ResQgeek

I just realized that I've been home from France for a month, so it's probably time to finish writing about the trip, before I completely forget all the details. I'm going to try to summarize a week in this single post, mostly because I doubt there's much value in a day-by-day account of our skiing. Instead, I'll try to cover the highlights.

• Weather - While we did have several beautiful, sunny days, the temperatures on those days were well above freezing, which led to less than ideal snow conditions. It also meant that we were overdressed and soaking in sweat by the end of the day.  However, the early part of the week featured a full-blown blizzard, with very limited visibility, lots of fresh snow, and ugly winds.  At one point, my wife and I were stranded on a chair lift for about 15-20 minutes when the high winds forced them to shut it down.  My best guess is that the winds were gusting above 50 mph as we bounced around on that chair like a piñata at a toddler's birthday party. That was, no question, the scariest chair lift ride of my life.

•  Food - One of the reasons I enjoy ski trips to Europe is the food. Our package included dinner each night in the hotel restaurant each evening, and we sat as a group, sharing stories over five courses of simply amazing French food, accompanied by plentiful local wine (Côtes du Rhône), both red and white. If I hadn't been getting such a workout each day on the mountain, I'm sure I would have gained several pounds!

• Scenery - The other big reason to ski in Europe is the scenery. While you can argue pretty persuasively that the snow conditions in Colorado or Utah are normally far superior to those anywhere else in the world, the Alps possess a dramatic beauty that the mountains here simply cannot match. On the days when the sun was out, it was impossible not to stop frequently just to soak in the views. I took a lot of photos, only a few of which actually do justice to the beauty that surrounded us.

 

• The location - The town of Alpe d'Huez is remarkably small, considering the size of the ski area that it serves. it is also pretty remote, at the top of a long, steep road that includes 21 hairpin switchbacks (famous in bicycle racing circles for the leg of the Tour de France that climbs it). We really didn't explore the town while we were there, focusing instead on skiing during the day, and socializing at our hotel in the evenings.  The ski area is actually a number of small ski areas that interconnect and operate on a single ski pass system that tracks the usage of the various lifts in some form of revenue sharing. Unlike the corporate environment that dominates ski areas in the US, where everything on the mountain is owned by the corporation that runs the resort, here the various restaurants and bars on the mountain were independently owned. The resulting competition meant that the prices for food and drinks on the mountain were surprisingly affordable by comparison to what we've become accustomed to seeing in the US.

• Final thoughts - It had been more than a decade since we last visited Europe, and this trip was a reminder of how very much we enjoyed our earlier visits there. I have heard people argue that there is too much to see and do in the US, so that the cost and effort of travelling to Europe doesn't make sense. While I agree that there are plenty of great places to travel to in the US, I strongly disagree that this should be an excuse not to visit Europe. I love the experience of visiting countries with much deeper histories, as well as different languages and cultures, from what I can experience here. This trip has reminded me of the value of foreign travel, and I fully intend to do as much travelling as I can, both foreign and domestic.

After returning to the hotel after our day of exploring the region, we agreed on a restaurant for dinner, based on recommendations from our tour guide and from the hotel staff. We had a little time before the restaurant opened, so we went up to our room to relax for a bit, and met everyone in the lobby when it was time to walk to dinner.

The restaurant we had chosen had both a prix fixe menu and a la carte pricing. I opted for an a la carte pasta dish that was absolutely delicious. The restaurant was mostly empty when we arrived, since we were there almost as soon as they opened, but by the time we finished our meal, it was crowded, and the bar area had gotten quite noisy. After a leisurely dinner, accompanied by a couple of bottles of wine, we headed back out into the streets.

One of the sights I wanted to see in Avignon was the famous Pont d'Avignon, the remains of a medieval bridge that once spanned the Rhone. I had seen photos of it at night and knew that it was spectacularly lit, so my wife and I set out around the city wall and along the river to the bridge. And we weren't disappointed. Not only was the bridge absolutely stunning in the lights, but the river was mirror smooth and we were, quite literally, the only people out there. I spent twenty minutes or so taking photos of the bridge from various angles, trying to get a perfect photo. But the best of the bunch turned out to be the last one, taken almost as an afterthought as we were about to walk away. I simply turned back to the bridge, framed the view, and snapped the shot.



We then strolled back along the river and around the city wall, back to our hotel for the night.

When I began our trip to France, I had every intention of posting regularly during the trip, to record my thoughts and impressions while they were fresh. That fell by the wayside on the very first day, and while I did manage to post regularly on Facebook, I wasn't able to find (or make) the time to write any more detailed descriptions. Nevertheless, I do want to share more about the trip, so in the category of "better late than never", I'm going to do my best to remember what I wanted to share from the trip.

After arriving late in Frankfurt, we found that we had, indeed, missed our connecting flight onward to Marseilles, as expected. United and Lufthansa rebooked us on a later flight without any issues, but that left us with a long layover. We were all pretty tired from our long, overnight flight from Washington, and so, after getting some food (using the vouchers provided by Lufthansa), we eventually just camped out at our departure gate, with many of us taking naps.

When we were re-booked, the six people in our group were seated in the same row on our Airbus 319 aircraft, three on either side of the aisle. There was some discussion as to who wanted window seats vs. who wanted aisle seats, and somehow I got the impression that I wasn't going to have a window seat, so I packed my camera into my bag for storage in the overhead bin.

When it finally came time to board our flight, we learned that our gate didn't board directly to the aircraft. Instead, we were loaded onto a shuttle bus that seemed to drive us all the way around the terminal before pulling alongside the plane on the tarmac. We climbed the stairs onto the plane, and somehow, I found myself in a window seat. After boarding was complete, we taxied out to the furthest runway for takeoff. Seriously, it almost felt like we were going to drive from Frankfurt to Marseilles!

After takeoff, we climbed back through the clouds, so I didn't get to see any of the mountains as we flew over them. Only as we began our descent into Marseilles did I finally get to see some of the countryside. By now it was late afternoon, and the low angle sunlight was casting a beautiful glow over the landscape below me. And then, suddenly, I saw the Pont du Gard, the Roman aqueduct over the Gardon River, glowing in the afternoon light in the valley below. Now I was mentally kicking myself for not keeping my camera out, because I could have captured some really beautiful aerial shots of the bridge. It wasn't until after it was far behind us that it occurred to me that I could have used my phone.

Soon afterwards, we passed over the city of Marseilles and flew out over the Mediterranean. The plane banked to the left as we circled over the bay, lining up with the runway, and those of us on the left side of the aircraft were treated to a beautiful view of the city. This time, I used the phone to snap a shot:



After landing, we made our way through immigration and claimed our luggage and set out to find our transportation to Avignon. By the time we found the bus and got our luggage loaded, it was dark, and so we didn't get to see any of the French countryside as we drove to our hotel, just outside the city walls in Avignon. Arriving about eight hours later than we planned, we checked in, grabbed a light supper in the hotel restaurant, and called it a night. Sightseeing would have to wait until morning.

I'm sitting at Gate C3 at Dulles Airport, waiting to board our flight, which was originally scheduled to depart about an hour ago. Apparently, there's an ongoing maintenance issue with our aircraft, so I really can't complain...I want a fully functional aircraft before we leave. But we only had a 90 minute connection, so we're going to miss our second leg. C'est la vie.

It has taken far longer than it probably should have for me to learn to not to stress out in these situations. And really, it isn't the delay that annoys me, so much as the dearth of meaningful information from the airline. The gate agent is trying to be helpful, but she doesn't know any more than we do, and she's trying to give us an estimate for our departure time, but she's just guessing, really.

Oh well. There is nothing I can about it, so I'm trying to just chill. We're currently hoping to begin boarding in about 30 minutes. It will happen when it happens.

Sarasota, Florida is, almost literally, a town built by the circus. This was the town where John Ringling (of Ringling Brothers fame) and his wife, Mabel, decided to build their dream home, a palatial mansion in a baroque Venetian design.  John and Mabel were also avid art collectors, and after John's death, his mansion and art collection were bequeathed to the state of Florida.  Today, Ringling Museum is a world-class art museum on the grounds of Ca' d'Zan, their gorgeous mansion.  The grounds also include Mabel's rose garden, and a Circus museum.

We started our vision with a guided tour of the mansion.  Not only did our guide describe much of this beautiful home, but she also helped us get to know the couple who built it.  They were interesting people, who had fascinating lives.  Walking through the building, it was easy to imagine the parties that were hosted here in the 1920s.  The mansion also is sufficiently authentic to its Venetian inspiration to remind us of our own visit to that amazing city.

We then visited the circus museum, where we had the opportunity to see the customized pullman railcar John and Mable used when travelling on circus business.  We also learned a lot about the history of the circus in America as well as the intricate logistics involved in bringing the circus from town-to-town during the heyday of the big top.

Finally, after we finished with the circus museum, we took a stroll through the Ringling Art Museum.  The size and quality of the collection is incredible.  From the giant Rubens in the very first room, to the sculptures in the courtyard, everywhere you turn, there is something amazing to look at.  We didn't have nearly enough time to truly appreciate the entirety of this collection.

The entire venue is a lasting tribute to the man who was raised on a mid-western farm, but dreamed of running a circus.  He found success, and left an incredible legacy for his adopted hometown.

After driving up and down I-95 through Georgia many times without getting off and visiting Savannah, we decided to take a day to check out this city.  I had heard that it was a lovely city, and I wasn't disappointed.  We decided to do a trolley (i.e., bus) tour of the city that allowed us to get on and off as much as we wanted.  After a 90 minute tour of the city, we set off on foot to explore in more detail. I found the city utterly charming, with it numerous squares filled with huge oak trees covered with spanish moss. It was a really pleasant day, though it was just enough to convince me that we will need to come back and make this a destination by itself.

The highlight of the day was lunch.  I was looking forward to some good low country food. We ended up eating at a restaurant on the waterfront, where I decided to try their pine bark stew. The creamy stew of shrimp, crab, oysters, fish, and potatoes was fabulously yummy.  And, surprisingly, given where we were, it was even reasonably priced.

By the time we finished wandering around the city and made our way back to our car, it was too late to visit the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum, which I've wanted to visit for some time now.  So, one more reason to come back.  I'm thinking we might try at to use our time share points to book a stay at Hilton Head island, which is close enough to use a base to explore Savannah and its surroundings.

After our snowmobile adventure last night, no one seemed to be any particular hurry to hit the slopes this morning, so we got off to what was, for us, a late start.  By the time we got up the mountain, it was probably about 10am before we made our first run.  The upper portions of the resort were shrouded in clouds for much of the day, so we did a lot of skiing in the trees, where the visibility was better.  We also spent a lot of time working on our mogul skiing skills...my daughter has decided that she is a ski instructor and is determined to make a marked improvement in this, my worst ski skill.  I was getting frustrated because I would string together a set of nice looking turns and then would struggle to do anything right for the rest of the run.  I know I am getting better, but the progress is uneven and anything but steady, so I find myself getting impatient.

We ran into a several members of the Pentagon Ski Club here today.  It has been a while, but we used to travel with this club, and they have a group here for the week.  It was nice to see some friendly faces, and we found out that they are going out to dinner tomorrow night.  I sent an e-mail to the trip leader to check on the details, and it looks like we'll be joining them for dinner tomorrow.  It will be fun to catch up with those members we know from our earlier trips witht the club.

Late last fall, we received a letter from People to People Ambassador Programs, inviting our older daughter to travel with the group to London and Paris as a student ambassador. We'd never heard of the organization, so we were initially a bit skeptical. However, our research revealed that this was a legitimate organization, founded by President Eisenhower (among others) to promote peace by allowing ordinary people from different countries to meet each other and learn about other cultures. We decided to investigate this opportunity further.

And so, early this year we attended an information session, and our daughter applied for the trip. After collecting letters of recommendation and being interviewed by the trip leader, she was selected to be one of the forty students on the trip in July. We paid for the trip with a credit card, but after considering the expense, we encouraged our daughter to try her hand at fundraising to cover some of the trip costs.

I believe it was her piano teacher who suggested the idea of selling cookies. Our daughter enjoys baking, and had a history of success with selling Girl Scout cookies, making it an idea with potential. We formed a tentative plan before we traveled to Colorado for a week of skiing, with the idea that we would figure out how to implement it when we returned.

The week we returned from the ski trip, winter arrived on the East Coast with a vengeance. A series of snow storms began to pummel the region, culminating in a record-breaking pair of blizzards in the middle of February. In the midst of this, old friends of mine arrived for a brief visit, and they embraced our cookie baking scheme with gusto, helping us turn our outlined plan into a reality, helping bake test batches of cookies and encouraging the initial efforts to publicize our cause.

Our initial target was Valentine's Day. We were making over-sized, heart-shaped cookies, hoping people might be interested in giving them out as Valentine's Day treats. We were almost overwhelmed with the response. Even though Valentine's Day came during the midst of some of the worst winter weather on record for this area, we managed to make and deliver about 100 cookies, raising nearly $800 in the process.

After that initial success, we followed up with shamrock-shaped cookies for St. Patrick's Day and Easter Egg cookies for Easter. While neither of these generated the huge response we had for Valentine's Day, each did generate cookie sales and increased the success of the fundraising effort. Along the way, people started making special requests: One neighbor was hosting a charity jewelry sale and asked if we could do a cookie for that party. The result was a cookie in the shape of a ring, complete with a gemstone. We've also had requests for dozens of more conventional sized cookies for various parties and meetings. We are now receiving orders for cookies for Father's Day, and it looks like this final push might bring in another sizable chunk of cash.

Our mechanic, in addition to buying several cookies, also offered our daughter an additional fundraising option: His service station sells a service coupon card that includes a number of discounts on common auto maintenance services. The cards sell for $49.95, and he offered to give her $25 for every card she sold for him. While she hasn't sold a large number of these, it has still contributed a couple of hundred dollars to the overall effort. To date, she has raised over $2,000!

We've now finished all the preparatory meetings for the trip, and the students have completed their community service project (they held a bake sale last Saturday to raise money for a animal rescue foundation). They will be heading to Dulles Airport in two groups over the next couple of weeks, for tours of the facilities, so they know what to expect at the security screenings and so forth. Then, at the end of the month, we will have a big "bon voyage" party for them, and they will be off for two weeks in England and France.

Our daughter is getting excited about the trip, and doesn't seem overly nervous about traveling without us. Her itinerary suggests that she's going to be pretty busy for two weeks, and includes some things that have me wishing I could join her on the trip (they'll be seeing a play in London's Theatre District, spending a day touring the beaches in Normandy, visiting Versailles and the Louvre, among other things). They will also be spending an afternoon with some Members of Parliament in London, learning about the UK's government and comparing it to our own.

It has been a busy spring, piling trip preparations and fundraising on top of our already busy schedule, but the experience of traveling to two of the great cities of Europe shortly after her twelfth birthday should be well worth the effort. I also think there have been valuable lessons learned along the way, about time management as we worked to fit everything into the schedule; about inter-personal skills as she dealt with people in her fundraising efforts; about organization in the record keeping required to track the progress of those fundraising efforts.

When we first opened that letter, a little more than half a year ago, I don't think we expected this to become such an all encompassing part of our lives, but the rewards seem to be paying off as our daughter has developed a great deal of additional self confidence and maturity. I can't wait to see what impact the actual trip will have on her.

I should be thinking about calling it a night, but I'm sitting here on my work laptop, remotely logged into my work computer, waiting for a software update to upload from the office. So, I'm tied to a computer for a while, with the TV making noise in the background.

We've been back in town for a full week now, and I've been a bit remiss in providing updates on the rest of the trip. After our final, chilly day of skiing, we spent the evening packing our things and generally relaxing. I set the alarm clock, and we got an early start the next morning. After a quick breakfast, and a quick cleaning of our condo, we hit the road. After a completely uneventful border crossing back to the US, we drove across the beautiful North Country of New York. These were my old stomping grounds in college, and it was a fun trip down memory lane.

We arrived at my parents' in time to have supper and stayed up with them to celbrate the New Year. We then spent two relaxing days with my parents before we returned home. I think we've settled back into our routines, though it feels a bit like we're in a holding pattern, since we're scheduled to head out to Colorado for more skiing later this month.