Pictures

I have been abysmally bad at taking pictures this trip. I took some this morning but they lacked any merit as pictures so I didn't even bother bringing my camera with me to the coffee shop to upload them. So, some verbal snapshots for you from Silver Star:

-Two kids (well, the older kind) in snow pants rolling around on one of the hills in the Sovereign Lake stadium. With scissors. Cutting down the plant stalks poking through the snow.

-Men with crow bars and shovels digging big rocks out from their semi-covered state near the high point of the sprint course.

-A man on a very tall genie lift hanging Christmas lights on a very tall tree in Silver Star village.

-Hans, who is Belgian and served me my mocha at Bugaboos. Hans speaks German and French. He was bemoaning that fact that he only had two years of English in school, so silly. So he's here for the winter to improve his English. He tells me this in perfect English. Of course, his native language is actually Flemish.

-The Lindt chocolate that came with my mocha, nestled comfortably in the spoon.

-Ronsse, Becca & I stopping one night on a run to dance in the middle of an empty Silver Star village because there's speakers on top of the ticket booth playing music. Directly in front of the "This area under constant video surveillance" sign.

-Snow. Falling from the sky.

-A small child pulling an even smaller child in the smallest sled.

-My skate poles after training on Friday-- dry and clean on the upper half but accumulating more and more ice from precipitation as you go down toward the baskets. A clear indication of the differences in velocity between the grip and basket.

-Matt Whitcomb (incidentally, Kate's brother) walking down the trail holding a chunk of snow. When I asked him why he replied, "because I'm hungry [takes bite] and I'm waiting for Pat to bring my a ham and egg sandwich."