a little skiing at Mt.Hood, a lot of relaxing at Timberline

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Thanksgiving with the family in Salem...then up to Mt.Hood on the 25th for some post-turkey day exercise.   Becky and I got a crack of noon start from Timberline and skinned up to the top of the Palmer chair.  The snow up high was a mix of wind-buffed powder and small ribs of ice....perfectly skiable but not exactly great conditions.   As we sat around at the top of the Palmer snowfield and had a snack, a snowcat drove up the slope, turned around and headed back down, leaving a 10ft wide lane of perfectly groomed corduroy.  The Palmer chair wasn't running, so we figured maybe the employee had gone up just to inspect the lift towers or something...but whatever the reason, we were happy to be able to take a break from the variable conditions and hop onto the groomer for some lazy high-speed turns.
We still had a couple hours before sunset, so we toured over towards the west and yo-yoed a couple laps around Little Zig-Zag canyon that held some great calf-deep powder before shuffling back over to Timberline Lodge for a relaxing night of hot-tubbing and dinner.

season opener...Baker & Alpental touring

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Maybe being away for the fall is why it felt like winter showed up in a hurry...but the Cascades got plastered over just the past two weeks and it was time to get the ski season going.

Becky and I toured at Baker on Saturday...we expected the snow to be great, but the sunshine was a unexpected bonus.   Not a big day...our legs aren't quite in shape yet, but we yo-yoed some mellow powder and enjoyed the views of Mt.Baker and Shuksan.

Sunday, we met up with Kirsten, Mica, Andy, and Tundra for some laps at Alpental.  Quite brushy down low, but coverage and snow quality mid-mountain and higher was fantastic.

home!

 

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Got back to the good ol' PNW on Thursday morning...spent the first few days napping, visiting with family, napping, knocking the dust off the bicycle and motorcycle...by Sunday I was ready to play in the snow.
Didn't make much of an effort to find any partners for the trip to the Muir Snowfield...figured my pace would be way off after a month and a half of doing nothing but being a desk jockey in Shanghai and I figured it might be more relaxing to just tootle along at my own pace.
It was sunny in the parking lot but clouds were sitting off to the south...and as I slowly made my way up the hill the clouds continued to follow over my shoulder. Fortunately I was able to stay in the sun the whole way up and even at Camp Muir the wind was nearly dead calm which made the temp which was somewhere in the teens quite tolerable.
The ski down was a total mixed bag of ice and powder, and once into the clouds the visibility was terrible..but   it was so very nice to get back into the mountains after being away since September.

last weekend in Shanghai, visit to Qibao

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The time really has flown by over here...can't believe that my last weekend in China is already here.   My coworker Nancy recommended I go take a look at Qibao, an old water-town about ten miles from the office.  A quick subway ride and I was on the outskirts of Shanghai trying to figure out where exactly were these canals.  Eventually I followed the crowds and found my way into the Qibao 'old street' area....wow...talk about sensory overload.  The crowds and sights were one thing, but the smells were something else.  Imagine equal parts of fruit, meat, sugar, and sesame oil all cooking in a pan with a teaspoon of garbage put on top....the competing smells of the various food vendors, trash, and canals was overwhelming. Pretty crazy place to walk through though...Seattle is gonna feel like wilderness after spending time here.

Becky's five day blitz of Shanghai!

Hard to believe that at first when we found out I was heading to China for work that Becky wasn't sure she'd fly over here to join me for a little while....she's so much more into 'cultural trips' than I am and she really hasn't done much travelling that wasn't sport related in quite some time.   Fortunately she decided to head on over and hang out with me for a little while.

Saturday, we walked all over the city, and sampled some truly amazing fried dumplings..
Photos from day 1



Sunday, we hopped a bullet train to the nearby city of Suzhou to check out some gardens and a museum designed by I.M. Pei.
Photos from day 2



Monday, I had to return to work so Becky hit a couple museums and in the evening we took the subway over to the 'Fabric Market' where she met with a tailor to get measured for a custom-made cashmere coat.
Photos from day 3



Tuesday, the weather was a big improvement from the drizzle on Monday so Becky was able to get back out and do more urban hiking...this time armed with my slr camera instead of her point & shoot (i think she got some really nice pictures).  We finished off the day with a trip to a nearby Taiwanese restaurant where again we filled our bellies with all sorts of food that would be hard to find back home.
Photos from day 4



Wednesday, another day of perfect weather for Becky, so more sightseeing, checking out neighborhoods, galleries, markets... I think at this point she's seen more of Shanghai than I have!  My coworker Nancy and her husband Gummi took Becky and I to a Hunan restaurant for lunch where yet again we ate all sorts of culinary treats that we'd never had before.   That evening, we braved the Shanghai subway at rush-hour and headed for the airport.
Photos from day 5

Aimless wandering through Shanghai....

Having walked around a lot of downtown Shanghai, the French Concession neighborhood, and the wacky new area of Pudong, I took the subway over to the YuYuan Garden, tourist market, and just kinda wandered aimlessly for most of the day...
Its tiring walking around the touristy parts of town, constantly saying 'may-yo' ("no" in chinese)...to every offer for a watch, a tea drinking scam, or a massage....but getting off the main drag everyone pretty much leaves you alone and you get to see the city.

Morning jaunt across the Huangpu River

Finally had a half day free and took the subway over to Pudong...the 'new' part of Shanghai.  Big, big architecture over there....funny though that I think the most therapeutic thing aboiut heading over there was the lack of honking horns.  Throughout most of Shanghai there is a near constant din of honking car horns, but traffic in Pudong was so light, there weren't any horns....peace and quiet...or at least pretty close to it.