Birthday Tradition

Last year, a well timed business trip (presenting to a career fair panel at Harvard, among other things) helped Diana and I head up to Boston for the first weeked in February--a weekend that happened to include the Super Bowl, Andrea's birthday, and Diana's birthday. It was Diana's first time in Bean Town, so it was great to have an excuse to visit family, do some sight-seeing, and celebrate the birthdays. Taking advantage of the northerly clime and the Patriots / Super Bowl fever, Diana, Drew, and I snuck off to Wachusett Mountain to get in a half day of skiing (for Drew) and snowboarding (for Diana and me).

We had so much fun that we've now turned that into a birthday tradition. Although this year we weren't able to enjoy the company of the Wuss and the Wuss-in-law, we once again flew off to a winter wonderland to enjoy cold weather, "fresh pow," a variety of snowboarding-related bruises, and the big football game.

If the company wasn't as good, that was a least partly made up for by the fact that the Mountain was a whole lot better (no offense, Wachusett Mountain). You see, this year, we managed to swing a free trip to Breckenridge, Colorado, where we were put up in the Beaver Run Resort. Our hotel room window literally looked out on the ski lifts, and the walk from our hotel room door to the ski rental shop was well under five minutes. The weather did its part and cooperated--cold enough for great, natural snow, but warm enough that we dind't suffer too much for our lack of appropriate snowboarding gear.

The trip came courtesy of the American Astronautical Society, who asked me to be one of the keynote speakers at their 32nd annual Guidance, Navigation, and Control conference. The conference--colloquially known as GNSki--always happens in Breckenridge on Super Bowl weekend, and always features a dinner speaker that's a bit more family-friendly than the highly technical talks that fill up the day (or, at least, the portions of the day not reserved for skiing). Luckily for me, I got tapped to give that talk this year, and got the travel expenses comped as part of that.

So, we flew out to Denver, and drove to Breckenridge--a gorgeous city that really looked like something out of a fairy tale. We snowboarded half a day, we relaxed, we had some good food, we did a little reading (Diana mainly working her way through wedding planning books, me polishing off Hot, Flat, and Crowded), and we checked out the exhibits from the World Snow Sculpting Championship. But on Sunday, we had a special treat: dog sledding!

Yes, that's right, I said dog sledding. And if you don't believe me, I have the photos to prove it. Check this out:



See? I told you so! (I'll upload more pictures when I'm on a faster internet connection) (Update: Done! see below. -W).

The dog sledding was a ton of fun--the scenery was beautiful, the dogs themselves adorable, and the ride was fast and exciting. Our fellow passengers were a little less adventurous than we--and were kind enough to take photos for us--so we get to handle the more advanced sections of the course, including some really fun moguls. It was a blast.

Diana headed out late on Sunday, so we listened to the Super Bowl as we drove in to Denver. The game was better than anticipated, and even Diana was getting in to it at the end!

With Diana gone, I gave my talk on Monday night, and it seemed to go over really well. They basically invited me to come back next year, so hopefully we'll be able to keep this tradition alive!