Wendy: One whole month of awesome skiing!! We rented a ski-in ski-out house in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and parked our booties there for 30 days. Our timing was good, as we had two solid storms which dumped several feet of powder. We learned all the good places to go for different conditions, and spent much time exploring the trees and out-of-bounds terrain. We were visited by Andy's sister Danna and her friend Eric; Wendy's brother Chris and sister-in-law Suzie; and by Ian and Jacquie, two friends from the UK (Ian is one of the guys we traveled with in New Zealand). We had fun exploring restaurants and just hanging out. Amazingly, Chris did not blow out his knee again, although he came close when he flew down a mogul slope looking like an Olympian, then slammed into a cat track, only to be flung 30 feet off the other side. For those who don't know, he had knee surgery 6 weeks before coming to visit, so I was petrified of him jumping, going fast, or skiing in trees. He was walking fine at the end of his visit.
We managed to get one day of heli-skiing in, but it wasn't that exciting compared to other places we've been. The final week in Jackson looked like a bummer, as it got very warm and all the valley snow proceeded to melt in front of our eyes. Not a problem, though, because we turned our attention to learning about the town of Jackson. We discovered that it has most of the things we are seeking in a new place to live (climbing, kayaking, biking and skiing within an hour; small to mid-sized town; culture; job opportunities for Wendy; mountains and a cool location; good airport; yummy restaurants). A few meetings with a realtor, and voila! We now own a new house in Wyoming. It's very funky, with views of a mountain from several rooms. It is within 10 minutes of the ski resort, as well as Grand Teton National Park. Our plan is to move there in September, at the end of our year off.
Our new home in Jackson Hole! We'll move to Jackson in September 2003.
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A fun day of heliskiing in the local mountains of Jackson Hole. Notice Wendy's artistic picture taking...it only took 10 minutes to set this shot up!!
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Danna and Andy, in front of the "ski fence"
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Danna (Andy's sister) came to visit for a weekend of skiing. Can you see the resemblance? Goggles must run in the genes.
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 Jackson Hole Ski Resort (click to enlarge)
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