Christmas day snowboarding

Last year we started a tradition of skiing/boarding on Christmas Day. Mom had worked the night before and we needed to keep the house quiet for the day, so we left to ski. And it was great. Mt. Bachelor received 6" of new snow over night and we cruised through powder most of the day, as there was hardly anyone on the mountain. This year, we did it again. We went to HooDoo, a smaller mountain and enjoyed 12" of new snow and no lines. And this year Mom and Vincent went with us, which made it even more fun. It was a great way to spend Christmas doing something we all really enjoyed and we got to do it together. Being 45 minutes from two different mountains makes it even easier, so if you get the chance, I highly recommend it!

Holiday travel and all of its glories

It's laughable when your flight is already delayed 10 hours, 6 hours before you are due to depart.

It's not surprising when they cancel the flight 3 hours before you were due to depart.

It's predictable that suddenly you can't get the airline on the phone and spend the next 2 hours trying to get on another flight or find out how you get from the Right Coast to the Left Coast before Christmas Day...

It's awesome when you get up at 3am to shovel your walk way before your 6am flight that isn't even getting you to your final destination.

It starts to stink when you get to the airport, realize the plane you are supposed to be on isn't there, wait for the snow removal equipment to move so your plane that has now landed can get into the gate, fall asleep on the floor of the waiting area while they do an extra long "clean" because it's technically the first flight of the day, and finally take off after de-icing, etc 3 hours late...

It down right sucks when you arrive in Seattle, not Portland and spend 10 hours in a car, going 35 MPH most of the way with chains on for more than 60 of those miles, and you don't even arrive at your final destination.

Needless to say this trip sucked! But the drive over on Sunday morning, which should have been Saturday morning, had our original flight never been cancelled, was beautiful. It was slow, but the snow on the trees and the winter wonderland they call highway 26. We saw a bald eagle on the side of the Deschutes River in Madras, and lastly, we are safe and finally in Bend, enjoying good food and great family.

Huge thanks to Patty, Tom, Mom and Vincent who helped by constantly checking on road conditions, booking the hotel and being patient as we defiantly decided to keep moving during some dicey road conditions.

Not huge thanks to ODOT who's online trip check was at least 6 hours delayed on the road conditions on a day when all the major news stations and most people were logging in to find out what the status of roads were. When you have snow falling at a rate of 3" an hour in a state that hasn't seen this level of snow since the 60's, you need to use what you have to get the word out!

And prayers for Megan and Alex who took off from Portland in an attempt to get to Chicago for their first Christmas as a married couple only to get stuck in Seattle with no car, no place to stay and no help from the airlines. They took off Saturday and hopefully will be back in Portland today. Yes, that's right, they have been gone for going on 72 hours and they are only 180 miles away from their house. If it weren't so frigid outside, they could have walked home by now... Good luck guys!

Public phone conversations...

should be kept private. There is no reason that I should know that the clearly "just 21" year old girl got free drinks at the Phoenix airport and is back in the Bay Area after having been gone for 10 years, and that she comes back once a year to see friends. I still can't decide what was worse, the middle seat from Boston to Phoenix or the loud talking cell phone girl. It was only 10 minutes worth of time versus the 6 hours of flying time, but I am still trying to decide what was worse. She was that irritating...

New England Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I went back to Maine for a very long holiday. Being unemployed has it's perks. ;-) We spent 10 very relaxing days in Maine enjoying good food, and family. We had a traditional New England Thanksgiving with lobster! Everyone who came to dinner had already had the turkey thanksgiving in previous weeks. So we decided to support the struggling Lobster industry in Maine. And boy, am I glad we did! It was delicious! We even cooked them ourselves. We also had stuffing, and sweet potato fries and a corn and black bean salad. It was the most different Thanksgiving dinner, and I am happy to have tried something new, combined with a little something traditional!