Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona was one of my favorite places of the whole trip. We saw a fountain show, ate gourmet tapas and, best of all saw a soccer game. We heard about the game the day before it was going to happen. We decided that we probably wouldn’t have the chance to see a Barcelona soccer game again, so we bought tickets and went the next afternoon.

The game was amazing, even though it wasn’t much of a match. FCBarcelona was playing Osasuna. FCBarcelona at the time was 2^nd in their league. Osasuna was last in the league. It ended 7-1 with Barcelona winning and Osasuna getting their only goal from a penalty kick. We saw Messi score twice which was pretty cool. The energy

at the game was incredible. People were chanting almost constantly, and there was a lot of screaming and yelling. The little kid next to us was so exited he couldn’t sit still. When it was over we walked home because the subway had a line a mile long.

The next night we went to a fountain show. The one we saw was a fountain four times the size of a trampoline shooting jets of water 40 feet into the sky while it was lit up by colored spotlights with samples from songs playing in the background. It lasted about 25 minutes which was good, because we were sitting on stone steps, and my butt was getting sore.

On our last night we went to a restaurant called Gourmet Tapas by Sensi. Tapas are little appetizers that give you a lot of different flavors, so you have to get two or three to fill you up. I got a mini oxtail burger and a roast duck breast with mango chutney and truffeled mayo. It was incredible, and easily the best food we had in Europe. Since that didn’t fill me up we decided to walk a little ways down the street to get a gourmet hot dog. I got a hot dog topped with minced meat, guacamole, and mayo. After that we went back to the apartment and went to bed.

The next morning we got up and went to the airport. It was a crazy long flight back, and once we got back our car wouldn’t start. Luckily there was still someone around at 11 at night. We drove back to my grandparent’s house, and I fell asleep in about 30 seconds.

Once we woke up we drove home and started to get reoriented. The hardest part of being home was to accept that the trip was over. I know that Europe, and the rest of our trip is going to be an experience that will stay with me the rest of my life.

Athens, Greece

Greece seemed to last a lot longer than Italy probably because in Italy we traveled whereas in Greece we stayed in the same apartment for the entire eight days. One of my favorite parts of Greece was 2:00-5:00 pm. In Athens that was the city wide nap time, so when we got there everything was closed and silent. Also the streets were lined with mandarin trees which smelled amazing. Italy had trash all over the street and smelled awful a lot of the time. In Greece it smelled almost like someone had sprayed the city with perfume.

I only had two things I wanted to do in Greece: see the Parthenon and take a Segway tour. The Parthenon was first. We took a mythology tour of the Acropolis and saw a lot of things. The most memorable parts were when we saw the Theatre of Dionysus, the Parthenon, and the Hill of Ares.

The Theatre of Dionysus is a big amphitheatre where they would perform and sing to praise the god Dionysus who was the patron of theatre and drama.

The Parthenon is an enormous temple dedicated to

Athena, Athens’ patron goddess.

The Hill of Ares is a hill right next to the Acropolis where Ares, god of war, was tried for the murder of one of Poseidon’s sons. There are varying legends about who Ares killed. Some say that it was a triton that Poseidon had sired. Other versions say that Ares killed a mortal son of Poseidon named Halaropheus after said person accosted one of Ares’ daughters, but since that was a myth made up thousands of years ago I don’t think it really matters who was killed.

A couple days later we went on a Segway tour of the national garden. The national garden is an enormous garden that was commissioned a long time ago by the ruler of Greece because his wife loved exotic plants and animals. They had palm trees, lions, and all sorts of other species imported from all over the world. Unfortunately, since the species weren’t adapted to Mediterranean conditions they quickly died off. There are still lots of palm trees. We saw one variety from Washington DC and one from China. There was also a big turtle pond with about 20 tiny turtles in it. We left the national gardens after a while to explore some of the surrounding places. We saw the parliament building and the Olympic stadium.

We also got some food in Greece that was heavenly. The first place we went was called the Kalamakai Bar. They had a lot of meat, so I liked it. The first time we went there I got pork chops. The second time I got sausages stuffed with cream cheese. My favorite food we got was called a gyro. A gyro is lamb meat, lettuce, tomato, fries, and tzatziki sauce wrapped in pita bread. For more information about gyros go to
this link http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/video/luke-bryan-ft-jimmy-fallon-i-dont-know-how-to-pronounce-gyro-official-music-video/3484701. Our last restaurant was my favorite, not for the food, but the service. Since we were the only ones there it seemed that Greeks didn’t eat until later in the day. Since we were the only ones the server could help us out. We had no idea what the stuff on the menu was, so we told him what flavors we liked and didn’t like. From there he surprised us. There were also wines from Crete where he was born that had been distilled a couple of times. For those of you who don’t know the science behind alcohol distillation I will explain. Alcohol turns to steam faster than water so if you steam the alcohol away from the water you have a very alcoholic steam. Then when you turn the steam to liquid you have the same drink with a lower water percentage, therefore a higher alcohol percentage. Alcohol is made by fermenting a grain with yeast, but at around 15 percent alcohol the yeast starts to die. Therefore to have a higher alcohol percentage you need to distill. We tried two types, and since we were in Europe I was allowed to try some. The first was awful. It hurt to drink, so when I was offered a shot I declined. On the second wine he just brought me a shot. Luckily this one was sweeter and not as burny throaty.

Our last destination in Greece was the Temple of Poseidon. It is a temple dedicated to the god of the sea.

 It wasn’t quite as impressive as the Parthenon but still cool. It is built on the coast so the sea was glittering all around it which provided an amazing backdrop.

We had planned for Greece to be our last stop, but it was a lot cheaper to fly from Barcelona, Spain to Boston, so our next stop was Barcelona. 

Rome, Italy

When we got to Rome we had to get another driver, but since our Rome apartment was a lot further away than the one in Chamonix we couldn’t take a shuttle. This time we had a guy in a black car that drove like a crazy man. Of course that was my opinion. I am used to my dad’s driving. He is a very cautious driver. He hates to go above the speed limit or come close. The guy driving us was pushing 130 kilometer per hour which is about 80 miles per hour. On the bright side we got to our apartment in about 30 minutes. That night we got pizza just because we were in Italy, and Italian pizza is supposed to be good. Let me tell you, Positive Pie does a better job.

The next day we did our sightseeing. We got up early and took the metro to the Coliseum. There we met up with our tour group for the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. Since we were in a tour we got to skip the line which was lucky because that line was really long. After we got through Coliseum security we saw the thing its self. If you were a regular tourist you were on one side of the arena, but all the tour groups were on a special reconstructed part so that we could see what it used to look like. All the while our guide was telling us about the history of the place. Some of the more recent history was about the cleaning of the arena. The marble used to build the Coliseum picks up dirt and grime very well, so it must be cleaned otherwise it would be brownish black. Once we were in the Coliseum but not in the arena we saw evidence of this. The ceiling was pitch black. They hadn’t cleaned it, so all the dirt was still there.

She also told us about how the name Coliseum came to be. Right before the Coliseum was built Nero had ruled. Nero is arguably the worst emperor of Rome. In addition to many other crimes he was one of the worst dictators in history and committed matricide. He also commissioned a 98 foot tall bronze statue of himself and demanded to be treated like a god. This statue was called the Colossus of Nero, and after his death it was repurposed to worship the sun god. It stood outside the Coliseum for years, and soon the Coliseum, meaning colossal theatre, got its’ name.

Finally she told us about the name arena. Arena floors were always covered in sand. Sand in Latin is harenae pronounced “arenare” then it was shortened to arena.

After seeing the arena floor we went underneath to see where the trap doors and lifts were. All the stuff underneath was better preserved than the above ground because the underground hadn’t been subjected to the elements.

Next we saw the third tier of the Coliseum. Up there we could see the entire arena, so we got the best pictures.

That was it for the Coliseum. Next we went to the Roman Forum where markets and social gatherings happened.  There wasn’t a lot to see there except a bunch of crumbling columns, but it was where our guide told us more about the history of the city.

That was the end of our tour, but we still went on to see some of the other things on our list. The next stop was the Pantheon. I was mostly interested in the architecture of the place. I had heard that the ceiling of the Pantheon was really cool, and it was true. It had been carved with a square within square pattern which gave it an almost hypnotic effect.

Next we went to the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is a big fountain with statues of gods everywhere. Needless to say it was one of our shorter stops.

Our last stop was The Spanish Steps. We didn’t stay long because we were exhausted, but they were basically a big set of stairs. By that point we didn’t know

or care what they were about. We walked home, and I took a nap.

A couple days later we went to Naples, Italy. From Naples we took a short train ride to Pompeii. Anyone who had Mr. Q might remember Pompeii, but if you don’t I’m going to go over it again. In the year 76 AD the city of Pompeii suffered a crushing defeat. The nearby volcano, Mount Vesuvius erupted and coated the city in ash which then solidified into rock. Some of the inhabitants were also coated in ash and died. Eventually the bodies
decomposed and left stone shells of Pompeians. When archeologists found these shells they poured plaster into them, and violá they had statues of the people as they were dying. Since the city was covered in ash for thousands of years it avoided being pillaged, so it is in pretty good condition. My dad had found this app that had a bunch of self guided tours on it, so we did the one on Pompeii and learned about the place as we went. Once we were done we went back to Naples and went to bed.

Our next stop was very different than the others. We went to an island called Ischia and relaxed in a thermal spring resort. Since Ischia is a volcanic island there are naturally heated springs that the resort pumped around into caves and other pools. All day we relaxed in steamy caves. Only one of them wasn’t that relaxing. This one was a square of water with one side heated to 65

degrees Fahrenheit and the other heated to 100. The idea was to walk around it five times. The difference in temperature was supposed to trigger your lymphatic system and make you feel good. It didn’t work.

That was it for Italy. I was sad to leave, but Greece was next. I love Greek and Roman mythology, but Rome adopted many of Greece’s gods when they took over, so their religion was second hand. That’s why I was excited to go to Greece, and see the home of the gods.

Chamonix, France

In truth it felt nice to be home for a little while, but after a week I was ready to go. I liked being home to have some normalcy and see my cat, but after traveling for so long it felt wrong to be in one place for a prolonged time. That is why when we packed up to go to France I was ready.

We were flying out of Logan airport, and since it was a ways away we decided to stay at my grandparent’s house for the night. In the morning we drove to the bus station and rode the bus for about an hour and a half to the airport.

My memory of the airport was a blur. We went through security and got on the plane then spent the next six hours flying to Geneva, Switzerland. When we got through customs in Geneva I was exhausted. Since Geneva is 6 hours later than us I had stayed up straight through the night for 26 hours.

We took a super shuttle to our apartment in Chamonix, France and were shown around. After that I took a nap.

It took a few days to get reoriented from the jet lag. On the first day I woke up at noon and couldn’t get to sleep until one in the morning. Luckily it got progressively better.

The first day we were in France we roamed around the city to get a feel of things. While we were exploring we got our tickets for skiing and found a lot of bakeries. The one right across the street from us was my favorite for several reasons. First I didn’t have to walk far since we could see it from our window. Also there were amazing lemon tarts that I got on a regular basis. Finally the woman who worked there spoke fluent English, so I could ask, “What is that?” and get an answer. As it turned out that wasn’t a good thing because I gained about five pounds, but still, I liked it. Another bakery we went to was called Café 49. We went there on our first day and got a little crunchy rum cake with macaroons on top.

That’s when I discovered that I love macaroons.

Once we recovered from jet lag we went skiing. Unfortunately it was late in the season, so the snow wasn’t great in the morning. Our first run was icy and slippery. Later in the day it softened up and was better.

By far my favorite part of Chamonix was parasailing. One day we decided that, since I had always wanted to go parasailing, we would go. We were in the perfect place, so we went to the closest company, and in ten minutes we were booked for the next day.

When I woke up I was buzzing with excitement about flying. For so long I have wanted to do a multitude of things including parasailing, hang gliding, bat suiting, and sky diving. Now I can say I have done at least one of them. We walked to the base of the gondola and met our guides, a husband and wife. Apparently the wife had won several parasailing competitions. We rode the gondola up and strapped into our parasails. I thought we would have to jump off a cliff, but instead we ran down a hill until the wind caught the sail and lifted us up. Since we were inexperienced our guides were strapped to our backs, so it was a little awkward to run, but we managed. Once we were in the air it turned out that our backpacks could turn into seats which made the ride a lot more comfortable. It was amazing to be so high up. I could see the entire Chamonix valley and the mountains

surrounding it. The thermals of the place would sometimes shoot us another 20 feet in the air. Whenever we found these jets we circled them so we got higher and higher. The ride lasted for about 25 minutes, and near the end I got to steer. When we touched down we had to run to break the speed and not fall.

That was the highlight of France followed closely by the food. Next we flew to Rome to see what Italy had to offer.

Map

Here is a link to a map of our travels for those who have asked for it.
https://secure.travellerspoint.com/member_map.cfm?tripid=941996#/tripid/941996

Taos, NM

We only skied at Taos once. The conditions were decent but just not good enough to stay for a few days. Since we had our camper we stayed at a campground while we were there. In truth it wasn’t easy to go back to the camper after being in Air B and Bs for over two months, but somehow I managed. My mom was actually glad to be back in the camper because she slept better in it.

When we went skiing it was pretty good. At the beginning there was a sign saying, “Don’t worry, you’re only seeing 1/30 of the mountain.” That was good because if what we saw had been it, that would have stunk. It was more like spring skiing than what we were used to, so it felt pretty slow. There also had been a big wind storm, and there was a lot of pine tree debris from fallen trees. That and the sudden slush were the main hazards. Once we were done we went back to the camper for the night.

The next day we left the camp ground and stopped at an Earthship development. Earthships are houses made from recycled materials and things found in the woods. This place had dozens of Earthships that they rented out to people. Since my dad built Earthships and I had never seen one we figured that it was worth a stop. They were amazing. These things are designed to be off the grid, so they collect their water, grow their food, and generate their electricity. This alone was interesting because they needed to find innovative ways to do things, but my favorite part was the designs. The walls of Earthships are made from cans and bottles covered in cement. Sometimes, for esthetics, the ends of the bottles will be left out, and light will filter through to make cool designs.

We spent about two hours and took a tour then left. Next we will be visiting relatives on our way to home sweet home.

Gallup, NM

We went to Gallup to pick up our camper. We picked it up then went to Santa Fe. We didn’t really do anything in Santa Fe either. Next we went to Taos.

Telluride, CO

We didn’t stay long in Telluride, but it was fun. My second cousin once removed and his family was renting a condo in Telluride on a vacation from their home in Alaska. Since I had never seen them before we decided to stay there and ski.

We went straight from Fruita to Telluride and got there at about noon. We met people on the top of the mountain and skied for a half day.

The next day was a little better. We got up and went skiing. Telluride is definitely in my top five because there were a lot of the trails that I like and there was sun, so it was soft and not icy. My two favorite runs were Milk Run and another trail that I don’t know the name of. Milk Run had good exposure and an awesome place where, if you came in with enough speed, it was possible to launch right into the moguls. The other trail was pretty bad, but there was a small cliff at the end that was fun to jump off. If I had to guess I would say that it was about six feet tall, but it had a great reentry so it didn’t hurt. Since I usually hate big jumps and thin rails, this was a major step up from what I had been doing.

The next day we packed up and left for Gallup, New Mexico to pick up our camper.

Fruita, CO

Coming to Fruita for the second time was a lot more fun than the first time. It may have been because we did better trails or because we stayed in a house. Last time we went to Fruita we stayed in a hotel which was both small and limiting. In addition I rode my dad’s Hei Hei, and he rode my Scalpel, so it was a lot easier. Besides having bigger wheels the Hei Hei has a bigger frame and better working gears. My bike is tiny, and the gears can jam. In a way the riding there reminded me of Sedona. Admittedly Sedona was harder with more hills and rocks, but besides that it was very similar. There was a lot of flowy down hills and beautiful rocks that I tried to climb.

Our first ride was in the afternoon. I had to do school work for the first half of the day, then we went biking. Since it was late we went on a relatively short trail that followed the Colorado River along the top of a gorge. When we were done we went home and went to bed.

For the next few days I did school, then we left early in the morning to bike again. That day we did a warm up loop that was the easiest out of all of them. At one point we had stopped at the top of a hill, and we saw this little kid fly by. He couldn’t have been more than five or six, but he went down the hill in back of his mom and apparently couldn’t slow down enough, so to avoid hitting his mom, he veered off the track and hit a rock the same size as him head on. There was honestly no way you could watch that and not cringe. As it turned out after a minute he was fine which was impressive. If I had hit that hard I would be bawling for hours. After the warm up we went out on a trail that led almost to the end of the area and did a loop there. That trail was my favorite because there was a lot of tricky rocks and great views.

That was all the biking we did in Fruita, and overall it is one of my favorite places that I have ever been right up there with Slickrock and Sedona. If anyone finds themselves in the vicinity I would very strongly recommend going.

Aspen, CO

One of the most interesting parts of Aspen was the name and how it is known. Everyone knows the resort as Aspen when indeed the resort consists of four mountains, and Aspen isn’t even the biggest. Snowmass is the biggest mountain there, but I had never even heard of it until a week before we got there.

Anyways, we got to the house we were staying at pretty late and unpacked in the dark.

Over the next couple of days I did some school work, and my mom got sick. When she felt better we went to Aspen. The conditions were pretty good, but nowhere near the heaven we found at Alta. One of my favorite parts was the heat. Since we were well into the season it was really warming up. Thanks to this none of us had cold toes or fingers the entire day.

The next time we went skiing it was at Snowmass. Except for being bigger it wasn’t much different. One of the major differences was the views at the top. They were gorgeous plus there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We were at around 13,000 feet so we could see all the other mountains covered in snow.

One of the most memorable parts was a physics lecture by a theoretical physicist at the Aspen Institute of Physics. To be completely honest most of it just sailed over my head, but the main idea was that there was geometry to three of the four confirmed fundamental forces. His justification for this was that a graph showed that electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force, are all more influential at shorter distances than gravity is. He then proceeded to prove his point by showing a bunch of grids with dots on them. Then to top it off he showed them. Then to top it off he showed pictures that strongly resembled dream catcher designs.

Copper Mountain, CO

Copper Mountain was another unexpected stop. As we were driving away from Fruita we pulled over because we knew my great aunt and uncle were visiting Copper Mountain which was only two hours away from Aspen. We gave them a call, and ten minutes later we were heading in a completely different direction. We got there at about six o clock and found them in a clothing store. We managed to get my mom out before she bought things we couldn’t fit in the truck, and went to a restaurant for the happy hour. Unfortunately there was an hour and a half wait for a table. The next place we tried was full as well. Finally we got a table at a Mexican restaurant called Mi Casa. After diner we went back to the house they were staying at and went to sleep.

The next day we went to Copper Mountain and instead of skiing we snowboarded. Even though we hadn’t snowboarded yet this year my great aunt and uncle both snowboard, so we thought we might as well. Actually my mom ended up skiing since she doesn’t know, and

doesn’t care, how to snowboard, but my dad and I both learned a few years ago. One of the most notable things about the place was the cold. It would have been about 15 degrees out, but with the wind chill it felt like 0. Due to this we couldn’t stay on the mountain for more than four or five runs at a time. Aside from the wind the boarding was pretty good. We had to stay on mostly blues and greens since we hadn’t snowboarded in so long, but at the end we went on a double black diamond on which I spent more time sliding on my stomach than my board. 

After all that sliding we packed up for the drive to Aspen hoping that we didn’t have any more unexpected detours.

st Zippity and passed by Zippity Do Da. After the Zipitys we went down Joe’s Ridge and came off on the bottom half of Kesssel Run.

The next day I just stayed home and worked on school work while my parents went biking. At about noon we packed up and left. Luckily we are planning to come again in about a week on our way to Telluride, so we can explore more of the trails. 

Fruita, CO

Our visit to Fruita was very unexpected. Our original plan had been to go straight from Alta to Aspen. Instead we decided to make a stop in Fruita because it was on the way, and the mountain biking there is famous. When we arrived we checked into a Comfort Inn, got some food from a nearby Chinese restaurant, and passed out.

The next day we went out biking. The trails were amazing in most places, unfortunately they were on a pasture most of the time, so sections of the trail there were riddled with holes from cow feet.  Our first trail that we took was called Prime Cut. Prime Cut is a trail that goes to the top of a hill. Off the top there are a lot of flowy trails coming back to the base of Prime Cut. After going up Prime Cut we came down Kessel Run because I really like Star Wars. Everyone brace yourselves because if you don’t know Star Wars this will be confusing. In episode 4 “A New 
Hope” Han Solo says that he made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. This alone is confusing because the Kessel Run is a smuggling route that is a fixed distance, and a parsec is a unit of distance, but right now that doesn’t matter. My point is that 12 parsecs is equal to 230,100,000,000,000, or 2.301e14 miles. In the Star Wars universe that was the record. My run was only 2.3 miles. Take that Han Solo. After Kessel Run we took Prime Cut up again and went on a trail called Pumps, Bumps, and Rollers. The joke behind that trail is that the initials are PBR, as in PBR beer.  The only bad thing was that on PBR I got a BUI (Biking Under the Influence), then I was all like OMG totes no fair.  After PBR we went a completely different direction. This time we went on West Zippity and passed by Zippity Do Da. After the Zipitys we went down Joe’s Ridge and came off on the bottom half of Kesssel Run.

The next day I just stayed back and worked on school work while my parents went biking. At about noon we packed up and left. Luckily we are planning to come again in about a week on our way to Telluride, so we can explore more of the trails. 

Alta/Snowbird, UT

Euphoria is the only word I can use to describe these places. I had the perfect conditions to use my Soul 7s, and Cater and his dad came to ski for a few days. Even

Henry was at Jackson for a day and we tried
for a meditation position on the trampoline.

better we had an amazing place that we were staying at. This place had an indoor basketball court and trampoline, along with a pool table and a hot tub. Needless to say I was never board.

The first day of skiing was at Snowbird. As we expected it was amazing. Undoubtedly that was the best snow I had ever seen in my life. It was exactly as it is usually advertised by the mountain. The snow was called champagne powder, and it lived up to its name. It was light and fluffy, and in some places I glided over it noiselessly. My mom had been talking for days about the famous Utah powder, and she finally got it. I’m glad the snow was this good because two years earlier my dad,

Carter’s dad, our friend Bob, my uncle Peter, and uncle John had come out to Alta/Snowbird and the snow was awful. Now at least Carter’s dad and my dad have skied the powder.  We found a bunch of trails covered with powder and a small terrain park with decent sized jumps.

Waiting for everyone.

The second day we tried Alta. There had been a small storm overnight so the snow had been replenished and there was plenty of powder. That day we mostly focused on a place called Cathrine’s area. In Catherine’s area there were mostly steep powdery slopes. They were in good condition all day because they took a bit of a hike to get to, and from the base they didn’t look great.

On day three we went back to Alta because we decided that it would be too chewed up at Snowbird. As it turned out Alta was pretty chewed up as well. Fortunately an area called Ballroom opened. It had been closed for the past few days, so there was plenty of fresh snow. We had to hike a lot to get to the best snow because within five minutes of Ballroom being open the bottom had been completely skied off. On our first Ballroom run I decided to hike up farther than anyone else in my group. It was a long hike, but it was totally worth it. I did the hike three times and found patches of untracked, six inch deep powder. After those runs we went down to the lodge for lunch. After lunch we took a few more runs then went back to the house to start packing for Aspen. Overall Alta/Snowbird was great. The snow was amazing and the people were friendly.  If anyone ever finds themselves in the area I would strongly recommend going, just be careful, you might have trouble leaving.

Just because the puppies are awesome 

Jackson Hole, WY

Overall Mammoth had been our favorite ski resort of all. Jackson Hole was just as good, if not better than Mammoth. There wasn’t a lot of powder on the mountain, but I had just gotten another new pair of skis for all mountain, so I could carve in them. We also tried some back contryish skiing in a place that almost no one went.  In addition my friend Henry had come up for a few days, so he could try skiing in the west. Originally we were planning to ski the first day he was here, but most of the lifts were closed due to 70 mph gusts. Instead that day we went to downtown Jackson so he could buy

In the town square there were four giant arches made
of elk horns. At night they were lit up.

souvenirs for his parents and brothers. We also ended up buying a butt load of candy, and he had a sugar high.

The first day of skiing we decided “as a group” to ride the tram up. I honestly voted against riding the tram, but I got vetoed. All in all we ended up waiting in line for an hour and forty minutes. After the wait we got crammed on a tram with 100 other people. My dad has real problems with those types of situations, so he looked like he was ready to scream. On the way up one person passed out, but it was so cramped that no one noticed until we were almost at the top. After that experience we decided not to go on the tram again. Admittedly the skiing was pretty good at the top. There was a lot of powder at the top along with really steep hills, so I was happy. We also found a gully that was untracked, so we had completely fresh snow. That day we mostly focused on the middle of the mountain. The place was so big that we couldn’t ski the whole mountain in one day.

On day two we did more skiing in the middle and on the left side of the mountain. On the left side we found a few trails that were untracked. To tell the truth they were untracked because the snow was too hard to track, but I’m looking on the bright side.

On day three my parents didn’t want to ski, so it was just me and Henry on an enormous mountain. Since we hadn’t done much on the sides of the mountain we

avoided the middle and hit some of the runs we had missed. On the right we found a couple good runs and a few icy awful woods runs.  My favorite run was on the left side of the mountain. It was incredibly steep and was covered with moguls. If anyone is detecting a theme with my favorite kind of run, you are right. I really like steep mogully runs.

That was the last day of skiing in Jackson Hole. The next day we drove to Alta, UT and met Carter, but I’ll have to talk about that in my Alta post.

Sun Valley

Sun Valley was one of the most enjoyable places we visited. Our host was amazing, and she had two puppies and an older dog, along with three cats. The puppies had so much energy and a keen instinct to jump on anything

that moved. On walks they would chase me constantly and jump whenever I stopped.  Aside from the jumping they were adorable. Over the week we were there my mom really developed a connection with them. The skiing was pretty good as well. The first day we went the snow was soft but not too much so, and there weren’t that many people. All the lifts were open, and they were high speed detachable chairs, so we didn’t lose blood flow to the legs once. The lodge was also great. It was one of the most beautiful lodges we had been in. It was all timber framed vaulted ceilings with huge rock walls rising up.  There was also a cafeteria serving some amazing nachos. These nachos were unlike any nacho I had eaten before. They were a pile of waffle cut fries coated in beef chili with a glob of sour cream and scallions. I had never had nachos on fries, but it turned out to be really good. It was a good unwind at the end of the day to eat something like that. The type of thing you know is probably bringing you one step closer to heart disease, but you don’t really care. On the mountain there wasn’t a lot to note. It felt a lot like some of the other mountains we had been to. The snow was soft but not powder. One of the main differences is that their easiest trails were significantly harder than the easiest trails on the other mountains. One run that was

notable was Fire Trail. Fire Trail was a double black diamond that was probably 30 degrees steep and covered with moguls. That was one of my favorite trails. About half way down I fell. Luckily I didn’t hurt myself, but other bad things happened. My helmet is made up of two parts: the inner part with the styrofoam and padding, then the outer part which consists of a plastic shell that controls the vents and makes the helmet look cooler. During my fall the outer part popped off, and I ended up chasing it down forty feet of hill. For the rest of that run I had to carry my poles in one hand and my helmet top in the other like it was a football. Currently it is serving a new purpose in my room holding a bag of sesame seeds and a dirty sock. After skiing that day we went back to the house, and I enjoyed one of my favorite aspects of the house - the candy. Yes our host Kimmie had a huge bowl of candy consisting of Hershey products, tootsie pops, and tootsie rolls. Over the next couple days we did some school work and took the dogs on a few walks.

When we went skiing again and our experience was very different. The main difference was the snow. The stuff was pouring down all around and pelting us in the face. Also near the top a layer of fog set in, along with a strong wind.  Between the two it was impossible to see more than 40 feet past your ski tips. This became a real hazard skiing. There were a few steep hills that were up in the fog. Since the snow was almost unmarked and the fog was white, it was impossible to judge distance. When we were skiing down one hill I thought that I could only see about five feet before a orange sign appeared 100 feet in front of me. Another time I was skiing on a run-out, and I thought I was going three to four miles per hour. Eventually I looked down, and I saw that the snow at my feet was not moving at all; at that point I realized that I had been standing still for the last ten seconds. In addition to depriving us of spatial relations, the fog presented other challenges. The white out gave us vertigo. Sometimes I would drop off tiny ledges that had been completely hidden. Skiing like this is a really weird feeling. It gives you a sense of what it would be like to be a blind skier. Strangely it is a slightly euphoric feeling. It may sound weird, but having no idea where you are is a lot of fun. I would have liked to do it again, but the entire concept freaked out my mom. The snow was a little soft and heavy, but luckily my skis were very wide and floaty. After a few runs my feet were in so much pain from all the pressure that I had to take a break. We had to take two such breaks. After the second break we took one run and were done. At the end we were soaked to the bone, so we did the natural thing. We went home, took a shower, and then went to get burgers.

That was our Sun Valley experience. The next day we packed up and left. It wasn’t easy to say goodbye to Kimmie and the puppies, but we had to in order to get to Jackson Hole.

Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows

Tahoe really hates me. As you might remember in one of my earlier posts we stayed in Tahoe for two days during October, and the weather could have been better. In addition I fell on my bike, got five stitches in my chin, and chipped a tooth. Honestly I still can’t eat anything chewy, crunchy, sticky, or cold without my tooth hurting. Anyway now we are back near Tahoe in a town called Truckee. Our plan was to go skiing and enjoy the Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows bliss, but instead it rained for four days straight. As you can imagine, freezing rain is not the most enjoyable weather to ski in. Oh, also the places were closed because there were 120 mph gusts on the mountain. On the up side our hosts Leigh and Lauren had a pool table and a hot tub plus a kitchen that had lots of things that are actually used to cook. Unlike all the other Air BnBs we had rented, in this one we were just renting rooms, and we shared the house with the owners. That was advantageous in many ways. Firstly, they were nice people and we hadn’t met anyone new in ages. Secondly, they knew about the place so we could ask questions. Lastly, since they lived in the house it was made to be functional and Leigh liked cooking, so the kitchen had everything we needed. During the rainy days we made two batches of cookies, and I tried out two new recipes that I am planning to put on the cooking website I am developing. The first was a breakfast biscuit cup. Basically it is biscuit dough in a cupcake shell with sausage, bacon, egg, and cheese all baked up to golden brown, melty, cheesy, goodness. The second was a recipe for Pad Thai with sautéed chicken and tofu, along with cooked carrots, green onions, and sprouts, then garnished with roasted peanuts. I made that twice during the rainy days, and it was amazing. We played about a dozen games of pool and ate about half a million calories in cookies.

When we did go skiing it was mostly because we were leaving the next day, and I really wanted to be able to say that I had skied at Squaw and Alpine.  We started at Alpine because we heard that more lifts were open there (3 lifts out of 12). We took two runs and decided that it was not for us, mostly because it was snowing so hard that it felt like my nose was being shot with air soft

pellets. Also none of the express lifts were open, and the rest moved slower than Bolton chairs (really slow). After my mom and I went into the lodge my dad decided to get one more run in on a different lift. On the way down he went off a two foot cliff and face planted in the snow.  After he warmed and got coffee we went to Squaw. The conditions were better there. It wasn’t snowing, and the high speed lifts were running. The only problem is that at the top the snow was like wet cement. When we were done I was exhausted, so we went back to the house and I vegetated on the couch.

I will definitely remember Squaw as I will with all the other places we visit. I can’t wait to see what Sun Valley is like next and so help me if the snow isn’t better there. 

Mammoth Lakes, California

I had just as much fun in Mammoth. The first day we were there we went skiing, and it was amazing. There was even more snow in Mammoth than there was in Whistler, especially the second ski day when it was snowing.

On the first day of skiing we started on the east side of the mountain and worked our way west. On the east side I almost had a heart attack. One of the lifts we rode up

on went up a good third of the mountain, and it had absolutely no safety bar to speak of. There were several of these chairs, but none quite as terrifying. The main reason it was scary was because it took us 30 feet above sharp rocks. Also, in Vermont there are signs on all the lifts saying “State law requires the use of the safety bar” so I’m used to safety bars.  In California, not so much.

There weren’t any more really memorable parts of Mammoth on the east side, but on the west there was a

The sun was really bright.

mogul run that was out of this world. The snow was soft and the moguls were perfect. The run was so good that we ran it three times. On the third run I took a tumble. I caught an edge near the bottom of the run and flipped. I landed right on my neck and got a huge headache. That ended my day and made me sad. The next two days we stayed home and relaxed, which was probably good because in my fall I had strained my sternocleidomastoid, (in technical terms that is a neck muscle). Since I had strained my neck it hurt to move it at all. One thing that I could do with a strained sternocleidomastoid was make chocolate mousse. That was good. Unfortunately I had to whisk the eggs by hand and I messed up on the first batch, so all in all I spent 20 minutes whisking eggs.  We had to get groceries several times, and one time we decided to walk there. We needed things for chocolate mousse, and according to my mom I needed fresh air. Since we had gotten several feet of snow the sidewalks had five foot walls of snow on either side. Other than that the

sidewalks were incredibly icy. We had to get picked up by my dad because we might have hurt ourselves on the way back.

The second day we skied it was snowing like crazy. Huge puffy flakes were all around us when we were going up the lift. On our first run we went to the summit. It wasn’t the best conditions but I’m glad we went. Later that day the lifts to the top were closed because of wind dangers. Even when we were up there the wind was howling. While I was pulling up my hood and putting on another face covering my helmet started blowing away. While I was chasing that, my gloves started moving, so I had to grab those as well. Even worse, when I was almost done putting everything back together my poles started rolling away. Aside from that I had a great time. There was nobody else on the slope, so we had a foot of untracked powder. During lunch we saw something very strange. A guy in a fuzzy mammoth costume was walking around the room like it was perfectly natural. On that note we also saw three guys in matching bear head hats in line at the lift. One guy in the line next to us took about a dozen pictures of them.

And that was our experience in Mammoth. I would definitely recommend going. Our next stop will be in Squaw Valley, California. 

The skiing in Whistler was the best skiing I have ever seen. There was over 17 feet of snow on the ground, and if you knew where to look there was some amazing powder.  We were renting a condo about three minutes from the slopes, so we could ski from first lift till last, (we never did). All in all it was the best skiing experience I have ever had.

Despite all the great things about Whistler, getting there was not all that fun. We flew into Vancouver at about 3:30 and grabbed our stuff. Since we were skiing we also had two bags full of skis, along with a backpack and a carry-on each. As if that wasn’t enough, we also had to carry a 50 pound bag. Even worse, as we soon found out that we had to walk through the freezing rain to get to the shuttle for the rental cars which was out of the airport, across the street, and through a parking garage, (to grandmothers house we go). Once the shuttle came we went to the rental car place and were offered two options. We could either have a Hyundai Tuscon or a VW Tiguan. Immediately we answered Tuscon. We had a Tiguan in Hawaii, and it was just way too cramped, even if it did have an awesome name. Tiguan, honestly where did that come from. Anyway, after we got our car we started our drive to Whistler. In Vermont we have no idea what traffic is. The “traffic” I grew up with meant waiting 30 seconds at a red light behind four other cars. Vancouver traffic means that you’re lucky to get your car through a red light in less than ten minutes. The drive took a lot longer than expected, so we got to Whistler an about 6:30 at night. Six-thirty may not seem that late, but since we were so far north it had been dark for about 45 minutes. We found our place and spent about five minutes trying to figure out how the lock worked. When we got in we unpacked groceries and passed out.

The next day we just relaxed. Since we were there for a week we were in no hurry.

It was cold on Friday, so we didn’t go skiing then. We heard that the place was mobbed on the weekends, so we waited until Monday to ski.

We didn’t just relax over the weekend. On Sunday we went to a fire and ice show. It consisted of fire dancers, and skiers jumping through a flaming hoop then doing tricks. It was pretty amazing seeing people doing insane stunts in the dark after flying through a flaming hoop.

On Monday we went skiing for the first time. I woke up as early as I could and took the shuttle to the mountain. We had gotten the mountain collective pass from Liftopia, and it took a while to redeem, but after about a half hour we were ready to ski. We took the chair up and started out on one of the easier trails, a blue groomer that had hardly been touched yet because it was so early. I am glad that we started easy because I had just

This was the view from the top of Whistler.
My favorite part is the fin in the background.

gotten new skis, and they had a completely different feel than my old ones. In the past I had just rented skis since I was growing so much, but in the recent months I had grown a few inches and was hopefully flat lining for a few years. I am 5’7” and estimated to be about 6’1” when I’m done growing, so that gives me several years to grow six inches. The point is that I am hoping that I may be able to use these skis for a few years before I outgrow them. They are green Soul 7s that feel really weird. I can’t put much weight on my downhill foot without skipping out, so I had to learn an entirely new way to ski in which I have weight on my uphill foot.

After the first run we went up again and took another route down. This time we skirted the ski area boundary. My favorite part was right above the trail where there was a foot of fresh powder. In Vermont there isn’t powder like that often, and when there is it doesn’t feel the same. On that much powder it feels more like water skiing on a completely smooth lake. Later on we also found some powder bowls that had the same feeling. That day we skied a lot of trails and finished completely exhausted. We went back to the condo, and I had a Gatorade and a Dr Pepper, which

pretty much topped off the perfect day.

After a hard day of skiing I really needed a day off, so we stayed home and relaxed for the day. When I say we, I mean me and my mom. My dad doesn’t know how to relax. He decided that his ideal day off was to go hike the mountain even higher than the lifts took people and ski down. See what I mean. It is a five hour hike up and a

Fresh tracks on a hike.

one hour ski down, but there are fresh tracks and a foot and a half of powder, so I can understand some of his motives. My mom and I stayed back, and I worked on school work. After a few hours we went cross country skiing on the trails surrounding Whistler. Overall the highlight of my day was getting in the hot tub in the evening.

On our second day of skiing we went to Blackcomb Mountain. Even though the place is called Whistler there is another mountain right next to Whistler called Blackcomb that is part of Whistler. Overall I liked the skiing at Blackcomb more than Whistler. I don’t know why. It might have been because I was better with my skis, or there might have been a little snow overnight. Whatever the reason I thought it felt better. The most notable thing we skied was called the Blackcomb Glacier. Yes now I can say that I have skied a glacier. By definition a glacier just means that the snow has compacted so much that it becomes ice and stays as such throughout the year and moves a tiny bit. We only skied one of the trails on the glacier, but there were several. From the top there was the Blackcomb Glacier Trail, (the one we did), along with Blowhole. An alternate route was to go up Spanky’s Ladder to access Diamond Bowl, Ruby Bowl, Sapphire Bowl, and Garnet Bowl.

We did several more runs on Blackcomb then took the Peak To Peak gondola back to Whistler. The Peak To Peak gondola actually holds several records including the highest gondola off the ground and the longest section of a gondola to be suspended without poles. We spent a few more days at Whistler then, “We were leaving on a jet plane, I don’t know when I’ll be back again. Oh slopes I hate to go.”

-John Denver 1969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SneCkM0bJq0

Now we are heading to Mammoth, and I am hoping to have just as much fun there.

This is the view from Mauna Kea

Our home at the farm.

Hawaii

Aloha makamaka. This is going to be a long post, but it’s hard to describe a month in Hawaii in less than a page. I hope you’re comfortable because this one may take a while. Mahalo.

Hawaii is not as you would expect. I personally thought that it would look like it did in Hawaii Five-O, with roads lined with palm trees and glittering condos everywhere.  In truth the Big Island is not like that at all. The other islands such as Oahu are closer to that vision because they have finished forming. The Big Island on the other hand, can’t be developed as extensively due to the active volcanoes.

The Hawaiian Islands were formed over a period of more than 60 million years. There is a magma seep under the Pacific tectonic plate that is constantly pushing molten rock up and forming volcanoes. This seep is stationary, but the plate above it is progressively moving northwest at four inches per year. As the seep makes volcanoes across the plate, the islands will form around the volcanoes, and that is how the Hawaiian Islands were born. The cool thing is that the islands are still forming. The Big Island is getting bigger and bigger from the lava flows, and right next to the Big Island another island called Loihi is forming deep below the surface. Loihi probably won’t be visible for thousands of years.

Needless to say, when we arrived we did not stay in a glittering condo. We stayed in a tent on a farm with goats and sheep everywhere. After a while we got used to it, but at first it was hard.  We had a canopy tent about 15 feet tall at the peak, at the base it was about 10 feet by 20 feet. A canopy of tarps had been strapped to the front which expanded it a little bit and offered a place to eat.

See what I mean, it looks exactly like M and M

Before we even got to our home we had an adventure.  First we went to a black sand beach where we saw turtles crawling up the beach.  Then we went to the Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory. BTW, they totally copied M and M with their logo.

The first few days of living in the tent were challenging. First of all we didn’t know where anything was, as is normal with new places. Second of all, my mom was sick, but she pushed through it and didn’t complain for our sake because she is such a wonderful mother.

There had been a bug going around my family so it wasn’t all that surprising when she got it.  Originally my aunt had it, and when she came to visit us in Sedona my mom and grandpa must have caught it because about twelve days later they felt awful. It took about a week until she felt better. While we were on the farm we took weekend excursions to explore Hawaii.

On our first weekend excursion we went up to Hilo. Originally we had been in Pahala, and there was not much in the way of food stores there. The first thing we did in Hilo was go to the farmers market because we really needed food. Afterward we went to the Queen Lili’uokalani botanical garden and saw a lot of banyan trees.

For anyone who hasn’t seen a banyan tree I will put in a picture. Banyan trees are really cool trees that look like a million tiny little trees fused together. There are also little roots hanging down from the branches. These are an adventitious root system. We heard that these grow on the tree to collect extra water. After the garden we

went to Coconut Island and found a great jumping spot where we got an awesome picture of me jumping.

We spent another week on the farm then took another vacation for Christmas. We went to two parties with our host Malian, and her friends. We also drove up Mauna Kea to see the telescopes and the view. Mauna Kea was amazing. The peak is 13,000 feet above sea level, so it was above the clouds. At the base it was raining, but as we climbed we broke through the clouds and were above them. It looked amazing to be above the clouds. I have only seen something like that before when I hiked Katahdin in Maine. We also saw several of the telescopes, which are a very controversial topic we need not go into.

The next day we visited two beaches. The first we didn’t stay at very long.  My parents went to check it out while I climbed a tree. It was a very strange tree. Climbing it was closer to walking on a balance beam than climbing a tree. The branches splayed out until they went horizontal to the ground and made it the easiest tree ever to climb.  Next we visited the black sand beach again and saw more turtles.

We spent another day at the farm, then went to a place called the Green Sand Beach. The Green Sand Beach takes its name from the distinct greenish hue derived from the olivine in it. Olivine is a silicate mineral containing iron and magnesium. Interestingly this is just an unrefined version of my birthstone, period. 

It was a four mile hike to get to the beach, but when we got there it was really cool. I tried to go snorkeling but the waves and the lack of anything remotely interesting quickly deterred me. When we were done we made the four mile hike back.

After the Green Sand Beach we left the farm to go explore more of the island. It may not look it on a map, but Hawaii is big. The cities are spread out so it isn’t just a hop skip and a jump anywhere. In fact the Big Island has more land mass than all of the other Hawaiian Islands combined.  Over half of this is attributed to Mauna Loa, the largest mountain landmass in the world.

The first place we went was Hilo, the sixth rainiest city in the U.S. We stayed a few nights at a place called Arnotts, and that’s when my dad and I got sick. It may seem kind of random that we got sick about two weeks after my mom, but that seemed to be the pattern. My mom got sick about two weeks after seeing my aunt, and we got sick about two weeks after she got it. What supports this even more is that my grandpa got sick about two weeks after coming to Sedona with us and my aunt, then my grandma got sick about a day before I did, two weeks after my grandpa. Anyway, it sucked.

For the first few days it felt like I had a fever and chills with a hacking cough. Then the fever abated leaving me coughing my guts up. We stayed at Arnotts through New Year’s Eve. During the day we went to another black sand beach and saw more turtles. The up side about being on a five hour time difference is that when it was midnight in Times Square it was seven at night here, so I could finally see the ball drop. Usually at midnight I am out like a light. At midnight for us some people started setting off fireworks right next to our window, which as one could imagine, made it hard to sleep, and I need my sleep. On any given day I get tired if I get less than nine hours of sleep. While I was sick I would get about ten hours at night and take a two to three hour nap during the day. That night I cried myself to sleep from sheer exhaustion.

After a restless night (six hours of sleep) we went to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The first night we stayed at a place called the Volcano Inn. We got in at about noon, and at one I promptly took a nap. At eight that night I woke up from my seven hour “nap”, watched TV for an hour, and went back to sleep. After ten more hours of sleep I woke up and felt absolutely no better. We left to go our next room. We had rented a cabin in a different part of volcano for a night, and I had absolutely no idea what it looked like.

When I saw it the first thing I said was, “It’s a freaking birdhouse.” It honestly was the exact same shape as a bird house. Not that that changed the fact that I went in and took a nap.

The next day we left Volcano National Park and went north. My uncle’s brother owned several cabins that he rented in Honoka’a. The cabins are on cliffs overlooking the ocean with an orchard right next to them so we had amazing views and all the fresh fruit we wanted.

We stayed for four days and went to a few places. First we hiked down a mile long road to a beach. With my cough walking was bad enough, but what made it even worse was that the road was at a 25% grade.  At the bottom the beach wasn’t all that exciting, just a sandy strip with sticks everywhere. From the beach we could see up the cliffs that the houses are situated on top of. Since this part of the island had been getting an abnormal amount of rain there were waterfalls cascading down the cliffs that looked amazing. Then we walked back up. When we reached the top I was panting and coughing like crazy. We went into town because we needed food, and on the way there we passed a shave ice stand. I got a snow cone the size of a small baby’s head, which made things a little better. 

A few days later we did another hike to another beach.  It was a trail instead of a road this time, but that didn’t make it any easier.  At the bottom we sat on the beach and looked out at the horizon. All of a sudden we saw whales breaching miles out in the water. We saw about seven jumps before they settled down. We walked back with my mom buzzing because she had always wanted to see whales.

Next we went to Waimea and stayed in a bed and breakfast for four more nights. While we were there we visited several beaches on the Gold Coast. At three of them we snorkeled and saw some amazing things. Out of all the fish we saw I had a few favorites. There was a fish that was about two feet long but only as thick as my thumb. There was another that was covered in about five different colors, seemingly spaced at random, that looked like a little like a kindergarten art project (or mine).  There were also schools of about a hundred tiny yellow fish that would swarm around eating things off the coral.

Originally we were supposed to fly out on the 11^th but our flight was delayed until 10 at night and eventually canceled. We stayed in a hotel for the night and flew into San Diego the next day. Now we are staying on a forty foot yacht in a marina before we go to Whistler.