Squamish

I am in Squamish BC, Canada at the moment. It is where the teams are staying for the competitions at the Callahan Valley, near Whistler. Whistlerr is where the the Nordic, and Alpine competitions will be for the Olympics and Paralympics. It is nice to get a glimpse of the venue that the competitions will be in before we have to compete here. Squamish could be Redmond, or maybe Mill Creek. And it is that green. OK, maybe it is more like Mt. Vernon WA, or Arlington WA, as the terrain is rather extreme. Straight up, and straight down. It is a bit green all the way up to the skiing, where the snow is barely holding on for the moment: it is really trying to be spring.

Yesterday was rain in the morning. Rain like you see in Bellingham, or the Hoh rain Forrest. And it may be that I am back on the East side, Idaho, and that I am more used to less rain. Regardless, that was some serious rain. I am not sure what it was like at the venue so much. Today, the sun was out. It was quite a contrast to the racing venues of earlier in the season. Then, there were not enough clothes to cover us. Today, I could have skied in a t-shirt. And then I would have gotten a sun burn, as I would not have even thought of sunscreen. Sunscreen was not even in my consciousness in Finland, Sweden, or Alaska.
The kids arrived here with Sarah, via the Sienna. They dropped me off at the Spokane airport, drove to North Bend, and then stayed the night in Issaquah. They had some time to do some shopping in North Bend. Who wouldn't? They drove the rest of the way on Monday. The kids, naturally, have been rather wild since they have been here. I am chalking that up to two days of inactivity. I think they are getting to see some cool stuff, and they seem to be enjoying it. It has also been nice for me to see them more. Tomorrow will be a test to see how well they do at the racing venue. Can they handle the not so action packed environment of Nordic skiing? If anything, there should be some good snow fun.