The best laid plans...

So, the rather complicated weekend is upon us.

The children are ensconced (I hope) at their friends' houses (though one of them may be at a comic convention in Troy).  I am in Teaneck, New Jersey until Sunday, attending a Fair Trade organizers' meeting.

The Man is in transit from California, and text messages suggest that the trip is not going entirely smoothly (hm, that's unusual... Oh, no it isn't), but I daresay he'll get back to Albany eventually - poor fellow.

The Man adds...yes I am stuck in Washington after some adventures in Texas. I think thiswww.myfoxdfw.com/story/24856831/bird-strike-prompts-flight-from-dfw-airport-to-make-emergency-landing explains it all.

Back to busy

We have a somewhat complicated weekend coming up, with various of us wanting/needing to be in different places from others of us, so I've been working out the logistics for who is going where, and how and with whom.  I hope everything, and everyone, will slide easily into place when the time comes.

For tonight we were back to our regular Thursday evening mini-whirl of Girl skating, Boy drumming, me driving to and fro...in snow and gusting winds, to boot.  I'd like it to be a little warmer now, I really would.  That sunny cycle ride through San Francisco seems a very long time ago already.

Topical cocktail

I called in at school today to admire the 8th Graders' history projects, on display in the library.  The students had picked their own subjects to study within the broad theme of "rights and responsibilities".  The Girl chose the causes of World War I.  Other topics ranged from the Salem witch trials to the Seneca Falls Convention (the first convention for women's rights, held in 1848), to the Holocaust to Stonewall to the Free Tibet movement to food stamps.  I was impressed by the wide variety of subjects and in many cases the imaginative presentations, in the form of posters, PowerPoints and ambitious models.  And cakes - for some reason there were quite a few cakes.

Otherwise, it has been another cold day here - our old friend the Polar Vortex is back in town.  It'd be a good name for a cocktail, wouldn't it.  What would you expect to find in one?

Tales of the sleepy

Well, I was all set with something to write about this evening - based on the fact that, to mark our trip to San Francisco, I've been re-reading the Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin, not realising that Maupin has just brought out the ninth and final volume.  To my surprise he was on the radio today being interviewed.  If you haven't read the series, it's very funny and also touching, with important things to say about gay/human rights and accepting each other's differences.

However I got all tangled up in a project with the Girl and time has galloped along, so I am just going to leave it there and go to bed.  I'm really hoping to wake up not feeling like I'm still on California time (three hours behind).

SWF

Our return trip to California last week took us via Detroit (where we found that colourful tunnel), but our start-and-end point was Stewart International Airport (IATA code: SWF) in the Hudson Valley.

I hadn't realised Stewart was a commercial airport, as I'd only heard of it in relation to military flights (it used to be an air force base - it's where the Iran hostages were flown back to when they were released in 1981).  It's tiny, even smaller than Albany Airport.  Security was very thorough -well, there were more staff than passengers, and what else did they all have to do?  But the service was friendly and courteous, too. It's about an hour and half from home, so closer and more convenient for us than Newark or JFK.  Parking was easy and relatively inexpensive, and we got a good price on our flights - much cheaper than any other routes we'd looked into. We'll certainly consider it for future trips, if the need arises.

As we came into land on Saturday, I could just see Manhattan glimmering in the distance.  It really felt like we had flown "from sea to shining sea".

Down the mountain, through the woods

Although we all felt tired after a long day of travel yesterday, we still went skiing this afternoon.

It's relatively warm here (40sF), so there was no danger of frozen fingers.  The snow was on the slushy side, making for rather heavy skiing, but we had a good time and made many runs.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, the Man was wandering through a redwood forest...

We left our Man in San Francisco...

Today the children and I travelled back to New York state.  Sad to say, we left the Man behind - he's attending a conference in San Jose next week. 

The journey was long but went smoothly.  The only minor hiccup was going through security, when my carry-on bag was pulled out for inspection after it had sat for a long time in the x-ray scanner.  They didn't tell me what caused their suspicions.  It could have been my hair-straightening tongs - I've had those queried before.  Or maybe they detected a strange substance at the bottom of the bag and wondered what I was trying to smuggle across the country.  That was in fact half a box-worth's of the Boy's cocoa-krispies which had exploded in the bag the day before.  Anyway, after they'd had a good (and ever so slightly sticky) rummage, they let me pass.

So, we are home again, and though it is not as cold as I'd feared, there's still a mountain of snow in the yard.  Ah, I could have got used to California.  I hope the Man is able to make the most of an extra week of balmy weather.

Gate date

With unusual unanimity, today we all decided we'd like to cycle across the Golden Gate Bridge.  We rented bikes from a little "mom and pop" company operating out of a Chinese laundry (oddly enough).

We pedalled along Crissy Field and beside the Presidio, up to the Golden Gate.  We cycled over, enjoying the views, then turned around and cycled back again.  Altogether we were out for a couple of hours, on yet another beautifully sunny and comfortably warm February day in San Francisco.
 

In the afternoon we split up.  Man and Boy explored a WWII cargo ship (the Jeremiah O'Brien) and submarine moored at one of the piers along Fisherman's Wharf, then took a ride on the Powell & Hyde cable-car.  The Girl and I took ourselves back to Japan Town and did a little shopping (mostly manga) and just enjoyed the authentically Japanese surroundings.

Tonight we're lodging near the airport, ready for a very early start in the morning...

Prison visitors

The Boy's top want-to-do in San Francisco was to visit Alcatraz.  So that was our main event today - a boat trip to the rocky island in the bay, and a tour of the prison.

It was grimly fascinating,  We were all fitted out with headsets, and wandered around listening to an audio commentary narrated by former guards and inmates.  We learned about life and conditions in the prison and about some of the more notorious escape attempts.  We also found out about a period of 19 months after the prison had closed when the island was occupied by Native Americans - the start of their civil protest movement.  And we got to wander around the island admiring gardens and bird-life.

Alcatraz is run by the National Park Service, and they do a great job.  It could be a tasteless horror show, but instead visiting the prison is a thought-provoking experience. 

Back on the mainland, although we'd already done a fair amount of walking we found the energy to mount the many steep steps up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower.  Unfortunately the tower was closed for renovations, however we did get to see the famous flock of green parrots that lives around there, squawking in a tree.

Tonight we have changed hotel to one in the small area of the city known as Japan Town.  And it actually is just like Japan - it's quite disconcerting.  Our lodgings, Hotel Tomo, feature anime-inspired murals, to the great delight of our Japanese-pop-culture-fanGirl.  She's looking forward to doing some Japanese shopping in the morning, I believe.

A bridged version

It was rather cloudy this morning as we were leaving Carmel for a long drive, along coast and through farmland, back up Route 1.  It was sunny as can be a couple of hours later...in San Francisco.

We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, just for the sake of crossing it (you don't get to cross an icon of engineering every day), and for the views of the city over the bay.  It really is all as beautiful as you think it will be.

Tonight we are in SF itself, at Fisherman's Wharf, which is a bit tacky and very touristy, but we have some business around here tomorrow.  We have two days to explore...

Sur-prisingly lovely weather

We woke up this morning in our cabin in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park - in easy reach of many trails. We took a steep one up to see Pfeiffer Falls and a view of the valley.  Wonderful to be walking in shirtsleeves - in February!

We spent the rest of the day exploring the Big Sur area, partly by car, partly following footpaths.  It is a spectacular stretch of coastline.  I was hopeful of seeing migrating grey whales from the clifftops (supposedly it's a good time of year for this), but I don't think we did.  Maybe they were there, but travelling submarine-style.

Tonight we are in the toney town of Carmel.  It has a beautiful beach and lots of elegant shopping. We are slumming it on the outskirts in a motel (cheap, but quite nice actually, although the wifi is dodgy).  I hope you get to read this...Sorry still can't post photos.

To Sur with love

The Man writes...woke VERY early. Took in runs and swims and games of pool at our hotel. Picked up a hire car and slowly made our way down the coast on Route 1. Spent some time on the beach at Halfmoon Bay and visited Pigeon Point lighthouse before reaching Big Sur park in early evening.  Everywhere there was spectacular scenery, huge surf and unbroken sunshine.  Will post more when we have wifi.

Four go adventuring again

It's Presidents Week - no school.  Weary of the northeastern winter, we thought, "Let's go somewhere else."

So we left our house in safe hands and travelled all day (somewhat to the Boy's annoyance, because it's his birthday).  At one point we passed through a tunnel of colour.  And now here we are.  Somewhere very else, and - hooray - no snow in sight.

California!

Probably no blog tomorrow as we'll be staying in an internet-free zone, but come back soon for our further adventures.
  

A Clean Sweep

The Man writes...when we heard that the Boy and his buddy were going to an Open Day at the Albany Curling Club, Albaniana and I both thought that sounded like something we should try.

Often curling seems to be held up as the ultimate example of a crazy Olympic sport - it's the sweeping I guess.  But I remember staying up late to watch GB win Gold in Salt Lake City in 2002 (luckily I was off work with paternity leave for the Boy) and being impressed by the combination of skill and tactics. 

The Club put a great effort into giving its guests an enjoyable introduction to the sport. There was a large attendance and we didn't get the opportunity to do many throws, but we learnt about form (there's a handy piece of teflon under your sliding foot), about the granite stones (really heavy and at least a thousand dollars each), about the special ice (it's pebbly not smooth), and - yes - about the sweeping, which makes the stone go further not faster and is a lot trickier than it looks.

We got more snow

 

Well, I called that one wrong.  It did turn out to be a full snow day - on account of another foot of snow falling in the night.  2-3 inches per hour at some points.  And that was on top of the 5-6 inches that had fallen during the day, and that was on top of the loads-of-snow left over from last week's snowstorm...

So suffice it to say, we have a lot of snow here now.  A ridiculous amount.  Enough that you can stand in the front yard, hurl yourself headfirst into it and practically disappear (as the Boy did, several times, this afternoon).  You might be able to do the same thing in the backyard, too - if you could just open the back door against all that snow.

We got snow

Snow again.  Yup.

Even though it was snowing fairly steadily by the time we got up, the kids still had to go to school - knowing that they'd be dismissed early and be home by lunchtime.  This is because the school district has already used up its one precious snow day.  If it takes any more, everyone will have to do a make-up day later in the year.  Tomorrow may be a delayed start (we're expecting yet more snow, starting in the small hours) but almost certainly not a whole day off.

I'm about done with snow now, really.  Just as I'm sure friends and family back in England must be done with rain - I hope no-one reading this has actually been flooded?

Lost and Found

Today I had the dubious pleasure of rummaging in the lost property collection down at the school bus depot.  "Lost and Found" they call it here.  It's a huge deep box, filled to the brim with assorted items of winter clothing plus a whole lot of towels and swimwear, some of it festering in plastic bags. What a treat.

I was looking for a pair of fingerless gloves which the Girl had left on her bus a while back. When I saw what I'd have to dig through to find them I considered not bothering - only I'd knitted them myself and didn't really want to lose them altogether (the lost and found bin is due to be emptied at the end of the week).

One of the gloves was right at the bottom, I dug down and found it rather quickly.  But I was hauling manky stuff out of there for seemed-like-hours before I found its pair.  Well, now the Girl will have warm hands again (if not fingers) when she's out waiting for the bus.

She may or may not need the gloves tomorrow - we're bracing ourselves for yet another snowstorm.

Who's that Boy?

Last week finally marked the end of an era - or should that be a hair-a?

Before:

After:

Fair Trade morning

Before we set off for skiing yesterday lunchtime I spent the morning at a synagogue in Niskayuna.  The congregation there was holding an "introduction to fair trade" event, with speakers and stallholders, coffee and kosher fair trade chocolate sampling.  There was a good turnout and a lot of enthusiasm.

I've been involved with many fair trade functions at churches, but this was the first local Jewish event of this kind that I've been invited to. Social justice is an important tenet of Judaism (as one of the speakers, a rabbi, pointed out) so fair trade felt like a good fit for the setting. 

I already  knew several of the other exhibitors and sellers from previous fairs and what-not, so it was a happy gathering with old friends, and a good chance to make some new contacts too. 

Snow drop

Back to Jiminy Peak today for another afternoon of skiing.  Conditions were pretty good, although it was snowing most of the time we were out. The snow blew every which way, so no matter what direction you were heading it blew straight in your face.  Ah well.

I did OK, and even managed to pick up some speed.  I'm sure anyone watching would still have said I was going as slow as a snail - but a snail with go-faster stripes, I like to think.

I always keep to the easier slopes (no scary black diamonds for me, thank you), but for some reason one of them seemed to have developed a bad case of moguls.  That caught me by surprise and I shot over a bump and did a lovely face-plant - literally landed my nose in the snow.  But I managed to ski back to base cheerfully enough, even with my glasses all fogged up.

The rest of the family briefly enjoyed the views northward from the highest point before the clouds rolled in.

Doggone freezin'

The Man writes...during our visit to Lake Placid for the Empire Games we had a short time to enjoy the winter version of the village.  Despite the bitterly cold wind people were standing in line waiting patiently for their turn to be pulled across Mirror Lake by a team of huskies.

Other parts of lake were cleared for ice hockey or for an enormous skating oval. It was certainly looking very different from our previous visit last July.

The results are in...

Sometimes you put in your best effort but don't even make the medals.

And sometimes...

...you win GOLD!

Congratulations to our golden Girl, who took first place in her group at Lake Placid today.

Let the Games commence!

No, no, not those Games in Sochi...  Much more exciting (for us): the 34th Empire State Winter Games in Lake Placid!

Like last year, our Girl is competing.  Her event is tomorrow, but we got here tonight for the opening ceremony.  Gosh, it was long.  Lots of similar speeches.  Lots of name-checking of local dignitaries.  Lots of young athletes parading round the 1980 Olympic rink - figure skaters in particular, our daughter among them (Look out for a girl in a black jacket with long blonde hair, said the Man hopefully, as 800 of the same marched past).

More speeches.  A compilation video of winter sports (all of them insane and mostly dangerous).  A demonstration of ice barrel jumping - that is, jumping over barrels while on skates - by the ice barrel jumping world champion (hard to imagine he has a lot of competition, but what do I know?).

Then suddenly the torch was lit and that was that.

Tonight, oh, go on then - we'll watch a spot of Winter Olympics on the hotel telly.  Tomorrow let's hope the Girl is ready for action.

Away with the fairies

The weather came through on its promise of a snow day.  It was snowing when we woke up and it's still snowing now.  It's at least nine inches deep in our neighbourhood, so I can't imagine how much must have fallen on higher terrain.  Not a bad effort at all.

The Man worked from home (with breaks to shovel the drive, sometimes assisted by the Boy).  The rest of us pottered about. I had a fit of craftiness and made these (with credit to the writers of this book):

Snow hope

Not such an exciting day for me.  We've continued to have problems with our heating, so I had to wait in for the men to come back and have another go at fixing it.  I think we're sorted out now, with a new thermostat inside the furnace to stop it from overheating.

I hope we are sorted out, as tomorrow is set to be a snow day: 100% chance of precipitation, according to the forecast, starting in the small hours.  The storm has been given quite a build-up. The kids will be bitterly disappointed if school isn't cancelled for the day (a few teachers are counting on a day at home, too, I suspect).

Well, it's about time for some more snow, anyway.  The last lot has all but melted and everywhere looks very brown and drab.  So bring it on (but without power cuts to go with it, please).

The Man adds...On Saturday we ventured deep into the frozen woods of Five Rivers, specifically the North Loop and the Big Pine trail.  We had the two mile trail entirely to ourselves. It's amazing that after all this time, there are intriguing areas of the Center that are almost unknown to us.

Several happy returns

 Happy Birthday to the Man!  Gifts, cake and the this-seems-to-have-turned-into-a-tradition photo: compare and contrast with 2011, 2012 and (belated due to travel) 2013.

Super Bowl-ski

The forecast wasn't too promising for today's skiing outing.  However, the rain had stopped by the time we got out on the slopes, and though clouds hung low and made it rather foggy at the top of the mountain, the snow quality was good.  On our previous ski-trips this year various combinations of cold, conditions and my personal demons have prevented me from really having a good time. But today everything seemed to click into place and I enjoyed every run (and there were many).

The Girl hooked up with a snowboarding friend, so we didn't see much of her all afternoon.  I skied a few runs with the Boy - well, I say that.  We rode up on the lift together a few times, but once on the slopes he didn't hang around for the likes of me. He just merrily swung his sticks over his head before tucking them under his arms, pointing his skis and hurling himself down the mountainside.

By early evening we almost had the mountain to ourselves.  American skiers had headed home early for that annual cultural event, where they all sit around eating chips and chicken wings, watching commercials that are occasionally interrupted by some sort of sporting contest.

The eyes have it

We have a hairy house-guest - just for one night, the little fella from next door. He doesn't seem too thrilled to be here.

The Boy took this picture:

As he says, "Have I not captured the essence of melancholy?"