Off to Italy Tomorrow

We begin the long trek to Italy tomorrow. A neighbor is taking us to the 8:45 am shuttle and we arrive at the airport at 10:45. There, my nephew Peter (13 y.o.) is joining us for his spring break. We leave SeaTac at 1 pm. After changing planes in New York we arrive in Rome on Friday at noon.

We will spend a couple days in Rome before heading up to our apartment in Capannori. Late next week we go to Amsterdam and after a day of sightseeing there we put Peter on the plane for Seattle. It should be a fun and busy week.

Not sure how much blogging I will get done while Peter is with us but a full report, with pictures, will be forthcoming.

After that we will have a quiet stay in Capannori. After our busy winter (renovating space at our Issaquah building) we are ready for a nice vacation.

Last Day of the Ski Season

Our last day of the ski season was pretty spectacular. As you can see from the photos it was a bluebird day at Alpental. What you cannot see is that it was cold and the snow was packed powder. There had been quite a lot of new snow two days earlier and word was the day before had been incredible. Because weekend ski lessons had finished there were not a lot of people around. Many of those that were there were skiing in the backcountry (out of bounds). 

This is a picture of Alpental taken from in front of the base lodge. There is a big bowl on the other side of those cliffs.

This was taken riding up the chairlift in the bowl on the back side of the cliffs in the previous picture.

This is the top of the mountain looking back in the direction of the lodge. Just beyond the people is the cliffs. The most challenging run on the mountain begins just to the left.

 I skied with my cousin Andrea and my favorite ski buddy, Dom. 

I made quite a few runs with Andrea this winter. It's great skiing with her because we ski about the same and like the same type of runs (steep and deep!). 

 These pictures were taken with my iPhone. The screen is really hard to see in the bright sunshine. 

Andrea took a couple of shots of Dom and me. He says he was trying to poke my nose.

 I think this is a really great shot of the two of us. It was a wonderful day.