UMTravels

Picked up the car a little before noon…. turns out it’s a Hyundai Tucson mid-size SUV — so far so good — comfortable — adjustable steering wheel and armrest — 12v jack in the back — both cassette and CD, but no auxiliary input. Nice styling and just a little over three hundred miles on it.

Next stop Trader Joes for supplies (food, scotch, wine) and then Radio Shack for an antenna mount, then off for the 2.5 hour drive north.

Here are my first impressions: what a lovely drive to the resort from Santa Fe — a little traffic in Taos, but it’s a two-lane road going right through the village so that’s to be expected.

About the resort (pictures will be posted when I return): talk about friendly staff! I had originally booked at 2-bedroom unit but couldn’t convince any of the relatives to join me so I changed the reservation to a 1-bedroom, and added another day — which will be on Friday when the lift is running (though I don’t ski). The great staff actually gave me a tour of a couple of the two bedroom units (and let me take pictures) so I have comments on those as well.

First, the one-bedroom. Doesn’t make the best first impression because the door to the outside enters into the bedroom! It’s a little disconcerting, but once you pass through the bedroom, it opens up to a much more typical WorldMark unit. I like the rustic, woodsy furniture theme, it works well for the resort. My deck is HUGE — almost as big as the living room — but I’m on the 1st floor, so take that into account. Kitchen is somewhere between kitchenette and full kitchen. 24″ stove with oven, 18″ dishwasher, standard fridge, microwave and the rest of the usual stuff. I was worried that there wasn’t an oven so I bought groceries that didn’t demand one.

Now, the two-bedrooms. They showed me both the king/queen combo and the king/double combo (or is it a queen/double combo). These really are like signature WorldMark units. Full size appliances in the kitchen, big dining table, couch, and Murphy bed, etc. Here is what you should know. The units on the first floor have the really big decks. The second floor units have smaller decks, but get a little better view. All units face the river the the ski run across the river (Copper Chairlift).

General resort notes: the hot tub (1) has showers located right next to the tub, and the two bar-b-ques are located in the same area (with a water and soda pop machine). Unfortunately there are not individual BBQs on the decks due to the summer fire hazard. In the winter the staff turns them on once a day to keep the snow off! Now that is thinking about your guests.

What a nice calm break before reuniting with the relatives over the weekend.

ON A TOTALLY DIFFERENT TOPIC

GREAT Seattle Symphony Article – seems it just keeps getting uglier and uglier with the Seattle Symphony. My mother pointed out this article to me:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/arts/music/16waki.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Yes, I agree with many of the musicians — it’s time for Gerry to move on. I love the quote:

“The orchestra kept going up, and he didn’t,” Mr. Bergler said. “I suspect his frustration and his need to protect himself and his job started kicking in.”