Same Spot, Same People, 28 Years Later!

While in Banff we recreated one of the photos from our honeymoon, this time with Jack as the photographer. At Bow Falls in Banff we stood by the (now frozen!) falls for a after-and-before shot!

Mary Jo & John @ Bow Falls, October 1990

Mary Jo & John @ Bow Falls, February 2019

Return to Emerald Lake Lodge!

More than 28 years after visiting for our honeymoon, John and Mary Jo spent an afternoon at Emerald Lake Lodge while on the Banff ski trip. We started out with a cup of coffee in the main lodge, which we barely remembered. After that we went on a snowshoeing hike around the lake. We had hiked around the lake when we visited on our honeymoon, though there wasn't snow on the ground then! We also included a walk across the frozen lake in our hike; fortunately the ice held up! Then we had a nice lunch in the lounge area before walking around a bit (we're pretty sure we were in cottage #26) and then returning. All in all it was a great stroll down memory lane!!

Ski Trip to Banff

For February break, we left snowy Seattle behind and headed to the Canadian Rockies for lots more snow and skiing. We flew into Calgary and drove west from there into the mountains; we stayed in Banff for six nights. The scenery was amazing - Mary Jo and John hadn't been back in 28+ years since their honeymoon in the area, and while we've visited lots of mountainous scenic areas since then, this still ranks among the most scenic. The sharp mountains all around, with lots of snow and rock, made for amazing views, and seeing it from the ski slopes made it all the more dramatic.

The town of Banff is a classic, quaint tourist town, very walkable (though the entire week was VERY cold). We stopped in the Christmas Shop we had bought our tree topper and a few ornaments back on our honeymoon (they said they'd been in business 32 years in that same spot!) and we bought a new tree topper and some decorations. The hotel we stayed at was relatively new and very nice.

The skiing was great. There are three resorts in the immediate area (within a 40 minute drive): Mt Norquay, Sunshine Village, and Lake Louise. We spent a half-day at Norquay (a fairly small resort), 1.5 days at Sunshine, and the boys spend 2 days at Lake Louise (parents spent 1 day there and the other day returning to Emerald Lake Lodge). We also ventured two hours west to Kicking Horse, which is a more hard core ski area, a bit off the beaten track of the others, and some really great skiing. All in all an amazing trip!!

Banff Avenue in Banff

View from top of Wawa Lift at Sunshine

Ridge at Sunshine

Mountains

Full Moon over the Mountains

Bighorn Sheep by Side of the Road

Jack at top of Sunshine

Across the Valley at Kicking Horse

Jack Going up Stairway to Heaven at Kicking Horse

Henry Outside Restaurant at top of Kicking Horse

More Mountains

Going Into Mt Norquay

Lift at Mt Norquay

Moose Hotel in Banff

Lake Louise Lodge

Moose Hotel - interior hallways were outside!

Lots of Snow!!

February, 2019 will be remembered in Seattle as one of the snowiest months on record. Another series of storms came through, starting on Friday, Feb 8, when we got about 5". It continued a bit over the weekend, with more snow on Sunday night and on Tuesday. We got 15" of accumulation at our house, and school was closed until Thursday.

Snowbound in the house for most of the time (we did manage to get skiing at Crystal on Sunday, in one open window of the weather), the boys skied down Somerset hill, MJ and John went snowshoeing, and we played a few board games. Jack also got a good taste of driving in the snow, as we all learned that even 4WD can have a hard time getting up hills in the snow.

Snow!!

On Super Bowl Sunday night, snow starts falling! We wind up with about 5" of accumulation overnight. School is canceled for two days (Jack drives Henry to Crystal to go skiing on Tuesday while Mom and Dad go to work!). It's very cold as well, so roads are a bit crusty and icy, but nothing too bad. Overall it's a beautiful winter wonderland.

The city got less snow but it still was a nice view from the office

Lots of accumulation for Seattle!

Beautiful view of the skyline from our deck

We planned to snowshoe to the lake, but the trail was well-trod and we wound up just walking

Goodbye Viaduct, Hello Tunnel!

After nearly twenty years of planning and debate, most of which we weren't here for, Seattle is at last ready to usher in a new era with the closure of the aging concrete viaduct, which has prevented the development of a vibrant downtown waterfront. It is being replaced by a tunnel that goes nearly 200 feet underground, between the stadium area and South Lake Union.

The tunnel opens for good on Monday, February 4, and the day before Seattle opened it up for a bike ride, and Mary Jo, Henry, and John took advantage, biking through the tunnel and down to the West Seattle bridge, then back up, and then through the old Battery Street Tunnel which connects to the Viaduct, along the upper level to the south and then back north on the lower level before ending back in South Lake Union. All in all it was a 12-mile ride.

It was very crowded but a great chance to experience the tunnel before it opens to cars!

Twenty-Five Ski Resorts !

With our trip to Red Mountain, we have now gone to 25 different ski resorts since our first day of skiing, February 6, 2011 at Snoqualmie.

We mainly skied just Snoqualmie for the first few years, just taking a few trips to explore Jackson Hole in Wyoming, and Whistler and Sun Peaks in Canada. Then by 2013 we expanded to ski other places locally, eventually including Stevens Pass, Mount Baker, Crystal Mountain, and Mission Ridge.

In 2015, we snuck in a trip to Bryan Head in Utah during a baseball tournament in Las Vegas. In February, 2016, we took our first ski-focused trip where we visited Grouse and Cypress in Vancouver, as well as another trip to Mt. Baker. Christmas that year we hit resort #12 when we went to Big Sky in Montana.

By 2017 we added Mount Bachelor in Oregon, and in November of that year our first day skiing was at resort #14, Timberline.

In February, 2018 we went to Utah and hit SEVEN different resorts, including Park City, Canyons, Deer Valley, Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, and Solitude, bringing out total to 21!

In December 2018 on the way back from Big Sky we skied Schweitzer, and then in January 2019 we visited Mt Spokane, 49 Degrees North, and Red Mountain to round out the twenty-five!!

Beautiful Sunset - late January, 2019

Ski Trip to Eastern Washington & Southern BC

With the first semester complete the boys got a three-day weekend from school and we used the time to drive east and hit three ski resorts we hadn't been to before.

First, we drove out after the kids finished their half-day of school on Friday and did night skiing at Mt Spokane.

On Saturday we drove north from Spokane to 49 Degrees North, a small but nice resort about an hour south of the Canadian border (thus the name "49-Degrees-North", the latitude of the border). It was a clear, blue-sky day with great scenery and some great ski runs.

From there we drove up to Canada to Trail, BC, a small working-class town in the Kootenay Rockies dominated by smokestacks and factories. But the skiing, 15 minutes up the road at Red Mountain, was great, and we spent Sunday and half of Monday skiing there. The weather continued to be beautiful with clear blue skies and beautful views of mountains everywhere.