Curling up with a good Winter Olympics

No sooner had my flight landed in Seattle than we had to pack for our weekend at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. We caught the 7am Amtrak train north on Saturday, skirting queues at the border and arriving in Canada to glorious sunshine.

 

There was a great atmosphere in the city, with visitors from all over the world (even the carpety bits). We rushed straight out to the Vancouver Olympic Centre to watch the women’s curling showdown between Team GB and Team USA.

Our seats weren’t quite *this* good but we did have great views of the US beating our brave lasses in a nail-biting tie-breaker.

After the game, we strolled around town, had a superb Chinese Malaysian meal at Tropkia and then headed out to the Murphy clan on the UBC campus.

Sunday morning, we got to chat with Kevin and Margaret (and Margaret) and see the full craziness of Aleh, Stef and Michael let loose on a Wii console – great to see them playing so well together!

There was no chance of getting tickets to any Olympics events that day – there were queues of hundreds just to see the Olympic flame, and even the Canadian Mint (!?) – but we had a lot of fun mooching around town, popping into shops and pavilions and grazing on Granville Island. Mmm, Olympic biscuits!

As the sun went down, it was time for a real grudge match – Canada vs USA in men’s hockey. We watched outside for a while on a big screen but all too soon it was time to head back to the station for our ‘high speed’ international train home. Great weekend!

Orlando’s other magic kingdom

Last week, I headed out to Orlando, Florida with the aim of covering four stories in as many days. A bit of a crazy schedule – especially with 500 miles of driving involved. First call was snorkelling with manatees for a travel feature in The Independent. Luckily, we arrived at the hot springs where they over-winter just as a volunteer rescue team was returning a cow to the water.

Weighting around half a ton, with muscles to match, these gentle giants nevertheless get slightly upset when you try to attach a GPS tracking tag to them. We launched her back into the warm waters, where she rejoined the 150-strong herd.

 

Next stop was Wekiwa Springs State Park where I took a hike  through the fragrant pine woods and saw palmettos. Here’s an armadillo snuffling for insects.

The next day, it was another big drive to Spruce Creek – the world’s largest air park, a town based around a runway, where people drive and park their planes alongside their cars. It was pretty surreal, as you can imagine – Uncle Charlie would think this place is heaven!

The same day, I also visited Ponce de Leon Springs State Park, where I took a dip in (possibly) the Fountain of Youth sought by Spanish Conquistadors. In the end, they settled for slaves and gold, while I settled for a very welcome dip in a bubbling spring and a hike through the ruins of Florida’s first theme park. Mini fact: back in the ’50s, this resort had the world’s only water-skiing elephant.

I rounded the day off with a 20-mile bike ride along the West Orange Trail, a super-smooth rail trail that winds through some cute old Orlando suburbs. Then I drove out to Oviedo to re-connect with old family friends – Rick and Jan Florsheim. Rick was one of dad’s photography students in the ’70s – now he’s a real gourmet and treated me to a first class Italian meal. Mamma mia!

Not too much to report from my last two days in Orlando. On the Thursday, I visited Lockheed Martin defence contractors and saw some cool high-tech simulator gadgets that were too classified to photo, and on Friday it was the CyberPatriots final at the spotless Rosen Shingle Creek resort. Geeky teenagers battling in cyberspace makes for an interesting story, but not especially dramatic visuals. Watch out for the story in Wired UK, hopefully soon.

A weekend at Whitefish

Our next notable outing was a trip to Whitefish, Montana, home of the Big Mountain ski resort – and a first class excuse to catch the Amtrak Empire Builder sleeper through snow, mountains, er, more snow and more mountains. We left Seattle at 4.30pm on the Friday afternoon – with a glass of Amtrak ‘champagne’ and 14 hours of rattling rails ahead of us.

Forget First Capital Connect, the Empire Builder is seriously comfortable (and, to be honest, seriously slow). A three-course dinner was served in the dining car and it was actually pretty tasty – a couple of glasses of Oregon plonk certainly helped.

After a night of nearly sleeping, we arrived in Whitefish at dawn. Trika had organised a fantastic lodge (more of a ski McMansion) just outside the resort. The others took to the slopes while I headed into town for the Whitefish Winter Carnival. First stop, a charity Penguin Plunge into the town’s frozen lake! Chilly but fun.

Then checked out the quaint small town parade.

 

In the evening, I rustled up a roast for the weary skiiers – Trika, Stephen and Stephen, Tom and Melissa and Karen of course. And yes, those are elk antlers over the table.

The next couple of days were a repeat – with the added attraction of a Superbowl party, a snowboarding lesson (hurt my ribs again!) and some excellent snow-shoeing at the summit.

Then another sleeper back to Seattle – complete with a five-hour delay in the mountains as we got stuck behind a broken-down freight train. There are worse places to get stranded!

Trika’s drizzly birthday

Sorry for my sluggishness in posting blogs – I’ve been on planes, trains and automobiles for most of the last month. Here’s something nice and domestic to start us off though – a visit from Kurt and Ginger with their newborn – Sam…

They were up to see us – of course – but also for Trika’s surprise birthday party in Meridian Playground just up the road. Here she is arriving under a beach umbrella festooned with fairy lights.

Kurt was keeping the baby warm….

While the rest of us enjoyed mulled wine, cha mpagne cocktails, Karen’s famous veggie chili and Stephen Bean’s delicious cake.

For some reason there were surfers on it. I forget why.

Just before hypothermia set in, we dismantled the decorations, loaded them in a wheelbarrow – and headed to the pub!

Hart was sulking because he didn’t have the most awesome T-shirt in the bar.

My tales of catching giant fish were popular, though.