We stayed at our friends' condo April 29-May 1 in Mammoth with Alan, Karen, Abby and Sonya. Tim and the girls and I went up Thursday night after Lindsay got off work at 6 pm, so we didn’t arrive until after midnight. At 3:00 am the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton was televised. The girls tried to stay up and watch it, but lost patience while watching all the dignitaries taking their seats. Friday we rented skis in the morning and discovered that the only lifts open were at the Main Lodge. There was enough snow to have the whole mountain open, since they had received the most amount of snow of any resort in the world this winter, but they evidently felt that there were not enough skiers to justify staffing the entire mountain. We were disappointed that we didn’t get to ski our favorite runs. So we headed to the main lodge to get half-day lift tickets and to explore new territory. Lift 10 soon became our favorite, offering long runs and a section titled “Easy Rider”. That was my favorite run. After 3 hours of skiing we headed back with tired legs and greeted the Nutchers who had arrived while we were out. We went in the spa across the street to try to easy the soreness in our bodies. The spa, however, was murky and had leaves floating around in it. We still sat in it for a short time just to let the hot water soothe our muscles. The rest of the evening was spent eating dinner, watching parts of the royal wedding, playing centipede, watching the Memphis/San Antonio NBA playoff game, and planning the next day.
Saturday Alan and Tim got out of the house early with Sonya and Abby to take them to ski school. Karen, Lindsay, Erin and I joined them at noon to hear reports of how the girls did with their ski teacher and to have lunch. Tim and Alan had explored some more of the mountain while the girls were in their lessons. After lunch, Alan and Karen took their girls skiing on the only lift they could go on, and the four of us skied on our own for an hour. Then we met up again and Lindsay and Erin skied with Abby and Sonya while Alan, Karen, Tim and I went out. After an hour of that, we met up once again and Lindsay and Erin went out with Tim and Alan, while Karen and I finished up with Sonya and Abby. Since we had two cars there, when Tim, Alan, Lindsay and Erin finished they just headed to their car. Karen, Sonya, Abby and I finished up and took the parking shuttle bus to our car and then back to the condo.
We rested and snacked before dinner. All the girls were inspired to do a magic show for us. Lindsay and Erin did their usual routine and we laughed and oohed and awed. Abby did a trick with a quarter. Then Sonya got inspired to do a trick with a coin and the towel that Lindsay used in her magic trick. Sonya put the quarter on the coffee table and said she was going to make it disappear. She put the towel over the quarter and then grabbed it up off the coffee table, and the quarter was gone (in the towel). We clapped and shouted. Sonya then said she would make the quarter re-appear and put the towel back over the coffee table and pulled the towel away, thinking the quarter would come back onto the table from the towel. However, the quarter did not reappear, having slipped out of the towel onto the carpeted floor. But Sonya’s face looked confused, not knowing where the quarter had gone, she said, “Wow, I really did make it disappear!” But the rest of us knew where it had gone, and laughed uncontrollably at Sonya’s puzzled look. She had out-tricked herself!
After dinner we tried the spa again. It was still murky, but the warm water felt good on our tired legs. Afterwords, we enjoyed Visalia strawberries with chocolate Angel food cake while we watched the movie “Up”.
Sunday we got around slowly and took our time eating breakfast and talking. We then packed up and headed toward Bishop a little after 10:00 am. We met up at Schat’s Bakery and bought sandwiches to eat at the park in Lone Pine, 60 miles down the road. We had our picnic at the park where it was a little windy and there was a nip to the air, but it was nice to sit in the sunshine. Abby and Sonya wanted to play on the playground equipment, so we left them as we headed back to Whittier.
Abby and Sonya learning to ski in their "pizza wedge" formation.
Playing centipede video game at the condo.
