Zermatt, Switzerland February 21-March 1

I went on a guys' ski trip to Zermatt, Switzerland, with Perry Pringle, Tom McNeely, Charles Powers, Gary Caskey and Phil Israel. I used frequent flyer miles to upgrade my flight to business class on the way over because the flight was all night long, and I thought I may be able to get some sleep that way. It didn't work out that way because the seat didn't fully recline and I kept sliding down, so sleep was difficult. I'll probably go back to flying coach, which is a lot less expensive. I normally reserve an exit row seat, which gives me a little more leg room.

Our flight arrived in Zermatt early in the morning of Feb. 22, and we caught a train to our chalet in Zermatt. We had the entire chalet, and a cook/housekeeper/ski guide cooked breakfast and dinner each night. She was from England and was quite a character. She is studying to be a ski instructor. In Europe, it's much more difficult to become a ski instructor than it is in the U.S. and the pay is much better. She teaches busking skills during the off-season, meaning she teaches people how to be street performers and to juggle and ride the unicycle. She put on a good juggling show for us with some apples.

Many more comments and pictures to follow.

Keystone-February 12-17, 2009

We have been traveling so much that I have not had time to post anything new to the blog. I'm going to post brief descriptions of several trips, then edit the post later to add more comments and photos.

Linda and I flew to Colorado on Feb. 12 and returned to Shreveport on Feb. 17. It was a brief trip so that I could be available to teach skiing at the Keystone Ski School over President's weekend. Business is off a good bit at the ski school, and they didn't need me to teach any of the time that I was available, but Linda and I enjoyed skiing.

Jupiter February 2

Monday, we took the girls to John D. McArther Beach State Park. We had a picnic lunch, then went to see the park's indoor exhibits, which is where we saw the red rat snake, as well as lots of fish and turtles. We then went across a small bay to Singer Island, where we walked on a nature trail down to the beach. The girls had fun playing in the sand and climbing in the sand dunes. A week or two earlier, there was a news report on television about a swarm of sharks at this beach and when we saw something dark in the water, we assumed it was a shark, but a park ranger later told us that it was probably a manatee.

Jupiter February 1

Sunday, we watched the Super Bowl at the Lazarus home. When we got back to the motel that night, there was a small snake (about two feet long) that had crawled partially into a crack in the sidewalk next to our room. After getting the motel night manager to help, I pulled the snake out by the tail, and the night manager then ran him off with a broom. I didn't realize how strong a snake could be, but it was really hard to get him out of the hole. It felt like the snake was almost entirely made of muscle. The manager thought that it was a pygmy rattlesnake, but we saw one identical to it the next day in an exhibit at the park, and it was a red rat snake, which may have been appropriate for the cheap motel where we were staying.

Tampa, Naples and Florida West Coast Jan. 26--31

After the Lazarus family left on Jan. 26, Linda and I had dinner at Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa, an extremely large, very upscale steakhouse, which claims to have the largest wine collection in the United States. We had great steaks, then they took us on a tour of the wine cellar and the kitchen, and then we moved on to the desert room, where we shared a baked Alaska desert(or at least I let Linda have a bite or two.) Baked Alaska is a cake with ice cream on top, that is covered in meringue, baked quickly, and then flambe'd at the table. They serve them at Antoine's in New Orleans, where I think they were invented.

The next day, we took a Segway tour of downtown Tampa. It was the first time Linda and I had ridden Segways and we really enjoyed it. It's easy to catch on how to ride it, although Linda caught on more quickly than I did. At one point in the tour, we were passing some pedestrians, and I almost ran over Pat Summerall, who is a retired television sportscaster. He was apparently there for the Super Bowl, as were lots of other folks.

We left town on Thursday before the Super Bowl, but the town was really starting to have a lot of activity. We went to a public tailgate party on the way out of town, but it was early and not much was going on there other than a bunch of ethnic food vendors.


We drove along the gulf coast, through St. Petersburg,Bradenton and Sarasota. We stopped to watch the sunset on Captiva Island, then spent the night in Naples.

On Friday, we went to the beach at Marcos Island. It was very windy, so we didn't stay long, but it's supposed to be one of the best beaches anywhere for shells, so we picked up a few. Went shopping briefly at the mall.

On Saturday, we drove to Jupiter, and got there just in time to go to church with the Lararus family, then dinner from CR Chicks.

Busch Gardens, Tampa--Jan. 26 and 27

We met Allyson, Brian and the girls in Tampa and spent a couple of days at Busch Gardens. Smaller than DisneyWorld, but nice and uncrowded, due to the time of year. There were a lot of groups of kids from South America there. The weather was cool, but not too cool.


Great pic of the Lazarus family on the train at Busch Gardens.






We took a safari trip in a large SUV type of vehicle. Lots of zebras, hippopottami, gnus, and giraffes.


We went to a show where the performers sang, danced and interacted with the animals. They invited the girls down at some point in the show, and this is Kylie and Ellie with the star of the show. Taylor was there, too, but didn't make it into the picture.


I took a lot of shots of the girls riding various rides, but apparently lost them somewhere. This is the only one that I found of them riding the log ride. At least I think it's them.

Key Largo to Tampa--Jan. 25

We drove through the Everglades to Tampa. Lots of birds; lots of water; lots of palmetto. Had lunch at an Indian reservation lodge, which reminded Linda and me of roadside stops that we made as children.