We flew to LA and then drove up to Mammoth Mountain for a week's skiing. The drive was extraordinary - right through the Mojave Desert. Now a desert to us means a lot of sun and sand, but really it just means 'empty space' - and that's what it was. However, this was 'empty space' in January and the weather was dreadful. Rain turned to fog, which in turn became sleet and finally snow. We seriously considered turning round - even the snowchains on the car didn't make the driving any easier. We made a wrong turn and had no idea where we were heading (and no prospect of turning back) when we found a snow plough so we stuck behind that. Fortunately, it did a U-turn about two miles further on and that allowed us to correct our journey. Just as we were about to give up a road sign loomed (covered in snow, of course, so I had to get out of the car to clear it) - the most welcome sight in the world - "Mammoth Village welcomes you" - we'd made it!
We stayed at the Mammoth Country Inn a beautiful Guest House (not an hotel). The owners (whose name is Snow, believe it or not) were a charming couple and made us feel very welcome. The first thing they told us was that the week before the entire mountain was green - not a hint of snow in sight.
There are only eight or so rooms and they are all decorated in an individual style: ski-chalet, cowboys, indians, antiques, etc. We were in the Antiques room because the Snows though we might prefer it as Europeans! One room featured the natural world and has a bear's backside on the door. Odd you might think until you open it and find the other half of the bear on the inside.
So we had a week's skiing - with beautiful, fresh snow, plenty of wide, open pistes and no lift queues! Only the week-end seemed to get really busy. We also had a singalong night in the Guest House - the landlord being a bit of a guitarist/singer on the side. I did a bit and there was only one other couple staying at the same time. He was from Poland so he supplied the vodka and several rounds of "Vodka shots" made us all merry.
At the end of the week we drove back to LA to catch a flight to Tucson to visit my brother. So, a week in the snow and a week in the Arizona Desert - and this time it really did look like a desert with Saguaro catci all over the place. The average temperature was 70F. We had a visit to the Sonora Desert Museum - a walk-around area where you can see and hear the sights and sounds of the desert. This being winter some of the more horrible 'exhibits' were hibernating - snakes, scorpions and so forth.
Tucson itself has a huge airbase (Davis-Monthan AFB), next door is an aircraft breaker's yard, next to that an immense air-park where jet fighters are 'mothballed' from the end of the cold war and next to that the Air and Space Museum. A visit there is well worth it - it includes the blackbird and a stealth bomber. In the front of the museum is a small-ish garden with a display of different catci - one is labelled the stealth cactus and there's nothing there! By the way, the 'Docents' (Museum Guides) are nearly all either ex-pilots or serving pilots from the air base next door.
We went for a day out to Tombstone. Where? Tombstone, rather more famous as the location of the "Gunfight at the OK Corral". It's interesting to see what Americans make of their heritage - in this case a half hour show about the gunfight, which in reality lasted all of 30 seconds with most of those involved shot dead!
Our main holiday was taken in November. Off we went to Perth, Western Australia to visit Peter's sister. We took our friend, Margaret, with us. On the way out we stopped off at Hong Kong. Arriving early morning and leaving late the next day gave us nearly two full days to see what has changed since the handover.
The first change is the airport, of course. No longer does the visitor fly into Kai Tak over the rooftops of Kowloon. Shame really since it was far more exciting than the new airport. The main changes we noticed after that were: a lot of construction work - building new flats all over the place and there seem to be large numbers of people employed to do nothing! It's a bit of a communist thing - you get someone to greet you off the train from the airport and show you the way to the bus stops for the city hotels. Why we couldn't just follow the signs was beyond us.
We took afternoon tea at the Peninsula, of course, but the real 'find' was our hotel. Again, booked on the Internet (can you spot a theme here?) we stayed at the YMCA! Really. It was great - a suite on the top floor with wonderful views over Hong Kong Harbour, a roof garden to sit out on. Very courteous treatment from the staff. We'd all go back and stay any time.
Jack and Jill (Peter's sister) were all ready to meet us at Perth airport. On the way into town Jill commented how bad the traffic was - it was rush hour at about 8:15am. We all looked round trying to spot another car. Try the M60 at the same time and you'd be stationary on one of the longest car parks in the country.
So, we spent the next three weeks exploring Perth, Fremantle, hired a car to go up the coast and visit Monkey Mia - a nature reserve where dolphins come right up to the shore at various times of the day. You can stand amongst them - also pelicans, quokkas, wallabies, kangaroos - we saw it all. On Rottnest island we hired a six-seater bike and cycled round the island (Peter was at the back and was pedalling despite every one else saying he had his feet up!). Shark Bay was great and the Pearler Restaurant serves absolutely corking lobster for £10. The restaurant itself is built from 'bricks' made of compressed and ground up shells - a natural feature of the area. Many restaurants are BYO (Bring Your Own) - take your own wine with you. You can usually find a 'bottle shop' nearby. Four litres of Aussie White was about £6 and we're talking decent Aussie White here!
Wendy and Margaret took a helicopter flight over Perth and Fremantle. Whilst Peter flew in a 1941 Tiger Moth - which included a 10 minute aerobatics option over the Indian Ocean. Marvellous! Actually, it's not as gut-wrenching as you might think! Some of the photos are on our web site or take a look at http://www.users.bigpond.com/tiger_moth_flights/
Whilst surfing the Internet we spotted the airline EasyJet were doing a sale of seats. Right, we'll have some of that - so we got tickets to Madrid for £50 return and to Geneva including all taxes. They fly from Liverpool so it's quite convenient. It's also no-frills at all - you have to buy a cup of tea on the plane but at those prices it's not surprising. Take a look at http://www.easyjet.com
So, November also saw us take a week-end break to Madrid. We both enjoyed it. We had a look round Juan Carlos' Palace, where each room has a different name. One is called the Stradivarius Room. Can you guess why? The only things in it are voilins and 'cellos by the famous maker. A lot of the rooms were way over the top in decoration.
