Stephanie and I finally had something in our lives exciting enough (outside of work) to blog about, and of course it's only taken me 6 weeks to finally blog about it. Last month we had a joint vacation and were able to hit the slopes at Jackson Hole, a ski resort just outside of Jackson, Wyoming.

Stephanie and I both love airports. Which is odd considering how much drama we've had in them. It rarely seems to go smoothly. I was meeting Stephanie in Jackson who was flying in from Houston. Of course the day I fly out of Memphis is the day it decides to start snowing. After de-icer truck failures and FIVE total de-icing attempts I was airborne to Chicago an hour and a half later. While traversing the length of O'Hare, I here "last call for boarding" of my flight. Needless to say, residency and The MED food has made me sloth like, not to mention running with ten pound snow boots on might as well be an exercise off of P90X. Another airport close call.

The town of Jackson is just the way we like it. A somewhat small, quaint ski village with lots of character. The first day we spent getting our legs back and hitting some cruisers. The resort lived up to it's reputation with a wide variety of terrain. My description of it would be the elevation change of the Alps, the bowls of Vail and the trees of Wolf Creek. Our favorite place to ski previously had been the back bowls and blue sky basin of Vail. But I think Jackson Hole might have taken the lead in all time favorite places to ski. Along this theme here's my list of top five places to ski in the US.

1. Jackson Hole

2. Vail

3. Wolf Creek

4. Crested Butte

5. Steamboat Springs

We were blessed with some gorgeous powder the second day of skiing and took full advantage. We also enjoyed to newly rebuilt 'Big Red' which travels 4,000 feet of elevation in 9 minutes. Stephanie was all proud because the recording on the gondola gives a long warning about being "expert terrain only" before you get off.

We decided it would probably be a while before returning to Jackson and that we should take full advantage of being only a few miles from Yellowstone. However, we soon found out that it is inaccessible to standard vehicles during the winter. So, we made due and hopped aboard a snowmobile instead.

It was truly one of the funnest things we've ever experienced. Yellowstone was beautiful even in the winter, and who wouldn't enjoy seeing it while going 55 mph on a snowmobile.

Our webhost has decided to limit the number of characters per post to a very unreasonable amount so here's some more pictures from Jackson Hole. 

The Glovers are currently homeless nomads. We moved all of our stuff into storage and are touring Texas seeing family and friends one last time before we become permanent tenants of Tennessee. Our first stop was in Gorman where I undertook a carpentry project, building a fort/swing set in my parents' backyard for our nieces and nephew.  Although I really built it for them, I did make sure at least one of the swings was adult capacity :)

Ah Venice... It truly is an extraordinary place like no other. We arrived shortly after sunrise and experienced the city on foot with no shops open, no crowds and just the stillness of the water. It was very peaceful. Venice was probably our favorite city of the trip, not for any specific site but simply the uniqueness of the town. Once again, we spent a significant amount of time with camera in hand roaming the streets, covering a large portion of the islands.

We visited St Mark's basilica and reveled at the oddity of the Doge Palace.

Stephanie's only concern throughout the planning of the trip was a gondola ride in Venice. Like most things in Europe, we had heard mixed reviews, but weren't disappointed with sliding through the less trodden side of Venice. As "physicians in training" we had a special appreciation for our gondolier who was accompanied by his father giving him minor instruction and helping him with his English phrases.

As you can see, the frequency of blogs rapidly decreased our last week in Europe. This was attributed to our lack of internet in Vienna and Venice as well the increasing amount of things we wished to see in Italy. To summarize, we had an amazing time and were blessed with beautiful weather and no major setbacks. On to where we left off...

We returned to Munich after a brief trip to the Neuschwanstein castle and spent the day near the Mariepnlatz until our train departed that evening. There we visited the Royal Residenz, the Hofgarten, Odeonplatz, and roamed the streets some more.

Once in Vienna, we stayed at a charming hotel near the Belvedere gardens and palace. The next morning we learned about the life of Franz Joseph at the Schonbrunn palace followed by a little stroll through the beautiful gardens.

Now Steph and I aren't exactly opera connoisseurs, but we thought it fitting for Stephanie to see her first at the place arguably the most renowned opera. We watched Die Tote Stadt about a man who struggles between his dead wife and a new love. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves but won't be purchasing any opera glasses anytime soon.

We finished our time in Vienna up with Stephanplatz, Rathaus, Hofburg palace and our second night train. The lotto-bahn was good to us as we shared a car to Venice with an American from Colorado teaching English in Vienna. We enjoyed talking with her and thank her for the tip on the chocolate covered Leibniz I am eating as I type this on the plane.