Day 3: Goodbyes

I woke up and saw the west Texas that I had been missing the entire time the day before. Bright beautiful blue skies awoke me as I hit to road after my very sparse continental breakfast.

I quickly made it to El Paso and decided to go to this giant Texas shop that I had seen along the way on billboards. Boots! Pottery! Saddles! Jewelry! The place seemed to have everything, so I did the tourist thing and stopped in and did some shopping. I didn’t get anything, but it was fun seeing all the Texas/cowboy paraphernalia.

I then grabbed some gas, breakfast tacos, and my first of 6 chai tea lattes for the day and got back in the car.

El Paso is only 20+ miles from the New Mexico border and as I drove closer to it I still didn’t feel anything about leaving Texas. No euphoric moment, no overwhelming feeling of anticipation or joy. Nothing that I had imagined many times over the coarse of 7 years of wanting to leave the state.

At the stateline I pulled over to take a picture for Facebook to mark my crossing and take one last look at my previous home state. I took two shots: one of the past and one moving forward. Then I got back in the car and put away the Texas map and pulled out the New Mexico one.

In a flash the tears were there and as quickly as then came they were over in a span of 30 seconds and I pulled back on the freeway. That was it. When I thought to myself, well that was fast. I concluded that perhaps it was the fact that I had been saying goodbye since I had known about the job back in September. I had left Houston on a high note; I had achieved my goal of what I considered ‘making it’ in my field. I had done the thermal analysis for each of the truss pieces and watched them be installed. I had done academic theoretical work and started a paper to be published on free-molecular heating. I had spent the last 2 years being mentored by a Technical Fellow and had done design work for the new Docking system that all future vehicles would use to dock to the ISS. I had a fun group of friends, a lovely apartment in the hot part of town, I had grown in my rock climbing skills, gotten to do several memorable trips outside the country, and I had earned my master’s at a top ten university. I had made it in Houston. There was nothing left to cry about at that moment.

There of course had been Gareth to deal with. When I told him the news about my promotion and relocation, he had been extremely surprised and countered that he too had gotten a job in Seattle. That of course turned out to be untrue. Which is for the best. I said goodbye to him personally and closed that part of my life before I left for Christmas. That was the hardest goodbye, to say farewell to who you love and the one person who had disappointed you the most.

After the border crossing I put Condie back on and continued to hear about her college experience, getting her PhD, her accent into politics and her exciting experience in the cold war under the Regan and Bush administrations. Texas faded into the background of the past. The book ended just about as I got to Socorro and my 3^rd chai tea latte.

The New Mexico slogan, “The Land of Enchantment”, is perfect for the dry dessert land than transitions from the high Mesas of Texas into the Rocky Mountains. The journey from Las Cruces to Taos, New Mexico is incredibly beautiful and one of my favorite drives. I felt lucky to get to do this stretch of highway one more time. I passed the gas station that sells locally made beautiful Native American pottery and makes a great green chili sauce in the adjoining café. The rally ‘scort enjoyed finally getting to spread its legs and get to drive its favorite speeds of above 85mph. The drive was fast as the weather kept up although the clouds and wind started to pick up. The escort actually drives better when loaded up. The weight keeps the car from being blown sideways from the high winds that characteristically blow across the high plains.

As I reached Albuquerque, I was excited for the final few hours of the drive since that was when you really start to see the mountains rise in the distance and it meant my first ski destination was close. The weather finally gave in and a light snow started to fall and coat the surrounding desert shrubs and cacti. Triina and I called each other every half hour for status updates since we were super excited to see each other. The snow really started to fall for the final 36 winding miles along the Rio Grande through the mountains to Taos. My single music CD (Vampire Weekend’s new album ‘Contra’) chilled it out comfortably as the rally ‘scort remembered its snow driving skills.

Triina, Matt (her bf), and I celebrated my arrival in town at Orlando’s, with a dinner of enchiladas and green chili; the perfect welcome to New Mexico meal.

Day 2: Before the Devil Knows You’re Gone

I was glad I had spent the additional night in Houston, as I awoke the next day feeling much more awake and ready for longest driving leg of my trip. Texas is enormous and it takes the greater part of any given day to get out of it, no matter where you are in the state and I was going essentially the width of the state; Houston to El Paso.

As I drove away from Houston, I thought I would feel something about leaving. In my mind I had pictured some sort of moment to happen as I watched the 4^th largest metropolis fade from view in my rearview mirror. There is however, no distinct ‘you are now officially out of Houston’ location. The vast sprawl of the city goes on and on and the outer suburbs are no longer separate entities, but simply a continuation of the city’s giant amoeba footprint.

That and my stomach was hungry and wanted something quick but not fast food. I found the perfect Panera Bread solution. They make these great ham and swiss puff-pastry-soufflés that are really delicious and pretty inexpensive (it’s a long 18 days, budgetary concerns) and my first Chai Tea Latte (one of many for the day).

By 9am I was back on the road and listening to the last broadcast of the Rod Ryan show on 94.5 the Buzz, my usual drive to work radio show and the last good music I would hear for a while.

Earlier in Dec, I had gotten a feeling that Murphy would show up on my trip and that I was going to get a speeding ticket (because, that would be just like Texas, to give me one more going away gift), so I got a radar detector to help prevent this. I had always joked that in Texas there were only two seasons, Hell and Canadian summer, and that clearly it was the devil himself who was in charge of keeping me in Houston for so long, (which is why I needed to get out of the state as fast as possible; before he realized I was gone). The self fulfilling prophecy occurred before I had even reached San Antonio (laser, nothing the radar detector could have done). The officer ironically looked exactly like he was from the movie, ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou’ the head officer that had been after the main characters and was the devil symbolism in the movie. Clearly, I had not driven fast or quite enough for him to not realize I was leaving. The devil had gotten me one last time.

The bad weather and the poor time I was making on the road did nothing to dampen my spirits as I became completely engrossed in the story. If you have not heard of or read this book, I highly suggest you do. It is hands down the best personal narrative I had read since, ‘Three Cups of Tea’ by Greg Mortenson.After that point the driving became slower as the overcast clouds let out the rain they had been storing and my radio station faded. I had replaced the stereo because I knew there was no good music on the road. I even set aside a specific collection of CDs purposefully for the roadtrip, which of course the movers packed while I had been busy making sure they didn’t pack my roommates belongings in the other room. So I had nothing but a single CD. I stopped in San Antonio for lunch, books on CD, and another Chai Tea Latte.

A few months back, I had seen on the Daily Show, Condoleezza Rice promoting her book, “Extraordinary, Ordinary People”, the memoir of her life growing up with her parents. I am Not a republican, but I do like to hear stories of successful women and how they got to where they were. Whether you support her politics or not, she has had an amazing career. I made a mental note to keep her book in mind. At Borders, when I saw her audio book, I knew it was the one. 9 hours and 7 CDs. Perfect for a roadtrip.

West Texas passed by me as Condoleezza read to me about her experience in growing up in Birmingham, Alabama during the 60s. She talks of her middle class black community and her educator parents who were also involved in the church (her dad was a Presbyterian preacher). She talks of what it was like to have the Civil Rights movement in your backyard and how scary that time was. You also learn about her education, her extended family, her love of ice skating, and how she became a concert pianist. Ms Rice’s story is exactly as the title says, extraordinary.

I was almost sad when it was finally 8pm and I had to find a hotel in Van Horn, 100+ miles shy from my original end point of Las Cruces, NM. The weather had simply put me too far behind to make it out of Texas, but at least I had had good company with Condie.

Day 1: Everybody needs a hero

Murphy's Law clearly states that,

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

This is especially rings true to anyone who has had any significant travel experience. . . . .

So the day before I am supposed to leave for the holidays (and incidentally, my final day of work in Houston), the 'check engine' light comes on in my ancient '99 Ford Escort (affectionately named, Mr. Toad or referred to as The Rally 'scort). I immediately suspect the loose positive connection on my car battery, since the day before I had been installing a new car stereo and didn't have the right tool to put it back on correctly. It was somewhat haphazardly placed back on and my intention was to get a much needed oil change and have the local grease monkeys tighten it for me.

I casually mentioned the offending warning light to the PTCS resident car-expert/co-worker Andres, just to see if that potentially could be the cause. Lucky for me that I did mention this important piece of information as Andres (who of course has the perfect tool) was able to do a computer scan diagnosis of my vehicle.

The results weren't pretty: 1 completely dead O2 sensor and an erratically behaving/soon to fail 2nd O2 sensor. Two dead O2 sensors = immediate roadside failure, which is something I was definitely hoping to avoid at all costs. This was in addition to the squeaky steering belt that I was hoping would be fine till some later TBD maintenance plan. The future start date of my road trip now looked to be in question as I tried to chew this piece of information and think about where/how I could get all this work done over the holidays (especially since the garage I had been going to turned out to have been doing shady, sloppy work, so I was not eager to patronize their business).

There was much distress in my mind until Andres becomes the hero of the trip even before it began! He offered to fix my car the day I fly back from Detroit after he gets back into town himself from McAllen, TX. This is not a small sacrifice as McAllen is 6+ hours away and he would still have to go to the store and pick up parts, etc at 6-7pm and then still work on the car for a few hours. A very long day indeed.

At that moment, I had a 'maybe I will miss texas' pang as I felt very lucky and fortunate that I had such a good friend who would be willing to help me out and make sure my car was going to make it on its long journey.

On the day of, true to his word, Andres had my car all patched up and ready to ride by 10pm. No large complications arose and he pointed out to me a few other items he noticed while working on Mr. Toad that would need attention sometime in the near future, but would not jeopardize the current trip. I was super grateful for all his help and I wondered where I would find another car guy once in Seattle who was as great as Andres?

Then Andres reminded me he was on IM at work and was still cool with dispensing advice (even though I was no longer his team member).

Since it was so late, and I had been exhausted by all my moving/school finals/holiday travel plans that I decided it was best to sleep one more night in Houston before I rode off into the sun set.

Day 1 Hero of the Day: Andres.

Farewell to Texas Epic Ski Tour

Everything in texas is big. The steaks are big, the people are big, the wide open ranges are big. As I hang up my cowboy boots for the last time in this state, I've decided that clearly, my exit should be big as well. So in true texas form, I'd like to invite all y'all to my (Big) Farewell to Texas Epic Ski Tour.

I am looking for friends, romans, and countrymen to join me in my cross-country epic quest to say farewell to the places that sustained me during my 7 years of painful, snow-less exile in texas; Taos and Telluride. And rejoice in my triumphant yet humble return to the land of the living in Seattle via Park City, Jackson Hole, Grand Targhee, and Big Sky.

The Plan. . . . . .

Dec 27/28 - Days 1-2: Drive from houston and Taos Ski Valley (~16 hours or less. Since I am escaping texas, I will be driving as fast as possible before the devil knows I am gone)

Dec 29/30/31 - Day 3-5: Ski Taos (my beloved adopted 'hometown' ski hill as well as my sister Triina's new workplace)

Jan 1 - Day 6: Drive to Telluride (~6 hours not including a stop at the hot spring or an ice climb in Ouray!) and pick a special guest skier

Jan 2 - Day 7: Ski in Telluride and Celebrate New Year's Eve (Telluride is a place I fell in love with when I did a ski trip with Gareth, its Triina's former stomping grounds, and home to several chill people. Found a place to crash in town and new powder skis to pick-up)

Jan 3 - Day 8: Drive to Salt Lake City/Park City (~7.5 hour drive, road trippy day with stops at scenic and kitchy tourist wonders)

Jan 4 - Day 9: Ski at TBD-Alta? ski area in Salt Lake City/Park City (Start the new year with something new. I've never been here, any suggestions?)

Jan 5 - Day 10: Ski at TBD-Snowbird? ski area in Salt Lake City/Park City (A different suggestion?)

Jan 6 - Day 11: Ski at TBD-Snowbird? ski area in Salt Lake City/Park City (A different suggestion?

Jan 7 - Day 12: Drive to Jackson Hole (~5 hours + hot springs? 'Cause you know I love me some hot springs!)

Jan 8 - Day 13: Ski Jackson Hole!!! (I have been waiting my whole life to come here!!!! Ever since I first vacationed there in the summer with my family when I was like 12 it was my dream to come back and ski. . . . .)

Jan 9 - Day 14: Ski Jackson Hole!!! Clearly this place is so awesome that you need a second day!

Jan 10 - Day 15: Drive to Grand Targhee and Ski (~1 hour drive to G.T., I think we can make it. . . . )

Jan 11 - Day 16: Drive to Big Sky and Ski (~3.5 hour drive to MT, we may actually drive here the night before so we can just sleep in)

Jan 12 - Day 17: Drive to Seattle (take a left from the mountains, drive straight on till Seattle ~12 hours)

Jan 13 - Day 18: Contingency day (Because at NASA we're nerds and every good plan needs one extra day just because. Ex: What if it snows and we need an extra day to ski?)

If you 'd like to do the entire road trip or just show up for a part of it, that's cool. I can either meet you at a resort or pick you up/drop you off in Albuquerque, Telluride, Grand Junction, Salt Lake City, Jackson Hole, or Seattle (clearly only on the days that its on my way).

This is more than just a ski trip. Its a celebration of life, new beginnings, and freedom to rip it up. (At some point we may need to fight for our right to party, but that all depends on how old school we decided to kick it)

It's going to be a heck of a ride, so saddle up companeros!

~Anne

I Heart Vancouver (Final Olympic Blog)

There is something strangely true about the Olympics being able to bring together the

world that you really have to be there to experience. ‘Bringing the World Together’

seems like a cliché they say on TV to play on your emotions. But out at the Olympics its not; and its almost so weird that you don’t believe it. What I mean by the world coming together isn’t one particular thing. It’s more than the athletes competing for medals or the fans sitting together or everyone on getting along on the street. It’s a moment. The Olympicsis like that, its a pause in real life that is an extended moment that lasts 2 weeks. The best part of the trip for me wasn’t the events, the condo, the food, or the parties. It was the collection of moments that I got to experience from those medians of interaction. The best part was simply People.

It was all the people that I met while standing in line (which sometimes long lines

were inevitable), that helped pass the time while you waited to get into the pavilions or to see the Olympic flame. It was the excitement of being there and a genuine interest of where are you from? What have you seen? What have you thought of the events? Of Vancouver? Of Canada?

It was the Czech fans from Vancouver who recommended a float plan trip while we chatted on a bus ride back from Whistler that led to Dina and I having a great fly

around the city.

It was the woman who put my gloves on the counter in the ladies washroom so I

would find them after I left them in there, and then the other lady who pointed them out to me as I waited in line to re-track my steps back to the stall.

It was the two young girls who noticed that I dropped a victory ceremony ticket out of

my pocket as I got out a map, who ran down the street to give it back to me.

It was the group of Vancouver kids I got to party with who got down on the dance floor to kick it to an awesome Ska band at Saskatchewan house.

It was the group of kids who were wild about NASA and wanted to trade their Olympic pins for my nerdy Shuttle and Station pins.

It was the warmth of the condo rental people who were so excited for us to be visiting

.It was the curling fans who shared their sports knowledge with Dina and I.

It was the Finns, Swiss, and Quebec people who rocked it out at the dance party ove

r at the Swiss house (I now have a new friend in Helsinki who has a couch to stay on).

It was the locals we stood in line with waiting to get beer as we contributed to the

need to fly in 300 more barrels of beer as they almost ran out a week early at the German House.

It was the people handing out free coffee and hot chocolate at the bus lines to warm us up before we took off for the mountains.

It was 25,000 volunteers from around the world in the turquoise-blue coats who made these and the Para-Olympic games possible. Thank you!

It was the Belarusian kid from California who was flying back home at the airport bar who shared all his crazy times.

It was the people in the streets we met running around and cheering for the Canadian wins with their flag capes, high fives, and Go Canada excitement.

It was the guys wearing Canadian flags giving the USA fans wearing the American flag a hug on the streets after the USA vs Canada gold medal game.

It was the fans cheering for a great run at the ladies freestyle moguls or the half-pipe. Nationality didn’t matter, only the performance in excellence did.

Everyone wanted to share your experience and feel the moment too. The power of the world brought together as one is something that is real. I heart Vancouver for its spirit and most of all, its people. That was one heck of an Olympic Games, one amazing party, and I’m so glad I went. Way to go Canada!

Victory Ceremonies

One of the most moving parts of the Olympics was going to the Victory Ceremonies that they hold every night. They have two separate ceremonies one in Vancouver and one in Whistler that they hold at the same time and then patch together with TV so that both ceremony locations get to watch each other's presentation of medals. Dina and I went to two different Victory Ceremonies.

Each VC has a a different theme that was a specific province. Before the medals were presented and people were being seated, they had various entertainers from the province like dancers and drummers. They all had great costumes and put on a really splendid show. Most of the crowd was pretty indifferent since the main reason we were was not to be entertained. We were all there to stand proud and honor the athletes who had triumphed to the highest level of their sport that day.

The house favorites were clearly the canadian athletes and

the crowd was more than prepared

to sing along when 'O Canada' was being played. The entire stadium singing together in unison was so incredibly cool, I got chills from it. Maybe a few tears too. When the American anthem was sung, I sang along too, although more quietly, since it was more like a solo (not a lot of Team USA choir members out there). Getting to see the happiness on the athletes faces and the pride on the fans faces was so moving.

After the medals, they had a small concert that featured a bigger named singer. The first night we got to see Nelly Fertado, the second one was a country singer whom I'm not familiar with. This portion of the VC was kinda lame. The stage was pretty far away and only the VIP guests got to dance in front of the stage. Most people were not impressed and the crowd pretty much emptied out of the stadium after that. Dina and felt it was kinda lame and left early as well. Whistler for sure seemed to have the better VC, that one was outside and had everyone as part of the crowd and it seemed like a big party. Ski town are like that. We weren't too disappointed though, we had come for the medals and and emotion.

The Olympic Flame

There was a lot in the news about the Olympic Flame. About how during the Opening Ceremony the 4th leg didn't go up, how the real one was behind an ugly chain-link fence, only VIPs were allowed in the area immediately near it, it was elitist, the fence was far away from the flame, etc. I guess the idea behind the fence was that it was there to keep out protesters, terrorists, and everyday hooligans. Unfortunately, it also then kept out The People and the People were not happy. It was a sore spot for the city and they were struggling to fix the problem. First, they moved the fence a lot closer to the flame. Second made a small gap in the fence so that people could at least take a picture without the fencing.

Then they opened up a rooftop viewing platform so that you could get a picture with it and not have the fence in it at all. Finally they replaced the lower level of the fence with plexiglass, so that the kids could see and you could get a good picture without having to stand in line for the rooftop view.

Dina and I waited till they had the platform up and running to go see the flame and we were lucky once again that when we got there it was an acceptable wait time of half and hour (at various times during the week, it was said some people had to wait up to 2 hours). It was definitely worth the wait! The Olympic flame was just beautiful!

The View from Above

When you are going back and forth on buses to venues, you get to meet all sorts of interesting people from all over the place. I met a group of Czech-Canadian locals who on the bus back from Whistler who were great tour guides and pointed out islands and landmarks that we passed coming down from the mountains (the trip to and from Whistler is incredibly beautiful with mountains, fjords, and islands). They also gave us some tips on things to see and do while we were out and about the city. They highly recommended going up in one of the float planes that take off from Coal Harbor for an aerial tour of the city. Dina and I figured it was probably a long shot to try to get a seat on one of those tours, but figured one of the other afternoons if we got back early enough from an event we'd look into it.

I am so glad they recommended the planes! Dina and I got back from Cypress mountain on Saturday afternoon and the entire city of Vancouver was out and about enjoying the sunshine and the Olympic spirit that had infected just about everyone. It was incredibly crowded on the streets near the Olympic Flame and the Canada Place, so to escape Dina and I decided to go check out the waterfront. The float planes were right there so we hiked down to the small office that was on the dock next to the float planes. There were no crowds and no lines there so we figured we probably needed reservations, but thought we'd go ask for the availability of a small tour.

They had room on the very next flight and we only had to wait 10 minutes till it was time to board! We felt so lucky to have eluded the crowds and finally gotten to do some non-Olympic related sight-seeing. I was extra lucky and got to ride in the front seat of the airplane next to the pilot!

The views from above were amazing! Vancouver is such a beautiful city and the surrounding mountains and inlets compliment the glass skyscrapers. If you had those views you'd want to see it all the time too!

Foodies in Vancouver

Going to so to many Olympic events leaves you with very little time for the other very important activities that are going on in the city of Vancouver such as sight-seeing, shopping, eating, and partying. Dina and I had very little time in between our events, in fact we were so busy we had to have our entire schedule displayed on a color coded spreadsheet so we would go to the right place at the right time. The efficiency of our time was actually very impressive in itself. There were a few night we got back from our event at like 10pm, went straight to dinner, then had to get home around midnight to sleep so we could greet the sun at 5am in order to get on the next bus. It was pretty hectic. Luckily, Dina and I were both of the philosophy that you can sleep when you are dead (or on the bus). Dina was used to walking everywhere since he recently had been hiking the Pacific Crest trail, I was fine as long as I had gotten enough food in me.

The city of Vancouver has amazing food. They have a huge asian population from an array of countries, so the variety of traditional and fusion foods is phenomenal. Some people have argued that its the best in the world (even better than their country of origin). Dina and I had some of the greatest Thai food I've ever eaten while on our trip. On our first day in the city we ate at Charm Modern Thai in Yaletown (the hip section of town where all the good bars and urban are), they had a great lunch plate that included crispy prawn wantons and Tom Yum Soup with your entree at a great price. Later in the week we ate at Thai House in North Vancouver which was ranked in the restaurant magazine at the condo as the top rated traditional Thai food in Vancouver. I was told by locals that the Indian food in the city was equally fantastic.

Dina and I also ate at one sort of fancy place in Yaletown for lunch that was recommended to us by our hosts Ken and Nancy, Capones Restaurant and Live Jazz Club. The food here was just as fun to eat as it was to look at. Dina is a Salmon fanatic and had to have that dish while I had the Pan Seared Halibut with haricots verts, enoki cream, fresh herb oil, butter poached potato, and almond brittle, it was really filling and the beans were cooked just perfect I love a good blanched green bean!)

Gastown is another fun section of town that we walked through and shopped on the way back to the condo after an event. The historic old gas light section of the city has the original romantic old buildings and cobblestone streets. The shops are filled with the works of local artists and the crowd here is definitely more laid back. Dina and I ate at Pourhouse, the 1920s styled classy bar and restaurant. I had a great espresso braised beef shortrib that was served with purred carrots and browned sweet potatoes (notice this is the second restaurant to call things that are fried as 'crispy' or 'browned', it must be the new trend to pretend things aren't fried). This section of town was also where we found a huge collection of Olympic pins and clothing that didn't require us to go to the insanely busy Olympics superstore located inside the downtown Hudson Bay department store. The Bay was originally only open till 10pm, then midnight, and by the end of the week they had given up and decided to stay open 24 hours a day since at night the line outside the door was over an hour long.

When Dina and I got out of an event pretty late in the evening, the place we went to was the Yaletown Brewery. They have a large bar section as well as a huge restaurant section that has a full late night kitchen open. I usually don't go to the same place twice, but the timing and needing 'real food' instead of the frozen pizza and assorted fruit and granola bars we had at the condo had us go out there. They have a great potatoe wedge appetizer that had sourcream, onion dip mixed with very large bacon chunks. Mmmmmm, bacon. Dina said the locally brewed beer was pretty good as well.

Several times on the way back to the condo we got to walk through the city's Chinatown. This area had a beautiful chinese gate at the beginning of the area and a few blocks up there were lively chinese restaurants and markets as well as the street had the dual english/chinese character names on the signs. We ate at a place recommended by Yelp called Goldenstone Bakery and Restaurant. They had this great BBQ pork sweet bun that I had as we waited for our meal to arrive before we had out quickly for another event. Dina's rice noodle with veggies, chicken, and pineapple hit the spot before we had to run.

All of the Ethnic Houses and Pavillions had great food. Some of the food was pretty typical/not very exciting, but very delicious after you have been walking around and waiting in line to get in. Dina enjoyed the the brats while I ate a very decent blueberry strudel at the German fan house.

The best pavilion food I felt was at the Swiss House.

Instead of the usual tent, the Swiss had rented an actual restaurant on Granville Island called 'Bridges', so they had a leg up. We had a giant pot of Kasefondu (swiss cheese fondue) and crusty bread that I devoured the night we partied out there. It was so good! The Swiss know something about cheese!

If you are a serious foodie, you should definitely think about heading out to Vancouver. Dina and I didn't even begin to eat since we ate so much of the time at the venues, but the food we did get to try was worth the wait!

Day 10: Ladies Aerials

On Saturday the gorgeous sunny weather continued and we headed out for another day of enjoying the sun and warm weather at Cypress Mountain. We had general admission/standing room tickets for this event and were lucky that they weren't cancelled due to the warm conditions and the slushy snow. Some previous events held at Cypress Mountain had to have their general admission tickets cancelled due to the safety issues of deep slushy snow and possibly shifting hay bales, so we were quite fortunate.

Public Service Announcement: if you have a Baby, and you

choose to bring them and their enormous stroller, which will inevitably get stuck in the said foot deep slushy snow, and the baby will inevitably be surrounded by loud cheering fans with cowbells at the event, you are not not allowed to complain. Mountain events occur in the snow, not on the sidewalk outside your house. You are an idiot. Leave the Baby at home. Public Service Announcement is now over.

This day I decided to mix it up and have clam chowder with my sausage and o.j. for breakfast. The clam chowder was really quite good. I have actually been really impressed with the Olympic food fare at all the venues. Even though I have talked mainly about the junk food I had for breakfast, they did have healthy options at the venues such as bran and carrot muffins as wells as fresh fruit cups and fat-free yogurt. . . . I was the typical tourist and choose the fun food. . . . .With all the walking and dancing and the fact that it was vacation, I figured that calories don't count at the Olympics.

The Aerials is probably the least traditional Winter Olympic

event. While we waited for the jumping to start we learned a little about some of the history and the athletes. It's part of the freestyle skiing discipline like skiercross and moguls, where its not only about time, its more about getting big air and doing tricks. Most of the athletes in this particular portion aren't real skiers, they are ex-gymnasts, and a few of them don't even like winter (isn't it sacrilegious to be in the Winter Olympics and not like winter?!) I am completely amazed that people can possibly do multiple flips and rotations and land perfectly on the 25° slope, while wearing giant skis.

The ladies in this qualification round were all really solid. There were very few falls or even hand touches on the ground when they landed. Dina was very impressed, he had been a bit disappointed by all the falls in the halfpipe event, so he was happy to see clean runs and big scores. The Americans and Canadians aren't big leaders in this sport, so I had to find a new person to cheer for. My favorite turned out to be Alla Tsuper from the Ukraine but representing Belarus. I loved her for two reasons, first her name -it has the word 'Super' in it; how fun is that? And the second reason was that she lived up to the name, she was a super great jumper! She ended up receiving the top qualification score and was the leader going into the finals that are to be held a few day later (Dina and I were bummed it wasn't an all day event like snowboarding and moguls were, but I guess they need to spread out the wealth for the spectators).

The finals should be a great show to watch since everyone is jumping so strongly; hopefully the ladies keep up the confidence! Go Tsuper!