Dad's Coin Collection

One of the ways that I stay connected to Dad is through his coin collection.  This was one facet of his dorkier side.  And truthfully, makes me feel a little bit better about the dork that I am!  Ha!

Dad started collecting pennies as a child.  In fact, the majority of his collection is pennies.  I can remember him sifting through his collection of hay pennies and buffalo nickels.  He would always remind us to minimize the contact with the coin by holding it by the edges.  In some cases, we were only allowed to handle the coins with a cloth.

These are some of the coins from Dad's collection.  I'm (slowly) working to scan them to digital pictures.  Once they're all digital, they'll be easier and safer (?) to share.  Thus far, I've scanned the National Coin Album book, the coins that are in individual cases, the 1817 - 1855 pennies, and the paper dollars.

Pretty cool, right?

World Championship of Bobsledding

Being a former Olympic host, Lake Placid has a unique capability to host winter sporting events.  On Saturday, I wanted to see some sort of competition.  No sooner did I voice the desire did we learn that the WORLD Bobsled and Skeleton Championship FINALS were scheduled to begin the following morning (Sunday).  Among our favorite Lake Placid 2012 surprises was the Bobsled & Skeleton World Championship.  We were stoked...

...but we didn't know what to expect.

For starters, don't expect to take an escalator, elevator, or shuttle to the top of the mountain.  No, sir.  There's only one way up and one way down the mountain: hoofin' it!  To make the climb more interesting, the terrain is steep, only lightly salted, and unforgiving.  I decided to increase the complexity by wearing my work shoes. Risky business!

In one regard, bobsled fans bare a striking similarity to NASCAR fans: they love sitting around and watching for the next wreck.  At Lake Placid, Turn 10 is the 'gotcha' turn. It even had a snack cart!  We watched The first few sleds from here before heading up to starting area.

The starting area is where the real action exists.  This is where the diehards gather to root on their teammates, friends, family, and country.  The US and Canada had the most fans but Germany had the loudest woman.  She was crazy.  And shouting in German.  It was like a scene out of SNL.  We laughed to one another but were far too uncomfortable to laugh out loud or capture the hilarity on video.  Ah, good times.

The first start that we saw was the British team.  It turns out that things didn't go so well for them.  They wrecked and caused a track shutdown while the crews cleaned up all of the broken plastic and fiberglass.  Here's their start.

We watched the rest of the races from here including the American team who won gold in the 2-man!  This was very cool.  We felt like we stumbled into a once in a lifetime experience. Let's hear it for Lake Placid!  Here's the video of the US team that finished 9th (Cunningham/Robinson).

Lake Placid Vacation Domination

This just in: Nantucket no longer #1 destination for Ali and David!  That's right, Lake Placid Lodge has replaced Nantucket atop our list of favorite vacation destinations.  It's been a hard fought battle, but we've fallen for the vistas and variety of LPL.

This year's b-day gift to Wifey was a surprise four days and three nights at LPL with the pup(!).  It's our second trip here.  When we visited during the summer, we stayed in the suites. This time around, we rented a cabin because those are the only rooms where dogs are allowed.  We were fortunate enough to get upgraded to Owl's Head, the most private of the lake front cabins.

We both took a vacation day on Friday.  After a delicious husband made b-day breakfast, I delivered the news.  After a brief freakout, our bags got packed and we were on our way west (and north).  Four and a half hours later, we were checking in. We spent some time kibitzing with the welcome committee who were kind enough to give Jake water and a few treats.  We didn't get any snow accumulation while we were there but there was more than enough for us to enjoy it with Jake. He loves playing in the snow so this was a perfect trip for him.

It was very difficult for us to leave on Monday. And even more difficult for me to go into the office on Tuesday. We're already planning our return visit. Next time we plan to stay in the lodge so that we will have experienced each type of room.  Stay tuned for some more posts about the weekend details!

Jay Peak, Vermont

As previously reported, I am certainly NOT a strong skier.  I am, however, working to take full advantage of the mountains around me.  This week, I spent a long guys weekend in Jay, VT.

I’m so new at this stuff that each new mountain that I ski is like its own little adventure.  Cheesy…I know.  It is though!  This one was cool because:

1. I was going with eight very strong skiers and/or snowboarders.  My buddy Kyle is the one that plugged me into this group.  Many of these guys even skied on their college teams. 
2. This was the furthest north that I’ve ever been without buying a plane ticket.  In fact, if someone were so brazen as to take the Tram to the top of the mountain, one could see all of the way to Montreal.  …too bad that only the most difficult trails are accessed by the tram.

This was a lonely day of skiing for this here rookie.  No one else was willing to ski the green trails with me.  I really don’t mind though.  Skiing alone relieves a lot of the pressure and I don’t feel as though I’m slowing down the stronger skiers.

I skied about a half dozen different trails at Jay.  We got over six inches of snow the night that I arrived.  As a result, these were, by far, the best ski conditions that I’ve ever had.  I also found a new favorite trail: Deer Run.  I think it’s funny that the double black diamonds bare names like Green Baret, Timbuktu, and Derick Hot Shot.  Meanwhile, my cruiser trails have names like Harmony Lane, Sweetheart, and Grammy Jay.  Here’s a picture of the top of Deer Run.  Awesome!

As always, I call it a successful day when I can come home bruiseless.  I rushed home on Sunday to watch the Super Bowl with Wifey.  Apparently, that was bad luck for the Pat’s.  It’s going to take a while for us New Englanders to get over this loss.  Be sure to check out a few of the other landscape pics that I took while on the slopes.

Recycle Bin Igloos

Do you remember the feeling of a first snow when you were a kid?  I was a geeker for that kind of stuff.  As a child, I can remember rushing to all of the different windows in the house to see who got the best visit from Jack Frost...which did little more than only point toward the mere possibility that the environment could sustain snow.  There was more than one winter where I used the recycle bin to make bricks for an igloo!  Granted, I never completed a recycle-bin-brick-igloo...but the effort was there!

There was a corner near the carport at Needle Drive that used to collect snow at a much faster rate than any other part of the yard.  If we were lucky, the snow would pile high enough that we could tunnel into a few feet.  I swear there's a picture floating around of me as a tyke in front of that snow drift...

For the first time this season, it feels like winter has come to Boston.  I think that dogs love the snow just as much as me.  Snow delivers the additional blessing of covering the goose poo (yep) from our young lad's scent detection device.  Which means, he can go off leash during the daylight!

Warmer weather and rain is in the 10-day forecast. It sounds like the snow will be gone just as quickly as it arrived.  Until then, it's game on!

Captain Beard’s Log, Startdate 65505.1

Yes, that is today’s real stardate.  Don’t believe me?

I was combing through the featured articles on Yahoo! today and recognized two of the homes in a real estate article.  They're in my neighborhood!

Here’s a link to the original, Urban Mansions Rich with History.  Both of these homes are along the morning dog walk.  The Ames-Webster Mansion is on Dartmouth St.  As you’ll see in my picture, the shades in the windows have been drawn for months.

The O’Connor Residence is eerily close to home.  I can’t believe they’re asking $12.75M for the property.  Unreal.  This house is equally unoccupied on a frequent basis.

It must be nice to have a mansion on the market and feel no pressure to close a deal!

Bretton Woods II - Return of the Moose

It’s tough to know whether winter is going to happen this year (or not).  We headed for the North Country this weekend and didn’t see snow cover until we hit Franconia Notch (70 miles south of Canadia)!  Even then, there’s only 2-4 inches at the base of the mountains.  Onward!

By the time we got to the Mount Washington Hotel, the snow situation wasn’t much better.  The temperatures were low but there’s hardly any precipitation.  I love this hotel.  It’s one of my all-time favorites.  Snow or no snow, there’s tons to do.  On Friday night, we went out to the fire pit for s’mores.  I’m happy to have prepared Ali’s first EVER s’more.  She’s a fast learner and was dishing ‘em out as quickly as I could scarf them down.

On Saturday morning, I was off to fulfill my latest fascination: skiing.  Here’s the view from the top of the run that skied for most of the day.  Wifey and I have been here once before…this is the same Quad that we rode to get to the beginning of the zip-line course a year ago.  Our hotel is toward the lower left and Mount Washington is toward the upper right.

Since this is my third ever attempt to ski down a mountain, I feel conspicuously out of place at all times.  Stopping to snap pictures conceals that though, right?  …at least I didn’t fall this weekend!  My ski strategy is to find the path least traveled and then ski it over and over and over.  I highlighted “my” trails with yellow.  Even at this point in the season, they’re only operating ~30% of the trails because of the lack of snow.  All of the trails that were open were thanks to the maintenance, groomers, and snow making crews.

This was my first experience skiing by myself.  A bit nerve wracking to be honest; I was worrying about what would happen if I careened of the trail and into a tree.  I went early to avoid the crowds…would I ever be discovered??  Oh well, if I let the anxiety get ahold of me, I’ll never get off of the couch.  Fortunately, it all worked out in my favor.  I’m starting to wonder whether or not skiing will evolve into a more permanent fixture in my life.  I despise forking over $60-$70 to rent equipment each time I ski (3 times in the past 2 weeks - ugh).  But at the same time, I’d be even more upset if I bought skis…only to let them collect dust in the back of the storage unit.

I do, however, feel like a pro in the rentals room.  I cruise through there like a champion.  Once the crowds started to show up, it was time for me to hit the road.  Until tomorrow, Bretton Woods, until tomorrow.

We filled the rest of Saturday with mostly outdoor activities.  We contemplated cross country skiing until we agreed that it required too much effort.  We opted for snow tubing instead.  Here’s a pic of Ali cruisin’ down the hill.

There’s quite a bit of predictable chaos that occurs on a snow tube course.  For example, I towed Ali up to the top of the hill as she sit comfortable in her tube.  At which point, I took the liberty of propelling her down the hill against her will.  The only unpredictable element of our tomfoolery was the grandfather/grandson duo who had jumped onto the course at the midway point.  Sorry for the scare, guys!

I've uploaded some extra pictures from the trip here.