The immediate fam decided to head down to Hiroshima a few days before my folks and Ko arrived. We had a JR rail pass, so we decided to make a stop on our way down. And we decided on the Osaka Kid Zone!
Obaachan, the porter on our way to the train station.
Double decker parking lots...
In the Shinkansen. Remember... the shinkansen is really nice. a 4 hour train ride is not uncomfortable. This isn't like a 4 hr chicken bus ride, so factor that in when you see the travel times listed.
The set up on the Shinkansen...
Look! Mt. Fuji!
Japan loves these cut outs...
At the entrance of the Osaka Kids Zone! Kai was mesmerized... he didn't want to go in and just wanted to watch...
Dialating pupils..
Making a news show
there is a slide going from floor to floor!
and outside, there is a ridiculous (-ly awesome) playground.
The crew lost our best photographer (Bernard), the stagette magnet (Gulotta), Moses, K-smear, Sena (torn ACL), and our token huckster (Barton). Barton's role was nicely replaced by Alan (rookie of the year), Funk didn't get Shanghai'ed by Larry (close call winner), we replaced the splitboarder with Durbin as Madison brought his skis, Scotty didn't bust up his truck this year so he could join, Soquet and Alexis joined as our token Frenchies...
The annual shuffle starts NOW...
Sat next to TahoeJ (Jay) on the way there. Fun getting stoked about skiing the entire flight...
Mountains! With snow! Something we haven't had this year...
Not sure why, but Tim and Alexis decided to hop on a flight that is an hour behind ours... But worked out well as I got to catch the Champions League games (PSG vs Real Madrid and Liverpool vs Porto)... actually not so well for Durbs who missed his flight... oh Durbs...
Lots of food!
4 carts full!
That night we stayed at Stoney Nakoda casino an hour away from Calgary. Metres flew in at midnight and took a cab. We were asleep. After eating dinner and tossing back a few brews we were schnockered. And we had an early morning the next day...
Which started at Tim Hortons!
Driving safely to Kicking Horse...
Gear re-org #4...
I love this mountain. What an amazing place...
These mountains are endless...
Naturally we had to visit Dutch Wallet...
Met these two from Newfoundland in the lot... oh friendly Canadians...
Naturally, we spent most of our free time in the pool after skiing...
Day 2 at Kicking Horse. We met up with the rest of the crew so we got to party ski Kicking Horse.
The kids trying to program their Baofangs...
Hiking up T1. My favorite hike at KH.
Gray bird day, but we managed to still have fun..
Had to show the PNWers the ropes.
Madison skiing! WTF?
Stefan... and his PJ pants got a lot of attention...
