(Hunting Island State Park Light House steps, July 29, 2020, South Carolina)

If you aren't living in a time warp or solitary confinement you are aware that Covid 19 I wrote about in the news on March 4, 2020 was more right then I realized at the time and we are now coming out the other end of lock downs and Covid is raging again here in the USA. Yes, I managed to get back to my house on March 17, 2020 in a big whirlwind of get of dodge fast. On March 14, 2020 Vail Resorts shut down all it's North American ski hills. We found this out at the end of our shift on March 14, 2020. I then received an email that if you were planning on heading out of the country you should make plans asap so you could still fly. I changed my May 2020 flight to March 17, flew home with 9 other people on the plane and everyone afraid to fly amid the new strange virus. The border between Canada and the US closed a couple days later and 1 week later the US and Canada went in to lock downs to try to stop the spread of Covid 19.

I had so many updates still to do at the time this all happened but amid all the turmoil they seemed so unimportant they didn't get done. I went on a cruise in January 2020 when I flew home to South Carolina to sign for my green card. Yes, I'm now allowed to work in the USA. I didn't know how lucky I was to come home healthy from that cruise; of course that may be because I came home with a mysterious pneumonia from one in October/November 2019 and might have some protection from Covid 19 but no way to know that now. The updates on how nice that cruise was may yet come but for now I'm going to do more current news on the state parks I've been visiting. Love being out in nature.

So check out the News in days to come. I will have a nice update on three state parks along with photos; one in North Carolina and two in South Carolina. A dolphin watching cruise from Hunting Island State Park and a visit to St. Phillip Island, previously owned by Ted Turner but sold to the South Carolina state parks in 2017 to preserve it. I purchased the South Carolina State Park passport for 2020 to 2021 and hope to visit many more this year. Oh did I mention after my job so abruptly ended before I finished my earnings season that I found a job in an Amazon warehouse? Loving being able to work here in the US and I'm taking all precautions I can, wearing a mask, distancing, eating healthy and showering and disinfecting constantly to stay healthy and safe. With my two days a week schedule I have left myself lots of time to travel around and visit parks the other 5 days. Like everyone, I can't wait for this craziness to end. Haven't seen my mother, children or grand children since February as the border is closed and they all live in Canada, and I miss having my grandchildren here for the summer like most years. Looking forward to next summer while I make the best I can of this one. Stay safe and stay healthy, have a read of the news and check out all the photos and reasons to visit the State parks.

(Whistler January 2020 fuji fine pix snap)

It's been a very sketchy start to the season at Whistler this year, with very little terrain open over Christmas and very few lessons to be taught until Christmas week. I felt terrible for anyone coming to Whistler on their first trip here as they would never know the gem they had chosen to come to due to the lack of available terrain. I guess it was our turn after the past three season brought great coverage and some epic powder early season to have the sketchy start the Colorado resorts endured last year. Finally though, this week it snowed nightly, our base doubled and the ski patrol could hardly keep up to removing boundary and marginal signs to get the now available terrain open.

The panorama from last January 2019 isn't even possible to take as the Peak chair has yet to open for the season but it's looking very sweet right now and I'm sure as soon as the avalanche danger lowers the chair will open up to access the last of the alpine not open. The Blackcomb Glacier run finally opened 3 days ago and people are cramming up to Spanky's Ladder to reach the gemstone bowls of Blackcomb. So good to finally have coverage on our more famous runs and some of the alpine lifts managing to get open.

Our first day out at Whistler this season was December 1, 2019 as the opening weekend was restricted for guests only due to the limited terrain. Robin skiing below you can see there is no snow ahead of him in the Olympic Park learning area and so beginners for the month of December had to move from a magic carpet to the top of the mountain. It made for some challenging lessons but all was fun.

Ron and I got in a run together day after my birthday and he helped me celebrate by taking me out for a great steak dinner when he arrived on the Saturday for his Mountain Hosting job. Skiing was a very eastern feeling affair until this past week when the snow finally hit. You can see the slalom skis got a lot of use this year; first time I really used them full time while I have been teaching here in the west.

Well at least the beautiful views never end out here. They can give us sketchy snow but the mountain vistas still look incredible. Looks like winter has finally arrived now, glad to get time for a quick update before I head back to the US to fix an immigration issue. Oh yea, I probably never mentioned I'm finally getting residence in the states. Home to finalize the details and then back to Whistler for this season. I'll see what next winter brings. Maybe Colorado! Peak to peak heading in to the clouds.

(Whistler January 2019 Iphone Panorama)

Yes I did Whistler again 2018/2019 season and will be heading out very soon for my 4th season at Whistler. It was my third season full time privates, teaching skiing all winter. The sun shone way more than the previous two winters, with many days looking like above. I rarely take the time to get the good camera out when I'm working 7 days a week but my iphone managed to get the odd good shot. This update will cover off highlights from my past year and then I intend to get back to regular short quick updates. If i aim for once a week maybe I'll get it done once a month.

It's been one of my busiest years ever. On top of heading to Whistler last December for the season, I left a week or two before the season end to head on a cruise and did a cruise the week before I went out to Whistler with my 84 year old mother and niece who shared a room with her to help out. After the cruise I had a jam packed off season. There was Mother's Day at Abasin annual gathering with the pugski crew, the grand daughters (two of them) came to stay for summer as soon as school was out, I moved to a bigger house mid summer with grand daughters in tow, then 4 days after moving in picked up my grandsons and their mom for super summer vacation of camping in Niagara Falls KOA, then camping at Myrtle Beach State Park, and a cruise out of Mobile, AL on Carnival Cruise Lines as all the kids had been dying to go on a big boat. They loved it. That took me to Labour Day weekend.

Finally time to get my new house unpacked some! Well I did bring my mom down for a couple weeks visit after taking the grand kids home for school, but I was able to unpack some between shopping trips with mom. Prior to September I had only set up the necessary sleeping furniture, unpacked summer clothes, managed to get the living room set up with a big wall tv sitting on the floor, dining furniture and bar stools around the island in the 4 days I was home in August and the rest was in boxes in closets. Like I just can't see the end.

It is now starting to come together. I have a spot to work in the office, my TV is hung on the wall (a life long dream of mine to have a TV that hung on a wall), slowly more of my clothes are getting to the dresser and out of suit cases, the kitchen is almost fully organized and fun to cook in, and I found my bicycles and started riding again (check out my new riding trails review in the News), have a gym set up with my rebounders, a screen for workout videos, and I'm getting in shape for the coming ski season. Now that mom is gone back home and the grand children are gone home and back to school, I have two months to get in shape for the next ski season, the rest of the house unpacked, updates and stories on my news page and begin to enjoy my Alexa enabled new home. Too bad she doesn't unpack, says she doesn't know that one, likely excuse.

Okay it was so much fun camping and cruising with the grand kids I have to post my favorite photos from the summer. They all look like porcelain dolls here.

(Autumn in North Carolina - November 2018 Crowder's Mountain Pinnacle Trail views.)

It's just crazy that I haven't updated in 10 months. Slacking on getting some working software to run updates. My files corrupted when I was away last winter and I'm just now getting it all fixed. Hopefully it will all be fixed and working so this winter I can run some updates and maybe get caught up on some photos. I have 1000's of photos that really need to get uploaded to stock. Love the parliament one below from Victoria, BC in the spring. It should have been uploaded to my stock portfolios for editorial use but I slacked on that this year. Here's the year in short form and hopefully I'll get a Cruise News done, since I cruised last week and maybe a more detailed news article on Victoria.

I spent a week in the spring at the end of ski season at my brother's in Victoria, BC. Awesome city, borrowed his bicycle and did some paved trail cycling. They have 100's of miles of paved trail running from city to city and at most times the cyclists even have right of way. Cars have stop signs at the path crossings. Best city trail system and cycling lanes I've seen. I got in a few hikes also; Vancouver Island never fails to entertain me with it's beauty, cycling and hiking trails kept up and built upon for all to use. I'll have to put a photo album, I have just too many beautiful scenes from the Island to pick just a few. Or maybe that will be a full news review. Finlayson Mountain in Goldstream Provincial park was a strenuous hike with my brother and a rewarding view when we reached the summit.

Closer to the city, Mount Douglas made a great spot to watch an evening sunset after a short hike, and a ride downtown to check out the opening of the new Johnson Street Lift Bridge which my brother took a sabbatical from work to actually help work on it putting in the huge gearing. It is complete with a separate bike lane to continue the downtown bike lanes and multipurpose trail way on the one side. Way too much to cover in my update so more will follow on the news page.

( April 2018, summit of Finlayson Mountain, Goldstream Provincial Park, Vancouver Island, BC)

(Victoria, BC, provincial parliament building - April 2018)Hamilton, Ontario has improved greatly on the cycling trails and lanes also. Had some great rides in Hamilton this summer along the waterfront, up the escarpment and by the Bruce Trail. Two of my granddaughters joined me for 8 mile ride on the escarpment trail, so fun they can go on real rides with me now. The cycling budget for the city is really showing. It's becoming a great place to live for recreational fun, with the waterfront parks, waterfalls, hiking and cycling; it is the best kept secret in Ontario.

Two grand daughters came for a visit for the month of July, little Tara finally managed to come and visit and stay away from home for a month. She's never managed to be away long before and this year she was set on doing it. We did some traveling and Carowinds and she came for two long visits, one before school was out without her sister and back for a month with her sister. Made things very busy for the summer. August was time for a needed break, spent a lot of it in home in Canada at my mom's and some time in Detroit. Renewed my Ford museum and Greenfield village membership. I can never get enough of it.

I've been to concert's in Biloxi, a night in Florida at Foley Beach (beautiful), some fall photos back in Hamilton on the cycling trails, a cruise, it has been one busy year. No wonder I never got to this software fix and got my updates done! Well I'll leave the update to say, more will come in the news and photo page, hopefully in the next two weeks and not next year when ski season is done..

More updates and photos to come now that I've got the pc working with the software again. I'll finish off this year and get the previous years archived. Give me a week.

(Whistler BC Panorama - December 3, 2017)

Back to Whistler for this ski season, teaching in Whistler privates. Can't believe the weather after last season never being able to see the mountain from clouds and snow this year it's views to infinity. The mountain tops seem to be endless.

I had some great surprises this year also. My son and husband flew out for a nice visit. The first time the three of us all skied together in years without others. I think my son had a great time and his skiing was as smooth as ever. Amazing how some people can be away from the skiing for so long or go very little and then come out and flow down the hill like they've been doing it for years. He was wishing he could move out this way but the cost of raising a family near by or getting housing at a reasonable cost makes it almost impossible for a young family. Great to see him get out and ski a few days though.

I just wanted to add a quick update since I never get updates done in the winter. Toying with the idea of actually trying to find time to do regular updates while I work over the winter. There's so many beautiful photos to be shown and fun to be posted about that gets missed when I get busy working. So far this year I've taken my CADS level 1 (Canadian Association of Disabled Skiers) certification, learning to make a Sit-ski work and tethering to help one down the mountain, assist blind skiers, understand learning disabilities. It was a fun course with a great instructor to add to my other ski knowledge and assist me as I teach all levels and abilities to ski or ski to their best.

Hopefully more to update soon, the views have been holding more often than not this year but we expect the coming week to finally bring some snow and more snow. Maybe I'll have a snowy update to come.

(The three of us at the inuksuk above Whistler Peak)