Last full day in Whistler

Last night we went out for the last supper with all six of us. Before dinner we did a little shopping. I found another bobsled in one of the shops. If I can't qualify for the US Snow Tubing Team, maybe I'll get picked up for bob sledding.

The Rockenbachs made reservations for us at Il Caminetta and we had an amazing Italian dinner. Here's a little peak at the menu.

Ken, Kristi and I

Kim, Micah and Bryan

This morning Kim, Micah and Bryan headed out early for their flight home. Ken hit the slopes for his last day of skiing and I went to snowshoe. The area was right across the street from where we are staying so after a short hike I was strapped into my snowshoes. It was a very fun route through the trees, up and down the hills.

This one's for Frank. My feet resting on a bench.

I hiked out to Lost Lake which was completely frozen over and beautiful. I just want to run out into the undisturbed snow...but fear of falling into frozen water kept me on the trail, for the most part.

Once I got back from snowshoeing, Kristi and I hit Whistler Village for a little more shopping. Here's a view of the village area. It was a great day, sunny but with snow flurries all day!

We just wrapped up our last dinner at the Irish Pub and have most of our stuff pack. It's been such a fun week, flying by so fast. We catch a ride back into Vancouver early tomorrow morning and get back into Dallas around 8pm. That is, unless some wonderful storm keeps me trapped here for another week. :)

Last Day for Skiing

Today was my last day to ski. I hit the mountain early but icy conditions convinced me to end by lunch. I turned in my skis and met the girls for lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in Whistler Village. It started raining/sleeting this afternoon so I was glad that I was already down from the mountain.

Riding up the lift

The sun coming up over the mountain

And by popular request (well, one request by Elsa), below you will see the place we are staying. The Rockenbachs have a timeshare at Club Intrawest. You can also check out Kristi's blog for more pictures from our trip! There is a link to it at the top on my page (Rockenbach, Texas).

And these are my new boots I got for the trip. I love love love them. They keep my toes all warm and cozy...and dry! I've got to come up with ways to incorporate them into my Dallas wardrobe. Oh, and my jeans look a little snug because I've got some layers on under them. It causes everything to bunch all up.

Here are some shots from last night's dinner at Sushi-Ya. Kim and I shared so warm saki and had some Kirin. Kristi sampled the saki but was not tempted to join us. You'll also see my yummy dinner below the drinks and Kristi and I toasting.

Tonight we're heading out for Italian. It's Micah, Kim and Bryan's last night. They fly home in the morning while the Rockenbachs and I are here thru Sunday. I think I'm going to check out snowshoeing tomorrow!

Back on the Slopes

After sleeping in a tad this morning, all six of us hit the slopes. We didn't get much new snow so it was a little icy again.

Left to right...Bryan, Kristi, Ken, Kim, and Micah.
Kristi cruising down the run

After lunch, Kristi, Kim and I took the peak to peak gondola from Blackcomb to Whistler and back. Peak 2 Peak is the longest unsupported lift span in the world!

There were a lot of low clouds out today so we kept going through them on the lifts and on the runs.

View of the Inukshuk on Whistler

Me immitating the Inukshuk

By the time we got done the sun was going down and the mountain looked beautiful. Well, I'm off to clean up. We're heading out for sushi tonight.

Tubing with Olympic Dreams

Today we set off for the Tube Park. After taking a scenic hike to get up to it, we grabbed tubes and quickly became pros. I'm pretty sure we qualified for the Olympics. That's a sport, right?

Posing at the top of the runs

After tubing, we went to the Winter Olympics information station in Whistler Village for some photo ops. The guys have already been skiing on the Men's downhill and I checked out the Women's downhill on Monday.

The Gold went to me, Kim got the Bronze and Kristi won the Silver
Check out America's new Bobsled team!

Just a pretty view from a bridge on our walk back to the house.

Snow! Snow! Snow!

We woke up Tuesday morning to falling snow! It was very exciting, especially after the icy skiing we had Monday. Here's a view from our window.

Here's the base of the mountain, snow still falling. Whistler hadn't had snow in two weeks!

I started out skiing with the boys again but had to go off solo after one run. I was holding them back and wanted to stick to easier runs, like the one below. :)

I kept stopping to take pictures and sightsee. Everything was so pretty! The snow on the mountain made skiing much more enjoyable! Sliding down on ice was a little scary. Hopefully we'll have fresh powder for the rest of the week.
When the lifts closed, we all met at Merlin's for a little apres ski Kokanee and nachos.

We finished off the day with a little hot tub time, dinner at a Mongolian grill, and then an intense game of Apples to Apples back at the condo. Today we're taking a rest day from skiing. We are going to go tubing on the mountain and then see what other trouble we can stir up!

Whistler, BC

I've survived my first day of skiing in FIVE years! The snow has been pretty scarce so the runs are pretty icy. We're supposed to be getting some snow soon so that will help out. Whistler is beautiful and HUGE! Today we skied Whistler mountain and Blackcomb. It's Aussie Day so there are crazy Aussies in costumes, wigs, and sporting Austrailian flags as capes. It was pretty funny.

Here are some pictures of the trip so far:

Back in Rome

Well, I disembarked from the ship this morning at 7:00am and headed to the airport. I'm staying at a hotel in the area. Luckily they were able to check me into my room at 9:30 this morning. I was going to go into Rome but the rainy clouds and my head cold led me to just stick around here.

I just had a great Margarita Pizza for dinner. I'm going to reorganize my suitcase and then turn in for the night. I head to the airport at 8:00am tomorrow (midnight Dallas time) and after a lay over in Chicago, I get to Dallas around 9:00pm. It'll be a long day.

I had a really great vacation! Thanks mom and dad for the wonderful graduation gift! I will forever remember this trip. I look forward to catching up with everyone when I get home. Thanks for reading! I'll keep you posted about the next trip I decide to blog!

Thar she blows!

We sailed by the Island of Stromboli this afternoon. It has been erupting several times a day for over 2,000 years. We didn’t see an eruption, but it was puffing smoke as we cruised by. One side of the Island is lava flow straight into the ocean. Very cool to see from our perspective.

Sicily

Sunrise over Italy

First off, I hope everyone in Texas is safe in this bad weather. I’ve been tracking Hurricane Ike on CNN in my stateroom. Scary.

We had some drama onboard last night. We were about an hour out of Valletta when the Captain came on and announced we were heading back to remove an ill crewmember. It must have been pretty bad since we have doctors on board…and a morgue. Rumor has it one of the cabin stewards was found unconscious in his room. We got an update later, once we had set sail again, that the crewmember was stable and doing better than expected…but no details. Speaking of sickness, 38 people got food poisoning on one of the tours in Turkey. I talked with one of them and they’ve all made quick recoveries. I’ve been a little under the weather for a few days now, but just with a sore throat and congestion. It hasn’t interfered with my trip much, but I do head to bed pretty early. Hopefully it’ll clear up before I have to get on the plane Monday.

Enough about all that, let’s talk about Sicily! The view off my balcony this morning was the Straight of Messina. I could see both Sicily and Italy. I headed off on a tour to Tindari, about 45 minutes outside of Messina, our port city. On the bus we learned that Sicily has been under pretty much everybody’s rule in the area: Greek, Roman, Spanish, French, etc before finally coming under Italy’s rule.

First we visited the Tindari Ruins. Below you’ll see pictures of the Greek Basilica (A Roman structure but using Greek methods and materials) and the Greek Theater:

Next we walked over to the Sanctuary of the Black Madonna. The Black Madonna was a Byzantine statue that according to legend was left behind by unknown sailors from the East after their ship ran ashore. The statue was carried up the hill and a church was erected around it to allow visitors. To this day it is a popular pilgrimage location and the church has increased in size to accommodate visitors coming to see the Black Madonna. Here are pictures of the church, the Madonna, and a mosaic of the statue’s discovery. Little confession, the church had two Black Madonna’s and I couldn’t really understand our guide so I have no idea which is the real one. I’ve included photos of both.

Ceiling of the Sanctuary

Here's a shot of the city of Messina. It doesn't have too much going on but it does have some pretty churches.

The statue on Forte San Salvatore. She is saying (roughly) "I am blessing your city and your citizens." Vos et ipsam civitatem benedicimus