Chunky's USA Trip 2009

[chunky]

Well an uneventful trip through Brisbane International. We were lucky to be put through the express queue because we had all the little ones but it wasn't really needed. The flight over was not full so we took advantage of a row or two for ourselves.

Couldn't use the bassinet for our 14 month old as she would just get up and try to jump out - not a good thing to think about. Melanie was very restless and I just squeezed 2 movies in bits and pieces as I juggled looking after her with the +1. The other 3 chunky kids loved it especially being able to pick their own movies.

I must say the Qantas crew over were excellent. All of them made particular effort to make sure we were ok and bent over backwards for any requests. One even carried some of our carry on out to customs in the US.

Thanks to Jasper, who was busting to go and the requests from that same Qantas crew member 'Stephen' we were allowed to quick queue through the USA citizens line and bypass all the Aussies waiting in the main queue. We even had help completing our green forms from the customs official - yes this is LA airport - I was just as confused but very plesantly surprised at their 'niceness'.

Hassle free SuperShuttle to Anaheim and I am writing this after we ducked down for lunch at Downtown Disney. Hmmm, yumm some nice sangria and a nachos. I have to remember their portions are big over here. Ordered two for out family but only one was needed. Unfortunately for the baby - the time difference has taken its toll and while the kids were extremely happy to soak up the atmosphere we wanted to get Melanie back for an afternoon nap.

So the piccies will come. Too tired to do them now and the only reason I am not napping is that I will go to bed in sync tonight. We also have a character dinner to go to later so looking forward to that.

[Xena]

Great start!

[Farty The Snowman]

Good To hear Chunky...

Goodluck for the rest of the trip smile.gif

[Podlettte]

Sounds like a lovely experience of LAX chunky! looking forward to pics etc :D

[SnowSnow]

Sounds like I will be flying with Qantas.

[karen97]

Nice one Chunky :D Say hi to Mickey Mouse for me smile.gif

[Jahoota]

Originally posted by chunky:

I must say the Qantas crew over were excellent. you musta got lucky. Hopefully you'll be just as lucky on the way home. My SIL had a horror one trip from japan with her young brood on qaint****. The experiance was so unpleasant she's used JAL ever since....

[Polaris]

Sounds like the perfect start Chunky!!

Hope it continues that way.

[chunky]

Thanks guys. Yes the Qantas staff were very good to the point that +1 wants to send a complimentary letter about it.

[chunky]

The kids finally getting excited even though today was just visiting the Disney Downtown area.

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My son wanted the light sabre and tried wrenching it out of Darth Vader's hand. Luckily he did not.

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Ok as I mentioned before we went to Goofy's kitchen for the character dinner. A Snowatcher said this was a good idea. Well it's $36 USD for adults and $16 for over 3's for kids. The food was nice - not what I would normally pay for that sort of buffet food but there was a nice selection. But that's not what we came here for.

The staff are extremely friendly and once they found out it was our first visit we all received Disney first visit badges and also as it is a reunion of sorts with my best friend, who is working overseas and my sister's family we also received 'family reunion' badges. A nice touch and they also wrote on our dinner tablecloth (it was just paper) in big writing - 'Welcome to the USA'. They made us feel really welcome.

This next shot is of Minnie visiting our table and Melanie's reaction and she did this to every character that came. It was something I wish I had videotaped!

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We came for the Disney characters. We had Goofy, Princess Yulan, Peter Pan, Chipendale and Minnie Mouse visit our table. They gave us time to take photos, played with the kids a bit and signed 'autographs' in their holiday journal. It was great for the family and what we hoped for. Seeing the joy on our kids faces as they got over their shyness was wonderful.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3501/3224027587_5d855d3015.jpg?v=0

Long day but a great start. On to Disneyland tomorrow.

[ 25.01.2009, 05:44 PM: Message edited by: chunky ]

[Vet]

glad you're having a fab time - I used my daughter as the excuse to go too :D

[skijacski]

OH MY GOSHGOODNESS - how many kids and only two adults! They seem a handfull - holiday, you will need one when you get back!

Good on you, love the report.

[SnoWhite]

Good to hear the holiday is off to a great start. OMG 5 kids! (So good to know someone is having my share for me.) Have fun and look out of the seven dwarves, they're hanging out over there somewhere at the moment. ;)

[Xena]

With 5 small kids and 2 adults, they ARE the 7 dwarves!

[Xena]

Chunky, Missy, Smiley, Grinner, Twinner, Thorn and Supermum.


Edited, because at first Thorn was called Garbo - then I remembered that the garbage truck loving one is Frog's boy, so he got renamed Thorn - in between all those roses!

[ 25.01.2009, 10:48 PM: Message edited by: Xena. ]

[chunky]

graemlins/big_laugh.gif

The little girl second from right in kiddie group shot is my niece. 4 is enough :D

[chunky]

Day two was pretty amazing. Our first Denny's breakfast in a long time. We took advantage of the one adult meal gets a kiddie one for free. Still too much food. We headed into Disneyland and took it fairly leisurely throughout the day. I should say the ART shuttle system is very efficient over here. Pick ups from what I can see from almost every major hotel in the area and they come every 20 mins. $3 for an adult or $1 for a child for the day or we took the 3 day pass, which was $10 for adults and $2 children. We are within walking distance of about 20 mins or so and we have already done the trip to the park either way.

We didn't see everything but we knew that would be the case. Everyone had a great time as we saw parts of each area.

[karen97]

Nice Chunky smile.gif Did you go on the Haunted Mansion?

[chunky]

The highlight for my son was getting picked to be in the Jedi Academy training along with accidental pick - one of his twin sisters, who really didn't know what she was getting into. We were lucky as they only pick a certain number from the audience and our son had been wanting to be selected for months! Very fortunate!

It was fantastic for both us as the parents and the children. They get lightsabres and a padawan jedi cloak. They learn some 'moves' and then a nasty guest arrives, who tries to persuade them to turn to the dark side. Of course they all refuse and one by one they get to take on either Darth Vader or Darth Maul!

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Two more from Mickey's toontown. The 3 kids in first 3 carriages on roller coaster are from the Chunky family - I think they like it!

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A truly great effort from the kids. They survived (maybe the parents as well) barely. Got in just before 11pm so we had been in the park for about 14 hours.

Another big day tomorrow planned. Disney California then a 5-6 hour drive to Las Vegas for a very late/early morning check in at the Excalibur.

[chunky]

Originally posted by karen97:
Nice Chunky smile.gif Did you go on the Haunted Mansion? No :( It was closed for maintenance :(

[karen97]

Make sure you go on Soaring over California and if you like coasters, California Screamin' is one of the best ever!! :D

[ 26.01.2009, 07:17 PM: Message edited by: karen97 ]

[Podlettte]

sounds great Chunky :D

[karen97]

Start another thread in the OS forum Vet :rolleyes: I am over the SPAM

[SA]

graemlins/big_laugh.gif Got the irrits much, kaz? :D

[ausi ski bum]

Hey Chunky if you want to do the most exciting ride of your life go do the rides on the top of the Stratosphere in Vegas, they were so awsome we did them all again then returned that evening for more.

Every ride from now on in my life will be tame.

[karen97]

Originally posted by ausi ski bum:
Hey Chunky if you want to do the most exciting ride of your life go do the rides on the top of the Stratosphere in Vegas, they were so awsome we did them all again then returned that evening for more.

Every ride from now on in my life will be tame. The only one that made my hands sweat was the X Scream. I didn't ride Insanity. The coaster is lame

[chunky]

Yeah they look scary. I might have to sacrifice my chance to look after the kids while +1 does them.

[Jahoota]

graemlins/big_laugh.gif OK, the big kids look like they are enjoying this just a tad too much!!!! graemlins/big_laugh.gif

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3525/3227441477_d3b29d8ae6.jpg?v=0

[ 27.01.2009, 08:16 AM: Message edited by: Jahoota ]

[Swede]

Sounds like everyone's having a great time. Keep it comimg!

[chunky]

Hello Snowatchers!

Reporting in from a snowy and cold Bryce Canyon evening!

Day 3 - Day 2 at Disneyland but also our last. We headed over to Disneyland to do some of the rides we missed on the first day. Enjoyed the Indiana ride but it was very short for the wait but eh, it's Disneyland and I bet the crowds are a lot shorter than in summer. We then spent the afternoon in Disney California and while it was enjoyable lacked that 'Disney' atmosphere almost immediately once walking in.

The kids got to meet Alice in Disneyland!

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Missy Moo was not sure if she liked the merry go round in Disney California. Certainly was petrified of the beautiful carousel in Fantasyland the previous day.

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The downside to coming in winter. Disney California's water area is down for maintenance including the big wheel and Grizzly Peaks - I so wanted to try that one :(

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And one of the highlights of the two days was the Pixar parade at Disney California, where they had all the Pixar cartoons come out. There were no parades in Disneyland sadly.

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We unfortunately could not pick up our car for this trip until this evening as this had been our original flight day into the US before the V Australia delay. We could have hired for the extra two days but the car company wanted to rework the entire booking at the new exchange rate. Heading back to LAX and picking up our car, heading back to Anaheim and collecting children delayed our departure from the LA area until 9.30pm :( :( :( Hassle free drive but we were very tired from 3 pretty full on days.

We power napped in Baker before getting to check in at the Excalibur in Las Vegas at 3am. I remember +1 waking me up later that day and I was like ok let's do some breakfast. It was passed midday and even the kids including bubs had slept passed that time too.

[ 30.01.2009, 04:09 PM: Message edited by: chunky ]

[chunky]

Day 4 - a delayed look around Las Vegas. We spent the afternoon and evening walking from the Excalibur down to Mirage Treasure Island to see the Sirens pirates show and missed it the 8.30pm show by 15 mins. The next one was going to be at 10.30pm and by now we had 4 very extremely tired kids again, including Melanie Moo, who has held up extremely well considering she has not had her meals at the right times every day nor has she had proper sleeps during the day.

We did however get to see the Chinese Dragon dance at the Bellagio to welcome in the Chinese New Year and well our first Show us your Snowatcher entry smile.gif We even convinced the dragon, been watched by several thousands of people to stop by us and get a photo. Jasper was not too sure what to make him hence the apprehensive sort of look. They had also decked out the hotel in beautiful Chinese decorations.

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And a scene looking from the Bellagio out across the lake.

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[chunky]

Day 5. We visited Hoover Dam in the morning. I was happy to just walk over the dam and look at the overflow areas. I was actually more fascinated with the new bridge they are building just down from the dam.

This evening we went to a 'different' Cirque Du Solei called Zumanity. Umm, it is an adults only one and it misses on most of the acrobatic elements that these Circuses are famous for. It still had some amazing things done but well you got to see more of the performers than you normally do...

[Xena]

Originally posted by ausi ski bum:
Hey Chunky if you want to do the most exciting ride of your life go do the rides on the top of the Stratosphere in Vegas, they were so awsome we did them all again then returned that evening for more.

Every ride from now on in my life will be tame. US theme park rides do that to you! Dreamworld on the GC - pussy rides!

[Xena]

I love the Bellagio - so pretty - great shot btw!

[Xena]

Originally posted by chunky:
Day 5. We visited Hoover Dam in the morning. I was happy to just walk over the dam and look at the overflow areas. I was actually more fascinated with the new bridge they are building just down from the dam.

This evening we went to a 'different' Cirque Du Solei called Zumanity. Umm, it is an adults only one and it misses on most of the acrobatic elements that these Circuses are famous for. It still had some amazing things done but well you got to see more of the performers than you normally do... Did you see Blue Man Group at Venetian? Kids would love that and so would you!

[Polaris]

I reckon he must be skiing now because of the lack of day reports :mad:

[kort]

Originally posted by chunky:


This evening we went to a 'different' Cirque Du Solei called Zumanity. Umm, it is an adults only one and it misses on most of the acrobatic elements that these Circuses are famous for. It still had some amazing things done but well you got to see more of the performers than you normally do... Ahh I wante dto see Zumanity - some of the female performers looked rather attractive :)
In the end we saw "O" (the water show) as well as Phantom of the Opera - can't get enough of Phantom - best stage show ever...

[chunky]

Snow shots are coming. Steamboat is just lovely. Our first real day here. Bluebird skies and nice snow :D :D

O was consistently mentioned as the best cirque show on the strip - even by the person who sold us the Zumanity tickets but it is also almost double the price.

I better not let +1 read your thoughts on Phantom kort - she loves that show.

Xena - no we did not have time but in order of must do's which we didn't do in the end were O and Blue Man. I also missed by a day Drew Carey - would have liked to have see him live.

[chunky]

Will do another update (I am a bit behind) very soon smile.gif

[chunky]

Day 6 - we headed out of Las Vegas up to Zion National Park. The desert scenery is very pretty and sometimes the photos lack the awe and majesty of the place. Jasper was not well on the way up and we had to do some clean ups on the way up.

As you can see it was a bluebird day - not a cloud in the sky driving up.

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Lunch in Springdale was very nice. What a backdrop to eat against. The town is the last before the entrance to the park.

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Up above Zion we found a mini-gorge, which we took a tour through. It had a thin sheet of ice that had frozen over when there had been water in the creekbed. A much milder version of Maligne Canyon for those that know.

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My friend then wanted to have us climb one of the many ridges found in the area. Let's just say we probably shouldn't have taken the kids and the way up was hard as seen in the photo. The way down - his easier way - was not. The shale was very crumbly and the cliff face was a lot higher. We did make it down in one piece.

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Sunset/dusk shot along the road.

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[Jahoota]

Awesome.

[chunky]

Day 7 - One of my favourite National Parks of all time - Bryce Canyon. We stayed at Ruby's Inn the previous evening. It's the closest motel to the park entrance - not that that really matters but the services there are good. They have 3 month waiting lists here in the summer.

Anyway suffice to say this place is magnificent in its scenery, what you can experience in a short time compared to say the Grand Canyon, where generally in winter all you can do is walk along the rim. At Bryce you can still get right down amongst the hoodoos, which are the tall pillar like formations that dot the area, go through mini gorges and get a real feel for the place.

I managed to force myself up just after sunrise to get the morning glow across the ampitheatre.

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[chunky]

Headed back for breakfast and organised the family for the hike into the canyon. We started off at Sunset point on the Navajo loop trail, which joins to the Queens Garden trail, which ends at Sunrise point. We completed that with all kids in tow in around 4 hours.

http://www.us-national-parks.net/images/bryct.jpg

[chunky]

About to head down here. Snowy up top and the trails weren't too icy as the snow hadn't been compacted too much. There was a bit of mud in places, which was more slippery than the snow.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3419/3252607778_34eb65fa72.jpg?v=0

Descending through one of the deep gorge like areas. Fairly steep. I remember falling flat on my .... through here many years ago on a steep snowy section.

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+1 and Missy Moo sitting warm and comfy in her Macpac Possum backpack.

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[chunky]

My kids love to slide on anything remotely hilly. Every opportunity they tried. No they aren't Norwegian. Here Jasper and Caitlin are contemplating what is higher up this small slope. They had already tried it several times.

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The Chunky expedition shot.

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More scenery with the bluebird sky - it was perfect weather.

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[chunky]

Ascending up to the canyon rim.

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Sigh, I wish we could have spent more time here. Off to Salina for the night about 2.5 hours drive away.

[skichic]

nice chunky, I love Bryce and Zion. Only seen them in summer though! Can you just fast forward to some Steamboat pics pleeeaaassseeeee graemlins/cold.gif

[Xena]

Great work! Keep giving us 'Chunks' of information every so often!

[bdenny4]

WOW Chunky those shots are awesome.
I have only been to those parks in the height of summer just like SC but they look so much prettier in winter.
Great trip so far.... envious

[chunky]

http://www.steamboatweather.com/pixarc/sbs10/sgcam.jpg

[Polaris]

any snow at Steamboat recently Chunky?

[chunky]

No :( Expecting snow showers on and off over the next couple of days but nothing big like what is happening in California atm. I will get some snow pics up of here very soon.

[Polaris]

thats OK don't panic, I've seen 8" predictions turn into 20"+ at Steamboat ;)

[Polaris]

and what they describe as "snow showers" are not what we usually relate to snow showers ;)

[skichic]

when were you at Steamboat Polly? graemlins/cold.gif

[chunky]

An update tonight my time I promise.

[chunky]

Day 8 - we slept in and didn't leave Salina until mid-morning so our expected day in Arches NP sort of became an afternoon only.

The drive along I-70 has some amazing vistas through the Utah desert.

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One of the many arches you can see in the park.

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In the Devil's Garden area of Arches my friend climbed up a small but steep formation to say goodbye to the afternoon sun. Some young American lads came along and one tried to copy him. He got to the top but then he couldn't work out how to get down and he felt like being sick until my friend came to the rescue to bring him down.

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[chunky]

Day 9 - we stayed the night at Grand Junction and headed up early along the I-70 to Wolcott and then headed north towards Steamboat via Yampa. A very pretty drive.

We stayed at The Trails at Storm Meadowns - a ski in ski out condo along the Right-o-way run. The access trail was right outside our place so it was very convenient to get to and from the slopes. For the littlies the free bus stopped right outside our complex.

Caitlin showing off where we were.

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The view from our balcony across to the slopes. Our place was more like a multi-story town house and not in a building of units, which you can see to the left in this photo.

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We had arrived after some fresh snowfalls and had some wonderful bluebird days.

[chunky]

And Polaris no snowfalls while we were here - nothing significant anyway. There is supposed to be some good stuff coming our way. Even the Grand Canyon area is getting lots. Flagstaff are expecting about 8-16 inches. Up above Heber City, where we are atm it has snowed about 3 inches in the last few hours. Friend has skyped me from Daniel's lodge, where we are off to tomorrow.

[chunky]

The skiing was great all week though the snow was getting hardpacked by Thursday. There was no icy bits to worry about and the upper 2/3 of the mtn were excellent - well even the bottom half was but you did notice how much drier the snow was up top.

About to ski down Lower Vally View - a not so difficult black run leading down towards the base. Ah the views...

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Looking back up Heavenly Daze in the opposite direction to the one just before.

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A not so close up of a gumby Chunky heading down the Vagabond run.

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What a nice way to finish the day - our hot tub back at our place.

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We all took turns making snow angels. you can see some garbled ones behind Jasper as he makes a run back from one.

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[chunky]

Rest time now. Will upload some more from Steamboat soon...

[Polaris]

Originally posted by skichic:
when were you at Steamboat Polly? graemlins/cold.gif ages ago

[ 09.02.2009, 10:44 PM: Message edited by: Polaris ]

[Polaris]

bugger about the lack of fresh at Steamboat Chunky :(

[Xena]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3356/3265163151_59a0ecc0c1.jpg?v=0

That looks like a giant esky!

[chunky]

Hehe. A nice warm esky. Snowing steadily in Heber atm. Hoping the snowmobile trails up near Daniel's Lodge in Uinta NP will be open.

There was still plenty of untracked snow in the Morningside area Polaris and deep. You just had to be adept at very quick changes in direction through the trees, which I was not so good at but I did try it.

The white spec in some of the photos is the moon and not something wrong with the picture.

[skichic]

Originally posted by Polaris:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by skichic:
when were you at Steamboat Polly? graemlins/cold.gif ages ago </font>[/QUOTE]seems like a lifetime for me too *sigh*

great pics Chunky, looking forward to some more smile.gif

[chunky]

Now for a little bit of info about Steamboat. The actual mountain village is a few kilometres away from the town of Steamboat Springs.

The mountain village itself is made up of private homes, condos (apartments) and townhomes. Heading down towards the gondola base area are plenty of ski in ski out accomodations and a very good network of access trails to and from the main home run to aloow this. If the snow fails and these trail are not skiiable the resort has a very good network of free buses that transport sliders to and from the mountain base to the various areas around the mountain. From the same common pick up area at the bottom they have free buses that run downtown to areas such as the supermarket or to downtown itself.

There are plenty of runs for everyone. Gladed runs, long cruisers, home trails, green runs, terrain park, double blacks etc. And they had plenty of snow when we were there with the option to snowmake on many of the trails if required. Even when the temps in the base area got close or just above zero the snow held up amazingly well. These runs are all connected by a very good lift system, which is mainly chairs - yay - no yucky t-bars! There were no queues during the week however on the weekend there was a small wait but nothing like what I have seen back home. They scan your lift tickets at all the base lifts but there is generally little checking of these on the higher lifts.

Where this place excels far beyond what we thought and was also a reason for picking this resort after going to a ski expo on US resorts last year is their ski school for children! Particularly for our two 4 year olds - the ratio of instructors to particpants was amazing. Most classes for the younger ones were a max of about 6 to one instructor - possibly also the time of year as well but the enthusiasm from these people flowed through into generating interest in the younger kids. Far better than the awful experience I witnessed my son have at Thredbo for the same age, when we had an instructor who just couldn't be bothered. Yes my son's experience at Thredbo, who I had held in high regard until that time was awful to the point he was crying each day - don't put me in ski school daddy! Anyway I am going off on a tangent there.

My girls were in a ski school called Sundance, which is from kindy to 4 years. An excellent and entertaining program that had the little ones from 9am to 3pm with approx 2 hours skiing in the morning and 2 hours skiing in the afternoon.

My son was in a program called Roughriders - 1st grade up to 15 years. This is an all day ski program that included lunch. They had my son sno ploughing and enjoying it unlike Thredbo's failure. Yes he was younger but they had my girls skiing too and they are the same age as when Jasper first tried at Thredbo. Yes I am being critical cos I pay a lot of money for these lessons and by the end of the week was amazed at the improvement all my kids displayed with their skills.

They even include gps on the kids so they know where they are at all times. After the instructor hands in the equipment, parents are allowed to get the tag number and then go to the website (technology is supposedly out of Brisbane) and see what your kids have done for the day. It gives stats like distance travelled, vertical, max speed and avg speed but the fun bit is replaying his movement superimposed over a ski trail map of the resort to see what trails he completed!

Anyway I guess you can tell I was impressed with their ski school options. They look after kids from 6 months.

Steamboat is a full service town - it's just as busy or busier in summer. So its services are very good and activities outside skiing there is plenty to choose from. There are downtown hot springs with waterslides. Horseriding, sleigh riding, tubing, snow shoeing etc etc.

Anyway I give it a thumbs up and if I can think of anything more I will certainly add it in.

[ 12.02.2009, 02:23 AM: Message edited by: chunky ]

[skichic]

gooood margaritas graemlins/cold.gif

[Dr D]

Ok

Note to self. ** Add Steamboat to list.** smile.gif

[chunky]

Well if I can't get out of this town I am snowed in at the moment I will add lots of photos. Mtn passes are closed and we are waiting to see if we can head west towards Reno through central Nevada. Supposedly the views here are spectacular but we can't see anything :(

Dr D - good on ya :D

[chunky]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3298/3275333173_69d5ec335f.jpg?v=0

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[chunky]

We were also in Steamboat for its 96th Annual Winter Festival.

They cover the main street in snow like it was in the old days and have races on them. The ones we witnessed were when horses pulled kids on a speed race down the street. Falling was a disqualification. They also had jumps, placing a hoop in a basket as you raced by and for the older ones a shovel race, where you were pulled by horse while hanging onto a shovel.

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You can see in the next one - to try and finish quicker than the other competitors - skiers or boarders that were capable pulled themselves up the rope so they were closer to the horse and thus cross the finish line that little bit faster.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3297/3275333487_f4564daf4e.jpg?v=0

I tried to focus on the horse here. For some kids they were able to handle the horse at a full gallop.

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[chunky]

I wasn't in the best position for photos of the jumps but I managed this one - the landing was going to be bad...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3366/3275333607_f217690be2.jpg?v=0

Anyone of the right age was allowed to register. Jasper would have loved to have gone in it but he wouldn't have been good enough. Maybe next time.

Some shovel racer shots.

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And to top off the week's festivities they had a fireworks and night skiing display on the nearby Howelsen Hill, the oldest ski jumping hill in North America. It also has sent more skiers to international competition for the US than any other area in the US.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3509/3275333701_579deeee10.jpg?v=0

[Xena]

Fabulous!

Steamboat is on the list!!!!

[chunky]

Our plans after Steamboat changed. Unfortunately Yellowstone NP was knocked off our list. In Jackson they only offered per person tours into the park via snocoach so at $240-$275 per person for our family this was too expensive. West Yellowstone, which was another 3 hours away offered a charter snocoach for about $880 but the rest of the group were not keen on doing the drive :(

So we went to Plan B. Head towards Salt Lake City and see what we could find there. Our main aim was to find an area that we could snowmobile. We also hoped to try skiing in the area too.

[Podlettte]

Hey chunky, are you still over here? If you are in Salt Lake, stay up near Ogden and drive up to Snowbasin, you will be floored by their services :D Absolutely amazing mountain and I'd head back there in a flash. Drive up is easy through either Ogden canyon or weber road via the I-84. The latter is mostly highway with only a small amount of smaller road driving but no where near as scenic or spectacular as the drive up ogden canyon road, simply gorgeous.

the day lodges at Snowbasin are amazing, the guys compared them to Deer Valley, the loos are insane! I took pics and will post sometime today.

We're in cedar city right now having a day off, I've wrenched my knee a bit and BH is still sufferring from the cold I handed out to everyone *whistle*. Probably off to Zion tomorrow, the others in our group have headed up to brian head ski resort base elevation 9700ft, top elevation 11300ft. Bit windy, so they may continue on to Bryce canyon. We're heading into cedar city to have a real coffee and for me a real cup of tea at a cafe we've spotted that has loose leaf tea. I didn't think getting a good cup of tea would be an issue in the states, but I have only had crap so far :(

[Podlettte]

ooh and look up canyon sports, you can get better discounts from them on the various SLC resorts smile.gif

[chunky]

Ooooh, we were going to go to Ogden but changed our minds at the last minute. We were thinking of skiing Powder Mtn as well. I am way down in Santa Cruz atm. OUr trip is almost at an end :(

You should hopefully be getting some good snows.

[chunky]

Well sorry for the slow updates. The last few days in the US the internet was unreliable.

Our Steamboat stay is over and we headed west towards Utah. Most of the day was dreary and overcast and the forecast big dump missed us. In some ways that was a blessing because it didn't interupt our drive. We hit snow in the mountains around Uinta National Park in Utah and decided to stay in Heber City. Our plan was to head up to Daniel's Lodge in the mtns nearby for some snowmobiling the next day :D

Everything started out well. It had been snowing in Heber and gave us a glimpse of what to expect higher up!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3450/3294943842_9769181bf2.jpg?v=0

The snow was great. It was still falling. Vis was low and we started out by doing some mountain trails. We chose the self-guiding option.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3335/3294119051_2279d3f8a2.jpg?v=0

I bogged my machine off the trail a few times but my friend managed to roll his and flood the motor. Lucky a guided tour was nearby and the guide helped us out.

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[chunky]

The views while limited were still as spectacular in a mystical sort of way. Ever been in a forest with falling snow and all is quiet well you might get what I mean.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3435/3294944436_a50060d166.jpg?v=0

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We hit some alpine meadows for some free riding in the deep.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3631/3294119619_91804f1aaa.jpg?v=0

I like this one - father son thing...

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I almost feel like we should do a captioning contest with these next two graemlins/big_laugh.gif

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From here things sort of went astray. We had been going well and followed what we thought was the trail but had instead veered right off course. It was still early in the afternoon and we hit another alpine meadow with even deeper snow and this is where the whole party started to get bogged down. In some parts I kid you not when you jumped off your snowmobile it was chest deep.

Unfortunately the kill switch was in an awkward position on the handle of the snowmobile and as you shifted weight around to counter the sinking and turning the kids kept sliding their hands across and killing the power. One of my girls managed to do this 3 times in one run up the hill. While I was waiting for it and managed to save the power and keep on moving the others struggled.

We had also lost our trail and unknown to everyone but my friend above - at lunch he had handed back our only communication device with base (don't start me on that one - grrrr) Suffice to say what had started out as a few bogged snowmobiles - it became quite serious as we could not get up the hill in the deep snow. The kids were crying and everyone was stressed. Once it got dark...yes dark it became clear that we were going to need help.

Suffice to say we were rescued. The way I orginally wanted to go to get back on course was the right way but the consensus of some others was to go another way. I hit a hidden creek and while I powered through it to not bog in it I hit an almost vertical creek bank on other side. I got through it but didn't realise until I had stopped that my daughter, who had been riding with me of course not expecting that sudden push upon hitting the bank had hit herself on the handle bars. I was a bit panicky cos I thought she had broken her nose - blood coming out - crying so forth.

Sigh it was a very eventful end. We were about 10km's from base when found and well we got a night snowmobile too. We laugh on it now but some serious errors were made which we will learn from.

[chunky]

Oh and no broken nose just very tired, cold and frightened. It was still a great day apart from that. At no stage did we venture into areas where there would be avalanches. And the snow was awesomely deep in spots and was some of the best I have ridden.

I still think my ride up near Nelson in Canada was the best many years ago.

More to come soon...

[karen97]

Sounds like an awesome adventure Chunky :D Glad everyone is ok tho smile.gif

[Xena]

Adventure, turned nasty, all problems solved, no serious injuries, laughing now - sounds like the stuff good memories are made of!!!! Go Chunky clan!!!

[skichic]

far out chunky :eek: that would have been scarey, esp with the kids on board!

Glad you're all safe smile.gif

[Vet]

if that's a holiday, what do you do for thrills??? :D

[chunky]

Final updates soon I promise.

[chunky]

Ok after our eventful day snowmobiling we decided to take it very easy the next day. We headed out to the Homestead to visit a volcanic crater that is a sinkhole of thermal water that you can scuba dive, snorkel or swim in. We didn't do that but it did look like it would be interesting.

We then headed out to look at the views of the mountains nearby and see what we could find.

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The clouds opened up at the beautifully scenic Sundance. We didn't ski but scouted it out. Looks like a place to slide next time we are there.

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We headed down to Soldier's Hollow just outside Heber City for some snow tubing for the family. Melanie didn't cooperate too much but everyone else had fun.

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No crowds and plenty of seats to choose from to catch a few sunbeams. It was all dark and gloomy like in the background all around us except for where we were :D

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[chunky]

Soldier's Hollow was one of the Salt Lake City Olympic Sites.

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The next day we decided to go to the Olympic Park just outside Park City. We were very tempted to ski Deer Valley but the weather was inclement - I didn't mind the snow falling and to organise stuff for the 4 kids was weighing on us a bit so we decided to just do some more sight seeing.

+1 got to hold the Olympic torch!

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Unknown to us at the time was a World Cup event in the skeleton and luge going on so we wandered up to the competition area to have a look. Two Aussie girls were in it and we cheered them on.

The British girl...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3649/3322349176_40d757181a.jpg?v=0

It was snowing fairly moderately so they were sweeping the track as much as they could between competitors. This next pic is a close up of the pic before and I stumbled on what I thought was pretty amazing clarity through the visor in the helmut for the zoom in through the snow falling.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3658/3322349320_0f34abb6d4.jpg?v=0

The scoreboard with the Aussie girls on it. We didn't stay for the second round but both made it through the first round. But only just - slowest two went and last Aussie down was in the last spot for the second round.

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This was going to be our last full day in Utah. Our very nice experience. We did see the temple in SLC at night briefly but took no photos of it and there appears to be some amazing skiing there. Park City was just delightful with its old buildings lining the streets that it sort of made the modern day cars and buses look out of place.

[Vet]

Great shots - especially the Brit's death ray eyes.

[bdenny4]

That tubing thing looks like so much FUN!

[karen97]

Awesome pics Chunky :D

[chunky]

I will eventually get the final ones up soon.

[Podlettte]

Hey Chunky, I missed this one first time round...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3450/3294943842_9769181bf2.jpg?v=0

I see Arby's in the background, was there a steak place in the carpark the kids are in? if so we stayed at the same hotel on the 21st or 22nd Feb (US time)! graemlins/big_laugh.gif were you there then?

[chunky]

NO we just missed each other, which is a shame :(

Sounds like the same hotel? There was a heated pool in ours just to the right off shot.

[Podlettte]

I think we were at Holiday inn?

[chicco]

O chunky !! What a fabulous read (BB here).. I have so many questions for you.....

WOW! Gonna show Chicco your thread, and throw you a PM.

[chunky]

Bump for JSJ.

[JSJ]

Oh Chunky you are the best :) This has to be my favourite series of posts on Snowatch yet! I can't thank you enough for sharing all that you have.. your experiences and pics are nothing short of fantastic. Yes.. Steamboat is number one on my list.. and I plan to have a white Christmas there too. After reading and seeing how much fun you had with your family I am truely glad I decided to wait to share the experience with my hubby and kidlets too. Huge thanks Chunky.. huge thanks :)

Now I'm just wishing I had planned to do it this year with the damn Aussie dollar tasting so good.. bugger!

[chunky]

You're very welcome JSJ. There are so many choices over there.