It's a creekmore world » Photos

Family Travel Moment: Northstar at Tahoe, Calif.

Trisha — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:11:45 +0000

We had our first snow in Maryland this weekend! It was wet and not sleddable, but it got me in the mood for snow fun: sledding, skiing, snowboarding, tubing…

Sledding Near Our House in Northstar at Tahoe, Calif.

In the late 80s, my father bought a one-fifth share in a five-bedroom ski house in the burgeoning vacation community of Northstar at Tahoe. At the time, Northstar was considered the runty step-cousin to North Lake Tahoe’s world-famous ski resorts like Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows. The mountain was underdeveloped, but not in a good way like Kirkwood. It was just kind of lame: very few black diamond runs and a series of blues that all drained into one nasty, overcrowded alley.

Over the last couple of decades, the resort has developed into a luxury family destination resort and the house has become one of the best investments in family I didn’t have to make (thanks Dad!). Now that my sisters and I have our own kids, the Northstar house has become a yearly gathering place where we can reliably bring all the far-flung families together at least once a year.

As the kids are getting older, our on-the-fly sled hills are getting longer and steeper. This particular sled run from 2008 scared the crap out of me. Not only did it get faster as the snow got packed more tightly, but the deep powder made it close to impossible for the little kids to climb back out. Looking back, it was clearly a blast for the kids no matter what the adults were thinking. Another Creekmore adventure pulling serious WIN from the jaws of fail.

– Trisha

Family Travel Moment: Club Med, Ixtapa, Mexico

Trisha — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:27:10 +0000

Since we’re heading to Mexico in a month, I thought I’d post a picture from our last trip south of the border. About an hour after this picture was taken, little one-year-old Lily barfed up all that bubble soap. She was crazy for bubbles.

Club Med, Ixtapa, Mexico

We loved Club Med when the girls were very young. With fantastic baby clubs, a family can go to the beach and the parents actually get a vacation. This is the trip where I discovered the flying trapeze.

BTW, I’m experimenting with new titles for these little photo moments to see if we can get the blog some better SEO (search engine optimization).

– Trisha

Family Travel Moment: Fern Canyon, Humboldt County, Calif.

Trisha — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:26:20 +0000

The Creekmore clan spent a month in Arcata, Calif. (where most of David’s staff lives and works) during the summer of 2006. We’d work early in the morning to catch East Coast meetings and calls, then spend afternoons hiking and exploring the forests, beaches and rivers around Humboldt County.

Fern Canyon and Home Creek, Redwood National Park, Humboldt County, Calif.

Fern Canyon is one of those otherworldly places in which you expect to discover fairies living under a log or a velociraptor nest high up one of the fern-encrusted canyon walls. Which is why the area has been used as a location for both “Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World” and “Walking with Dinosaurs.”

The two-mile hike along the creek bordered by the canyon’s 50 to 80-foot vertical walls was a breeze for Emma and Lily at ages three and six. We went back two years later and the girls loved the approximately three-mile loop through the canyon, up the wall and around to the beach.

– Trisha

Family Travel Moment: MV Captain Keith Tibbetts, Cayman Brac

Trisha — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:09:18 +0000

I’ve made a unilateral decision to start a new blog feature: Family Travel Moment. ~~Random Photo Moment (don’t tell David).~~ (Ed. I read this blog too, ya know.) We’ve amassed a fairly large library of spectacular photos from various trips over the years and I want to share them. This inaugural photo is from a 2008 scuba trip to the Cayman Islands on the Cayman Aggressor IV

If you enjoy scuba diving, I highly recommend the liveaboard experience. You get up to five dives per day and access to remote sites. Best of all, there is NO GEAR SCHLEPPING. It’s absolute heaven, I tell you. The only drawback can be that you’re stuck on a boat for a week with people you don’t know. Luckily we’re friendly, flexible and fairly non-judgemental, if slightly misanthropic (meaning we don’t expect much from people, so we’re rarely disappointed in them).

MV Captain Keith Tibbetts, Cayman Brac

This world-class wreck dive is a 330-foot Russian frigate brought to Cayman Brac from Cuba then sunk off the north shore in 1996 to form an artificial reef. The wreck, which lies between 30 and more than 100 feet, is one of only a handful of sunken Soviet Naval vessels in the Western Hemisphere. Storms have broken the ship into two sections, allowing divers easy access to the wreck’s interior.

– Trisha