We took our first road trip outside of London today (Feb 17, 2007) and went to Stonehenge. It was about a 2 hour drive from our place in Fulham. The stones were placed there about 3500-4500 years ago, so they will probably be repainted soon.  

  

It isn’t that exciting of a place, but it is pretty cool to see. Maybe that’s because I’ve heard about it for so long. I uploaded a few other photos from the day too.

On the right-hand side of my web site here (http://grothadventures.spaces.live.com/) I now have a gadget that takes a quick poll. Today I ask which location has the best snow… Colorado, Utah, or The Alps. I grew up on Washington snow, and I do love the "hop turn" in the thick snow, and Montana certainly has some great snow given the right conditions (especially Big Sky), but lets see what the votes say. Post a comment if you think something other than these 3 is the best.

We are in Rawlins, Wyoming tonight (Sunday) and plan to be in Winter Park, Colorado on Monday night, then cruising through Denver over to North Platte, Nebraska. I wouldn’t consider most of these stops all that exciting, but at lease we are seeing some parts of the country we hadn’t before. Most of the time, many of the small towns (some are basically trailer parks) makes us look forward to London all that much more.

Yes, we will soon be visiting London to get an idea of where in the city we will want to live. A few more trips over the summer, and by late summer or early autum, we will be moving to London. The reason for the slowness of our move is because Milo has to wait 6 months to move after he gets certain shots and passes certain tests.

Yes, that’s right. We are now going to be moving to London in June or so and not Paris. 

Why London? As it turns out, most of the people I will be working with on a regular basis are based in London. I will still need to go to Paris, Munich, Amsterdam, Milan, Madrid, among many other locations, but if I will be spending most of the time in London, then it only makes sense to live there.

Most of the details are the same as I explained when we thought we were moving to Paris. 

We plan to live in the city, so we can have the full-on urban experience. Neighborhoods (“neighbourhoods” in the UK) that our friend Cullen suggests are “Chelsea or maybe Notting Hill. Both are pretty artsy, both have a vibrant nightlife, both are pretty safe and sane”. Hopefully the people who will help with our relocation will help find us someplace cool to live that we can also afford. Although afford isn’t really the way to put it…. exist without going flat broke is more like it.  

Milo is still going to move with us and Ripley is still going to live in Monroe, WA. We still want you to come and visit. We are still working on the new/unfinished house in Kirkland. Lorie will still be looking at various schools, but now in London. We probably won’t learn as much French though. Now we have to learn how to speak and spell real English, not American.

So wish us luck and please come visit!

My January 2006 ski trip to Colorado started with a half day of skiing at Winter Park, complete with nice, fluffy, and fresh Colorado powder. Keith got me a ticket for free, since his is on the Ski Patrol there, but I earned my ticket this time. Lisl and I put up a fence while skiing (she is an ex-ski patroller) and around noon we were in the ski patrol hut when the call came in that they were closing down the Pioneer Express chair lift due to a mechanical problem. That meant the hill would have to be cleared of skiers, so Lisl and I volunteered to “sweep” with the other ski patrollers. The guy in charge said OK, so Keith, Lisl, and I grabbed a rope on the back of a snow mobile as another patroller drove it across the mountain over to the closed chair. It was a blast getting pulled up and across the hills – sort of like waterskiing. I got to sweep the Gambler and Aces and Eights runs (trail map) and since it was only noon on a Tuesday, I was able to make tracks in fresh snow right in the middle of the runs. It’s the best skiing I have had at Winter Park so far.   

 

The next day, Jeff, Keith, and I drove to Eagle, Colorado, put the skins on our skis, and started our 5 mile hike into the mountains towards the Peter Estin Hut. We started at 9,060 feet and the hut is at 11,200 feet, so we had an elevation change of 2,140 feet, which took us about 4 hours. We only had about 45 minutes of daylight left by the time we got to the hut and we were pretty exhausted, so we unpacked, ate dinner, and relaxed for the evening as the other 4 people staying in the hut arrived from their day of skiing.

 

In the morning, we woke up to fresh snow, blue sky, with temperatures at about 5-10 degrees (F). We started the day hiking up Prospect mountain (hill?), which is right behind the hut and about 800 feet up (12,000 feet). It was tiring, but the snow was perfect! We skied this part of the hill 3 times during the day: 2 before lunch and 1 after lunch. We probably had enough sunlight for another run, but we were beat, so we called it a day. Three runs in a day might not sound like much, but our “run” consisted of fresh snow on a southwest facing slope, half of which was wide open and half was in the trees, so the entire run was a blast to ski.

 

The next morning we packed up and headed out. This means we had full packs, minus all the food we had eaten, but more great skiing in store for us. We were able to ski right from the hut down more great open slopes, eventually ending up in a creek bed where we had to hike a little. Thankfully, none of our hiking on this day required the skins, because we were able to hike a bit and get a few good turns in once in a while too. Remember, this is the 5 mile run that we hiked in on, which is a pretty long ski run. We hit one hill side that had about 3 feet of fresh snow on it, but no snow packed under it. We skied it, but I think some of our turns were on top of bushes and rocks, but with fresh snow up to our waist. That made for some tricky skiing with full packs on our backs.

 

If you plan to go, which I highly recommend, I suggest you train for it by exercising quite a bit so your lungs and legs can handle it. We were able to have a great time, but others in the hut were in better shape than us, so they got an extra run in each day compared to us.

 

Photos are in the "CO Backcountry Trip" photo album. If the link doesn’t work, go to Photos at the top of this web page.  

Thoughts about traveling Around-The-World: November 2005

 

In November 2005, Brian and Lorie circled the world heading West from Seattle via Beijing, Tokyo, Taipei, Dubai, Zurich, Milan, Venice, Frankfurt, Berkley, and ending back home in Seattle. These are their thoughts as they circled the world. (24 days total)

   

Food

Best meal:

Brian: Swiss chocolates for dinner on the train from Zurich to Milan. Second is the hot chocolate (not chocolate-flavored-milk) in Venice. Second might be the Thai dinner in Taipei – partially because it was really good, but also because nobody would ever find it unless you knew about and you spoke Thai.     

Lorie: Grand Hyatt Beijing sweet and sour prawns, room service.

 

Worst food:

Brian: Some strange bowl for lunch in Beijing with rice burnt to the small pot and unknown and strange-tasting meats mixed in.     

Lorie: Coagulated mushroom omelet on a Lufthansa flight.   

 

Weirdest food:

Brian: Avocado milkshake in Dubai.     

Lorie: A sip of Brian’s avocado milkshake.  

 

Locations

Favorite city, and why:

Brian: Zurich, Switzerland – clean air, cool vibe, good transportation, water and mountain activities.

Lorie: Zurich is the most pleasant because of the clean air and all the shops in the little streets, but Venice is a close second because of the little streets, lots of shopping, it’s totally unique, and it’s just darn cool.

 

Place to visit again:

Brian: Zurich in summer for the water and the hiking and in winter for the skiing. Second is Dubai after 2008, which is when much of the construction plus the light-rail train should be running.

Lorie: Totally dude.

 

Best hotel:

Brian: Central Plaza Hotel in Zurich – location, location, location.

Lorie: Mansions at Roppongi in Tokyo.  

 

Experiences

Most interesting or fun activity:

Brian: “Snow-boarding” down the sand dunes in the deserts of Dubai.

Lorie: Summer Palace and Panda Tour in Beijing. Second is riding in the SUV over and around the sand dunes in the deserts of Dubai.  

 

Something new that was learned:

Brian: Also, white head dresses are from the UAE and red and white checkered head dresses are from Saudi Arabia.   

Lorie: Real peanuts exist outside the USA – some are good, some are bad just like when we were kids. Plus, Oolong Tea is from Taipei.  

 

Most interesting space:

Brian: The lounge (Trilogy) on the roof of The Palace in Dubai. Second is the lounge at the top of the Burj al Arab Hotel (only 7-star hotel in the world), which has a great view, cool lights, and hangs 54 floors above the ocean.

Lorie: Trilogy lounge at The Palace in Dubai.

 

Strangest experience:

Brian: Seeing a ski area inside a mall in the middle of the desert (Ski Dubai).

Lorie: Seeing people in Ski Dubai wearing long coats to cover their burkas.  

 

Global market dominance:

Brian: Kit Kat candy bars can be purchased everywhere.

Lorie: Starbucks.

 

Biggest mistake:

Brian: Traveling to different climates – it makes packing difficult.   

Lorie: Two cheese fondues for lunch, plus bread, salad, wine, and water.   

 

Biggest challenge about traveling the world in one trip:

Brian: Learning 5 different (6 including English) languages enough to say “hello”, “thanks”, “yes”, and “no”.     

Lorie: Learning the logistics of air and train routes and time tables.    

 

Missed most from Seattle:

Brian: Milo and Ripley.     

Lorie: Ripley and Milo.   

 

Best advice to give:

Brian: Reserve the hotel car from the airport whenever possible and plan to purchase luggage or bring extra luggage to begin with.   

Lorie: Always fly business class (upgrade with miles) when possible, book hotels in advance, and always bring scrunchies (to pull hair up).  

 

Packing

Most happy about packing:

Brian: The camera, but the United Red Carpet Lounge card is well worth it, especially when you see the automatic beer-pouring machine in the Tokyo lounge.      

Lorie: Tweezers.    

 

Least happy about packing:

Brian: Clothes.    

Lorie: Laptop computer.    

 

Wish we had packed:

Brian: Bathing suit for the beaches in Dubai.     

Lorie: Hair conditioner.