Mammoth Spring Skiing, April 10-12, 2009

We headed to Mammoth for a weekend with friends. Rodney loves spring skiing, and 16 inches (40 cm) had fallen on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (it was snowing when we arrived at 10 PM). We met Rasila's friend, Juliet, at the Ontario Airport, where she left her car in long term parking, then met our neighbor, Lisa, and her boyfriend, Kevin, at the condo. We stayed at Sunshine Village Condos, at a 1 BR + loft, 2 BA condo for the 5 of us. There was a queen and double in the loft with the second bathroom. It was perfect.

Saturday was a great spring day with the temps in the high 20s F (-3 C) at 9:30, and the top never broke freezing. It was Juliet's first time to Mammoth, so we took her across the entire the entire mountain from Chair 9 in the south to Chair 13 on the back side. She was tired by the time we got her back to the base.

Sunday was even warmer! We left at about 3:00 PM for the drive home and hit bad traffic as soon as we hit I-15 all the way to the tollroad into Irvine. Holiday weekends, they suck.

Portland for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

Last year, Rodney didn't technically travel since the 1st and 2nd rounds were held in Anaheim at the Honda Center. This year, we wanted to go to Portland, but we couldn't get tickets. After some discussion, we put our names on a waiting list for a box, like 2 years ago in Chicago. We were notified in November that we had been granted the box and proceeded to get additional bodies and planned the trip.

Rodney flew up on Alaska Airlines, and was originally going to take the Max train to downtown, but his friend Mark, who lives in Eugene, was at the airport and took Rodney, Ray, Scott, and James to the Hotel Deluxe. We then checked in a walked to the Agency Sports Bar, for dinner and some beers. They had some great Pulled Pork BBQ sliders on special!

The next morning, we left at 9:00 AM on the train to the Rose Garden Arena. On the way, we stopped by Voodoo Donuts, for some delicious Crunch Berry and Fruit Loop covered donuts. We arrived about 9:45 at the arena, and had to walk all the way around the building to the Club/Suites Entrance on the opposite side. After getting to the club level, we had to wait for them to open the Arena at 10:00 AM. They had only one door and 2 people taking tickets. Luckily, the line was small. Our suite was, of course, completely around the opposite side of the arena! When we arrived, it had the sandwiches, hot dogs, Jones Sodas, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Widmer Hefeweizen, Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale, and Coronas for the wimps.

The first game was Purdue vs. Northern Iowa, which started out a blowout, but Purdue just couldn't shake UNI completely. We kept calling the big man for UNI "Bagels Eater" for fun. Purdue won. The second game was Washington vs. Mississippi State, which Washington won easily. We then had to leave the arena for the change in sessions. They funneled us all out into the parking garage and then we had to enter back in through the same entrance! Luckily, we were at the front. I don't think they got everyone back in the 30 minutes allotted.

The evening session was Gonzaga vs. Akron first, which was a great game. Akron was way better than any of us gave them credit and the game went back and forth before Gonzaga extended a lead in the final minutes when it got to the exchange a bad shot for 2 foul shot portion of the game. The evening game was a blowout at the beginning, with Western Kentucky just dismantling Illinois. Illinois came back at the end to come within 3 with a minute to go, but WKU won.

The next day, we had breakfast at Kenny and Zuke's, then met with the rest for lunch at the Deschutes Brewery, before spending the rest of the afternoon watching the games at Henry's 12th Street Tavern, which had a 4 page beer menu! We finished the night with an excellent meal at Jake's Famous Crawfish.

The next morning, I had breakfast in the hotel cafe, then we played a game of basketball at the 24 Fitness. The games this afternoon were Washington vs. Purdue, which was a tight game, but Washington just couldn't get the lead, even with 10000 fans. Purdue won by 2 points. The evening game was Gonzaga vs, Western Kentucky and we were rooting hard for WKU. Their point guard, Mendez-Valdez, was hot and had 17 points in the first 4 minutes. We were yelling, "SHOOT!!!!" anytime he touched the ball. This was a great game, with WKU tying the game with 6.9 seconds left, and a Gonzaga point guard going the distance to make the game winning layup with 0.5 seconds to go.

The next morning, another breakfast at Kenny and Zuke's, then we went to Henry's again to watch the games until late checkout at 1:00 PM. We then hopped a ride with Mark back to the airport and watched games there. I was the last person to fly out, and watched all games before flying home at 7:45 PM. On to New Orleans next year!