will add the appropriate pictures to each entry. Until then, use your imagination.

I took the morning to explore this midieval village of Barbino that I am staying in for the week. The walled part of the town, the medieval part, is teeny tiny and takes about 10 minutes to walk a full loop. There is a front gate and a back gate to get in and out of the town. Once inside there is a church that rings it's bells every hour and half hour from 6am until midnight (do they sleep around here?), a wine bar, a little grocery shop, a library, a hair salon, a few artisanal shops, a butcher, and a baker, but no candlestick maker that I can find.

I walked outside the city walls and found the new apartments and homes all with great views of the Tuscan hills. Every diretion there is a view to die for. That's one of the things I love about Tuscany.

A few other things that I love about Tuscany are the flower pots on every balcony and doorstep in town and all the fresh laundry hanging over balconies and on lines. Every once in a while I found a little old lady (the average age here is about 80!) out watering her plants or hanging her laundry. Also these old women sweep their porches and steps what seems like all the time, trying to get rid of the never ending dust and dirt that accumulates in a midieval town. Lastly, I love the cloths that hang over the heavy wooden front doors. Since it's rare to find a European dwelling with screens on the doors and windows, these clothes supposedly keep the bugs out.

Lunch in Italy lasts from 1pm to 3pm, and all the shops are closed. Only restaurants and bars are open. I kind of feel bad for the waiters and chefs that have to work during this designated time off, but not really, because I get to eat the yummy food. Today I ordered homemade pasta in a pear and gorgonzola cream sauce for only 7.50 Euro at Bustecca. It was tutto bene! The pasta here is really something else. I'm sure it's the reason why even thin Italaian women have little soft pasta bellies. I can anticipate having one before I head back to New York. I will just have to walk it off every day, because there's no way I am going to stay away from the pasta while I am here. But it will be so worth it.

Until then...

Italy Day 1 and 2 - Transatlantic Travel

2010-09-17T09:56:00.003-04:00

The only aspect of traveling to Europe that I dislike is the actual traveling part. Once in Europe it's great, but getting here is a pain. It's bad enough taking a flight that is supposed to be “overnight” when it feels like staying up into the wee hours of the morning and then, viola!, you find yourself in a foreign country and it is early morning when it feels like bed time. Add on all the travel to and from the airports and it has become a 24 hour trip, most of which has been spent awake without proper meals or showers. Sounds fun, doesn't it?

My trip began in my hometown boarding a bus to Manhattan at 12:30pm. I disembarked from the bus at 2:30pm then took the subway to Penn Station where I proceeded to walk in circles until I found the New Jersey Transit and bought a ticket. The train was conveneiently waiting for me and left soon after I boarded. I rode the train to the Newark International Airport stop where I was able to catch the Air Tran which took me right to my terminal. Because I'd been so lucky with catching trains one after the other, I arrived at Newark a good two and a half hours before my flight departed. After checking in at the TAP desk and securing a window seat (score!) I headed through security with no problems at all with my expertly packed one quart clear plastic bags with 3oz or less bottles of liquid inside.

I was one of the only passengers to wait patiently at the gate for my row number to be called. Most people crowded around the boarding area thinking “I'm going to be the first person on the plane!!!”. This makes no sense to me since boarding is by row and all the seats are assigned and there is no need to rush into the plane to get a good seat. But, what do I know?

My plan was to get comfortable in my seat, wait until we took off to take a sleep aid pill, and pass out for the next seven hours until arriving in Lisbon. Of course, my plan didn't go as... planned. I did manage to get as cozy and comfortable as you can get in an airplane seat and then took a sleeping pill right after take off when I could recline my seat. But, I was so rudely awakened by a steward pushing the button to un-recline my seat when the meal was served. He explained to me that everyone was eating so I had to put my chair up. Did it look like I cared? No. I did not want to eat. I wanted to recline and pretend that I was sleeping through the night so that when I arrived in Portugal and later Rome, it would feel like I had slept all night and woken up in the morning. But as I said, my plan did not work, all because this Portuguese airline required that I had my seat in it's “upright and locked position” while everyone around me ate their food (which smelled surprisingly seasoned for airplane food) despite the fact that I preferred to sleep.

We landed in Portugal when it was still dark outside so I didn't get to see any of it from my window seat, but I did manage to see the lit up arch of a McDonalds as we approached the runway. Once in Portugal, I got my passport stamped (woo!!!) and then headed to my next flight, where I had to go through security again, which irritated me. The line was short and I thought it would be no problem. The security officer wouldn't let me take my huge bottle of water through so I stood there and started drinking it before I went through the security check point. She decided that while I was standing there anyway it would be a good time to get out my little bags of liquids and check to make sure they passed security tests. I graciously offered both my baggies to her for inspection. Well, apparently I and Newark security officials had failed to see that my very favorite Boscia face wash was actually 5oz instead of the required 3oz or fewer. This is expensive face wash, and I love it, I cannot live without it. The security officer told me I had three choices. One, throw it away (never!!!). Two, mail it to myself (this would have worked perfectly expect to do so I needed Euros and I was without any), Three, go through customs, go to the airline counter and check my bag with the liquid inside of it (this is what I wanted to do but then they told me if I did this that I would likely miss my flight). So, none of these options were working for me. I had to get clever and creative. I had packed a 3oz bottle of shampoo which I decided wasn't as important (or expensive) as my face wash, so I emptied it out in the garbage, washed it with the remainder of what was left in my water bottle, and filled it with my beloved face wash, most of which made it into the 3oz container. When I washed my face this morning it smelled a bit like the shampoo but didn't have any of the pink color so I think I did a good enough job.

I made it to the gate for my flight from Lisbon to Rome in plenty of time, and then the plane ended up being delayed because people's luggage was not on the plane yet (probably people who had the same problem as I did and decided to go back and check their bags). I should have gone with that option... Oh well. I slept again on that flight (three hours) though the person behind me decided that he wanted to kick and shove my chair frequently enough so that I would understand he was not happy about my reclining my seat. People (especially tall men) need to understand that seats on airplanes recline, and anyone is allowed to recline them! If anyone has problems with people reclining chairs in front of him, he should buy the seat in front of him. Harumph.

When I arrived in Rome, I didn't get a passport stamp (sad face). I didn't have any checked baggage so I was able to get out of the airport easily and find my dad and his friends. We got in their rented car and started driving to Tuscany where they are renting an apartment and I am staying, by way of a coastal highway with great views of the Mediterranean sea. After having lunch in a small town called Santa Marinelli (I have to check the name on the map later) I promptly fell asleep in the back seat of the rented Fiat and missed pretty much all of the scenic drive. Oops?

We arrived in he medieval city of Barberino around sunset. I was much too tired to do any exploring or even notice that I was in an over 1,200 year old city. But I'm sure I will have time to adequately explore the area tomorrow.

Until then...

How to Track Down Stolen Luggage - Dominican Style

2010-06-17T11:28:00.005-04:00

Unfortunately on our recent trip to the Dominican Republic, my darling Mike's bag was "lost" as the airlines like to say. Here is my comical rendition of "How to Track Down Stolen Luggage".

First: Conveniently sit next to the person who will ultimately mistake your bag for his. This is a key element if you need to use face recognition.

Second: Get off the plane quickly and get to the luggage pick up area before the carousel starts moving.

Third: If you see someone walking away from the luggage carousel with a bag that looks oddly similar to yours, he is probably leaving with you bag. This would be a good time to run up to that person before they go through customs to avoid the following steps. If you don't run up to him (d'oh!) then make sure to get a good look at his face to realize he was the person sitting next to you on the flight.

Fourth (optional): Hope that customs does a search on them and that someone realizes the bag is not his!

Fifth: In the event that the fourth step doesn't occur, you will have to wait until all the luggage comes around the carousel and find the bag left behind that looks most like your bag. Note the name and address on the luggage tag.

Sixth: File a claim with the airline lost baggage people and make sure you mean business! Tell them you know the name and seat number of the person who took your bag because you are so observant. Also see if they can look through all the customs sheets for his name so they can contact the stealer instead of waiting for the stealer to contact the airport. Also, try your best to take the stealer's bag with you. You can use it as leverage in the future.

Seventh: Inform the people at your hotel about your lost luggage and have them call the airport and customs and if necessary the embassy and work their little behinds off to get your bag back.

Eighth: Meanwhile, go on Facebook and type in the name you noted from the luggage tag in the fifth step. Try to use face recognition and cross reference with their location (should be close to your departure airport). When you find the stealer, send them a message indicating the problem. Now they know you know they stole your luggage! Muahahahaha.

Ninth: When the airline finds your luggage only an hour after you have sent the Facebook message (and 6 hours after you landed), feel confident that your Facebook stalking skills were the reason of luggage return and not the good graces of the schmuck who didn't realize he had the wrong bag for 5 hours?! Yeah, I don't think so.

Tenth: After profusely thanking the people at your hotel for working so hard to find your luggage, take off those stinky clothes you've been wearing all day and change into your nice clean ones that were hanging out in someone else's hotel room for the entire day.

****Reminder**** Never pack valuables (jewelry, electronics, money, documents) in your checked luggage! Always put those in your carry on bag.

Thank you for tuning into this edition of "How To" on Tamara's Travels.

Domincan Republic - Packing Whoops

2010-06-15T23:53:00.006-04:00

I returned from my glorious six day five night trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on Saturday. We stayed at the Club Med resort which was absolutely perfect. I highly recommend it. Besides the rooms being comfortable and spacious with a balcony and a view, the food being delicious and all inclusive, the activities provided were the best! We took sailing and windsurfing lessons, tried our hand at archery, and even endured the heat on the tennis courts. The night-time activities are fun too with live music nights and a DJ nightclub on the beach. We never had to think of anything to do, everything was already planned for us. We just chose the activities. No stress.

There were only two disappointments on my trip and neither one of them had to do with the actual trip, but mistakes I made myself.

The first, I completely and utterly over packed, which is usually not a problem for me. But this time, I failed. Want to know what I packed too much of? Clothes to wear during the day! Who wears clothes in the Caribbean during the day?! I wore a bathing suit with a cover up every day. I brought two bathing suits and two cover ups and alternated them between the days so I wore each one twice. Did I wear any of the three pairs of shorts I brought? No. Did I wear any of the tank tops I brought to go with them? No. Did I wear any of the three sweaters or two pairs of jeans I brought (apparently I forgot what 90 degree weather feels like)? No. I'll tell you what I DID wear (other than the bathing suits and cover ups). I wore each of my five dresses/skirts for night-time (dinners and dancing always call for dresses) and I wore half of the exercise clothes I brought (it was much too hot for me for most of the exercise classes). I only brought four pairs of shoes and wore all of them; night wedges, night sandals, flip flops, and tennis shoes. I even managed to wear all the jewelry/accessories I brought to go along with my night outfits. Bathing suits and night-time clothes only from now on. Lesson learned.

Of course, to go along with my over packing, I under packed a few things (or just plain forgot them). I have horribly uncomfortable reactions to bug bites. I remembered to bring my prescription anti-itch cream (good last minute toss in the suitcase) but completely FAILED to bring bug spray! Luckily, the gift shop had bottles for sale... for $17.00!!! I sucked it up and bought one, because I desperately needed it. Lesson learned.

I also thought that bringing the book I was currently reading (Haruki Murakimi's Norwegian Wood) and another book (Barbara Kingsolver's Pigs in Heaven) would be enough reading for the plane rides and the beach. I was wrong. I finished the Murakami on the plane before we even landed in the Dominican Republic and I finished the Kingsolver the day before we left. I really tried to put the book down, but I just couldn't. I was forced to buy a trade paperback that I didn't have much interest in reading at the Punta Cana airport for $10 when they usually cost just $8 in the US. Le sigh. Lesson learned.

If you're planning on sitting on the beach for the majority of your vacation, don't pack clothes to wear during the day and bring enough reading material. Oh, and hot and humid equals MOSQUITOES. Bring bug spray to spare your skin and your wallet.

The Best Purse for Traveling

2010-05-20T14:40:00.011-04:00

Every fashionable girl wants to travel with a cute purse. Unfortunately, suitcase space and practicality often get in the way. But, it is possible to travel with a lightweight bag this is fashionable and functionable.

My pick, LeSportsac's Deluxe Every Day Bag. I have traveled to four countries with mine; France, Spain, Italy, and Israel.

Top five reasons why I love this bag:

1. The material is lightweight so it is easy to pack as well as carry around all day. It's also super easy to clean.
2. There are a variety of patterns and colors to chose from. Have fun viewing the colors on their website. Also every season this bag comes in new prints and colors.
3. The adjustable strap means you can wear this bag as a cross body bag or as a shoulder bag.
4. Two main pockets (one that is expandable) and three smaller outer pockets allow for easy organization and access to your belongings.
5. The zipper closures ensure that no one can get into your bag but you, take that pickpockets of Rome!

My mom also has this bag (as per my suggestion) and we both used ours on our trip to Europe. While we were at Campo de Fiori in Rome, we spotted a man lingering behind us, obviuosly observing our pockets to see if they were bulging with something in them. Of course he didn't find anything because we had our LeSportsac bags, across our body, with our hands over the zippers. He got really close to me, I turned around, and then he disappeared into thin air. He knew not to mess with the LeSportsac bag.

Here we are at the to of Notre Dame. We used the tiny outside pocket to hold our water bottles (smart, smart!)

This is me on my most recent itnernational trip in Israel. I am in the DESERT!

Don't forget to get a bag for your guy too! You don't want to be lugging around his stuff the entire vacation, do you? The Men's Small Crossbody works great. I recommend this one over the messenger bags because they have zipper closures whereas the messenger bags only have flaps over the main pocket.

Safe and happy travels!

Traveling To Do List

2010-03-24T20:10:00.016-04:00

In an attempt to procrastinate getting ready for my upcoming St. Louis departure on Saturday I am going to share with you a "to do" list before embarking on any excursion, no matter how long you are away. I tend to let this slip for weekend getaways, but I am going to try to be better with this in the future. Since my St. Louis trip to see my dear dear friend, Tanya, and my cousins Mike and Skip and their families is a full week long, I really need to get my to do list completed. These can be started and completed in any order. This is just my preferred order (though I tend to jump around from task to task).

1. Make a packing list. Packing lists eliminate forgotten items such as toothpaste and socks (cough cough Mike). I tend to itemize my packing lists like so (I'm probably putting too much on here, but I don't want you to forget anything!)

Clothes: day, night, pjs, outerwear, socks, undergarments (undies, stockings), seasonal and/or activity clothes (beach resorts or ski resorts for example - updated from comments)

Shoes: day, night, pool/beach, athletic, slippers for extended stays, weather appropriate shoes

Toiletries and bathroom supplies: hair care (I always forget extra hair ties), dental hygiene, skin care (including sunscreen), makeup, hair removal (tweezers and razors, ladies), nail care (toe nail clippers, boys), medications (preferably Excedrin and Benadryl), band aids

Accessories: jewelry (nothing too fancy), handbags (one for day and one night - no need for more), sunglasses

Electronics: iPod/headphones and charger, cell phone and charger, camera and charger, mini battery operated alarm clock (I use my cell phone for this)

Extras: gum, postcard stamps, earplugs and eye cover, notebook and pens, reading material, mini flashlight (for camping and stuff....)

Definitely don't forget: drivers license, passport if necessary, all necessary tickets, confirmation numbers, vouchers, etc., money including cash, traveler's cheques, and credit and debit cards. *Call your credit card companies before traveling to another country to avoid your card being denied once there - the CC companies might think it's stolen.*

2. Put everything away! I am notoriously bad for letting clothes pile up on my desk chair, books pile up next to my bed, laundry pile up in the corner, shoes migrating outside the closet, the bed going unmade, empty water glasses living next to the bed... I could go on. The point of this step on the to do list is so that it will be easier for you to pack. Once you've gotten everything put away into it's rightful organizational mode (or as close as you can get) move on to step...

3. Lay out what you are bringing from the packing list on your now made bed and cross them off the list as you put them there. I organize everything into piles like from the packing list, this way it's easier to fit into suitcases and/or balance weight if bringing more than once suitcase while trying to stay within airline bag weight maximums. Also, make sure all the clothes are folded neatly. When actually packing, save the small things like socks and undies for last as they fit into those tight spaces on the side that nothing else fits into. I also put my hair dryer in the middle so it doesn't bang around. And of course, always put liquids in a Ziploc bag to avoid a complete and total disaster. At this point I also...

4. Make a special pile for things going in my carry on if I am checking bags (not including my purse which I won't include here). In my carry on I always have; sweatshirt (planes are cold!), iPod/earphones, earplugs and eye cover, reading material, notebook and pens (make sure they're not the exploding kind, Mom), the jewelry I'm bringing (don't want to lose that in checked baggage), my laptop, all forms of ID and travel documents. In that little quart sized plastic bag for liquids I put travel size bottles of lotion (3oz), chap stick, face cream, and toothpaste (the toothbrush usually makes it in there too). If I am traveling with a carry on only I have to remember to NOT bring a razor or other sharp objects. I once traveled with my friend who forgot there was a mini pocket knife of her keyring, and security took it away. That was a sad day.

5. Put the bags near the front door, or better yet in the car. I usually end up finishing packing right before I leave so they usually go right into the car when I take them out of my room. But, packing is not the only part of preparing to go on vacation. You have to remember to...

6. Take out all the garbage. Especially remember the kitchen garbage. I have been traveling so often that the only times I take the garbage out of my room and bathroom is right before I leave for a trip. Hey, don't judge. They're just filled with tissues anyway as I'm a chronic nose blower. Speaking of being clean and not nasty...

7. Wash the dishes. Running the dishwasher two minutes before you walk out the door to get in the car counts! If you already ran the dishwasher the night before because you were eager, please hand wash the dishes you use before you leave. You don't want them stinking up your kitchen and awaiting your return.

8. Don't leave laundry in the dryer. You'll just have to re-dry it again when you get home because it will be all wrinkly.

9. Hydrate if you are traveling via air. If you are traveling via air and going to a higher altitude than you are leaving from, start hydrating a few days before.

10. Pack snacks in your carry on, especially if you are spending a lot of time traveling. I'm really bad about this and usually end up buying gross airport food.

11. Make sure someone like a neighbor or friend has access to a key to your house in case of an emergency.

12. Make sure someone back home has your itinerary of hotel locations and phone numbers in case they do need to get in touch with you. This might also be a good time to suggest getting an international cell phone if you're traveling internationally.

13. Plants and pets, make sure you have arranged for someone to water the plants, feed the pets, and change the litter if necessary. When my mom, brother, and I went to Hawaii for three weeks we prepared for my cat by leaving him lots and lots of food in bowls and having our neighbor come once a week to refill/change his huge water bowl that we left for him. He decided that our leaving was not OK so he just moved to the neighbors for three weeks. Silly cat.

14. Double check the list before actually leaving your house. Go through the packing list and remember putting each thing in your suitcase. Double check for your cell phone, ID, and documents.

Did I forget anything? Probably. What is one thing you can't travel without? Let me know what you always make sure you do before leaving.

Brief Reflection on Living Out of a Suitcase

2010-03-05T20:18:00.005-05:00

I have a lot of stuff. I have bookcases filled with books, closets filled with clothes, and a medicine cabinet full of toiletries, just to give you an idea. While in Utah, I forgot about all of my stuff. I had what I brought, and that was all. Nothing more. Yet, I had everything I needed. I had plenty of books to read, enough clothes to wear, and every toiletry I brought was used at least once.

Now I am home, and the first thing I thought when I walked in my room was, "It's so massy." But, it's not even that messy (discounting the desk and the third shelf in the second closet and the cabinets underneath the sink, and let's not even talk about the stuff I have in the basement). Ok, maybe it is a little messy, but on the surface it doesn't look so bad.

I immediately realized that I don't need so much stuff. In my defense, I have been actively trying to sort through my things and would like to have a huge yard sale this summer.

Sometimes it takes living out of a suitcase (for six out of the past 10 weeks between Israel and Utah) to realize that one doesn't need so many things. Welcome home to me anyway, and I guess it's time to start planning that yard sale...

The Final Day - 22,584 Vertical Feet

2010-03-04T23:23:00.010-05:00

Tomorrow is going to be a great powder day at Park City Mountain. I would be excited, except that today was my last day of skiing in Utah for the season and I am boarding an airplane back to New York tomorrow. However, I can't complain because I did get 23 great days of skiing in at four different mountains during my stay here.

Today started very early with Shane and I waking up at 7:00am for the power clinic. Now, for those of you who know me, you know I am not in any way, shape, or form a morning person, at all, ever, no way. Me and mornings don't get along, but if there is a reason to greet the early morning, I will. The power clinic at Park City Mountain starts at 8:45am, 15 minutes before the lifts even officially open. It lasts for two hours, until 10:45am, which is about the time more people start to get on the mountain. At $45 a person, the power clinic is a great option for advanced skiers to get helpful pointers from an instructor without paying for an adult group class ($90/person) that lasts only an hour longer and is usually more crowded, even though the lessons max out at five participants per instructor.

Allen Woods was our instructor today. Shane and I were two of three people in the class. The third person was a young woman just a few years older than Shane, so the vibe of the group was young even though our instructor was 78 years old! Yes, you read that right, he is 78 and still skiing. Allen from Stowe, VT is a very interesting guy. He was the head of ski school at Stowe for 30 years and came to Park City 10 years ago. He has multiple ski instructor certifications, including certifications that allow him to certify others. But, the most interesting thing I learned about Allen was that he was the first American ski instructor to be permitted to take the Austrian ski instructor exam. Pretty cool, right? Allen gave me some great pointers for carving on ice because I mentioned to him that I was headed to Stowe in 2 weeks. Stowe, and other mountains in the East, are notorious for having icy conditions all winter long. Allen wanted to make sure I was ready. If you are ever skiing at Park City I highly suggest waking up early and taking the power clinic with Allen Tuesday through Friday. He is a very neat person and I am glad that I had the opportunity to spend some time with him.

Mom met us at Cole Sport after the lesson. While in Cole Sport, I was introduced to charismatic Cindy, a competitor in the Special Olympics. I had the opportunity to ask Cindy some questions, which she was very excited to answer because she wanted to be on the blog! Cindy is a downhill skier because she thinks that cross country skiing is too difficult. She began skiing a couple of years ago and loves it (me too, Cindy, me too). Cindy was also a regular fashionista wearing her Sundance Film Festival jacket which she was proud to show off. And, she is a very big Lilly Tomlin fan. You can watch Cindy in the following video.

Shane and I led Mom down some trails that we went on with Allen during the power clinic. It was nice to change up our routine a bit. It had already begun snowing when we headed up with Mom, but during the time skied together it started snowing much harder. And then it got really windy. It very quickly became a "snowy and blowy" day, Mom's LEAST favorite kind of ski conditions. In order to protect ourselves from the blustering wind we opted to ride the Motherlode lift the majority of the time, even though it is a frightfully long lift with no footrest. We got bored while on the lift so Mom started singing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall". I then joined in and we belted out the song, getting down to 55 bottles of beer before we got off the lift. Mom must have been influenced by going to the brewery last night.

It got too windy for our liking and the snowflakes hitting our faces actually started to hurt, so we headed back to the base around 3:00pm, about an hour earlier than we usually do, after 22,584 vertical feet of skiing, 5,792vf of which were accumulated during the power clinic. We needed to get back to the condo anyway to pack up.

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go." I can't believe this amazing adventure is coming to an end. I am so glad that I got to experience "mountain life" first hand, improve my skiing, and spend time with my family. I am sad to leave Utah, but at the same time I am excited to go home. I know that I will come back to Utah though, so it's really not "good bye" but "see you later".

Thanks to E and R for renting us their condo. It was the perfect space for my family and we felt like we were staying at a friend's place instead of just renting. I know that we have made life-long friends in you.

Also, thanks to Vic, Kyle, and the rest of the team at Cole sport including Ryan, Brett, Will, Mike, and all those whose names I didn't mention. Your expertise, good attitude, and apres ski conversations made our time here that much more fun.

Special thanks to my mom, Judy for making this trip possible and for being the best mom that anyone could ever ask for. You will never know how much this trip has meant to me and I am so glad that I got to spend all of it with you.

Stay tuned for upcoming travels to Stowe, VT and St. Louis, MO. Until then...

Birthday Pie etc. - 15,161 Vertical Feet

2010-03-03T23:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterdays five vertical miles skied really took a lot out of me. I didn't want to wake up today. I would have been perfectly content to burrow under the sheets for as long as I wanted. But, with tomorrow being the last day, I knew I had to take advantage of situation.

The day stared with the three of us heading into Cole Sport with a surprise for Vic and Kyle, two of our favorite "ski bums" who work there. This past week it was both of their birthdays, Vic turning 25 and Kyle turning 20. In our family, we have a "birthday pie" tradition that started with, of course, me. I am not to keen on cake, and my mom makes the world's best apple pie, so one year I asked for birthday pie instead of birthday cake. I got a pie with my age worked into the pie crust, I think the first pie was the year I turned 20. Anyways, we decided that we would give birthday pies to Vic and Kyle that they could share with the rest of the crew at Cole Sport. We did, however, refrain from singing happy birthday because my mom can't carry a tune if it had handles on it. They were so appreciative of their birthday pies, and when we got back to the shop at the end of the day they said they enjoyed them very much. Well, who doesn't like a birthday pie?!

Vic, Mom, Kyle, Me and birthday pie!

After presenting the guys with the pies (I'm a poet and I don't even know it), we headed up the Payday lift to start our second to last day at Park City Mountain. Little to our knowledge, it had snowed four inches that morning, so we were able to get some nice fresh, soft, buttery snow. Our warm up run on Sunrise off of McConkey's lift was absolutely perfect.

The weather alternated between snowing and sunshine all day. It was mildly schizophrenic. Sometimes the snowflakes were so big and wet that we needed "windshield wipers" for our goggles. Sometimes the snow was like pellets flying at us. Other times the sun shone down on us. But, you can't worry about the weather because the weather doesn't worry about you.

Riding the Pioneer lift in the falling snow.

After skiing 15,161 vertical feet, Shane and I were feeling pretty beat up from the insanity of the previous day, so we ended a little earlier than usual. Mom was very pleased with herself that she outlasted her young energetic children. Point for Mom.

When we got back to the condo, we decided that Albert the shopping cart should be returned to the parking lot before we left to go back home. I did promise that we would return him. But, of course we couldn't resist having a photo shoot with Albert! He is quite photogenic if I do say so myself.

I went to return Albert and then of course I got sidetracked and ended up in the TJ Maxx in Redstone. I have a SERIOUS weakness for TJ Maxx like you can't even believe. I ended up with a few new purchases, one of which is a bottle of Ahava lotion from the Dead Sea in Israel. We couldn't find matzoh ball soup mix in Smith's but I found Israeli lotion in the TJ Maxx. Some things never cease to amaze me.

On the way to dinner we stopped into Jupiter Bowl, a brand spankin' new bowling alley named for the bowl at Park City Mountain that is deemed experts only. I don't think you need to be an expert bowler to go to Jupiter Bowl though. Jupiter Bowl had not only bowling lanes, but a full bar, a video arcade complete with Dance Dance Revolution, air hockey, and a photo booth (we did take a strip of photos!), pool tables, lots of TVs playing sports games, and a sit down restaurant. I definitely want to hit up Jupiter Bowl the next time I come to Park City.

For dinner we headed to the Red Rock Brewery. When we got there it was very busy with families, but the exposed ceiling and open kitchen made it feel less crowded. We got a table in the corner and enjoyed our time there without feeling like there were too many people around. But most importantly, the food at Red Rock is AMAZING. We split an order of spicy buffalo wings to start with that were finger licking good. They were even so spicy that Shane, the king of spicy, had to drink water while eating them. Mom ordered the pink trout which was so flavorful and tender. Shane ordered the chicken schnitzel. I ordered the sweet potato cannelloni. Um... YUM! It's a good thing there were only two cannellonis, because I would have kept eating them. I also ordered a Honey Wheat beer which was delicious. It gave John Harvards and Southampton Publick House brews a run for their money! Mom and Shane each ordered a Red Rock homemade cream soda which I have to admit, was ridiculously good. Mom, the queen of cream soda, said it was the best cream soda she had ever had. Now, that's saying something. I highly recommend eating at Red Rock Brewery because the food is delicious, the drinks are thirst quenching, and the price is oh so good. Dinner and drinks for the three of us cost under $70!

Shane, Mom, and Me at Red Rock Brewery.

When we returned to the condo after dinner, we walked into the garage and were upset by the absence of Albert... I guess he is with his family of other shopping carts now.

Tomorrow it's back to Park City for our last day. Shane and I are being crazies and waking up for the 8:45am Power Clinic. I don't think I'll survive very long after that. Until then...

Last Day at Deer Vally - NASTAR - Five Miles Vertical Feet

2010-03-02T23:53:00.000-05:00

My month long Utah excursion is coming to a close. Thus, today was the last ski day in Deer Valley. Of course, I decided to go out with a bang.

First, Shane and I decided that we would do the NASTAR race today. I remember doing the NASTAR races when I was a kid in ski school and thinking they were so much fun. I had a skier troll that my mom had given me and decorated it with all my NASTAR pins. I had medal pins in bronze, gold, and silver. Ultimately, the NASTAR medal-ed troll got relegated to a box in the basement, but I think I will have to take him out of toy storage land when I get home because I earned a bronze medal on the NASTAR course!

I remember when I was kid I thought the NASTAR race was very long and steep and super duper fast. Today, I realized it's actually not that steep, not that long, and it's pretty hard to go that fast. Mom says it's because I grew but I think it's because the mountains shrunk...

Mom took a video of Shane and I earning our bronze medals, which we were very pleased to receive. However, my technologically challenged mom rotated the camera so that the videos all appear sideways. So I won't be posting them here, unless I get in comments that you all want to see the sideways videos.

Mom also embraced her inner child when noticing the lift operators snowmobile was smiling... She is being brainwashed by American Express commercials.

In videos we can actually view without turning our computers sideways, Shane took a video of me skiing one of my favorite runs at Deer Vally, Wizard on Bald Mountain. I love this run because I can go really fast at the beginning and there is rarely ever anybody on it.

Shane also captured one of Mom coming down after me. She didn't know she was being videoed but she was still excited about it. Can you believe my mom had never seen herself skiing on video until this trip? Oh the generation gap...

Since we were kids, Shane and I (and I'm sure other ski schoolers) were obsessed with being on chair number one on the chair lifts. The best time to be on chair number 1 is when you don't plan it and it just happens. That is exactly what happened to us today.

Shane on Chair #1 on Lady Morgan Express

Finally, our most amazing feat yet... drum-roll please... Shane and I skied just over FIVE MILES in vertical feet with a total vertical feet of 26,790vf which is 5.07 miles to be exact. Not only did we ski five vertical miles, but we did so on five of the six peaks at Deer Valley! And, we didn't even start our first run until 11:00am or so. Now, this didn't just happen this way. When we realized how much we were skiing we decided to overtly try to hit five vertical miles. We did so by completely ditching Mom after lunch and going up and down the Northside lift on Flagstaff mountain until the lift closed. At that point, we were only 810vf away from reaching our goal. Knowing that the Carpenter lift at the base stayed open until 4:15, we headed that way to ensure that we would be able to accomplish our goal. On the way down we ran into Mom who gladly joined us on the Carpenter lift and took our last run with us. It was a great way to end the day and this season's time at Deer Valley.

I will miss Deer Valley, really I will, and I plan on returning as often as possible. I'm even considering applying for a mountain host position. After all, I do know the mountain backwards and forwards, and I like to think I am a pretty personable character. But, I am speculating too far into the future.

Tomorrow we are going to Park City where we will finish up the remainder of our skiing here in Utah. I highly doubt we'll be able to ski five vertical miles there. Until then...

Two of the most gorgeous houses visible from the slopes in Deer Valley.

Snowbird and Burning Popcorn - 14,756 Vertical Feet

2010-03-01T23:30:00.000-05:00

Variety is a good thing, especially when vacationing in one place for an entire month. To add some spice to our lives, we decided to go to Snowbird today, another ski resort in the Wasatch Mountains just 12 miles from our condo. If you look at the map of Utah ski resorts, you will find they are all quite close together. In fact, from Park City Mountain you can see Deer Valley. Snowbird and Alta share a mountain, only they are on opposite sides. It's quite incredible really. And, if you think about it, with so many mountains for skiers to chose from, there is always something "new" and the mountains don't get as crowded. It's quite brilliant. Thank you Mother Nature for creating such ski conducive mountains so close together.

Unfortunately, Snowbird is not easily accessible from Park City via public transportation. To do so, one would have to take a shuttle from Park City to Salt Lake City airport and then transfer there to another bus heading to Snowbird. Being people who dance to our own drum, we decided to rent a car for the day, easy peasy. We rented online with Enterprise last week anticipating our Snowbird trip. The great thing about Enterprise is the door to door pickup. They picked us up at our condo (albeit an hour late) and took us to the rental car center. When we got there, Shane (who was driving) signed some forms, they gave us the keys, and we were off! Shane brought Mom's Garmin from home so we were able to have GPS in the car, even though it was quite easy to get to Snowbird from Park City.

To get to Snowbird from Park City, one must first go down the mountain and into Cottonwood Canyon, then back up to Snowbird. The view is absolutely breathtaking. Coming from a flat island, it always amazes me how spectacular mountain ranges are, even though I've seen them quite often in my life.

The GPS announced our arrival at Snowbird and we parked the car in the free lot and walked to Snowbird Center where there are lockers, shops, restaurants, a pharmacy, and a mini grocery store. We headed up to the top floor balcony to get Mom's ticket (we already had two discount tickets purchased from Canyon Sports) and then headed to the waiting area for the Aerial Tram which holds up to 125 people, has a vertical rise of 2,900ft (my ears popped on the way up), and is 8,935ft in length. The tram these days isn't much needed because of the added tunnel and Mineral Basin Express lift, but it's still a treat just the same. I've had my fair share of tram rides in my life. Of course I rode the tram in Jackson Hole, Wyoming last year and for the two years I lived on Roosevelt Island in NYC, I rode the tram there on a frequent basis. You might remember the Roosevelt Island tram from Spiderman 2... maybe?

Video of the two trams crossing, one goes up the other goes down.

As we were waiting for the tram I spotted a family that I recognized from the previous day at Deer Valley. Creepy? Maybe. But I distinctly remembered the two children's ski outfits because they were a glorious color of green. The "green girls" totally stuck out in a crowd, so I said "Hi" to them and we got to chatting. Then of course Mom got to chatting with them. All the chatting on the tram led to a huge photo shoot on the top of Hidden Peak at 11,000ft elevation.

The family on top of Hidden Peak

Panoramic from the top of Hidden Peak

We opted to first go down a short ways on Peruvian Gulch and then catch the "magic carpet" through the tunnel to Mineral Basin on the other side of the mountain.

Shane in the tunnel.

Riding the Magic Carpet

The tunnel is relatively new with it's completion in 2006. Mineral Basin, the "back bowl" of Snowbird is also relatively new with it's opening in 2000 just two years before the Olympics came to Salt Lake City. After we rode the magic carpet to Mineral Basin, we skied to the bottom blindly, not because of visibility, it was in fact a perfectly sunny and warm day, but because of the lack of signs and postings telling skiers where the trails were. Alas, we think we missed the run we intended to do (this happened a few times throughout the day) but all is well. We mostly wanted to explore the mountain and sample a little bit of everything. And let me say, the sampling has got me wanting more. I fully intend to spend multiple consecutive days in Snowbird in the future.

Snowbird is unlike any mountain I have ever visited. Everything is wide open, the complete opposite of The Canyons I'd like to point out. The front AND back of the mountain are in "bowl" formations, and multiple ones at that. The expanse of Snowbird is huge with 2,500 acres of ski-able terrain. One of the unique features of Snowbird is their 40 year old chair lifts. For those of you who don't ski or snowboard, this might not mean that much to you, but for those of you that do ski or snowboard, appreciate those comfortable chair lifts! Two of the lifts I rode today, Little Cloud and Gad 2, were 40 year old two seater chair lifts with seats that literally resembled beach chairs. The seats were plastic slats on a thin metal frame that had teeny tiny armrests and a completely awkward footrest (but at least it had a footrest). I actually got anxiety on these chair lifts, especially when Gad 2 stopped for 5 minutes over a huge bowl. I'm a complete wuss when it comes to chairlifts, it is true. However, I survived the chair lifts enough to continue skiing. And ski I did! We skied a total of 14,756 vertical feet. Not bad considering how much time we spent taking pictures and videos and just staring in awe at the expanse of the mountain.

Me in awe of the mountain, babbling of course.

My favorite thing about Snowbird, however, is their dedication to safety. The trail map for Snowbird is called a "Trail Map and Safety Guide". They have a poster at every lift stating the Skier Responsibility Code. Upon entering Snowbird Center there is a ticker screen ticking off the Code as well. On the tram ride, the operator announcement references the Code as well. This is my kind of mountain! And my observations proved that skiers and riders at Snowbird take the Code to heart. I only once got passed by a fast skier, but that was on a super narrow run. And, since Snowbird has many catwalks cutting through expert terrain, it is especially important to follow the rules of the Code including yield to downhill skiers and observing slow zone regulations.

After out day of skiing came to a close, we headed back to the car to journey back to the condo. Of course, this journey included a requisite stop to 7-Eleven (our favorite convenience store - in fact, on the February 21st episode of Undercover Boss, you can see me in the turquoise sweater purchasing coffee at our local 7-Eleven). Mom and I were overjoyed to learn the 7-Eleven we stopped at had steamed milk, a staple in the perfect cup of coffee. The employees were even nice enough to make us a fresh pot of hazelnut coffee, our favorite. When we questioned the employees about steamed milk (because not all 7-Eleven's have steamed milk much to our dismay), they mentioned that it's mostly people from the East who get the steamed milk. Well, that makes sense! Almost all the 7-Eleven's where we live have steamed milk and hardly any when we travel have it. Go figure. East Coasters sure know how to drink their cheap coffee.

For dinner, we ordered take out Japanese from Shoyu right near where we got our nails done that one time. I learned while waiting to pick up the order that Reef's used to be in that location. This is significant because Reef's was a restaurant we were told to go to because our very close family friend's son's friend's parents owned Reef's. Got that? Well, we weren't able to eat at Reef's because it's not there anymore, but at least we were able to pay it homage by getting take out from the restaurant that occupies it's former space.

After our Japanese food, Mom decided she wanted popcorn... Well, needless to say I gave mom the incorrect microwave cooking time for the popcorn and it started to smoke, heavily I might add, all throughout the apartment. Mom and I were fanning the front and garage doors open trying to get the smoke out while Shane busted open the sliding glass doors in the living room. So, E and R, if you smell any residual burnt popcorn, don't fret... we got it all under control...

Tomorrow it's our last day at Deer Valley. After Shane returns the car to Enterprise and hitches a ride home from them, we're heading the mountain early (why am I awake?). Shane and I want to be sure to hit up the NASTAR race track like we did when we were kids. It will be our fun memory from this trip, that is assuming I don't crash and burn like I did when I was a kid. Until then...

Math Lesson - Running in Ski Boots - 17,920 Vertical Feet

2010-02-28T23:48:00.004-05:00

Today we only did a half day of skiing at Deer Vally. I must say once again that the accessiblity at Deer Valley is pheonomenal. We got on the first lift at 12:20 and got to the base of the mountain at 3:55 for a grant total of three hours and thirty five minutes on the mountain. Figure in our 30 minute "brownie" break and 95 minutes waiting for and on lifts, we only actually skied for about an hour and a half. But, in that hour and a half I skied 17,920 vertical feet. To continue our math lesson, that comes out to almost 12,000 vertical feet an hour. I skied more today in a half day than I did on other full days. That's pretty impressive if you ask me.

We opted not to have lunch on the mountain since we only skied a half day, so instead we went to Cushing's Cabin at the top of Flagstaff Mountain. It's a small eatery stocked with baked good and coffee all day. For lunch they make sure to have chilli on hand, something usefull to know if we don't wan't to head to one of the bigger eateries.

Me and Shane outside Cushing's Cabin

Like I said before, we got to the base of the mountain at 3:55, which coincidentally is only three minutes before the bus leaves! It's either three minutes or 33 minutes. We decided NOT to wait for 33 minutes and rushed instead of slothed. Mom and Shane carried the skis and left the poles for me while I scurried down the stairs to the locker room to get mine and Mom's cat-tracks then back up the stairs to get the poles and dash across oncoming traffic to get to the bus stop. But you know what, I made it! I suggest never running in ski boots, it's quite difficult.

All in all it was a good day. We didn't work too hard (hence the half day) because we are going to Snowbird tomorrow, which is going to be quite an adventure. Until then...

Snowboardless Wonderousness - 21,390 Vertical Feet

2010-02-27T23:35:00.007-05:00

I failed to include in yesterday's post what happened AFTER The Canyons. Please backtrack with me a little bit.

Last night the three of us went out to dinner in Old Town Park City at Cafe Terigo. Mom had eaten here before on previous trips to Park City and liked it so much she wanted to share the experience with me and Shane. The 22 year old restaurant resides in a brick building right on Main Street. The menu boats both French and Italian cuisine. I consider Cafe Terigo a fine dining establishment without the fuss. Families are welcome here, as is casual dress. I enjoyed the artichoke appetizer and the lamb chop entree, Mom had the Utah trout which she thought was delicious, and Shane had the chicken fettuccine which was good enough to doggy bag. When my glass of wine came with dinner, I immediately appreciated the big full glasses of wine I get back in New York. Silly Utah drinking laws.

Skiing in Deer Valley today was the polar opposite of The Canyons yesterday. As you all know by now, I am a big fan of Deer Valley. The comfort level is fantastic. Every chair lift has a foot rest, there are multiple tissue boxes on every lift line, the food is amazing, the accessibility is superb, just to name a few. It is safe to say that Shane's first experience of Deer Valley was a good one, and luckily for him there were no fires in any lodges.

After skiing both Deer Valley and Park City many times in the past few weeks, I have discovered what I like about skiing each of them. Deer Valley always grooms runs rated green circle, blue square, and double blue square. There is usually one single black diamond (not including Stein's Way which is always groomed) that is groomed (today there were two, Evergreen and Oriental Express). At Deer Valley I can either ski an easy cruising run or a difficult bump run, but not much in-between since blacks are rarely groomed and blues are rarely left ungroomed. I can't get a steep cruiser or a not steep bump run.

At Park City, the grooming report every day is wildly different. There are groomed runs, day old groomed runs, not groomed since last century runs; blue, double blue, black, Park City doesn't discriminate with it's grooming process which means I can get a less steep bump run and a steep cruiser, which I rarely get at Deer Valley. I can also ski less steep groomers and steep bump runs at Park City in addition to Deer Valley. The variety in types of runs at Park City can't be beat. But, the snowboardless wonderousness (sorry snowboarder friends, I still love you) of Deer Valley is unparalleled. In fact, there are only three snowboardless mountains in the entire USA; Deer Valley, Alta (also in Utah's Wasatch Mountains), and Mad River Glen in Vermont. The lack of snowboarders makes the snow less scraped and the noise level lower. And let me defend myself here and say that I have nothing against snowboarders in general, just the bad ones who don't know how to turn and scrape off all the snow who are also oblivious to the people around them (and yes, there are skiers like this too).

Today's 21,390 vertical feet was the perfect amount to ski. I wasn't so exhausted that I was not functional upon returning to the condo, yet I definitely felt worked out. When I returned to the condo I spent a seriously long time in the hot tub, then took a bubble bath, then a shower. My skin seriously misses hydration. It could be that time in the trip where I start to miss things back home (humidity, for example). My plane leaves in 6 days and I am going to enjoy my time in Utah all 6 of those days.

Tomorrow it's back to Deer Valley to stay away from the Park City weekend crowd. Until then...

Me, Mom, Shane at the top of Bald Mountain on Stein's Way

The Canyons Fail - 13,354 Vertical Feet

2010-02-27T00:20:00.009-05:00

I arrived at The Canyons with a positive outlook, and I promise that I tried to keep that positivism up, but it was truly a feat.

My first impression was good. I thought the Cabriolet ride from the bus stop to the Gondola and base was cute. I even managed to find an $8 off coupon to use towards the lift tickets. The base area was charming like most ski areas are. The walk to the Gondola from the Cabriolet was a cinch. The gondola ride was pleasant and the Red Pine Lodge area was bustling and full of energy. Then we skied down our first run, Chicane, and it all went downhill (literally) from there.

Instead of going into everything we did today, which will bore you because I was bored doing it, I will tell you the pros and cons of The Canyons.

Cons:

Comfort: None of the lifts have a footrest, and some of them are very long! Maybe I'm spoiled, but I enjoy having a footrest, and while I understand they can't be on every lift, at least the newer lifts should have one. Also, there are no tissues at the lift lines. Nonsensical! Spoiled? Maybe, but I think tissues in a ski area are common sense. Also, the bus stop is after Park City Mountain resort so when you get on at the end of the day, there is no sitting room and you have to stand in your ski boots holding your skis/poles/gear. How frustrating is that?

Food: Dining gets a below average rating for ski resort fare. The food was likely the worst ski area food I can ever recall eating.

Accessibility: There isn't any! Getting around The Canyons is a nightmare. I probably spent more time on cat-tracks than on actual trails today. The Canyons is a big place, and whoever designed the area certainly did not take into consideration how to get around. We even found ourselves side stepping up hills just to move around the mountain. Not cool my friends, not cool. It's also hard to ski the left and right sides of the mountain in the same day. Because it was so hard to get around, we didn't actually do much skiing today, even though our vertical feet skied comes out to be 13,354vf. I think most of that was on cat-tracks though. The only good run we found was a black diamond called G-Force.

Courtesy: Snowboarders and skiers alike were exceptionally rude at this mountain. The trails are narrow here but yielding to downhill skiers (a rule in the Ski Patrol Responsibility Code) wasn't given much consideration by others on the mountain. I was consistently cut off without so much as an "on your left/right".

Not only that, but when my mom was cut off by a skier, she pulled over to the side and stopped. So did the other woman, though I'm not sure for what reasons. I was stopped on the side of the trail where the woman was and my mom was on the other side. I asked my mom if she was ready to go and she said she was waiting for the other woman to go because my mom felt she was slower and didn't want a faster skier coming up behind her. Then, the man who was with the woman says to my mom, "Do you have a problem?" Seriously, dude. Our problem is your attitude acting like you own the mountain and are better than everyone else.

Another "totally awesome dude" was behind my mom at Towin, literally a tow rope that you hold on to to take up up a small hill, and got agitated when my mom needed assistance from the operator because of her less than perfect left shoulder. He could have walked faster up the hill than waiting for my mom to get help, but instead he chose to give an attitude reflecting "If you have a bad shoulder then what are you doing here." What a douche-y dude.

In my opinion, the people who usually ski at The Canyons are NOT the tourists. The tourists come for the day and never go back, because they either a) can't figure out the mountain b) get hit by a rude rider c) get food poisoning. The people at The Canyons are the locals claiming their territory. They don't want the visitors there, and they act like it. Well let me tell you something locals, we tourists are bringing you money so you better be nice. If tourists don't ski your mountain because we don't like it, your mountain will close because it won't have any money. So, there.

Pros:

Watching the insane hiker skiers go up for fresh tracks.

The view from the top of Sun Peak Express.

The waffles at the Bruges Waffle house. It was SO completely delectably delicious that it might have been worth the $176 lift tickets and the $4 for the actual waffle. Ok, maybe not, but it was absolutey the best part of the day. We even opted to eat waffles rather than going down a trail.

All in all, The Canyons was a TOTAL FAIL and I am so glad that we didn't buy more of the discount tickets when we got off the airport. Today made me really appreciate how awesome other mountains are and how privileged I have been in my ski vacations over my life.

Tomorrow we're off to Deer Valley, THANK GOODNESS! Shane will get his first taste of the Deer Valley, the complete opposite of The Canyons. I'm sure in his eyes it will look that much sweeter after a day at The Canyons. He said the best part of his day was going down the Cabriolet back to the bus stop. Until then...

Wacky Weather and Playful Powder - 14,692 Vertical Feet

2010-02-26T01:41:00.006-05:00

The weather today was like an indecisive woman in a shoe store.

First the weather was snowy with zero visibility (I want the Christian Louboutin sparkly platform peep toe stilettos).
Then the weather was sunny and clear (I want the Lilly Pulitzer sandal wedges).
Then the weather was cloudy with flat light (I want the silver Tory Burch flats).
Then the weather was sunny and clear again (I want the Lilly Pulitzer sandals but in red).

Seriously weather, make up your mind! Now I know how men feel when accompanying women on shoe shopping excursions, though I don't know many men who would willingly participate in such an activity.

Mom, who was feeling much better today after her convenient sick day yesterday, and I arrived at the mountain at around noon (whoops) after Shane had already been there for 3 hours. He woke up early to attend the Power Clinic to get in some fresh powder tracks. Oh, did I mention it snowed about 10 inches last night?! Yes, there was powder all over the mountain, and it was glorious. Unfortunately, my late arrival to the mountain didn't enable me to make any serious fresh tracks for myself.

Let me tell you what I forgot about powder. It. Is. Heavy! Snow flakes are so light and fluffy when they are falling to the Earth from the sky, but when they all accumulate on the ground, they get quite weighty. Factor in skis and snowboards mushing the snow up down and all around and it's a regular mess. But a good, hot mess!

I pushed through and glided over the best powder I can ever remember skiing in my life. OK, except that time when I was 13 and in ski school in Vail and we went powder hunting through the trees. However, I'm not counting that because I can't remember if it was trail powder of just tree powder. Regardless, today was a powder day!

Being in the powder made me act like a child. Seriously. I found myself skiing up on the banks of catwalks in order to get some fresh pow and even going out of my way onto flat land to see my skis buried inches under the snow. I even made "snow cookies" in the powder... Mom rolled her eyes at that one. Snow cookies are the pieces of snow that are formed when the powder is broken. I also am a fan of making sand cookies in hard sand. Yes, I know, I'm weird. Powder makes me playful, what can I say?

Because of my late start, the powder slowing me down (yes, it does that), and Mom missing a turn off long before Shane and I noticed (whoops), I only skied 14,692 vertical feet today. I'm happy with that though. I can feel my knees burning at this moment from all the "driving" they did today.

Tomorrow we are going to The Canyons, a new mountain to all of us. It's a massive mountain so Mom has already been studying the map trying to figure out the best places to ski. Suggestions? Until then...

Shane's lovely helmet hair at lunch made ma laugh out loud.

Up and Down - 18,885 Vertical Feet

2010-02-25T03:06:00.006-05:00

If yesterday was perfect than today was far from it weather wise.

Shane and I skied just the two of us today because Mom is sick (get well soon, Mom). We skied very "up and down" as I like to call it. Going up the lift, deciding where we'll go next while on the lift, getting off the lift, skiing down, rinse and repeat. This was the way it HAD to be today because it was so "snowy and blowy" as my mom likes to say. This is Mom's least favorite kind of weather, so a good day for her to be sick if she had to be sick at all. It was snowing a very wet snow and the wind was howling making chair lift rides excruciatingly uncomfortable. It wasn't that cold temperature wise (27F at the base), but factor in the wind chill and lack of sunshine, it felt super brr brr chilly.

Shane and I went "up and down" from 10:00am to 2:30pm (with an hour for lunch) and skied a total of 18,885 vertical feet. We ended early in hopes that Mom would feel better when we got back to the condo and we all would go out to dinner in Old Town Park City, not to mention my right foot was terribly cold. Unfortunately, Mom wasn't feeling any better so we stayed in and ate left over mac and cheese (it's even amazing reheated!) for dinner while my foot warmed up and while Mom watched some more of her defensive driving video. I'm quite certain it put her to sleep at some point.

I hope Mom is better by tomorrow because there is supposedly going to be up to 16 inches of powder tomorrow. The pagan in me is praying to the snow gods and the get well soon gods for powder and a healthy Mom. Tomorrow we are heading back to Park City for the last time this week. Until then...

PS - I booked my tickets to St. Louis today, so look forward to St. Louis travel entries in late March and early April! Happy birthday to Kyle at Cole Sport. There are no pictures or videos in this post because it was too chilly to unmitten my digits. Do you forgive me?

Goal Accomplished - Blue Slip Bowl - Quintuple Day - 19,642 Vertical Feet

2010-02-23T23:10:00.008-05:00

Perfect packed powder. ✓
Bright and shiny sunshine. ✓
Windless wonder. ✓
Terrifically warm temperature. ✓
Big beautiful bluebird sky. ✓

A quintuple day. Five elements of skiing (snow, sun, wind temperature, aesthetics), all perfect. There are other kinds of perfect days as well, but this is my favorite kind. My mom's favorite is powder conditions. To each his or her own.

Shane, Mom, and I all skied together today for the first time this season. Lucky Shane got to experience the GPS that is Tamara. Usually in our family, Shane is the directions and map guy, but since he hasn't been here for the first two weeks, that role fell upon me, and it turns out I am actually pretty good at it and I actually kind of like it... For the ski slopes, not for the roads (give me GPS any day when I'm in a car).

There were a few runs we did today that were new to me and Mom; a black diamond (BD)off Pioneer called Sampson (did not like), a BD off Silverlode called Newport (liked better than Sampson, but did not love), a BD off Motherlode called Double Jack (loved), a BD off King Con called Combustion (loved, mostly because it meant we didn't have to take blue Hot Spot), and finally off of Pioneer a BD called Pioneer accessed by DOUBLE BD Blue Slip Bowl!

Yes, my faithful readers, I have accomplished my second goal, skiing Blue Slip Bowl to get to the lovely Pioneer trail. And not only did I accomplish this goal, I killed it. I skied Blue Slip Bowl THREE times today I loved it so much. It was utter perfection; groomed, steep, empty, and in the sunshine! Two weeks ago this run seemed daunting. Today it was nothing but fun. I find it absolutely amazing how much stronger my legs have gotten. The first few days a blue and double blue runs were hard on my legs, now I am breezing through black diamonds and even getting excited for double black diamonds. Look at me go!

Shane and me skiing Blue Slip Bowl

Mom skiing Blue Slip Bowl, isn't she gorgeous?

Shane certainly got a workout on his first day with all the black diamond runs, but he can handle it. However, for the first time in family skiing history, Mom and I wore Shane out! He was yawning at the end of the day and even opted not to go up the Payday lift one last time with me before getting off the mountain. I was shocked! This means that I skied more vertical feet than he did for the first time; me at 19,642 vertical feet and Shane at 18,364vf. Although, I have to hand it to him. He hasn't been skiing for two weeks straight like Mom and I, and he flew in yesterday. I remember how exhausted I was the day after I flew in, I didn't even ski the next day. GO, SHANE!

Tomorrow it's back to Park City. Let's see if Shane can keep up with me tomorrow. Until then...

Also, you can read my brother's blog, The Rabbit Hole, for his perspective of his stay in Utah.

I have Goggle Tan - Shane Arrives and Meets Albert

2010-02-22T22:14:00.005-05:00

Today was a day off because my brother, Shane was arriving from New York. But before I get to him...

This morning, me legs were still uber tired from all the skiing I did yesterday with Dan and Pasha. It pained me just to walk up the stairs, prompting me to stay in one place (mainly my bed) for extended periods of time. Other than feeling sore, I noticed another physical difference; I have goggle tan!

Goggle tan is one of the dreaded consequences of tearing it up mountain style for too long. It's when the bottom, exposed part of one's face gets tan, and the top, unexposed part of one's face stays pale. It's like Winter and Summer on your face at the same time. Oh, bother. Dan had mentioned to me yesterday that I had goggle tan. I reassured him it was wind burn. Today, he proved me wrong. Thanks, Dan!

But, goggle tan or no goggle tan, life must go on. My brother arrived early in the afternoon. I greeted him at the garage door and got a huge hug. Shane proceeded to unpack things and stash them in "my" closet, as he's staying in the loft where there isn't one. He's lucky I haven't gone shopping at TJ Maxx yet. Then he proceeded to have a huge snack of cheese, salami, and crackers. He didn't get to finish them though because I realized the bus was coming in five minutes and we needed to head to Cole Sport at Park City Mountain to get his ski and boot rentals.

We scurried out of the condo and made the bus by one minute. When we got to Cole Sport, I'm pretty sure Kyle and Vic didn't recognize me since I wasn't in all my ski gear. It even felt weird for me to be in there in normal clothes, with my hair down, and mascara on! Kyle helped Shane get his boots and skis set up in a flash and we were back at the bus stop just a minute before the bus came. We headed to Fresh Market (the old Albertsons) to pick up the greatest frozen turkey meatballs on the planet since they aren't carried at Smith's. Because I'm now a master at the bus schedule, we only waited two minutes for the bus at Fresh Market before heading back to the condo. When we got back to the condo we had to run more errands, poor Shane, he was so exhausted. I introduced Shane to Albert the Shopping Cart and they bonded while we went to Smith's to pick up the rest of our groceries. It was quite a romantic scene.

Finally, we enjoyed a delicious dinner of Mom's famous macaroni and cheese (I'm sure some of you reading are drooling right now). It would have been a great way to end the night, but then Mom started freaking out about how Shane would get down the stairs in the middle of the night. Where are the nightlights!? She is too funny. We moved some nightlights around so Shane could see the bottom of the stairs, problem solved.

Tomorrow it's off to Park City for the first day of all three of us skiing together since last year in Jackson Hole. Maybe, just maybe, this time Mom and I will be able to keep up with Shane. Until then...

Fires and Friends - 25,170 Vertical Feet

2010-02-21T23:24:00.006-05:00

So much happened today!

Mom and I woke up early enough to get on an 8:45am bus. Yes, believe it. Knowing that fresh snow was headed our way, we decided that getting up early today would be a wise decision, especially since tomorrow is a day off and we can sleep late. When we were going up the chairlift after our second run, the time was 10:15am. I said, "Mom, it's the time we are usually getting on the bus and we've already skied two runs!" The lift operator thought that was funny.

Since it had snowed (the whole reason we were up and at 'em early), we were ready to make fresh tracks in some powder! Skiing the same resort two days in a row is a great way to do this. Why? Because we know what was groomed yesterday and was wasn't groomed today! Groomers have less powder, even though the snow is still great, and day old groomers are still usually smooth AND have fresh powder, a winning combination.

Getting to the mountain earlier than usual meant that we were hungrier earlier than usual, and a good thing too. We got to Silver Lake Lodge at 11:30 for lunch. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we both got too much food, but we likely wouldn't have been able to finish it anyway. At the end of our meal, we were warming our feet by the fire to get toasty toes, I was still bootless, and the fire alarm went off! We had to evacuate the building! I grabbed my mittens and neck warmer from the fireside, put on my boots as quickly as possible, and grabbed my jacket and helmet as I ran out the door. Some idiots had pushed out their chairs in front of the door making it so no one could get out, so of course, the lifeguard in me removed the chairs on my way out. We exited the building from the second floor and entered into a flurry of white flakes; it was snowing again!

Knowing that my friend Daniel (who I met on my recent Birthright Israel trip who lives in San Fransisco) and his brother Pasha were coming to Utah, I had coordinated with him to meet up and ski together. Today, their last day here in Utah, they came to Deer Valley to ski with me. We met up after Mom and I evacuated the burning lodge (the fire department came and everything is fine) to ski the afternoon together. I've never skied with friends before, in all my years of skiing, let alone two very strong guys! They kept me working all afternoon. Because I've spent so much time at Deer Valley, I am a regular mountain guide. I know what's been groomed, where the "good" runs are, what time the lifts close, and how to get around in general. Dan and Pasha had it good, because they didn't even need to think about where they were going, they just asked me what was next. Dan said, "Fantastic day. Thanks for automated, real time, voice navigated, turn by turn ski instruction. You rock." Now that's a compliment if I've ever heard one. Maybe I should become a Deer Valley Mountain Host...

Me and Dan on top of Flagstaff, his favorite.

After skiing 25,170 vertical feet today, 14,490vf with Dan and Pasha, I decided to have my first Apres Ski experience of my life. The three of us went to the EBS Lounge in Snow Park Lodge to have a drink. We were surprised to find that the lounge has live music for apres ski! Utah has a funny law about drinking, in that you have to order food in conjunction with alcohol. There is also a maximum amount of 1.5oz of alcohol in a cocktail and 5oz of wine in a glass; it's all written right there on the menu. Regardless, I had a deliciously delicious Hot Buttered Rum. It warmed me all the way down to my freezing cold toes. I think it also helped thaw out the icicle in my hair.

The guys loved Deer Valley and were so glad to have had the chance to ski there on their short trip to Utah. Quoting Pasha, "Skiing in skiers only resort in Utah is like clubbing with hot people only, nobody is in your way sitting on their ass, love it!" I'm glad you both had such a great time! I had a blast as well.

When I got back to the condo, I hopped right into the hot tub. All that skiing really took it out of me. Then, while I was watching the Olympics I started falling asleep on the couch in front of the fire, but woke up when I realized I had to write this blog. And look how much I wrote! Much better than the last time I skied this much.

Tomorrow my brother gets here! I am so excited to see him. Fly safe, Shane! Until then...

Toasty Toes - 12,070 Vertical Feet

2010-02-21T00:34:00.006-05:00

One of the most uncomfortable things that can happen to a skier is getting cold feet. No, I don't mean getting nervous about going down a difficult run (although I'm sure that could happen). I mean physically cold feet. Mom and I had the unfortanate experience of cold feet today.

It was cold today, brrrr. We dried out boots out last night and this morning and put them on before dashing out the door to catch the bus to Deer Valley. While we were on the bus, not yet half-way to Deer Valley, Mom mentions that her feet are cold. My feet were feeling cold as well, but I know better than to bring up cold extremities around my mom. For some reason she gets colder hearing me talk about being cold. When I said that my feet were cold too, we knew something wasn't right.

We headed to our super secret bench at Snow Park Lodge to take off our cat-tracks, tighten up our boots, and put on all our gear before heading up the lift. I took my foot out of my boot, felt around inside with my hand, and determined that my boot was still wet from the day before! Cue the "ew, Tamara, your feet are sweaty" comments. Mom's boot, unfortunately, was wet as well. There is a Cole Sport in Deer Valley at the Silver Lake Lodge, up a lift ride from Snow Park Lodge, so we decided to head up there and have the boot technicians heat our boots up for us.

At Cole Sport, Mike took our boots and placed them on his handy dandy boot heater for 5 minutes each. While we were talking to him, we discovered that his wife's good friend lives in our town! We don't know her, but it was fun to talk about the places he had been and agree that Beacon is the best restaurant in the world.

When Mike gave us back our boots, putting them back on was like heaven, and that is hard to say about ski boots. They were so warm and toasty! We thanked him and headed back outside, where it was now snowing!

The snow was falling fast and in huge fluffy flakes. Perfect snow. Luckily, it continued to snow all throughout the day. Even though our noses, thumbs, and toes got cold, we relished in the falling flakes. The snow conditions were getting better and better by the minute. The lift operators even had to start sweeping snow off of the chairs becuase it was accumulating so fast!

After our delicious lunch at Silver Lake Lodge where we also warmed up our toes by the fire, Mom and I practiced what we learned from our lesson yesterday; "little toe to the snow" and "slither". We did a couple of a bump runs and let our little toes guide us through the new fallen powder. All 12,070 vertical feet we skied today were in glorious conditions. I hope that the conditions tomorrow are even better! After the glorious grooming at Deer Valley and the powder on top of it... I almost can't contain myself. Until then...

Mom and I on Northside Express in the snow!

Memory Lane - Be Cool, Go to Ski School! - 9,182 Vertical Feet

2010-02-20T00:45:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite memories from going on ski vacations as a child was attending ski school. I LOVED ski school.

Let's take a trip down Memory Lane...

I remember being a three year old "snow puppy" and riding the chair lift in Aspen Highlands to the bunny slope. At the end of the lift was a Big Bird from Sesame Street cutout reminding the snow puppies to keep their tips up and to get off the lift safely. I also remember falling asleep on the same chairlift and awakening when my little legs hit the wand that tells you you've gone too far. I also remember being lifted out of the chair by a lift operator after waking up. Honestly, these are some of the first memories I have from my life.

I remember having an instructor named Carol Carroll (seriously, her married name, not sure if I'm spelling it right) who loved sucking on Atomic Fireball candy in the gondola. She also taught me a riddle that I still stump people with today. "Whoever makes it, sells it. Whoever buys it, doesn't use it for himself. Whoever uses it, doesn't know he's using it. What is it?"

I loved ski school so much that I attended ski school at every mountain we visited (Aspen, Aspen Highlands, Snowmass, Vail, and Steamboat) until I was 14. Unfortunately, we all got too busy to go on family ski vacations after that.

Last year when Mom, Shane (my brother), and I went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, we took a half day private lesson with Sloane. Mom, being the ultimate mom, had worked out with Sloane, little to Shane's and my knowledge, that Mom would ditch the class at the end and Sloane would take my brother and me to the Hobacks. The Hobacks are an area of Jackson that are completely filled with moguls, trees, double fall lines, and general awesomeness. Shane and I had been working toward skiing the Hobacks our entire time in Jackson. We had such a blast with Sloane. I don't ever remember skiing such difficult terrain for so long in my life. It was hard, but it was so worth it. My brother and I tore it up, and we'll both remember it forever.

This video is a snippet of my skiing the ginormous moguls in the Hobacks. The "I told you so" at the end was directed towards certain individuals who did not believe I could ski bumps.

Today, Mom and I went to ski school! We had originally thought of attending the morning power clinic, but when we learned that it started at 8:45am, we quickly ruled that out. Mom and I are usually putzing around in our long underwear eating breakfast at that time. There is no way we would ever make it to a lesson that early in the morning. We opted to participate in the skiers workshop instead. Skiers workshop is for adult skiers who are a level five or above. At the meeting area, three instructors asked us questions about our ability and what we wanted from the lesson. Then, the 13 people who showed up skied down a short run and the instructors split us up into three groups. The "still learning" skiers, the "I know everything but I want to perfect it" skiers, and the "I don't want to learn anything I just want to tear it up" skiers. Mom and I were in the group who wanted to perfect, of course.

The reason I wanted to take a lesson was so that I could improve my technique on steeper groomers and to learn how to better ski some bumps! Our instructor, Clark, showed me exactly how to do both of those things. Score. The main focus on groomers is "little toe to the snow". Let me explain, or try to (I'm not as good explaining ski technique as Clark is). When you ski, your skis are parallel to each other (or at least they should be). When you go into your turn, your skis stay parallel. You achieve the turn by shifting your weight. The way to shift your weight is by guiding your downhill little toe down the mountain ("little toe to the snow"). When you do this, the other foot will follow, and you will have a beautiful, round, speed controlled turn. It worked for me at least! I'm already a convert.

For the bumps, Clark was also able to explain how to ski them without losing control and getting jostled around. First, DO NOT EDGE! This was so counteractive to the way I think about skiing that it blew my mind. Don't edge? Seriously? OK, Clark, if you say so. Instead of edging, "slither" down the run, meaning don't edge and keep your skis flat. By not edging you will have more control over the speed and direction of your skis. To begin your "slither", pick a bump, ski to the top of it, pivot your skis, and then "little toe to the snow" and let your skis "slither" to the next bump. Get on top of the bump and repeat. Think about the bumps one at a time, and not about the entire run; then you won't get overwhelmed by all the bumps looming ahead of you. If you encounter a bump you don't like, slide down it and move on the next one. Don't put up with bumps you don't like, because you don't have to. It's not like you're competing for a gold medal in the Olympics!

n.b. When Clark first began the class he spoke about how to ski safely. And guess how he ended the class? How to ski safely. My kind of guy. However, that didn't prevent an out of control arrogrant snowboarder with no manners or mountain courtesy from crashing into and knocking my mom down at the end of the day. Le sigh. Unfortunately, you can't control others on the mountain, only yourself.

Even though we only skied 9,182 vertical feet, I feel muscle soreness that I haven't felt before in 11 days of skiing, probably from Clark's techinical tinkering. Now equipped with my new techniques for groomers and bumps, I feel confident that I can really tear up the mountain with Shane when he arrives in three days. I can't wait! Tomorrow Mom and I are going to Deer Valley to practive our newly aquired ski knowledge. Until then...

15,037 Vertical Feet - Be An Optimist

2010-02-19T00:05:00.001-05:00

Everything seemed to be going not so right today. I got up late. I locked Mom's neck warmer in the one time use locker. I got half-way to the lift with my skis and mine and Mom's poles before realizing that I still had my cat-tracks on. I had problems with my right boot ALL day. Mid-Mountain Restaurant was sold out of what I wanted to eat for lunch. Whole Foods "forgot" the order Mom called in this morning and it wasn't ready when I went to pick it up. The chili powder we used in the turkey chili Mom made tonight was actually spicy chili powder. I'm afraid to walk up the stairs after I write this.

But, since I'm an optimist...

I got to the mountain on time, even though I slept late. The one time use lockers do open (duh) so I was able to get Mom's neck warmer out. Vic at Cole Sport gave us a token to re-close it again. I am perfectly capable of walking back to Cole Sport to take off my cat-tracks. After ending the day early and skiing "only" 15,037 vertical feet because of my boot problems, the technicians at Cole Sport were able to tinker with the boot and show me how to properly put it on and buckle it up. I'll be testing it out tomorrow. I got a really good meatball sub for lunch instead of the roast turkey that I originally wanted. Whole Foods was able to get it together and re-make the order in less than 10 minutes and provided good conversation while I waited. The turkey chili spiciness was easily calmed down by sour cream and whole wheat spaghetti, and it still tasted delicious. And I haven't fallen on the stairs... yet.

I'm glad to be here in Park City embracing my inner ski bum. The little things can't ruin the experience that I am having. Some days don't run as smoothly as I'd like them to, but I have to remember to look on the bright side. As my mom likes to say, "If it wasn't for the optimist, the pessimist wouldn't know how happy he wasn't".

Tomorrow I will have been in Utah for two weeks. Half of my ski adventure will be over. But since I'm an optimist, I still have two weeks left to ski!

Day Off - Uber Girly

2010-02-18T01:27:00.001-05:00

Skiing is a workout, so rest days are needed. I know that when my brother comes for 10 days, there is little to no chance I will be getting a break. He's going to want to take advantage of every second he can on the mountain. I'm tired already just thinking about it.

During my day off today, I enjoyed doing the simplest of things that I don't do when I am going to be spending the day skiing. First, I slept late. That was utter perfection. After a long morning shower, I put on real clothes, as opposed to long johns and ski gear. I wore my hair down which felt great after having it in a braid all the time under my helmet. I wore my beloved Uggs instead of ski boots. That might have been the best part of the day (toe freedom!). Finally, I put on mascara, which made me feel uber girly. For some reason wearing goggles that make me look like a bug doesn't make me feel girly.

Mom and I explored Redstone this afternoon. We went to the Post Office and got some postcard stamps, did a huge grocery shop at Smith's, and then headed to a nail salon to get manicures. Oh, what a pleasure that was! My hands, especially my cuticles, were getting so dry from the low humidity content of the air here. The nail technician cut my cuticles perfectly so there are no snaggled edges that I could bite off (nail biting is a terrible habit of mine). But, the best part about the manicure was getting a parafin wax dip for my hands! It's included in the manicure here (it's not back East) becuase everyone's hands get so dry. It felt awesome and looked funky. My mom joked that with the wax on her hands they looked younger! Silly Mom.

After experiencing the waxy goodness on our hands, Mom and I decided that the next time we go we will get manicures AND pedicures. I'm sure we'll be glad to have our feet pampered after all the time they spend in ski boots.

Tomorrow it's back to skiing in Park City. Now that I've had a day of rest, I'm confident I'll be able to get up to 20,000 vertical feet again. Until then...

16,284 Vertical Feet - Skier Safety - Mardi Gras and the Bra Tree

2010-02-16T20:05:00.001-05:00

Skiing is a sport. It's supposed to be fun. But, it's also a dangerous sport. A skier can injure themselves, or others on the mountain. There are all kinds of obstacles when skiing; trees, rocks, sticky snow, chair lift posts, other skiers... the list goes on. Here are a few tips to help you be a safer skier or snowboarder.

1. Read the Skier Responsibility Code. At any mountain resort, if a ski patroller witnesses a skier or rider violating the code, that person will lose lift privileges. No questions asked.

2. Wear a helmet. It's just the smart thing to do. I do not care if it's not fashionable. There are so many brands and styles for helmets that anyone can find a helmet to suit his or her style.

3. Stay withing boundaries posted by ski patrol. Boundaries are often marked off with ropes or poles. They're made pretty obvious so you can't miss them. Ski patrol blocks off unsafe terrain because of avalanche susceptibility, lack of snow cover, or any reason they deem unsafe. Respect the ski patrol and do not ski out of bounds.

4. Know how to contact ski patrol when on the mountain. At Park City, ski patrol is contacted by going to one of their bases directly (usually located near lifts) or through a lift attendant or other mountain employee. At the end of the day, ski patrol sweeps the mountain searching for anyone who is stuck on the mountain for whatever reason. If you are able, and no one can help you, simply dial 911 from your cell phone (because I know you're all skiing with you cell phones). Be aware of where you are skiing to best inform 911 operators if you should need to contact them, which I hope you don't.

5. Take a lesson. Ski instructors are trained to teach not only skiing skills, but mountain safety. They teach necessary skills such as how to get on and off a chair lift (not as easy as it looks) and how to control your equipment.

6. Finally, one of my BIGGEST pet peeves... Do NOT wear headphones blaring music while skiing or riding! Yeah, it's cool to hear your favorite tunes while cruising down an awesome groomer. But, it's not safe. Seriously, it's not. Shocking, considering you can now buy a helmet that has built in earphones, or ski jackets that have places for your headphones to feed through. Tsk tsk ski gear manufacturers. If you're listening to music, you can't hear when a fast skier is coming up behind you, which means you might go into their path and have a collision. Not cool. Save the music for on the lift or while waiting for the shuttle.

Remember, just because you consider yourself a good skier does not mean you are invincible. People of all ages and abilities can get hurt on the mountain. My mom, while she was a ski instructor in Aspen, dislocated her shoulder. Why? She was skiing while tired, lost control, and fell. She's since gotten a pin in her shoulder. I know a snowboarder who fell in a terrain park and cut a HUGE gash in his leg that should have gotten stitches. He didn't get them, tsk tsk. He simply put a band-aid on it and kept riding (typical snowboarder). When I was younger and in ski school, I was flying down the NASTAR race (hoping for a gold) and I fell and hurt my knee. I got taken to ski patrol headquarters in a toboggan. My mom found out by seeing her name on the information board at the ski lift! I'm sure she proceeded to freak out. My brother, saw the whole thing happen from a chair lift he was on.

What has prompted this entry about safely, you are probably wondering. Well, two things happened today that were examples of NOT skiing safely.

1. Mom and I were skiing a gorgeous black diamond run called Crescent. Mom always skis ahead of me so I can follow her on black diamonds because then I can help her up if she falls. My mom, an extremely safe skier, was skiing to the side as she usually does so she can only get passed on one side because she is aware that she is slower than many skiers. It is always good to be aware of your ability. I was above her and on the opposite side of the run when I heard the sound of a fast skier coming down. I don't have eyes in the back of my head, so I couldn't see the skier, and I stopped. I looked at my mom, who apparently also heard him and slowed down as well. The skier passed my mom on the inside going WAY too fast. Now remember, Mom is skiing on the side so passing on her inside is like passing on the side of the road with the solid white line while driving. NOT SAFE. He missed pummelling her by a foot, maybe. If my mom had been wearing headphones, she wouldn't have heard the skier and would not have slowed down, and he surely would have hit her, or to avoid hitting her would have gone completely off the trail into the trees.

I saw the whole thing happen, and was completely appalled. This guy, who probably thought he was being super macho by skiing super fast down a black diamond, almost crashed into my little mom. He didn't stop to apologize, he just kept going at the same speed. If he were skiing safely, he would have realized there was a skier in front of him and moved to a different part of the run, or he would have simply slowed down. Because he did neither of these, I doubt if he even was a "good" skier. He was probably out of control and violating the Skier Responsibility Code. All I have to say is, "What a schmuck!"

2. Mom and I were riding up the Pioneer lift, under which is a double fall line run filled with moguls and trees. The bottom part is really nice, but to get to it is a total nightmare. One of my goals is to get to the bottom half of Pioneer run by way of Blue Slip Bowl (not the area under the lift), so named because it's a HUGEly steep run. As we're approaching the top of the lift my mom points up and says, "Look, there's skiers coming down the run." We like to watch skiers do the crazy things we won't do. It's good lift entertainment. As we got closer, we realized the skiers were two very small children (about 6 and 8 from what we judged) with their dad.

The children were sitting down trying to untangle their skis, sliding down the mountain, and very very unhappy. We could hear them whimpering from up in the lift! This dad was obviously irresponsible and unsafe. You can't enter this run without seeing how advanced it is. Mom and I, feeling bad for these children all the way at the top of this advanced run went to the ski patrollers at the top of he lift (they have a base there) and told them about the kids and their dad, because we were worried about them getting down without getting hurt. The ski patrollers had just come off the lift themselves and had seen it all. Do you know what they said to us? "They're fine, they'll make it down." Which is probably true, BUT these kids were not happy, and they will probably never want to go skiing again, which is a shame because skiing is so much fun.

As a former lifeguard, I was completely shocked by the response of these two ski patrollers. The main job of a lifeguard is to PREVENT accidents before they happen. I would think the same would hold true for a ski patroller. I often see them waving down fast skiers who are approaching "slow zones". I thought the ski patrollers would at least go down to where they were skiing and stay with them while they got to the bottom of the run, just to make sure nothing happened to them. Because, honestly, I haven't seen a single person going down that run any time I ride Pioneer lift. This means that dad was going to have a hard time getting someone to go to ski patrol for him if one of his kids got hurt.

On a lighter note, today is Fat Tuesday which literally translates into Mardi Gras! In honor of Mardi Gras, ski areas often go all out and celebrate with beads and mini parades. I remember when I was younger I always wanted the most and the biggest beads. I kept them for a long time hanging on the side of my bed. But, the best way to use Mardi Gras beads in a ski area, is to throw them on a tree! This tree is also often the "bra tree". I've been looking for a good one hear in Utah that can compare to the awesome ones I've seen in Vail and Aspen Highlands. I haven't found one that's quite as good, but this one is the closest I could find. I've been eyeing it for weeks, seeing if it will "grow" and today, it looked better than ever with all it's new Mardi Gras beads! I couldn't resist sharing with you.

Because we got to a late start today (noon!) and we were not used to Park City after being in Deer Valley for three days, we didn't ski that much and spent a lot of time on lifts or looking for where we were going. We skied only 16,284 vertical feet. After two over 20,000 vertical feet days, I'm OK with that.

Tomorrow is our "scheduled" day off. Mom and I are going to explore Redstone with our shopping cart, Albert. Until then...

For more information about ski safety visit the National Ski Patrol website at: http://www.nsp.org

25,430 Vertical Feet - Condo Tour

2010-02-15T20:38:00.001-05:00

I. Am. Tired. Exhausted. Pooped. Can I go to sleep now, please?

Today, I blew yesterday away and skied 25,430 vertical feet. Am I insane? Possibly. I calculated that I rode up a chairlift 23 times, skied over 18 different trails (many multiple times), and fell asleep on the bus ride home twice. Today is the "do or die" day. I can stop now, and be happy, but if I keep going and push through the tired and the pain, I will become a better skier, and that is the ultimate goal. I impressed myself today; I skied more vertical feet, but skied slower because I was working on my technique. I almost fear the day I get to 30,000 vertical feet.

Because I'm so tired/exhausted/pooped and don't really have the energy, eye, or finger strength to keep typing, I am going to leave you with a video I took a couple of days ago. It's a walk through virtual tour of our condo. I really love our condo, and now you can see why.

Tomorrow it's over to Park City. I wonder what it will be like after 3 consecutive days at Deer Valley. Until then...

Goal Accomplished! 23,250 Vertical Feet

2010-02-15T00:02:00.000-05:00

Thank you George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, two of the USA's greatest leaders, for having birthdays so close together thus causing the creation of President's Day, a national holiday in the middle of prime ski season. Do you know what that means? Lift lines, for the entire long weekend.

Yesterday wasn't as bad as today, probably because some people were still traveling, and tomorrow probably won't be as bad as today because some people will be traveling back home. But today... I'm officially proclaiming my spoiled-ness. I haven't had to wait more than 30 seconds on a lift line before today. I'm estimating that I waited for about an hour on lift lines today. But, that is the reality of skiing, you can't go down unless you go up, and there's not as many choices for up as there are for down. Darn Newton and his law of gravity!

Needless to say, I am glad Mom had the brilliant idea of skiing at Deer Valley this entire long weekend as opposed to Park City. Deer Valley has a limit to how many tickets they sell on any given day. Knowing this, we got on the "early" bus at 9:15am and were at the mountain by 10:00am. We were lucky we got to the mountain "early" because Deer Valley reached capacity today. After taking off our boot protecting cat tracks and waiting on two lift lines to get up to the top of Bald Mountain, it was 10:30 by the time we started our first run, Tycoon to the Sultan Express lift. After we came back up the lift we decided to go down Stein's Way, a black diamond (!), the top of which is along the ridge of Bald Mountain. All I can say is, what a view! It took my breath away. See for yourself.

Mom and I even successfully got another Mother/Daughter combo to take a picture of us along the ridge with the gorgeous view in the background!

Mom and I decided that on this beautiful sunny day (we've been getting a lot of those) we would head over to Lady Morgan and sample the groomed run of the day, Magnet, another black diamond (look at us go!). After Lady Morgan we ventured to Empire, Flagstaff, and finally Bald Eagle Mountain to get us back to the lodge. We hit five out of six of Deer Valley's peaks today! We were moving all over the mountain, and it all flowed seamlessly.

Because we started our day earlier than we have been, and because I skied until 4:20 (Mom stopped earlier), I was able to ski enough that I reached my goal of 20,000 vertical feet in a day! 23,250ft to be exact! Getting up early was totally worth it. For the record, my legs/ankles/back are tired! To celebrate my accomplishment, Mom and I relaxed for 30 minutes in the hot tub overlooking the nature preserve at our condo. What a great way to end Valentine's Day, with my original Valentine, my mom.

Tomorrow it's back to Deer Valley to steer clear of the Park City crowds. Until then...

Icicles! - 18,730 Vertical Feet

2010-02-14T00:59:00.000-05:00

Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by icicles. Not the tiny little ones you sometimes see, but the humongous ones that make you feel like you're in a winter wonderland.

Today, Mom and I stumbled across the most amazing icicles. We decided to head over to Little Baldy Peak in Deer Valley to try a double blue called Jordanelle to take us to the gondola. While the run was a total dud (another glorified catwalk), the view from the gondola was pretty nice. Deer Valley has lots of luxury private homes all over the mountain, and you can see a bunch of them from the gondola. But, unless you're parking at the gondola, there is really no reason to take it. The runs worth skiing on Little Baldy Peak are accessible from the Deer Crest chair lift, and you can see the luxury homes in other parts of the mountain.

Some of the houses.

Once we headed out of the catwalks of Little Baldy Peak, we headed over to Bald Mountain and skied down 5 times. After lunch at the Silver Lake Lodge, we skied down Flagstaff Mountain 5 times. When we got to the base at the end of the day, we decided to go up Carpenter again to take us to our last run; Big Stick, a great double blue with perfect long bumps and soft snow. Today's total vertical feet was 18,730ft. I'm still trying to make it to 20,000ft, so I guess I'll have to wake up earlier (I thought this was a vacation). Until then...

Me and Mom riding the gondola.

Old Town Park City and Meet the Owners

2010-02-13T01:31:00.000-05:00

Mom and I decided to take the day off from skiing today so that we could meet the owners of the condo we are renting from who were in town for the day. This was Mom's first experience meeting someone she met online (www.vrbo.com), and it was fun to watch her excitement! Mom and E had exchanged e-mails and talked on the phone for close to 8 months before this meeting, so they "knew" each other pretty well (well, at least E knew Mom needed quiet to sleep and Mom knew that E didn't want party animals in her condo). When E and R got here it was like we had all known each other for years! Mom, was her usual chatty self (which you can either love or hate). We talked about how we were enjoying the condo and how cozy it is, their upcoming wedding and E's dress, and even about my blog! We also showed them how Mom had alphabetized their spice rack (yes, she really did). Turns out E and R are reading my blog (Hi!) and are enjoying it, which makes me very happy. Here's a photo of them in the condo before they left.

After E and R left, Mom and I headed into Old Town Park City. We rode the express brown/#8 bus from the condo straight into the town, which is absolutely charming. The main street is dotted with boutiques selling high end clothing, Native American art and jewelry, souvenir shops with post cards and magnets and t-shirts galore, and tons of restaurants ranging from family and budget friendly to expensive date night places.

Mom and I popped into many of the shops where we snagged some postcards to send to friends back home. In one shop we found a great hat for Mom. I really don't like the hat she's been wearing for years (fashion snob?) and she enlisted me to find her a new hat that wasn't itchy and that met my fashion standards. Well, I found her an adorable hand knit wool hat with a fleece lining so she can be warm AND fashionable. She loved it so much she wore it out of the store! Mission accomplished.

We decided to have dinner in town before we headed back to the condo to watch the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. We chose Main Street Pizza and Noodle, a wallet and family friendly "Italian" restaurant. We were seated by a hostess, ordered and paid at a counter (12% tip is included), drinks were self serve, and then the food was brought to us. I'd never been in a restaurant with this setup, but it seemed to work. And I must say, that for a family restaurant, it wasn't noisy at all. After our meal of a 10" pizza and two house salads (maybe even TOO much food for the two of us) we got back on the express bus to get back to the condo.

Taking a day off was very relaxing. It was nice to wear regular shoes and have my hair down! Tomorrow we're going to Deer Valley because Park City will be crowded for the long weekend. Until then...

Pow Pow - 18,822 Vertical Feet

2010-02-11T21:51:00.000-05:00

Today Park City got some powder, otherwise known as pow-pow. Powder is created by one thing, and one thing only; SNOW.

The snow started sometime between 5am and when I woke up at 8am. How do I know this? The grooming report, which is printed at 5am, reported that there was zero inches of new snow, and when I woke up at 8am, it was because the parking area outside my balcony was being very loudly plowed (Good morning, Tamara). Plowing = snow. Snow = powder. Powder = fun!

When we got on the mountain at 11, the snow was coming down lightly at the base. We headed up Payday, then Bonanza, and skied through a beautiful tree glade to McConkey's, where the snow was coming down much harder now. I couldn't resist commenting on the beauty of the snowflakes every time they landed on me while we were going up the lift. "Look at how perfectly shaped this one is!" "This one is so big!" etc. etc. etc. I love snowflakes, and I always have. But, I only like snow if I can ski in it, that is a fact.

Gliding through powder is such a thrill. The first time I did it today, my toes started to tingle from excitement. However, there are a few tricks for skiers to know when skiing powder. Powder can be deceiving. It can hide bumps, so if you don't like skiing bumps, make sure the trail you're heading down was groomed before the snow fell. After the trail has been skied a few times, you will notice that the snow will collect in drifts. The easiest place to turn on the trail is in the drift, because you will float right through the snow for an easy turn and you won't have to edge as hard as if you had turned not in the drift. If you're heading down a catwalk, make sure that you stay on the packed powder and not in the loose powder, especially if the catwalk is completely flat and has no downhill incline. You will get stuck in the powder, and then you'll have to work harder to get across the catwalk. In my opinion, powder is the easiest terrain to ski because of the turning ease, and because it's just plain fun.

Tomorrow Mom and I taking a ski day off after 4 days of straight skiing, and today's 18,822 vertical feet. Tomorrow it is supposed to snow all day, and even more on Saturday, so by the time we hit the slopes on Saturday we should have beautiful powder and packed powder. I can't wait.

Until then...

Park City - Sunny Side Up - 17,637 Vertical Feet

2010-02-10T23:16:00.000-05:00

Let's play a word association game.

Skiing makes me think of snow. Snow makes me think of cold. Cold makes me think of being warm.

But how do I stay warm on the mountain? Of course I can dress warmly with layers and insulating fabrics. I can use hand warmers. I can even get a heating system for my ski boots. Then there's the all natural way of staying warm. The sun.

I tend to get cold when skiing, even with layers and hand warmers. As you can see from the photo, I am pretty bundled up. Skiing in the sun is the best way to stay warm. Here in the West there isn't much humidity, so the air is really dry. Dry air + shade = cold. Of course, skiing is exercise so one is bound to get her body warm that way. But, downhill skiing is an interesting kind of exercise in that one must ride chair lifts in order to practice the sport. The chair lifts are the coldest part of skiing. For this reason, Mom and I decided to figure out what part of the mountain was sunny side up at any given part of the day.

Today we figured out that the best place to ski in the morning is off of McConkey's lift all the way to skiers right. The trails off of this lift are amongst beautiful tree glades which make for great tree skiing, if that's your thing. We skied a great double blue called Tycoon. We also skied a dud of a run, a blue called Georgeanna. I found it to be basically a glorified catwalk. Although, the top of the trail that is right off of the lift (and you have to take it to get to any of the other runs to skiers right of McConkey's) has GORGEOUS views, especially on a beautiful day like today.

After lunch we determined that King Con, the same area we skied the second day, had the best sun in the afternoon. However, this afternoon got a bit cloudy so we couldn't perfectly judge the sunniest part of the mountain. We will have to check again tomorrow.

17,637 vertical feet later, my legs and core are feeling stronger. I am skiing faster and with better form. More videos of my skiing coming soon.

Until then...

The "Deer Valley Difference"- 16,130 vertical feet

2010-02-09T23:22:00.001-05:00

I got my first taste of Deer Valley today, and it was sweet. Deer Valley Mountain Resort is like no other mountain resort that I have ever been to. Certain elements make Deer Valley unlike any other in Utah, the Wasatch Range, the USA, and maybe even the world.

First, Deer Valley has an excellent grooming standard. All green, blue, and double blue trails are groomed every night totaling about 1/2 of the mountain. But, the snow is not just rolled over by a CAT to be made into "corduroy" (so named because of the appearance of groomed snow), it is chopped up deeper than the surface and then groomed over to be made into what Mom aptly calls, "velvet corduroy". I didn't get to the mountain early enough to experience a freshly groomed trail, but I can attest to the fact that the snow was still great at the end of the day, something that is not necessarily that easy to find.

Second, Deer Valley has the most incredibly accessible mountain. Deer Valley is privately owned (as opposed to being leased from the US Forest Service). It's owner and creator Edgar Stern sought to create a luxury ski resort. I think he certainly succeeded. The aforementioned snow grooming and the mountain accessibility certainly make Deer Valley a pleasant place to ski, and a place that affluent skiers would be more likely to spend money because of the numerous services provided. On most mountains you will find yourself taking the "catwalk" to get across the mountain to other lifts and sections of the mountain. Deer Valley does no such thing! There are lifts to get to other lifts! I never once today found myself on a catwalk shuffling over to the other side of the mountain. With it's six mountain peaks, one would think traveling between the six would be a difficult task. Deer Valley makes it so easy to get from mountain to mountain that one can ski the entire mountain in a day! I skied four mountains today, Bald Mountain (elevation 9,400ft), Bald Eagle Mountain (elevation 8,400ft), Flagstaff Mountain (elevation 9,100ft), and Empire (elevation 9,570). Granted on some mountains I only skied one run, but the sheer fact that I was able to access four mountain peaks is quite impressive, especially considering I was only at Deer Valley for 5 hours.

Third, the food at Deer Valley is top notch. Since Deer Valley is catering (pun intended) to a more affluent crowd that is more accustomed to the finer things in life, Deer Valley has to make sure it's food is "good enough to eat". Mom and I dined at the Empire Canyon Grill at the bottom of the Ruby and Empire Express lifts. We each had chili, con carne for me and turkey for her. It was served in real flatware (not paper or plastic) and with real silverware. The cornbread with paprika sprinkled on top served on the side was to die for. It hit the spot after skiing out on the cold side of the mountain. We dined by the fire on the second story loft which was also a great place to warm our gloves. Also, the bathrooms were the nicest public bathrooms I have used in a long time. The hardware was gold... colored, not real gold obviously (or was it?). There was also a coat rack and shelf conveniently located at the entrance to the restroom so I was able to hang up my coat and leave my mittens outside of the stall, because no one wants their mitten to fall into a toilet bowl.

Fourth, the customer service at Deer Valley is outstanding. The customer service was actually the first thing I noticed. At every large scale map located on the mountain (usually at the tops of lifts) a "Mountain Host" was present to help skiers negotiate the mountain. We asked multiple mountain hosts questions like, "Where is the sunniest trail? Which double blue do you recommend? and How do we get to X lift?" They always had the answer, and were so pleasant upon answering. We were never steered in the wrong direction. The lift attendants were so friendly, always saying "Good morning/afternoon" and asking us how our day was going. When we had questions they answered enthusiastically. The servers and bussers at the Empire Canyon Grill were also very friendly and courteous. But, my favorite customer service experience was when we were leaving Empire Canyon Grill to head up the Ruby Express lift, which is very flat terrain to ski across, especially while trying to dodge skiers coming downhill from three directions. A gentleman wearing the signature Deer Valley green jacket was asking my mom how she liked her skis (Volkl Aura's) while she was putting them on outside, so they were chatting for a bit. Then he asked us where we were going and we told him to the Ruby Express lift. Then, he grabbed hold of our poles and gave us a tow across the flat terrain and whipped us into the lift line. It was so fun, and a perfect example of the amazing customer service at Deer Valley.

Mom said I would love Deer Valley, and I did. I fully intend to go back there on a day when I am not so tired (third day leg muscle soreness was kicking in) so that I can go earlier to experience the "velvet corduroy" and because I can ski so much of the mountain due to the accessibility. Today I skied 16,130 vertical feet, which is over 4,000 feet than I skied yesterday. Deer Valley definitely exceeded my expectations for a ski resort, but I know better than to expect it from all ski resorts, and because of that I will look forward to my days at Deer Valley with eagerness.

This video was taken at the top of Empire Express, the mountain peak all the way to skiers left.

This video was taken at the top of Bald Mountain where the Sultan, Wasatch, and Sterling Express lifts converge. Weren't we blessed with the most gorgeous day?!

This final video, is me "interviewing" Mom about our lunch. She is so cute.

11,775 vertical feet - King Con Blue Zone

2010-02-08T23:33:00.000-05:00

Mom introduced me to her favorite part of Park City Mountain, the trails off of the King Con lift. Well, I must really be like my mom because I enjoyed it so much that we rode up the lift 7 times. Yes, really. The picture to the right is of me at the top of the King Con lift.

Because it was Mom's first real day skiing, and only my second, we decided to take it easy again. We skied only blue groomers all day, and that was fine with me. A blue run is considered an intermediate run. They range from inclines from 25 degrees to 40 degrees. Blues are popular amongst most skiers because beginners can usually handle them when groomed and intermediates can hone their skills while experts can have a fun cruiser. For the record, I find blues to be fun cruisers, and thus consider myself an expert. I have been skiing since the age of two and my mom was a ski instructor...

At the top of each lift there is a list of all the trails off that lift. Next to the name of each trail it says whether the trail is closed, open, or groomed. I found this to be a useful tool, until I also discovered that you can just pick up a map of the groomed trails for the day. Of course, this is quite a waste of paper, but it's a great tool for planning your day on the mountain. Today's vertical feet total was 11,775ft, with 8,400ft being off the King Con lift. I figure I have 24 more days of skiing to explore the rest of the mountain.

Today, I will leave you with two videos. The first is a panoramic at the top of the King Con lift.

The second video is of moi skiing down the trail called Shamus off the King Con lift. Shamus is a blue trail, and was groomed today. Shamus has an incline of approximately 35-40 degrees and is about 900ft long, though you will only see me ski about 500ft of it. My mom recorded it and you can hear her sweet commentary in the background.

I am going to be taking videos of my skiing throughout the trip so that I can analyze my ski style on different types of trails and watch for improvement.

Tomorrow, Mom and I are planning on skiing Deer Valley; a snowboard free, completely groomed, fancy schmancy resort that I hear has the best food of any ski mountain anywhere. I wonder if I will fit in there...

Day 1 - 11,737 vertical feet - The Bunny Slope

2010-02-07T22:09:00.000-05:00

"Take it easy" is my motto for the first day on the slopes, and that is exactly what I did today by sticking to the "bunny" slopes.

I headed to Park City Mountain Resort on the pink/#7 bus from the stop just outside my door. I boarded the bus at 10:15 and was at the mountain in about 15 minutes. The bus system here is very efficient, organized, and an overall pleasant experience. Not having a car is not going to be a problem.

When I got off the bus I immediately noticed that there is a small ice skating rink in the middle of the sidewalk! There were kids with their parents skating around having a great time. But, I didn't come all the way to Park City to ice skate! I came here to ski. Cole Sport is located right up the stairs when you get off the bus, you can't miss it. I headed in and the technician got my skis and boots from the back, ready to be used for the first time. I took off my Sorels and put them in a dollar locker, put on my new Dalbello custom ski boots, and headed to the chair lift with my Volkl skis, ready for the first chair lift ride and run of the day, month, and trip.

The six seater Payday chairlift was my choice for my first lift because the trails off of it are mostly green and blue, with some double blue and black. As I looked up the mountain I thought "this place isn't that big" but as I rode up the chairlift I realized I was very, very wrong. Apparently, from the base of the mountain you can only see 20% of the mountain. It is in fact a VERY big mountain. The 2010 Alpine Western Regionals (a racing qualifier) was skiing on Payday trail (a blue), which was the trail I was planning on going do, but it was closed because of the Regionals.

Instead I took an easy green trail all the way back down to the base and rode Payday lift up and skied down two more times. It was a great warm up, and I was ready for something more difficult, but Mom was ready to meet for lunch at the top of the Bonanza lift.

The Bonanza lift starts just at the top of the Payday lift, so it was very easy for me to go up and meet her. Now that I was going up even higher on the mountain, I could see that it was REALLY big. I could see some trails but had no idea what the names were, but I'm sure in time I'll figure that out. I met Mom for lunch at Summit House which had outdoor seating! You would think it would be too cold to dine outside on a ski mountain, but there are heat lamps and wind barriers in and surrounding the seating area. What a brilliant idea. Mom and I, however, dined inside near the roaring fire. The food was pretty basic mountain food, nothing special in the grill, pizza, soup, salad, and sandwich departments. But, I didn't come to Park City to eat, I came here to ski!

After lunch Mom and I skied down to the Silverload chair lift and rode that up then skied back over to Payday. I rode up and skied down Payday 4 more times and I could have skied it into the night. Payday chair lift is open until 7:30 and the runs off of it are lighted at night. I've never been night skiing so I definitely have to experience that before I leave.

Mom left me before I rode Payday those 4 more times. She was done for the day because she was cold (brrrr). She went back to Cole Sport to look for some warmer pants while I was on the "bunny" slope. It is important to dress appropriately for winter sports, because it's cold but you're sweating. Wicking fabrics are good for base layers (Hot Chillies, Smartwool, etc), and insulating second layers are important as well. I have third layers and vests for on top of really cold days, and extra thick bottoms as well. My outer layers are both Spyder (my favorite brand) and are made with Thinsulte which is great for cold weather. I wasn't cold today but I wasn't toasty either. Having hand warmers inside of my mittens helped a lot as well. I am a firm believer in hand warmers. It's a good the thing the Bed Bath and Beyond by the condo sells them in packs of 10!

Each time I went down from Payday I took different trails each time. I skied Dividend (a bumpy blue), Widowmaker (a non bumpy but steep black), and Treasure Hollow (my favorite of the day - a blue cruiser). I ended my day at 3:30 after 4 hours of sking with a grand total vertical feet of 11,737ft, mostly on the "bunny" slopes.

I measure my vertical feet by adding together the vertical distance of the chair lifts I ride. So, if the base of a lift is at an elevation of 2,000ft and the top of the same lift is at an elevation of 3,000, the vertical feet is 1,000 feet, even if the actual length of the lift is 1,500ft. This also means that my vertical feet is not the same as my distance skied. In order to calculate that, I would likely need a GPS system, which I am just not going to splurge for (donations please?).

All in all, today was a great first day. I experienced the comfort of having my own boots and skis (what? no shin bang or numb toes and easy turning!). I figure if I ski a week every year for five years, the skis pay for themselves. Now that I have my "ski legs" I am confident that I will have a great month of skiing ahead of me.

Welcome to Park City, Utah

2010-02-07T01:00:00.000-05:00

I have been in Park City, Utah, one of the best ski resorts in the country, for 33 hours and have yet to ride a chair life or ski a slope. My mom, Judy and I are here for 28 days (well, 26 more days) because... because we decided to spoil ourselves a little (OK a lot) bit. That's not entirely true. My mom decided to spoil herself, and I am getting spoiled by default.

We rented a condo in Redstone that we found on Vacation Rentals by Owner. We got a great deal on a two bedroom (each with a private balcony), three bathroom, floor through kitchen/dining/living area with gas fireplace, laundry room, garage, office alcove, in a two story condo. Oh, and did I mention it's an end unit with a private outdoor hot tub overlooking a wildlife preserve? Yes, we hit the jackpot.

Yesterday was kind of a blurry whirlwind because of all the running around. Between waking up early, flying, running errands, and getting (sort of) settled, we barely had time to stop and smell the roses, er... snow. Our wonderful City Cab driver took us to Canyon Sports where we were able to purchase discount lift tickets for Deer Valley and Snowbird. Costco was next where we picked up 5-pack discount tickets for Park City and 2-pack discount tickets for The Canyons. The Park City 5-packs have the highest discount, but the small discount on the other mountain lift tickets are worth purchasing. We figured we should ski most of the resorts in the area since they are all easily accessible, except for Snowbird which has the best powder in the USA.

The condo in Redstone is in the perfect location. Since we're car-less, it is important to stay somewhere with shops within walking distance and on a shuttle route. In Redstone there is a Smith's grocery store, Whole Foods Market, Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, Petco, TJ Maxx (I'm in heaven), Starbucks, Chase bank, post office, movie theater, and a variety of restaurants. The shuttle bus stop is literally 300 feet from our door. Everything we need is here.

Today was our first full day in the city, and there was lots to do. After waking up and lolly gaging for a good 4 hours, we walked the 2 minuted to the bus stop, hopped on the pink line shuttle, and headed into Park City. The first stop was Cole Sports where we had purchased Volkl skis over the phone with the great help of Ryan, who luckily was also in the store today. Ryan and Brett fitted Judy and I for boots. We both have the same shaped foot, narrow heel compared to a wide toe. What can I say? Like mother like daughter. We laughed when they brought out the same brand of boot, Dalbell0, only a harder more aggressive boot for me and a more cushy flexible boot for my "elderly" mother. Having never been fitted for boots before in my life, the experience was one to be remembered. My favorite part was when my custom insoles were made. They literally take a mold of your foot and then heat up your insoles and shape them between the mold and your foot. I found it very fun.

At Cole Sports I also picked up some brand new socks, which Brett claims are the best ski socks on the market, XXX socks, which at $45 are actually on the less expensive side for good technical skiing socks. I also snagged some Hot Chillys warmwear (aka long johns) for $45 each. Judy and I also got matching Sorel boots to wear when walking around in the wet and snow to keep our feet toasty and dry and to make sure we don't slip and hurt ourselves, because then we wouldn't be able to ski and that would defeat the whole purpose of our trip. Fabulous Brett told us that our skis would be mounted with their bindings overnight and brought to the base of the mountain so that we could pick them up in the morning before we headed out for our first run. Thanks, Brett (and Ryan - who lucky duck is going to Jackson Hole for a few days so we didn't get to say goodbye). Cole Sports is the premier ski gear shop in Park City. They carry only the best of everything and the customer service was top notch. And with four locations in Park City and Deer Valley, with one shop specializing in snowboard gear, there is no reason to go to any other ski shop.

After our pleasant experience at Cole Sports we returned to the condo and walked over to Smith's grocery store with a Whole Foods Market shopping cart that we jacked yesterday and stored in our garage (we promise we'll return it before we go back to NY). We stocked up on food and water but there were a few things we were unable to purchase; matzo ball soup mix (Jewish) and rice crackers (Asian). We were directed to the "international" food aisle, which actually made us laugh because Kraft Mac and Cheese was in this aisle as well as ramen noodles. I will stop there, and let you figure out the rest.

Now, after having eaten and fully unpacked, I am sitting in my cozy room planning my day for tomorrow. I'm going to take it easy, because I haven't skied in a year and it would be terrible if I injured myself on the first day. Wish me luck for tomorrow which will be my first time skiing in my own skis and boots, and my first time skiing in Park City. I can't wait.

Block Island for 4th of July

2009-07-13T20:06:00.000-04:00

New York's Long Island, Connecticut, and the Rhode Island mainland provide easy access to one of the greatest day tripping and long weekend getaways in the Northeast, Block Island, located just 12 miles off the coast of Rhode Island. The island is only a short ferry ride away but once you arrive it feels like a different world. The only season to get the full Block Island experience is in the summer, when the beaches are perfect for sunbathing, the roads perfect for biking, the trails perfect for hiking, and the lobster perfect for eating. To experience a perfect day or weekend all you need to do is get off the ferry, everything you need is on the island waiting for you. You can rent bikes and kayaks at one of many sporting goods shops. If you're not the athletic type, you can shop and dine in the little marina village and for exploring hop on a motorized scooter available for rent. You can hang out at the bar on the docks and listen to live music. And if you're staying overnight, don't forget to book a room at one of the island's many pristine B&B's.

I ventured to Block Island from Montauk, NY on the Eastern most tip of Long Island on the 10am Viking Ferry on this year's perfectly sunny 4th of July Saturday. The ferry reservations were booked online making the process at the docks seamless. Viking provided a parking pass and a space in their lot for the day as there is not much parking at the dock. You can bring your bikes onto the ferry for an additional charge, which if you plan on biking is the way to go, however there are numerous places to rent bikes from once on Block Island. The ferry has comfortable seating in the cabin (perfect for napping on the way back) and upper deck outdoor seating as well as benches along the sides of the cabin. The best seating on the boat (for view, not for comfort) is the two small benches at the bow of the boat (that's the front for those of you who are not familiar with nautical terms). Of course this is where I chose to sit as the view is perfect, and the light sea spray is quite refreshing (it's also a great place to get a picture!).

Once you disembark from the ferry via the gangway onto the dock in Block Island, you see boats everywhere. Block Island's marinas are obviously the hippest place to park your boat. Some of the boats are three boats deep and couldn't get out if the docks were set aflame. No one seems to care that they're stacked upon each other, everyone sits on the back of their boats drinking and listening to music just lazing the day away (not a bad way to live life if you ask me). The ferry ride is only an hour long, so once you've got your sea legs, you're back on land. As you leave the boat and dock area, make sure you know how much time you will need to get back to the dock as the last boat out for the day is THE LAST BOAT OUT. If you miss the boat, you will have to stay the night or charter a private boat back to where you came from.

Once out of the marina, you can rent a bike right away or catch a taxi which will take you to your B&B, the village, a small watercraft rental shop, or a motorized scooter rental shop (sometimes these double as bike rental shops also). We opted to rent bikes right away as we were not staying overnight and felt like being active. The bike rentals are for 4 hours or the whole day, which of course is irritating as the next boat doesn't leave for 5 hours! We were able to finagle the summer employee from Europe to give us the 4 hour rate for the 5 hours (shh!). The bikes come with a lock and most come with a basket or rack with bungee chords so you can strap your bag to the bike (make sure you take it with you when you park and lock the bike). Also make sure to inspect your bike before you ride away. The bikes are used frequently so they tend to get dirtier and broken faster (the front break one of our bikes was not attached properly, another had a wobbly basket only held in place by the seat).

Once the bikes were squared away we set off immediately to the North Light House. On the way we passed some kids selling lemonade and baked goods and stopped for a cup (we passed more throughout the day, it's a popular past time for kids on Block Island). On the way to the North Light House you pass the National Wildlife Refuge and Sachem pond which are both great scenic locations. As you approach the North Light House be aware of the LONG WAY DOWN HILL! You have to ride (or walk) your bike back up it! However, it's super fun to ride down and the minimal traffic makes it fun and relatively safe for cyclists to cruise down at full speed. Just try not to get any bugs in your teeth... The North Lighthouse can be accessed only by a rocky beach so we locked the bikes on one of the ever present bike racks and walked down to the light house, which was not yet open for the season (opened the next day) but proved to be a very picturesque sight. Also, do not be deceived by the apparently calm water, there are strong riptides and swimming is strongly discouraged. After picking up some litter on the beach (there are garbage cans right there people!), and getting the sand out of our shoes, we hopped back on the bikes and trekked up the HUGELY HUGE HILL on the way to the Southeast Lighthouse. On the way we stopped for lunch at a beach front joint to refuel, we needed it after that hill!

The Southeast lighthouse is situated on the bluffs at the Southeast (obviously) end of the island and provides a great view. 300 yards from the entrance to the lighthouse is the entrance to steps (152, we counted) with access to the beach at the base of the Mohegan Bluffs (one of my favorite stops of the day and unfortunately not long enough... had to get back in time for the LAST BOAT OUT). The beach can only be accessed by climbing down a steep rocky trail so wear appropriate footwear. Bring a towel for an extended stay and lay out under the bluffs.

After leaving the Southeast Lighthouse we had to move pretty quickly to get back to the marina in time for the LAST BOAT OUT! The loop from the Mohegan Bluffs back to the marina is very hilly but absolutely breathtaking. Dotted throughout the landscape are small sweet water ponds with water lilies in bloom. They're all completely natural formed which makes them that much more awesome. The last stretch back to the marina passes an old cemetery situated on a hill, which I hear is great for gravestone rubbings. Make sure you've picked up a map as the roads on this end can be tricky, but generally just follow the people in front of you and you'll arrive safely back at the marina.

Once we got back to the marina and returned our bikes we decided to stop at the bar on the dock. It was super crowded with people drinking and dancing to the live band. We opted to wait on line for our ferry, but were still within ear shot of the music. Once back on the ferry (we made it!) we went in the cabin found a row of 5 seats, and took a nap. We were exhausted. On a 7x3 mile island we biked about 14 miles (wow!). Once back in Montauk we had plans to see the 4th of July Fireworks at the beach and have dinner at Cyrils. Now if only we had found an outdoor shower...

New Zealand Beach and Vineyard Tour

2009-06-13T22:09:00.001-04:00

My favorite college roomie, Sarah, lives in New Zealand and has invited me to come visit her to do a beach and vineyard tour in her home country. Of course, I cannot pass this opportunity up! We've always talked about getting together in her land. It will finally become a reality (we hope). I've decided that the best time for this excursion is after the UT trip, particularly in April. I will spend 2 weeks or so in NY visiting with those I have not seen while in UT and then will pack up all the witner stuff and head to NZ for the end of summer! Now I've got to get a map...

Park City, UT for 2 months in winter 2010? Definitely maybe!

2009-06-13T22:03:00.000-04:00

My mom and I have been planning a dream trip to Park City, UT for the winter 2010 season. We've decided we want to rent a reasonable apartment for 2 months and get season passes and spend two months in the mountains. My idea of course, my mom is just tagging along to pay the bills (kind of but not really). We're using http://www.vrbo.com/ to search for long term apartments that will rent to us for the majority of the season, including the Sundance Film Festival and through to the middle of the March is ideal for us. Growing up on the East Coast and in a beach town, I desperately want to get out there and experience life in the mountains for more than just a week vacation. Luckily this process is coming along and should be finalized in the next month or two. I'll keep you posted!

Cities With Friends

2009-05-09T23:39:00.000-04:00

As I compile a list of cities/places/landmarks/outposts/etc/etc/etc I want to visit/stop in/drive though I am keeping in mind which friends of mine live in these cities, and do I feel comfortable enough sleeping in their homes and eating their food. Mostly the answer is yes, except when I find a city like Phoenix, AZ that is possibly worth seeing but the only person I know living there was a friend from elementary school (possibly even nursery school) who I haven't had face to face contact with in at least 7 years. Facebook is such a falsity when it comes to "friends" and friends. Everyone seems to be your friend, but really more than 80% of people listed as friends on Facebook, are just "friends". Is it worth going to cities where I don't know anyone? Of course it is, it just means I have to work a little harder at getting the funds to stay in a hotel/motel for a night or two. That being said, this is the list of cities I have compiled where I have friends (not the kind in quote marks) living in or nearby.

Seattle, WA - Nicole G. (LiveJournal friend who I have not met)
San Francisco, CA - Brandon B. (Boston U. friend), Arash P. (LiveJournal friend), Jamila D. (Pomfret HS friend), Tamara L. (LiveJournal friend who I have not met)
Los Angeles, CA - Adrinne D. (Livejournal friend who I have not met)
San Diego, CA - Sarah Beth (LiveJournal friend), Shannon N. (LiveJournal friend)
Houston, TX - Theresa S. (LiveJournal friend), Nick L. (friend of life's randomness)
Jacksonville, FL - Nicole F. (LiveJournal friend who I have not met)
Moultrie, GA - Nathan B. (LiveJournal friend who I have not met - though he may not live in GA at the time this trip takes place)
Raleigh, NC - Karla (LiveJournal friend)
Washington, DC - Liz M. (PHS friend), Eddie S. (Southampton HS friend)
Philadelphia, PA - Asher S. (Facebook friend, seriously)
Fairfiend, CT - Caroline S. (PHS friend)
Boston, MA - Hope R. (SHS friend)
Portland, ME - Kevin F. (childhood friend), Cara G. (randomness friend)
Charlottetown, PE - Kelly H. (LifeJournal friend)
Port Huron and Detroit, MI - Kara B. (LiveJournal friend), Jennifer D. (LiveJournal friend)
Columbus, OH - Jen S. (randomness friend)
St. Louis, MO - Grandma, Aunt M., cousins and their children
Tulsa, OK - Grandma R. and Grandpa B.'s graves
Denver, CO - Cammy F. (PHS friend)

Now to plan an itinerary that includes as many of these cities worth going to as possible with stopover in other great cities worth going to along the way.

Do I need to bring my own pillow and toothpaste?

It Begins

2009-05-09T23:38:00.000-04:00

I am about halfway done with "Neither Here Nor There Travels In Europe" by Bill Bryson. This travel memior of sorts is filled with dry humor, personal agendas, and on a whim adventureousness. Whilst reading this book, I have discovered that this is how it all comes together. I am to take a break from "the real world" (employment, apartment, responsibility...) and fulfil my fantasy of taking a road trip. Once upon a dream I imagined this trip with another individual. The current fantasy is a solo trip, though not one without friends and persons of that general nature. I will drive alone. I will travel alone. I will simply use my friends in certain cities (though use is such a harsh word) for their free couches or guest bedrooms, bathrooms that don't require "shower shoes", and kitchens that produce meals without having to order off a menu. Though it is actually not fair at all to say that I will be using my friends for their inexpensive and inexplicably convenient lodgings, the trip is about them. This recent road trip fantasy derived from my deep desire to visit my friends from high school, college, random knowings in life, and the internet who I haven't seen (or met, in some cases of my internet friends) in a period of time that is unsuitable if I am to consider these people my friends.The plan is this: to visit as many friends in as many cities as possible but still see some great American (and Canadian!) outposts (Grand Canyon, Redwood Forest, Niagara Falls to name a few) while driving full circle from NY. It seems impossible... or at least undesirable.Now if only I could pick up a car in Yellowstone National Park and leave it in Fairfield, CT with ~10,000 miles or so added on...