Arrived & testified!

My 2nd attempt to fly to Portland was successful. Phew. I didn't appreciate having to wake up at 4 am again. But on the up side, I was able to sleep for an hour or two on the flight, which is highly unusual for me. I think that helped me make a quick adjustment to the 9-hour time difference.

I arrived Monday mid-day and drove to the city where I was testifying and got settled in. I watched the last few hours of the trial to get a feel for what it would be like.

I went over to the attorney's place in the evening to finalize what I would be testifying on. Almost everything got cut due to time restraints.

I was in court all day Tuesday as an observer, but ironically there wasn't time for me to present that day. My turn came this morning, the 2nd to last witness for the plaintiff.

I never knew that being in a courtroom is like playing sports: there's strategy, counter-strategy, shifting around of the players (witnesses), good sportsmanship and bad sportsmanship, people calling foul (objections), the referee (judge) occasionally reprimanding people for focusing more on showmanship than on justice.

It also reminds me of parenting young children. If you have a problem, you can never address the person directly. You have to go to the judge to settle your differences. "Mom, Dio pushed me!" "Dio, is that true? Did you push Inga?" "No, Inga ran into me and then she fell over." "Okay, I'm going to ask both of you to take a minute and give each other some space."

I'll talk more about it once the case is done, but in short I think it went great. Once I realized the attorneys had no idea what they were talking about, and that I was very comfortably in my home domain, it was fun to field their cross-examination questions.

I stayed to listen to the final witness, who finished at noon. Then I drove to Portland to see my brother. We had a beautiful sunny day--unusual for this time of year--and we went out for a walk at a nearby off-leash dog park. My brother has a lovely dog, Sasha. We ate dinner at a Thai restaurant (driving in his convertible, which was super fun) and then did 3 rounds in my brother's sauna, which he built himself a few years ago. Ahhh...

Foiled plans!

We had an uneventful drive home yesterday from Orelle to Nice, arriving around 2 pm. It was gorgeous and sunny and warm when we arrived. I had some errands to run to get ready for my trip to the US today.

I woke up at 4 am for a 6:30 am departure. I'm flying to Portland, OR to testify in a big breech trial. I got on the plane...and then we waited on the runway for a few hours.

Apparently the tow bar broke. Finally they heard back: no one at this airport could fix the plane, so they would have to cancel the entire flight as they waited for someone to fly in from Amsterdam.

All of our flights were rebooked for the next day or the day after. There were lots of unhappy people on the plane. The plane taxied back to the airport as close as it could get without its tow bar working, and we all caught buses back to the terminal. We had to pick up our luggage and then figure out what was going on.

I was supposed to testify in court tomorrow morning! But there was no way that would be happening--my flight was rebooked for 24 hours later.

So...I headed home. Very tired. I have to get up at 4 am again tomorrow and hope that tomorrow's flight actually happens.

ps, a funny picture of Ivy and Inga before we left for our ski week

Freeze Family Ski Week at Les 3 Vallées, Day 6: From whiteout to wipeout to clear skies

Well, we had a fantastic last day of skiing. With our side of the mountain still closed off from the rest of the resort, we had just 2 chairlifts open. Still, they were both long, high runs with plenty of off-piste skiing.

The morning was whiteout conditions, even windier than the day before. It was super windy--it felt like our chairlift would get blown off the cable!



We ate lunch on a mountain peak (normally where you can ski down the other side of the mountain to the main resort area...just not today). They had an indoor picnic area that was great for warming up and taking a break from the insane weather.

The cloud cover lifted in the afternoon, ending in a lovely sunny day (if still super windy).

The best part of the day was definitely Inga's spectacular fall that landed her lying down as if she were in a hot tub, skis crossed in a V. With almost 2 meters of fresh powder, she wasn't hurt at all and said it was very comfortable. Getting her out of that position took a lot of effort, though!

Freeze Family Ski Week at Les 3 Vallées, Day 5: Whiteout!

Our side of the mountain only had 1 chairlift open (plus a long gondola to get up there). We decided to try it out. Even though it was the "little" chairlift, it still went from 2350 m to 2786 m, which is a really decent run!

It was raining down in the valley, which turned into a snowstorm as we ascended. As we continued skiing, the wind picked up and the snow got heavier. Each time we came down the hill, the snow was several inches deeper! We skied off-piste right off the edges of the runs in fresh powder that was several feet deep from the last few days.

Visibility was terrible--you couldn't see when you were hitting a bump or a snowdrift or anything!



We skied for a few hours and then came home for a late lunch. It was actually a really fun day, despite the crazy conditions and lack of visibility.

My ski goggles broke in half yesterday. Ivy lent me hers, but it was impossible for her to ski today. So after one run, I went inside the gondola building and asked one of the operators if they had a lost & found with extra goggles. They didn't, but one of the workers lent me her pair! Wow, so generous! I offered to give her my phone number but she said it was ok. Thank you Pascal!

After we got home and ate lunch, Eric and I made a quick trip into the neighboring town to buy a few more groceries and a new pair of goggles.

Tomorrow many/most of the lifts should open up so we hope to have a final glorious and long day of skiing to end our vacation.

Freeze Family Ski Week at Les 3 Vallées, Day 4: Long drive for a short ski day

With our side of the mountain still being closed, except for 1 small chairlift, we decided to drive all the way to the other parts of the resort that were still open. It took 1 hr 45 minutes to drive there! Even though we're at the edge of the resort, it's on the other side of the mountain so you have to drive all the way around.

It was a disappointing day because all of the highest runs were still closed, the ones we really wanted to ski. And the lines were INSANE.



But the views were gorgeous, at least.

We decided that we're not going to drive any more. Either Orelle opens up or we stay at home. It wasn't worth the time, given the long lines and lack of good runs open.

We've had several people who work at the resort tell us we should write and request a refund for the days where our side of the mountain has been closed.

Freeze Family Ski Week at Les 3 Vallées, Day 3: Another snow day!!!

Yet again, the resort was closed--at least this whole side of the mountain, which meant the rest of the resort was inaccessible short of doing a 1.5-2 hour drive. Even then many of the top runs remained closed today.

In 24 hours, the top of the resort got 140 cm of snow!!

We really really hope we can ski tomorrow. I've never ever gone skiing and been unable to ski due to too much snow!

We got everyone out except Zari (she was doing homework) and played in the snow. Down here in the valley, it was the perfect consistency for making a snowman: wet and sticky.

We played more board games (Mito & Monopoly), watched more episodes of Humans, and generally took it easy.

Freeze Family Ski Week at Les 3 Vallées: Days 1-2

We're on our annual ski week adventure. For the past several years we've gone to Chamonix, mainly skiing Les Grands Montets. But this year we tried something new: Les 3 Vallées.

It is mind-blowingly amazing. We're staying far off to the back side of one of the mountains in Orelle, which means we have to take 2 gondolas up to the 3300 m peak in order to access the rest of the resort.

We had our first glorious day yesterday. The snow was better than I've ever skied anywhere. Fresh powder everywhere; light, fluffy snow on the groomed runs. No ice or slush anywhere (we stayed on the top runs only so I don't know what the lower parts are like).

We skied hard and hardly made a dent on the runs just in our area, which is a small part of the entire resort. Les 3 Vallées is the largest ski resort in the world, with 600 km of runs.



It started snowing last night and was supposed to snow for a few days. We woke up to some snow down here in the valley (900 m) but the roads were clear. We suited up, drove 3 minutes to the gondola...and found it entirely deserted. What?!?

Turns out there was such extreme weather up at the resort with 150 km/hr winds at the top that much of it was shut down entirely!

So with no way of getting to the slopes, we had to stay home. It was actually really fun. We played card games, watched several episodes of Humans, ate lots of snacks, teased each other, took naps, read books...Our legs are sore today, and I hope our rest day helps out tomorrow.

I hope we can ski tomorrow!

The funniest thing that has happened so far: when we were skiing down deep powder, Zari took a lovely tumble and her skis fell off. One of them went skiing down the mountain....way down! Eric was a bit above her and rescued her other ski and then sent it down to her. It missed her entirely and it, too, went skiing at high speeds down the mountain. Now Zari was down 2 skis and had to scooch all the way down. It was too deep to walk in. At one point she started rolling down the slope until she got too dizzy.

Carnaval!

Carnaval officially starts on the 14th, but Ivy's school got started early and had a dress-up contest. Ivy won a prize and got lots of compliments...wearing one of my costumes!

Inga finally got an appointment to look at her MRI results with a sports medicine doctor. He thinks she'll be good to resume normal sports in a week and he said ok for skiing as long as she took it easy.

More Zoom meetings for me today...and some renovating advice at a friend's apartment. She's on the tail-end of a top-to-bottom renovation and it's been fun to follow the progress. Although she's not doing the work herself, she's been overseeing everything as a sort of de-facto general contractor. That's a whole job in itself!

More rain today...it's been the rainiest winter I can remember! But that's good for skiing so we will stay happy if somewhat wet.

Another busy day filled with 5-6 hours of Zoom meetings! Whew!

It's 3 minutes to midnight and Eric and Dio just got back from their weekly soccer game. It's about 45 minutes away so they always get home quite late.

Guess what I have going on tomorrow? More Zoom meetings! At least they're enjoyable meetings with people I enjoy.

Ivy is dressing up for Carnaval tomorrow in one of my Halloween costumes that I sewed. She has to tuck a lot of things in but it looks good!

Big swells in Nice. I was high up above the water and got splashed head to toe! Eric went to the beach to read and sunbathe...only to discover that a) the beach was closed and b) there was no beach--the waves went all the way to the rock wall.

What else? Lots of computer work and meetings today for me. Inga got an MRI done yesterday (50 Euros!) and we'll see a doctor on Monday to look over results. Eric has been trying to diagnose her via googling the images but honestly I'm not convinced it would be very accurate. Wrong kind of doctor for the job. I just hope it's something minor that will heal quickly.

Inga has done 2 days of her brevet blanc and has one day left. I helped her study for her history and geography test that she had today. Now we're working on science, technology, physics, and chemistry.

Dio is busy memorizing a 10-minute oral presentation analyzing an excerpt from the 1834 play "On ne badine pas avec l'amour."

Inga's knee still really hurts 10 days after her injury. We've been trying (in vain) to schedule the échographie (ultrasound) and MRI but so far either every place is booked and, even worse, they don't do échographies on anyone under 16! No matter that Inga is taller than almost all French men.

We got a call from a MRI place in Monaco, saying they'd had a last-minute cancellation so we are going to bring her in tomorrow.

Eric and I are both coming down with something. Ugh. I just got well!

Cactus tuna?

My mom said the prickly pear cactus fruit is called a "tuna." Can anyone verify this? It sounds so weird!

We gathered a big sack full of fruit (or tunas!!) yesterday on our hike to Mont Boron. I couldn't convince any of the kids to come. Teenagers. Sigh. So it was me, my parents, and a young couple they had met recently. He's from Mauritius doing a MBA here and she's a therapist.

Today they came over for lunch, or rather my parents--social butterflies--invited them over :)

The rest of the day was relaxed for me and Dio. Eric took the girls to an OGC Nice game in the late afternoon.

My mom had already finished making a big batch of cactus fruit syrup. We're well stocked with that and marmalade.