The best trips combine all the elements. Sun, water, snow and mountains. Woo hoo!

The Olympics have finally arrived in Salt Lake. I say finally because ever since they won the bid, the city has been under construction. Just like home. Finished at last. Not like home.

I watched some of it from the Keys last week although I missed Caroline's race (Joanne's daughter). It was impressive to see SLC all done up on television. It was more so in person. It's amazing how much they got done since I was there in December when I had to pull Paul out of an IETF meeting. He didn't put up any resistance.

Mark got lost on the way to Key West but I didn't stay in my usual I'm skiing by myself flop house ($300/day this week) but found a cheaper place up near Ogden. I guess that means Snowbasin will need a visit. Everyone asks me what events I attended. I did the men's downhill.

Ok, so I was a bit late for the race. TV does the course no justice. It's fast and steep. I lost my stomach at this last drop. The joke is when you get done pretending for the invisible crowd in the stand, you're walking out.

One of the nicer features of the new Snowbasin. You can now take the a can to the top of Allen's peak. Opens up a bunch of new terrain but on one trip up one of the locals regaled us with stories of how people died up there. Stay off the rocks.

Traffic wasn't too bad. An impressive orchestration of shuttle bus fleets shuttled people around. I usually don't get up that way much but I went to Park City just to get closer to the Olympic spirit. There were plenty of bright purple signs telling those silly enough to drive that they should pull off in various remote parking lots to be shuttled in. I ignored them and found a space in the front row.

Afterwards I went to old town to see the ruckus NBC was fond of showing. That was a zoo. One doesn't usually associate a party atmosphere with Utah. There was a line a block long just to get inside Roots. The web site had a shorter wait.

I gave Joanne from there a call and she was about to leave for the Delta Center. I thought I'd go downtown to see if I could get in. The wait to get into Olympic Plaza was 2 hours (thanks to terrorists) so I bopped around aimlessly for a while until settling upon a good spot. The Maverick station off N. Temple. They had munchies and a wide screen out by the pumps. Then you can turn around and see the show in the medal plaza. Caroline's race was preempted by the bobsled team.

The flame looped the Harvard and Longfellow bridge before moving onto Salt Lake. I was trying out a new digital camera at the time and I discovered the digital delay that resulted in the loss of a great shot. A commercial for traditional SLR's. Looking at the flame here creates an odd sense of closure.

I was booked on the 5pm express to Boston. It's a good flight since you can ski the same day and be home by midnight. The problem was that (again, thanks to terrorists), the airport was shutting down at 5:30 so there would not be any air traffic during the closing ceremonies. Me and a million other people decided that leaving before the closing would be easier. So much for upgrades.

Everyone quickly takes there seat because if we're late, we won't get out for another several days. Not the end of the world I think but I had already been out of the office for a while. Of course the interial nav flakes out. The wheels left the ground about 5:30.