Snoozing Around Shanghai - Visiting Zhujiajiao, Xintiandi, and Tongchuan Lu

Jetlag is a bitch.  Instead of getting a good night sleep, all of us couch potatoes were wide awake at 3:30 AM.  We knew that we were going to have a long day ahead of ourselves, but none of us could fall back to sleep.  Our ride was not going to pick us up until 9 AM, so we had several hours to kill.  Once the sun started coming out, we made our way a few blocks east to grab breakfast from some street stalls.

These "pancakes" stuffed with garlic chives and scallions seemed popular among the locals.

Most of these food items were inexpensive at less than 10 RMB.

These "crepes" were made to order.

Eggs seemed to be the main form of protein available at these food stalls.

Beyond those areas were some butchers preparing meat for sale.  The Wife recognized that they were speaking a language other than plain Mandarin Chinese.  They were some of the ethnic people from the tumultuous Xianjiang region.   

With all of the recent terrorist activities linked to the Uigher people, we decided to not tempt
our fate around those with large knives.  We beat a hasty retreat back to the street stalls.

There are no places to sit down near these street vendors.  Most people just eat standing curbside or take it to go.  With the kids with us, we just went back to the hotel.  We stopped at the nearby 7-11 (yes they do have Slushies!) for some fruit-flavored yogurt-milk drinks.

The Boy loved this large "pancake" that was stuffed
with meat and tasted like spicy pizza sausage.

This "crepe" was seasoned with bean paste and egg
and stuffed with you tiao (fried breadsticks)

This breakfast item is essentially the Chinese
version of the Egg McMuffin sandwich.

It consisted of eggs, meat and vegetables encased in fried
dough.  It's even cheap enough to be on the dollar menu!

The commonly found sesame seed ball (jin deui)
is usually filled with sweet lotus paste. 

We bought this sweet, bean-filled bun from 7-11.
The Girl really liked it for its looks and taste.

At 9 AM the minivan picked us up and drove us to Zhujiajaio.  This city is one of several canal towns located near Shanghai that calls itself the “Venice of the East.”  Yet, none of them were ever a powerful city state with a mercantile navy that dominated the politics of that region.  Originally inhabited about 1700 years ago, Zhujiajiao really took off during the Qing and Ming Dynasties.  The attraction to tourists now is the traditional architecture of the buildings, the simple lifestyles of the inhabitants, and the picturesque canals and bridges. The Wife wanted to come here because Zhujiajiao has some of the best preserved ancient buildings in the Shanghai area.  She had originally considered the more popular canal town of Suzhou, but we would have lost an entire day just getting there and back.

Although the drive is only supposed to take around 40 minutes, it took us well over an hour because of the heavy traffic.  Perhaps a lot of the locals were headed out that way too, it being Saturday.  Luckily, the kids got a good nap out of the long ride.

At the entrance to the Old Town, there are three packages of tickets that can be purchased based on how many attractions a person is interested in visiting.  The highest tier included all the attractions and a boat ride for 80 RMB per person.  We decided to pass on any of these options.  We were expecting to wander the town on our own, but our driver decided to lead us through the narrow streets of the town. 

The wide street leading into the town...

...can quickly turn into narrow passages.

Tourists can get an idyllic view of Zhujiajiao from atop one of the bridges.

Zhujiajiao is no quaint, sleepy village.  Tourism has engulfed the Old Town.  On the main streets, practically every house is a storefront.  There are few residences there now.  Near the entrance, most of the shops sold popular local snacks.

Zongzi is similar to a Chinese tamale, made with rice instead of corn.  Glutinous
rice is stuffed with pork filling, wrapped in banana leaves, and then steamed.

Another specialty is the braised red pork knuckles.  I never saw anyone buying or
eating one of these, so there is no telling how long they have been sitting around.

We proceeded along North Street, the main thoroughfare through the ancient part of town.  Every other shop seemed to be a tea house.  Many were very bohemian or environmentally conscious (or at least they advertised that they are) to distinguish themselves to the younger granola-loving clientele.  As evidenced by the smog problems in China, most average Chinese could care less.

If there is coffee and tea houses around, Starbucks won't be too far away.

We stopped at one of the many makeshift stalls selling foods like fried smelts and lotus root.  The Wife insisted on getting some fried stinky tofu served with both sweet and spicy sauces.  It’s basically tofu that has been fermented (aka rotted) in brine for up to several months.  For anyone who has ever seen Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, it is one of the few foods that has continuously foiled Andrew Zimmern.  Stinky tofu is close to impossible to find back in the United States.  But The Wife enjoys it just like a Frenchman enjoys a good stinky cheese.  The last time (and first time) I had it was a few years ago from a similar street vendor in Kunming.  I had The Shits for the next three days.  Not learning my lesson, I shared some with The Wife.  I even convinced The Boy to take a bite.  He was so disgusted by the rotting smell and taste that he almost puked it back up.  

While there is definitely a stink to this tofu, I didn't taste as rancid as the stuff I had yeas ago.

After quickly passing by a few temples that are part of the town’s attractions, we arrived at the boat dock.  The Wife and I were not eager to take a very touristy boat ride down the canals.  However, the kids wanted to go, so we purchased a short ride for about 65 RMB.  Each boat can accommodate up to 6 passengers, and there was plenty of room for the five of us.  

Similar to the gondolas of Venice, a man stood in the back to propel and steer the boat.

There's little solitude on the canals.  There are multiple boats constantly ferrying tourists to and fro.

Who needs indoor plumbing when you have a source of water right outside your back door.

We passed by several of the ancient houses and bridges, most of them packed with tourists.  

There are 36 bridges in Zhujiajiao, albeit most are pretty small.

The boat ride took us near the Fangsheng bridge, the largest one in Zhujiajiao.

The short ride itself only took 15-20 minutes, but it was actually very enjoyable and relaxing, especially since we didn't have to row.  It was worth the time and money, so I was glad that we had listened to the kids.

Sometimes, it is better to pack a child’s innocence rather than an adult’s cynicism on vacation.

After disembarking the boat, we wandered through the rest of the Old Town, exploring the different shops and vendors.

The Wife happily reminisced about this molasses-like candy that she used to eat in China
when she was a small child.  The kids took a few bites, frowned, and threw it away.

Several artisans work with sugary syrups to create animal-shaped candies.

The Boy got a pig and The Girl a horse.
They each took a few bites,
frowned, and threw them away.

Feeling generous with their parents' money, the kids gave all of their coins to an elderly beggar.

Several shops had colorful birds chained up or kept in cages.

It seemed kind of cruel, but it did get our attention.

A craftsman creates combs from wood and cow bones.  Plastic is fine for me.

We did make a slight detour off of the main road.  This allowed us to see some of the more peaceful and residential aspects of the city.

Yet another bridge

These houses essentially have a pool in their backyards.

Most people don't have dryers in China, so clothes are left out to dry.

Restaurants line the canals.  There weren't many patrons...yet.

The canal empties into the much-wider Dianpu River 

Our driver led us over to some of Zhujiajiao's historic locations.  We peeked into (but did not pay for) the Qing Dynasty post office and the Tong Tian He Medicine Shop, a pharmacy that has provided traditional Chinese medicine to the city for centuries.  The entrance to each was only about 5 RMB per person, but neither looked really interesting to us.

I would hate to see a teen-aged miscreant
take a bat to this Qing Dynasty mailbox.

Does the Tong Tian He Medicine Shop have any ground-up rhinoceros horn or dried tiger's penis?

Guidebooks recommend several other attractions to visit in Zhujiajiao such as the Ke Zhi gardens.
However, we were just too tired fighting the throngs of tourists which had really gotten thick by midday.

After about three hours, we were done with this 3 sq km town.  Our energy was zapped from the jet lag. Most of the restaurants both inside the Old Town and just outside the entrance were already packed with tourists.  Since none of us were really hungry, we decided to go back to Shanghai instead.  After another one hour drive and a nap for all of us, we arrived in the swanky Xintiandi area of Shanghai.

Historically, the Xintiandi area is notable for hosting the First Congress of the Communist Party of China.  In present-day China, Xintiandi is notable for hosting pricey boutique stores, art galleries, and trendy Westernized cafes.  It's a great place for the bourgeois to shop.

This statue in the main square represents fortune, prosperity, and longevity.

The main pedestrian-only street is flanked by al fresco dining options.

We wandered around some of the shops while the kids complained how cold they were and how much their feet hurt.  At the nearby Xintiandi Style mall, there were many more upscale boutique stores from international designers who I've never heard of.  They had other upscale things such as a Maserati on display at the front entrance, a Vera Wang store, and a…Dairy Queen?!?  The Blizzards are good and all, but DQ isn't quite on the same tier as a luxury Italian car company.  We did enjoy a display of the clever works by a Chinese cartoonist named Tango Gao.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything else in English about him on the internet.  We did stop at a tea shop for a quick snack.  Mainly we just wanted to have a chance to sit down and rest.  They offered afternoon tea (expensive for China!), but we were in the mood for some sweets.

Fruit cheesecake

Strawberry parfait

The Wife and I feel that it is important for our kids to be exposed to the cultural history of China.  So we walked for several blocks to see the area that was previously part of the French Concession back in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.  We walked, and walked, and walked.  After half an hour of listening to the whines of tired children, we decided to give up on this foolish endeavor without having seen anything historical or interesting.  We decided to eschew the subway station and flagged a taxi to our next location for dinner.  After napping for 45 minutes during the taxi ride (only about 35-40 RMB), we arrived at Tongchuan street in the northwest area of Shanghai.

I’m fascinated by food markets.  Seafood markets are probably the most intriguing to me, probably because we live in a land-locked city without good access to ocean-dwelling critters.  The Tongchuan Lu seafood market is supposed to be the Tsukiji market of China.

Since we had been to Tsukiji five years ago, I was expecting great things.  However, it wasn't quite up to the same level.  As expected there was no tuna auction and there weren't items particular to the Japanese palate.  But, I was most disappointed in the lack of truly exotic items on sale.  After all, the Chinese will eat practically everything.  At Tsukiji, just about anything that has touched salty water can be found there.  That being said, there is still a huge variety of seafood on sale here.  It would still take several trips to this area to try them all.

Most of the pelagic fish on sale were pomfrets, yellow croakers, or other smaller fish.

Occasionally, we saw vendors with live fish swimming in coolers or bathtubs.

They did have plenty of salmon imported from Scandinavia
and belt fish (foreground), a specialty of Shanghai.

Vibrantly-colored spotted groupers can sometimes be found on ice.

Most vendors don't specialize in one type of seafood.  They often have a smattering of everything.

There are several varieties of lobsters on sale.  However,
they are all still pretty expensive, even when haggling.

Although native to the American Northwest, geoduck clams are very popular (and expensive) in Asia.

Mantis shrimp are one of the more popular items found at Tongchuan.  Their
powerful claws make them mean predators in the wild.  Supposedly,
the larger ones can even be strong enough to break aquarium glass.

Several varieties of reasonably-priced crabs can be found at the market.

These large sea scallops were a good bargain, so we bought several.

These surf clams will likely end up in someone's sushi.

We wandered around aimlessly through the dark inner warehouse running into workers sweeping up rotting shrimp shells, trucks unloading huge blocks of ice, and many dead ends.  Maybe we came at the wrong time as most shopping by restaurants is done first thing in the morning.  Maybe we just didn't explore enough of the area (the kids were getting very antsy).  Maybe I just had no idea what I was doing.  Tongchuan market didn't have quite the frenetic pace or energetic vibe that made the Tsukiji market so exciting.

I think we got here too late for the party.  In the morning, the market is usually hopping.

We settled on one shop along the main road and haggled for two crabs, 1.5 jin (~ 1.6 lb) of live mantis shrimp (ours were about 4-6 inches long, but some places sold foot-long ones), a yellow croaker, and 10 scallops still in the shell.  We couldn't come to terms with the vendor for a large spiny lobster which was “discounted” at 500 RMB.  All of these items came out to less than 300 RMB.  We probably could have done a better job of haggling, but we were already too tired and my speaking English didn't help.

The vendor recommended the nearby Tian Hong Seafood Restaurant to cook up our catch of the day.  The restaurant wasn't too busy when we first arrived, but by the time we left an hour later, there was a long line of people holding bags of seafood at the door.  The waitress examined and weighed our purchases and recommended a style of cooking for each item.  We were fine with whatever she suggested.

The only non-seafood item we ate were these really good greens sauteed with garlic.

The mantis shrimp were fried with spicy-salted seasoning. The flavor was great, but eating
them was very difficult as the shrimp shells are spiky and the meat stuck to the shells.

The crab was stir-fried with a ginger-onion sauce.  It was underseasoned.

The yellow croaker was steamed and served with a soy based sauce. The sauce
was good, but overall, I just don’t think it is that tasty of a fish to start with.

The scallops were served on the half-shell with noodles and sauce.  It was our favorite dish.

Surprisingly, we were able to barely finish all of that food.  The final tally at the restaurant was 130 RMB.  So for under $70, the four of us had a full meal of very fresh seafood.  Not bad.  I only wish that we had brought more people so that we could have sampled a wider variety of items.

On the way back, we walked past a few more seafood stalls to flag down a taxi.  One store was selling horseshoe crabs!  I don’t care how much it costs or how it tastes, I would have gotten one of those if I had seen it earlier.  With more time and experience at the Tongchuan market, I'm sure we could find more exotic critters and at even better prices.  Then I could do my part to help deplete the world’s oceans of living things.  However, I’ll have to convince the other Couch Potatoes to drive this far again for seafood first.  Plus, we will all have to do it on a better night's rest.

Traveling to China - Taking the Little Spuds To Their Motherland

For the last few years, The Wife and I have enjoyed abandoning the kids for 2 weeks while we traveled to some exotic international locales.  However, as The Boy and The Girl got older, we could come up with fewer and fewer excuses to leave them behind.  Since we haven’t been to China in the last five years, The Wife figured it was time to revisit her family.  While we were there, we would have a chance to take The Boy and The Girl to see the history and culture of their Motherland.

The Wife decided to start playing the credit card miles game.  After signing up for a dozen new AMEX’s and VISA’s, we had enough frequent flyer miles accumulated to save us over $2,000 on airfare.  Unfortunately, this amount of money only covered ONE round-trip economy fare to China.  Air travel is so expensive these days!

We narrowly chose United over Delta based upon some of the travel times.  (We would sorely regret that decision.)  This forced us to fly through Chicago O’Hare Airport.  As annoying as Atlanta Hartsfield can be because it is the busiest airport in the world, Chicago’s is worse because it is just old and outdated.   In order to connect from the domestic to the international  terminal, we had to walk down a flight of stairs, board a shuttle bus outside for a short drive, and then walk back up another flight of stairs.  The whole process took about twenty minutes (mainly from waiting), whereas a tram system used by newer airports would have done it in under 10 minutes.  Additionally, the gate for our departure had enough seating for less than half of the passengers.  By the time we got there, most people were sitting on the floor in front of the gate.

We must have been spoiled by the Delta airplanes which have individual movie screens on the chair in front of each passenger.  From a database of ~ 100 motion pictures and television shows, we could choose which programs we wanted to see and when we wanted to see them.   Conversely, our United flight had one main screen which showed the same four movies (and some filler TV crap) to the entire cabin.  We had counted on The Boy and The Girl having plenty of movies to pass the time on the flight.  None of the ones being shown were either new or appropriate for them on this journey.  It was a long, painful flight being stuck with 2 bored kids.

The Father-In-Law and The Mother-In-Law were in China for his annual series of mathematical lectures in China.  I think that they do this so that they can get free travel to interesting cities in this country.  They just happened to be in Shanghai for this one day while we were there too, so they met up with us at the airport.  The Wife was really excited about trying out the Maglev.

Shanghai's Maglev is one of only two currently operational trains
in the world that use magnetic levitation to transport passengers.

With the decrease in friction, the train can run faster with an added bonus of needing less maintenance.  The ride from the Pudong airport to the Maglev station (still on the outskirts of Shanghai) took only 8 minutes.  We were zooming by cars driving along the highway.  However, it never really felt that fast because the ride was very smooth.  There was minimal shaking and no G-forces from the small banking of the train along its essentially straight course.  The train was more akin to a Japanese luxury sedan rather than an Italian sports coupe.

The top speed the Maglev achieved 
was 431 km/hr (~ 268 miles/hr).  

Most of the cars on the train contained rows of empty seats.

The big glaring problem with the train is that it is underutilized.  The few seats that were taken were filled by foreigners like us.  At 50 RMB for a one way ride, it’s too expensive for the locals to use.  There have been plans to extend the Maglev further into the heart of the city, but that addition has been put on hold for now.

At the end of the Maglev ride, we were transported to our hotel by a driver whom The Father-In-Law's friend had hired.  When planning our trip, The Wife and I had really debated hard but decided against staying at one of the pricey hotels on the Bund.  Instead, we stayed at the Yangtze Boutique Hotel located closer to the main shopping areas.  We weren't disappointed.  At about $150 per night, the room was large and luxurious.  It didn't have the amenities of a Four Seasons Hotel, but it was much more affordable.

The Yangtze Boutique Hotel opened in 1934
during the height of Shanghai's prominence.  

Designed in the Art Deco style, the hotel was once labelled the "third largest hotel in the Far East"

There was plenty of comfort and room for our family of four.

The frosted glass doors really didn't offer much privacy.

Not far from the hotel were some notable dumpling shops.  Shanghai is known for their crab cuisine (specifically hairy crabs) and their soup dumplings--xiao long bao (XLB).  Although it wasn't hairy crab season (autumn), XLB’s are popular all year long.  XLB’s can contain filling mixtures like pork and shrimp that are similar to ordinary (but delicious) Chinese dumplings.  They differ in that there is also a rich-flavored broth that literally bursts from the dumpling when you bite into it.  To make XLB’s, Shanghai cooks create a collagenous stock that is solid when chilled, but soupy when hot.  The best dumplings also use extremely thin wrappers to achieve the desired filling-to-dough ratios.  As simple as this recipe may seem, it is, in my opinion, very difficult.  A few months previously, I tried making XLB’s with just a simple pork filling recipe.  After several hours of labor-intensive cooking and cheating (I used agar powder instead of a long, slow-cooked stock), I was left with >90% broken wrappers and soup draining into the steamer.  I essentially had spent hours making won-ton soup.  I wanted to see the finished product from the pros.

After reading extensive reviews by other travelers, we decided to forgo Nanxiang Mantou, the oldest and most reputed XLB restaurant, because too many internet reviewers think that it had jumped the shark.  We also wanted to avoid the successful Din Tai Fung as it is actually a Taiwanese-based chain restaurant.  We wanted something local.  Too many people raved about Jia Jia Tang Bao that I couldn't pass up the chance.  We spent 15 minutes walking there from our hotel.  We passed several luxury-brand stores like Cartier, Hugo Boss, etc.

It's ironic that there was such a huge line at the Nike store.  The locals were willing to pay more than
$100 for a shoe while some of their countrymen make as little as $1.67/hour to manufacture them.

Jia Jia Tang Bao looks like a hole in the wall.  The sign is purely in Chinese, the tables are cheap with plastic chairs, the décor is minimal to none, and there is only seating for about twenty people.

Without the few “Top Restaurant” stickers from sites like TripAdvisor posted
on the window, I would have thought that this place was a Cholera factory.

While their menu lists about a dozen types of dumplings, they had run out of most of them by the time we had arrived.  We placed our orders for the two remaining options left—pork and crab XLB’s and ones with just crab alone.  

We could watch the four workers do the tedious job of constructing the dumplings.
They do this to order so it took about 15 minutes to get our order.

We were not disappointed in the food.  The pork and crab ones were good, but the crab-only XLB’s were fantastic.  The crab roe flavors were intense.  While none leaked in the bamboo steamers, they splattered everywhere whenever we took a bite.  Our table was a mess.  It took a few dumplings before I got the hang of it.  Instead of biting straight into it, I learned to nibble off part of the top and then slurp out some of the piping-hot soup.  That would lessen the explosion.  The six of us polished off 3 dozen dumplings (I personally downed one dozen myself).

The soup dumplings with the pork and crab filling were good...

...but the crab-only ones were literally the bomb!

Unless carefully eaten, the crab roe-flavored soup would
explode onto the table whenever we would take a bite.

We had to pay 1 RMB for the ginger/vinegar dipping 
sauce.  It used to be free, but times are tough.  

After getting our fill of the crab soup dumplings, we walked directly across the street to Yang’s Fry Dumpling, another famous Shanghai dumpling establishment.  They specialize in sheng jian bao, or pan-fried steamed buns.  Although they have a few tables inside, most people get take-out.  Some people would just eat it standing on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.  

While we sat in Jia Jia Tang Bao, we noticed there was always a decent takeout line in front of Yang’s.

Yang's serves only one type of filling.  Similar to the XLB's, there is a broth on the inside.  However, it is thinner and pork-flavored.  We ordered 16 to take back with us to the hotel.

With the high demand for their dumplings, the workers continuously roll dumplings.

After being fried and steamed in huge skillets, the dumplings are served up at the take-out window.

On the way back, we saw that the nearby Nanjing Road was still busy with shoppers.

Back at the hotel we dug into the dumplings from Yang's.  Once again, they were also messy.

It’s going to be hard to explain the pork broth stains on the hotel walls.

A nice long bath and movie were perfect after a long day of travelling.

Wedging Our Way Through the Holidays - Learning To Ski At Snow Summit

During our Disney Cruise earlier in the year, the kids had so much fun together that The Wife and The Brother-In-Law started contemplating a joint skiing vacation.  Lofty aspirations of Deer Valley, Breckinridge, or Lake Tahoe dissipated until the decision was made to go to Snow Summit, only 2 hrs east of Los Angeles near the city of Big Bear Lake.  Since neither The Boy and The Girl nor their cousins Thing 1, Thing 2, and The Third Wheel had ever skied, it didn't make sense to go to some expensive resort when we would be spending much of the time on the bunny slopes.

The Big Sister made the arrangements.  Although we only had a few months notice, she was able to find a good property on VRBO (vacation rentals by owner). The condo was large enough to fit the nine of us.  The best part is that it is literally walking distance from the entrance of Snow Summitt.  Since we would be going during the peak Holiday season, we didn't want to have to deal with parking issues or waiting for shuttle buses.

Since we didn't have any skiing equipment, we had to start from scratch.  I was appalled at the prices of ski pants on the REI website.  Fortunately, we got some inexpensive, generic ones from Costco. We purchased some Oakley ski goggles (the Asian fit) for less off of EBay.  We also got some used ski bibs for the kids since it may be the only time they would ever use them.  Most importantly, we bought some ski helmets for the them on Amazon.com.  There were some cool-looking ones, but I bought them the plain white ones because they were on sale.  The Wife and I weren't going to wear helmets because style > safety.  Besides, we weren't going to pull a Natasha Richardson.

On Cyber Monday, we capitalized on the 20% discount that Snow Summit offered on tickets and lessons. We enrolled The Boy, The Girl, Thing 1, and Thing 2 in the kids ski school.  They would take the 4-hour "First Time Beginner" lessons on Day 1 and another 4-hour "The Next Steps" lessons on Day 2.  Similarly, since The Wife had never been skiing and I had done it only once 20 years ago, we both enrolled in the "First Time Beginner" lessons for adults.  Both of us and The Big Sister also signed up for the 2 hour "Beyond Beginner" lessons on Day 2.  There weren't really any options for the Third Wheel since he was only three years old.  He would take some expensive private ski lessons.  While everybody was learning to ski, the Brother-In-Law would learn how to fall repetitively on his snowboard.


*****


Wednesday, December 25, 2013

After celebrating Christmas at at the crack of dawn, we raced to the airport for our flight to Los Angeles. We would be spending the day at their house.  She proceeded to bake a turkey using an oven bag.  It's not the way I would do it, but surprisingly it turned out good.

The Boy spent most of the day playing the XBox 360 with Thing 1 and Thing 2.  They are all Minecraft fanatics.  The twins also wanted to play their new Disney Infinity game.  After having dealt with the money pit known as Skylanders, I'm surprised The Big Sister fell for another trap.  Thankfully, The Boy was not enraptured by the game.

While the boys were occupied with video games, The Girl obsessively sang the entire soundtrack to the movie Frozen.  She even memorized all of the gesticulations scene-by-scene.  Disney will eventually brainwash your kids, one way or the other.


*****


Thursday, December 26, 2013

The next morning, The Big Sister and I raided the grocery store as we were not planning to eat out at all once we made it to Big Bear Lake.  We are both methodical and like to plan things ahead.  We pretty much had all the meals and snacks perfectly calculated out to last us the entire trip.  We would wait until we got up the mountain to buy the perishable items such as milk that would spoil on the ride.

We packed up the kids and headed to Big Bear Lake.  The traffic wasn't bad at all until we started going up the mountain.  The road narrowed to one lane.  Fortunately for us, the weather was perfect.  If it had been snowy or icy, we would have had to learn how to put snow chains on the tires.

The condominium was just as advertised.  It was literally a two minutes walk (five if you are wearing ski boots and carrying equipment for several children) to the entrance of Snow Summit.  After settling in, we went ahead and rented our skis, poles, and boots in advance.  That way we wouldn't have to wake up so early the next morning and fight the crowds to get the rentals.

I went ahead and made a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner that night.  I also prepared some tomato soup for the following day.  We were so close to the park's entrance that we could easily walk back for lunch.

The Wife and The-Brother-In-Law went out for a quick run to the grocery store to pick up some milk.  More than an hour later, they returned instead with a car full of junk food including more boxes of cereal, 3 loaves of artisan breads, several bags of chips, 4 containers of ice cream ("It was on sale!" exclaimed The Wife), and an additional 4 bottles of diet coke.  So much for all of the planning.

The kids turned in that night, excited to be skiing for their first time.


*****


Friday, December 27, 2013

After a quick breakfast, it took forever to get every kid dressed in their ski clothes and snow boots.  It took even longer to figure out which skis belonged to what person.  The Big Sister stayed behind with the Third Wheel as they would not be hitting the slopes that day.  We finally made it to Snow Summit and dropped the older kids off at their respective ski schools.

We were all eager to learn how to fall down.

The Wife and I checked in at our class.  When they say beginner, they really mean beginner.  We were taught the basics such as how to put the skis on while on an incline, how to walk uphill with skis, how to stand while skiing, and how to "wedge" the skis to slow down.  I knew all of this from 20 years ago so it was somewhat painful for me.  However, for The Wife it was a true education.

We had worn several layers expecting to be cold on the ski slope.  However, the weather was a warm 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit.

I ended up ditching the ski jacket and sweater.
I was plenty warm with just a long-sleeve T-shirt.

After wedging on the bunny slope for about two hours, our class was over.  We picked the kids up from their schools and went back to the condo for lunch.  We had the tomato soup with some grilled cheese sandwiches.  Even the finicky kids enjoyed them.

That afternoon, the kids, The Wife and I spent two more hours finishing up our lessons for the day. We occasionally saw The Boy and his cousins effortlessly sliding down the slopes behind their instructors.

The Boy waits in line with his class for the ski lift.

Despite my assurances that snow is soft, The Wife was still very scared about falling so she was always the slowest person in our class.  We did catch some glimpses of Brother-In-Law on his snowboard.  I think he spent more time on his behind, then on the board.

That night The Big Sister made some curried salmon croquettes for dinner.  Despite her non-penchant for all things culinary, the food was very good.  All the adults and males in the house were really starting to get annoyed by The Girls incessant singing of the Frozen soundtrack.


*****

Saturday, December 28, 2013

After breakfast that morning, we dropped the kids back off at their ski schools.  The Wife, The Big Sister, and I checked in for the "Beyond Beginner" class.  They first had us ski down the slope and come to a stop to check our progression.  The Big Sister and I were put into the more advanced skiers.  The Wife was stuck with the folks who have no sense of balance.  They taught us some slightly more advanced methods of turning and stopping, but for the most part, we just practiced skiing down the bunny slope.  The advantage of this lesson was that we could skip the long queues for the bunny slope lift.  The classes have their own separate line.

The Third Wheel took his private lessons and did really well.  We didn't see him fall down during those two hours.  The ski instructors seemed well-versed in working with kids of all ages.

After breaking for a lunch of split pea soup back at the condo, we dropped the kids back off at their respective ski schools.  The Wife volunteered to watch The Third Wheel that afternoon.  The Big Sister, The Brother-In-Law, and I took the All Mountain Express Lift up to the top of the mountain.  It was much colder up their compared to the bunny slope.  I was regretting only wearing a long-sleeved shirt.

We went down the Summit Run twice.  It's a green, but it is complicated by the fact that it is crowded with novices like myself.  There are more obstacles to dodge including people who keep wiping out.  I did want to go fast and ended up falling twice, both at the same spots.  I really regretted not wearing my ski jacket then.  The Big Sister had no problems as she is quite methodical at skiing under control down the slopes.  The Brother-In-Law?  Let's say he was still trying to get accustomed to the snowboard.  By the second time down the run, he was too tired and sore to go again.

We picked the kids up from the last of their ski lessons.  I made beef stew for dinner that night.  While I cooked, I occasionally heard Thing 2 unconsciously humming the song "Let It Go" from the movie Frozen.

Before going to bed, we re-watched some Disney movies that we had on DVD.

*****

Sunday, December 29, 2013

This would be our last day on the ski slopes.  The Big Sister was going to stay behind with The Third Wheel.  The Wife and The Girl preferred to continue practicing on the bunny slopes.  The Brother-In-Law and I would end up taking The Boy, Thing 1, and Thing 2 down the Summit Run.  This time around, I was smart enough to wear my ski jacket.

Unlike the bunny slope lifts, the All Mountain Express Lifts are very efficient and not very crowded.  There is very little waiting in line.  All of the boys were fearless going down the ski slopes.

You are supposed to celebrate AFTER you make it down the ski run.

Green benches at the summit provided a respite
for The Brother-In-Law from falling down.

The Boy found the green routes to be very easy.

He was anxious to try some of the harder routes.

The Boy and Thing 2 were so light that they just easily glided along the snow.  They could simply just wedge down the steeper inclines.  That was not the case for Thing 1, The Brother-In-Law, and myself.  Since we were heavier with a higher center of balance, we had to watch our speed much closer as it was harder for us to slow down.

We went down that green route several times until Thing 1 and 2 were tired and wanted to go back to the condo.  I took The Boy one last time, but we decided to go down the blue trail instead.  It was a lot of fun and scarier for me.  The Boy made it seem effortless until he wiped out in the middle of the steepest slope at the end.  Since I was already below him, it was going to be a pain to walk back up to help him.  Luckily, some nice skier coming down stopped and helped him back on his skis.  We finished the slope and that ended our skiing for the trip.

We found The Girl and The Wife still on the bunny slope.

The Girl had no qualms about skiing fast.

They had had their fill of long waits on the bunny lift.

The Wife still kept wedging all the way down.

The Boy learned how to use poles to pull himself around.  The Girl just relied on gravity.

We returned all of our gear back to the rental area and had pasta for dinner that night.  It was amusing to see the boys looking over The Girl's shoulder as she watched clips of Frozen on YouTube.


*****


Monday, December 30, 2013

After breakfast, we packed up our gear and checked out of the condo.  We drove the 2 hours back to Los Angeles.  For lunch we got some takeout at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant.  We also stopped by the 99 Ranch Market for some ethnic groceries for dinner.  It was good to see that the Asian grocery stores back home have almost caught up with the standards set by Southern California.

The Big Sister and The Wife went to the fancy mall to do shop for some overpriced clothes that we can't get back at home. Sheer boredom.

That night, The Big Sister whipped up some dinner from a Vietnamese cookbook.  I have been pleasantly surprised that she does know how to cook, albeit know quite like The Mother yet.  The kids watched the second of the Percy Jackson movies that they had on DVD.  I'm pretty sure that if Frozen had already been released on disc, they would have opted for it.


*****


Sunday, December 31, 2013

The next morning, we caught a very early flight back home.  The Kids and I really enjoyed our time skiing.  With a little more practice, I think we would be ready to tackle some of the harder slopes.  The Wife, on the other hand, just wasn't into the speed thing.  I think it took her another week of being home, before she stopped trying to wedge whenever she walked around.