Vail day three

Injury report:
Sore left hip (from arthritis, not a fall)
Sore left ankle (from a fall)
Sore right knee (from a boot problem)
Sore right thumb (no good reason for this)

I took it very easy this morning and concentrated on my skills. I did not fall today or yesterday. Skiing today was better also because it wasn't as busy. I never had to wait to get on the lift. We spent lots of time waiting in lift lines yesterday. The waiting was very hard on my feet. My ankle injury yesterday was from falling in the lift line - not falling while skiing.

Vail kicked my butt. But I would totally come back.

Good-bye Vail 2010. Hello Park City 2011.

Vail day two

I should have kept track of the number of times I said "wow", "amazing", or "awesome". Vail is 10 times more beautiful than I could have imagined.

The altitude has been difficult to get used to. I am very tired. But it has been an exciting trip.

I am struggling to come up with a good metphor to compare skiing in Minnesota with skiing in Vail - but I just haven't been able to put it in words. The skiing in Vail is so much more challenging than I've ever experienced before. I love the long runs - we don't have them in Minnesota - but they are exhausing.

I am so glad I am here. I do hope to come back next year- we are talking about making this an annaul trip - but I need to get myself into better shape before I return to Vail.

Vail

Vail is one of the places listed in my book. This is my first trip here and so far it is awesome. However, I have not yet been skiing. I am a little nervous since I just started skiing again after a long absence.

I am not going to fall and injure myself. Or anyone else.

Repeat after me....

I am NOT going to fall and injure myself.

Vail Village is very cute and quaint. This is exactly the type of trip I really needed.

Some people think I am crazy for leaving the snow of Minnesota for the snow of Colorado; but it is very different here. There are actual mountains!

Up in the Air

I really liked the movie "Up in the Air." And... not just because George Clooney was in it, but he is the reason why I saw it a second time.

I travel occasionally for work. Not as much as George's character, but enough to make elite status with the airline. There are a few things in that movie that I can related to. Collecting and maximizing miles has become a hobby for me -- in part because I have come to rely on those miles to help with my personal trips.

I was Silver elite with Northwest Airlines in 2009. I made it to Gold with Delta at the end of 2009, which carried over for 2010. I flew 45,000 miles in 2009, and NWA gave me 10,000 bonus miles....which put me over the 50,000 needed for Gold.

My goal for 2010 - platinum - which is 75,000 miles with Delta. I could only make it though if I take many work trips to London. (7ish, plus my typical travel.)

I could start mileage tracking as a new list. I was over 10,000 (elite qualifying) miles by mid-February, and I have 4 trips booked in the next 5 weeks. Now.... I haven't actually flown 10,000 miles yet. Sometimes I get bonus miles. I like bonus miles.

I am saving for a trip to Japan. I find it easier to save frequent flier miles than money. I am confident I will have the miles, but will I have the money when I get there???

NWA.com

NWA.com is gone. Sob...sob....

I started using that website back in 1997 when I lived in DC and needed to travel back to Minnesota.

I miss nwa.com.

2010 Dreams

I don't really make New Year's resolutions, but I have created my travel dream plan for 2010.

Honestly, the first two were not on the original plan, but those trips are planned so I am including them on the list:

Feb - Vail - never been, but I also haven't been skiing in at least a decade.

March - California - Jill's spring break. We are starting in LA (first time for Jill) and will drive up to San Fran to visit relatives.

May - Europe with DH and Andrew. This should coincide with another work trip to London, but I want to go back to Paris too.

July - cruise with the Andrew and Jill before they need to get packing for college. (empty nest alert - that should be a whole new blog)

September - Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest. (Yes, it really isn't in October.)

December - Tokyo for Christmas and New Year's.

The Tokyo trip is already in question. I have lots of frequent flier miles saved, but only for the lowest level for redemption. I may have missed my opportunity to use them for the end of this year, so this trip may get postponed until spring break 2011.

Now to the second-tier - really dreaming - need to win the lottery and need more vacation time:

NYC - girls' weekend for shopping and theatre.

New England in the Fall - try to pick up 2 of those missing states - New Hampshire and Maine.

Norway in June

Oregon in August- wine tasting; and way, way over due for a visit with Sharon.

Hawaii in October

Thanksgiving in Arizona with my parents

100

I was sure that I had made it to 100. I must be missing some trips. Or my math is bad.

Hmmmm.......

Cancun - December 2004

This was the first (and only, so far) time in my life that I did not spend Christmas with my parents. Weird, huh? We left for Cancun on Christmas morning and returned on January 1st.

I'll start by putting it out there - it was not our best family vacation. Andrew got sick and DH is not really a beach person. We will probably never go back.

But we did make it to a place featured in "the book" - Chichen Itza. And, thankfully this was still when you could climb to the top. I didn't make it all the way up though because I was very afraid of falling on my way back down.

The other highlight of the trip for me was scuba diving off of Cozumel. I am a water person and love diving. I don't get enough opportunities to indulge this hobby especially given the climate I live in. I really need to live near an ocean.

Snowmageddon 2010

I survived! But I don't have a t-shirt or any other "thing" to commemorate the event.

I should have canceled my last trip to DC. I knew better. They don't handle snow....well.

I am from Minnesota. I have survived many, many bad winters. But, we have the experience, and infrastructure, to deal with winter. DC doesn't.

I spent lots of time in my hotel. It was a very nice hotel - Sofitel - and I would recommend it. Thankfully their room service was excellent, and they didn't run out of my favorites.

Japan - July 2005

Another past trip to document. Most of the details will be missing because my memory is getting fuzzy. This picture is from Hiroshima. There is a flame in the memorial that will be extinguished as soon as there are no more atomic bombs left on Earth.

A survivor of the bomb approached us as we were walking along the river. Her English wasn't very good, but she wanted to say a prayer with us.

Japan is still one of my favorite trips with Andy and Jill. We were gone for two weeks - the longest trip we had ever taken at that point - and they were awesome.

Japan was one of the most tiring trips I have ever been on, but I would totally do it again.

Old Kyoto

Climbing Mount Fuji and restoring the soul - this was the primary reason for taking the trip. We didn't make it to the top though because it was cold and freezing rain. We made it very close. We climbed over night hoping to see a great sunrise, but we were enveloped in clouds.

We sprinkled some of Lew's ashes on Mount Fuji. Lew is DH's father.

The Park Hyatt Tokyo - featured in the "Lost in Translation" movie. We didn't stay here, but hung out in the bar and checked out the view.

Tsukiji Fish Market