These are pictures from our ski trip in March, 2006.

Both Linda's and Rob's schools had spring-break during the same week, so we had time off from the 18th to the 25th of March.

We have been going to the ski areas near Salt Lake City because Delta has a big hub there and travel is usually fairly easy with all the flights they have from Atlanta to Salt Lake.

This year I took a look at flight availability to SLC, and there WAS NONE!

I looked at Denver, Colorado Springs, Albuquerque (to go to Taos), and Reno (for skiing at Lake Tahoe areas). But, everything was very full and not looking favorable for us standby travelers.

When I looked at going in and out of Sacramento, the flights looked pretty good. Although only 3 flights per day go from Atlanta, availability looked okay for standby travel, so I booked us a rental car and got a hotel in Tahoe City, on the north shore of Lake Tahoe.

We had problems getting out of Daytona. We tried leaving on Saturday and Sunday, but couldn't get on a flight (actually, we were onboard the plane on Saturday when they announced that it was broken and took everybody off).

We finally got to Sacramento Monday evening. We got our rental car (not the 4-wheel drive SUV that we originally had scheduled, but the only thing that was available which was a sedan).

We headed up I-80 and by the time we got up to about 4,000 feet in elevation it was snowing. CalTrans (the California highway dept.) was requiring 4-wheel drive, snow tires, or chains. We had to stop and buy chains so we could drive up the mountain.

We finally got to the hotel about midnight (3:00AM east coast time) and checked in to the hotel.

The next morning the weather was beautiful and we headed for Squaw Valley. We got a 2-day ticket, so we spent our first 2 days skiing Squaw with gorgeous weather - clear blue sky and warm temperatures (mid 30's). The snow was actually like winter snow - soft and fluffy and really great for skiing!

Linda's birthday was on Tuesday, so that evening we dined at a wonderful restaurant, the Sierra Vista, right on the shore of Lake Tahoe. We had a terrific meal with a beautiful view of the lake, and when I asked if they had any special dessert for Linda's birthday they gave us a complimentary Tiramasu.

After 2 days at Squaw, we went to Alpine Meadows. The weather continued to be great, and the snow was more like usual spring conditions - the groomed runs were fantastic with spring "corn" snow, but got kind of slushy at the bottom of the mountain late in the day.

Our last day was at Northstar. There was a high thin overcast in the morning, which kept the temperature cooler (high 20's) and the snow firmer, but in the afternoon the clouds started opening up and there was off-and-on sunshine. The snow loosened up and the afternoon was really great spring skiing conditions.

We drove down the mountain and stopped in Roseville (about 15 miles east of Sacramento) and ate a great meal at Tahoe Joe's.

We got to the airport, intending to get on a red-eye flight to Atlanta that left a little before midnight. I had checked loads and it looked good for us getting on - but we didn't! We ended up sitting in the airport and got on an early morning flight to Atlanta. Fortunately we got nice seats in First Class, so we had room to relax, had great service, and a good breakfast.

When we got to Atlanta there was only one seat on the next flight to Daytona, so Linda got on that flight. The next flight was about 1-1/2 hours later and Rob got the last seat available on that one!

So, except for the travails of non-rev standby traveling, we had a great ski trip. The weather and snow conditions were fantastic, we had a very nice hotel, and the ski areas and views rank the Lake Tahoe areas among our favorite places in the world to ski.