Spring Break is just about over. We took a short trip to Park City, Utah. It was the first time I had been there since the late eighties with the Rempels and Krafts. We flew out on Monday afternoon on Delta. The flight took off and landed on time, and the seats were comfortable. The seating on the plane was in a 2-3 conformation, and we had the entire row. I was sitting at the window; I am always so fascinated by the changing geography below me. I wish that I had a little map that told me what we were flying over. I think I might have recognized Omaha. Surely that big highway must be on a map, and that river…the Missouri? When I go home I looked it up in our atlas, and the highway appears to be route 80, and the river was the North Platte, although on the northern side of the plane, on the way home, I could see where it ran into the Missouri. But I also love watching the transition from the flat plains of Illinois and Iowa, with Braille-like irrigation circles, to the slumping badlands of the Dakotas and the mountains of Montana. From the air, I imagine the early Mormons must have thought they found the earthly paradise when they got to the mountain-ringed bowl of the Great Salt Lake.
We got our rental vehicle, a large Dodge Ram van from Avis, without difficulty. It took a while for our portable GPS unit to figure out where we were (could I have used this on the airplane? I don’t know, maybe next time I fly…), but then we drove southeast past the city as darkness descended. The trip up to Park City is even easier post the 2002 Olympics, and soon we were at the Peaks hotel, waiting for our keys. Cindy rented a small house at 830 Norfolk Avenue. http://www.parkcitymountain.com/winter/conditions/resort_maps/03_Town_Map/downtown.htm
We tried to find the Albertson’s supermarket on the way to the house, but I ended up just circling it in the dark. I was too tired, hungry and grumpy to want to do more, so we stopped at a 7-11 that we could see from the road.
The house was less than a block away from the town lift. It had three stories with one room and one bathroom on each floor. The bottom floor was a walk-out basement with two twin beds. The middle floor had a combined living room/ kitchen, including a separate wood burning stove, and the bathroom had a washer/dryer. There were two sofas; the larger one was a fold out. The upstairs had a king-size bed and a large sunken tub in the bathroom. http://www.parkcitylodging.com/property/norfolk-830.php We were snug but not cramped, and the house could easily have slept eight, although eating space would have been tight. Around 9:30 PM our skis and boots were delivered by the Black Tie Ski rental service http://www.blacktieskis.com/our_service.php . I gave the boys their dose of acetazolamide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetazolamide
(we had already been taking it for two days for altitude sickness), and we went to bed.
On Tuesday morning Cindy drove us the ½ mile or so to the main base resort area http://www.parkcitymountain.com/winter/conditions/resort_maps/03_Town_Map/resort_map.htm where I picked up the boys’ reserved ski school tickets and my lift ticket. Jasper was put in the ‘has skied one time before and knows how to stop’ class, and Lucas was in an advanced beginner section. I took the payday lift up and started a day of skiing. I was doing mostly blue runs - - I remembered how almost all of the black runs twenty years ago seemed to have giant moguls. However, during the day, one of the people on the lift with me told me that park City now had ‘signature’ runs - - advanced runs that were groomed occasionally to keep the moguls small, so a high intermediate skier like me could experience some steepness. These are marked by a stylized ‘S” on the trail map http://www.parkcitymountain.com/winter/conditions/resort_maps/01_Trail_Map I did some of these, and had a lot of fun, but I was pretty sore by 3:00 when it was time to pick up the boys. I also saw a Ferruginous Hawk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferruginous_Hawk or http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/37/_/Ferruginous_Hawk.aspx
I found the boys at the base of the mountain. They had had a good day, and Cindy came and picked us up. We relaxed for a while in the hot tub that was inconveniently located at the side of the house down a snow covered metallic stair case. The weather at the base was in the 40’s and 50’s, and a lot of dripping melt water was coming down on us. Cindy and Nicola had walked around town that afternoon,
Nicola with a friendly bear.
but Cindy consented to walk about with me later. We passed a sushi restaurant called ‘The Flying Sumo’, art galleries, the town lift, a variety of tourist restaurants. I went into an internet café and checked on my email. Later we picked up the kids and convinced Jasper to come out to dinner. He was acting pretty grumpy; we thought he was just tired, or having some altitude problems, but it turns out he also probably had a viral illness of some sort. We had hot wings, pizza, and tacos for dinner. Afterwards they watched one of the DVDs, Porco Russo, we had brought from home. We had to disconnect the house’s DVD player, as we couldn’t get it to work. Luckily we had brought our own portable player with us, which we plugged into the TV.
The next morning Jasper was feeling a bit sick, but he gamely got dressed for skiing. However, he was sick about three times before ski school started, and so I called Cindy to come pick him up. Lucas went back to school. I skied on my own in the morning, and then went down the mountain to the town lift to pick up Jasper, who was feeling better.
At the base of the Town Lift
We went down Home Run from the town lift, and then Jasper took me over to the beginner lifts of First Timer and Three Kings. We did these for a bit, and then I convinced him to go up the Payday and then the Bonanza lift twice to the very top of the mountain, so we could ski down Home Run all the way. It was three by this time, so we went to the ski school area to pick up Lucas, and then had Cindy pick us up. I stayed at home, while Cindy took the kids to a tubing hill north of the city. While they were gone, a man from the real estate agency came by because there was something wrong with the wireless router in the house. He couldn’t figure it out though. After he left I walked to the Park City library, wondering where we had stayed twenty years ago. Perhaps Alison remembers? The kids had Burger King for dinner, and Cindy and I went into the old town, looked at art galleries, and had Vietnamese food. We had a big bowl of beef Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), which was good at keeping me from getting too dehydrated.
Lucas was done with ski school, and Jasper felt too ill to go skiing on Thursday. I took Lucas up the mountain with me all day. We started from the town lift, and ended there too. How nice to ski door to lift. Lucas lost a ski trying to get on the lift, and the astute lift attendant pulled him out of the way of the moving chair, although his arm still got hit. We went up in separate chairs. We skied some of the blue slopes, but they were a little advanced for him still. We saw some vultures. Lucas is just beginning to learn ‘wedge christies’ or ‘stem christies’ http://www.ehow.com/how_9624_make-stem-christie.html . Maybe next year he will be skiing parallel turns. He did pretty well, however. Lucas stopped early, so I went back up the mountain to do a few more advanced runs. Cindy was able to get some refunds for Jasper’s missing days. Jasper was still not feeling well, so I stayed in with him, while Cindy, Nikki and Lucas went to the Flying Sumo.
They brought back some tuna and eel sushi for me. The kids watched Pirates of the Caribbean part Three. We also had a small birthday celebration for Cindy, with cupcakes from a local bakery, and a card Lucas and I bought just before the trip. She also got some earrings I had gotten for the occasion in Cancun.
"Where's the Birthday Cake?"
Friday, Jasper, Lucas and I went up the town lift one last time. This lift is pretty scary. It goes very high up, passing over the Payday lift. We skied down the bottom half of Home Run, and then over to the beginner lifts. I took some pictures. To the right of the Three Kings lift there is a big terrain park for snowboarders, where they go up and down small jumps, and slide along iced, flat, wide banisters. There is also a sloped half-pipe where hot-doggers were doing twists and turns. And further up the slope was a giant slalom race. It was amazing to watch how fast the racers were going down the mountain. At the bottom of one of the kids’ runs there was a series of small bumps for beginners to test their X skills. Lucas and Jasper each did this twice, and each crashed once. I tried to get some pictures of them doing this, but I had accidentally flipped a switch on the camera, disabling the photo function.
Lucas at the end of a turn.
We finished skiing, and had our equipment picked up by the rental service at the resort. Cindy and Nicola had been shopping at the outlet mall, so we called for them to pick us up. Before heading to the airport we stopped to get lunch and to buy cold meds to help ease Jasper’s congestion and headache. We drove into Salt Lake City with a short stop at the ski jump and bobsled venue from the Winter Games.
Bobsled run in the background
On the flight back Jasper had a record number of reverse peristaltic episodes. If there was an Olympic event for booting, he would be a contender, although nothing will ever match my freestyle techniques of getting Owen through an opened back window one year in Colorado. In any case it reminded me of a story set into my memory from National Lampoon in the mid seventies, on which the movie Animal House is partly based. Here is a link to it, but be warned: it is for mature viewers only http://www.acmewebpages.com/animal/ah1.html
This was a fun trip. It was just about the right length; I get bored with the whole thing after a while. It was too bad that Jasper got sick, but both of the boys liked it. It was the right week to go. The first two days were fairly warm, with the snow a bit icy in the morning and almost slushy at the bottom by the end of the day. We had a few inches of new powder on the third day. Cindy and Nicola were also happy that the first couple of days were warm so they could walk about town in comfort. Also, although it was Spring Break it wasn’t crowded. I don’t think I ever waited more then a couple of minutes to get onto a lift.
Yesterday and today we have spent recompressing (we were at high altitude, after all). We went to the library, barbershops, and grocery stores. King Keyser, the local sports store here was having a 40% off winter sale, and Lucas and I got new ski jackets; I also got some new long underwear. Cindy has been doing many loads of laundry and trying to figure out what will still fit the kids next year. Last night I made a Greek lemon chicken that was easy and turned out pretty well:
Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano (or 1 teaspoon dried)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper
3 russet potatoes, or 10 small red potatoes
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into ½ inch slices
Cooking Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, parsley, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cut the potatoes into wedges. Spread the potatoes and chicken out evenly on a heavy, rimmed baking sheet and then pour about 3/4 of the vinaigrette over them. Toss to coat well. Pour in 1/2 cup of the stock. Roast in the oven, turning every 10 minutes to prevent sticking and adding more stock as needed, until tender and lightly browned (about 45 minutes to 1 hour). Remove from the oven, drizzle with the remaining vinaigrette and a bit of stock, and serve.
Makes 4 servings
At work - - Dr Hammadeh is finally gone. It was very strange to have him at work, but not really participating in what was happening. I think he was not very happy with the changes I was making, and did his part to see that they didn’t go over well. He will be missed in the department, because he was our ‘blesser’. Everyone went to him with cases that were difficult. We have no one willing to take on that job. We have been interviewing for a director of Anatomic pathology. We had a woman from Montefiore in New York here twice now. She is an Orthodox Jew, which means she won’t work from early Friday afternoon and all of Saturday. In fact, I think she wants to commute back to New York for the weekend. I don’t think she is going to be offered the job, as much as we liked her. She is a good academician, but doesn’t have much business experience. We are also looking at someone from Creighton in Nebraska. He has a lot of business experience, and seems to be a good general pathologist. He would be a change agent for the department, which would be a good thing.
The new OR area has a ribbon cutting ceremony at the end of this week, but I don’t think it will be up and running until May. The pathology area still needs a bit of work - - shelving, computers, cameras, etc. I hope it will all come together.
Finally, Aikido has gotten pretty weird. Stephen Toyoda, 26, (the son of Fumio Toyoda, who founded the American Aikido Association [F. Toyoda was my instructor for eight years; he died in 2002]) was accused of having sexual relations with a 16-year old girl at the AAA summer camp. He posted bond about six weeks ago, and I think he will be arraigned this week or next. This has caused quite a split in the organization. I am with the group that believes that Stephen, as an educator, should have taken a leave of absence when the accusation first came out last fall. However, the board of the AAA acted more like the famous three monkeys. As part of the fall out, the man I train with now, Bob Garza, has resigned from the organization. I will too; I no longer feel the kind of bond with the AAA I did before I moved to Baltimore in 1992. I have been at a variety of schools now, and national affiliation is not so important to me.
Love, H.
No comments:
Post a Comment