Hawaii Ski Club – April 2009

  President – Toby Kravet – 808-224-1065
Vice President – Jonathan Carr
Treasurer - Geoff Chu
Secretary - Paul Ferguson
Rene "Fergie" Ferguson
Roy Manzoku
Bill Hodges
Cathy Lau
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   Club Historian
   Jo Yee
   Newsletter Editor
Toby Kravet

Additional events, such as concerts, hikes, excursions, may be added. Watch your email for possible updates.

Every Monday evening (except on holidays): 4:30 P.M. A group of ski club members and their friends play
tennis at Keehi Lagoon courts, off Lagoon Drive. Stay in shape and share refreshments afterwards!

November 27 (Thursday) Traditional Ski Club volunteer activity to help the Salvation Army feed an early Thanksgiving dinner to the needy at Blaisdell Center. We also have a traditional tailgate, potluck brunch for any members, whether or not they are volunteering, who want to drop by the parking structure and join the volunteers after the activity. More information forthcoming.

December 6 (Saturday) Late afternoon time to be set. Annual Ski Club Christmas Party at the Esplanade in Hawaii Kai. This will be pot luck, BYOB, and will feature a gift exchange (see below).

For those of you who have not yet renewed your membership, we will keep you on the emailing list for a bit longer. You can bring your check and application to the General Membership Meeting at Seven Palms on November 6 or mail it in to Hawaii Ski Club Membership, P.O. Box 3004, Aiea, Hawaii 96701-8504. The application form can be found on our website www.hawaiisnowskiclub.com . Just click on the "Sign Up" link, right click it, and print. If your browser does not allow you to shrink it to one page, which we would prefer if possible, highlight it, paste it into a new page on your word processing program, and change the font size to 8 or 9 point to get it on one page. If all else fails, we'll take it as 2 pages (but prefer not to).

For those of you who did send in your checks and are wondering why they haven't yet been cashed, please bear with us. We are volunteers, and, sometimes, work demands, vacations, family responsibilities, and other issues get in the way: An explanation, not an excuse.

As of this writing, Roy has two openings for volunteers Thanksgiving morning at the Blaisdell so please contact him if ASAP, roy@hawaiisnowskiclub.com , if you have the time and inclination. Also, if you have not signed up for the trip to Steamboat and are now considering it, be sure to contact Jonathan, jonathan@hawaiisnowskiclub.com , ASAP.

I won't be making Thanksgiving at the Blaisdell as I will be with family on the Mainland at that time, but I hope to see some of you at the next General Membership Meeting on November 6 and at the Ski Club Christmas Party, always a good time, on December 6.

Watch your email for an as yet unscheduled pau hana, easy hike, or other activity that we might squeeze in between now and Thanksgiving

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Seven Palms Bar and Grill
Navy-Marine Golf Course Club House
943 Valkenburgh St., Honolulu, Hawaii
November 6, (Thursday) 6:00 P.M.

Come to our General Membership Meeting at the usual location on November 6. Although the meeting doesn't "officially" begin until 6:00 P.M., many members start coming at 5:00 for drinks, dinner, and "talking story." You need to be there by 5:30 P.M. to take advantage of the reduced prices of dinners for two.

Assisting the Salvation Army with feeding an early Thanksgiving Dinner to the needy at the Blaisdell Center has been a Ski Club tradition for, seemingly, forever. The "dinner" actually begins before noon which gives volunteers plenty of time to complete their duties and go to their own planned Thanksgiving celebrations. All Hawaii Ski Club members, however, are encouraged to join the volunteers at our own potluck brunch on Thanksgiving Day. We meet outside the Blaisdell arena near the parking structure. It's a beautiful way to start off a day of giving thanks with friends and great food. If you want to sign up now, email roy@hawaiisnowskiclub.com

ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY
The Esplanade, 500 Lunalilo Home Road
December 6 (Saturday) time TBA

Sylvia "Sam" Wright has graciously invited us to back to the Esplanade for our traditional Ski Club Christmas Party. It is a bit early this year, due to scheduling issues with the Esplanade's recreation area, but most of us have our own scheduling conflicts around Christmas time so the early date might actually be a good thing. This is potluck, BYOB, and, of course, the traditional grab bag gift exchange. Bring a grab-bag gift with approximate value of $15.00 if you wish to participate in the exchange. You are given a raffle ticket number and when your number is called, you have the option of choosing a gift from the "pile" or one that has already been chosen, thereby forcing the original chooser to choose from the pile again: In previous years, the circumstances with some gifts have been beyond hilarious. To get to the Esplanade, turn off Kalanianaole Highway at Lunalilio Home Road, the last traffic light before the highway goes up the hill towards Hanauma Bay, drive in the mountain direction approximately .6 of a mile, and look for the looming white building complex on the left. More information, especially the time of the event, probably 5 P.M. or thereabouts, will be announced later.

The Hawaii Ski Club is going to Steamboat Resort ( http://www.steamboat.com ) in Colorado for the 2015 Hawaii Ski Week, January 30 – February 7, 2015. The Steamboat ski area comprises 2,965 skiable acres with a vertical drop of 3,668 feet. The elevation of the village at the base of the gondola is 6,900 feet. They average 385 inches of snow per year. The ski terrain is described as 14% beginner, 42% intermediate and 44% expert. They started a night skiing program in 2014. You can explore the mountain with the Ambassador ski guides, Director of Skiing Billy Kidd, mogul expert Nelson Carmichael (yeah, right), or with the Over the Hill Gang (that sounds more like it). They have a First Tracks program for the day that all the powder is there for the taking.

In addition to skiing, the resort offers snowshoeing (including a guided, gourmet snowshoe luncheon), sleigh rides, snowmobiling, tubing, etc. The town of Steamboat Springs is 3 miles away by free shuttle. The town is cowboy themed, and they do things like tow skiers down the streets behind horses. In town and nearby there are two different natural hot springs, which might make for a fun excursion.

Our transportation and lodging is being booked by our familiar travel agent, Ski.com.

Our flights are as follows:

United-383 S Depart: HNL 1/30/2015 10:00 pm Arrive: DEN 1/31/2015 07:46 am
United-328 W Depart: DEN 2/7/2015 11:30 am Arrive: HNL 2/7/2015 04:07 pm

We may change these flights if we can obtain a reasonable and convenient flight into and out of Hayden (HDN), Colorado, which is only a 35 minute bus ride from Steamboat. We should find out about this in late May, when the airlines “load” the fares and schedules to Hayden. Otherwise we will have to put up with the 3 ½ hr bus ride to and from Denver. (I understand it is very scenic though).

We are mainly staying in the Phoenix Condominium, which is a block away from the gondola. The Phoenix (http://www.thephoenixatsteamboat.com) offers 2, 3 and 4 bedroom condos, two outdoor hot tubs, a heated, outdoor pool, free Wi-Fi, exercise room, co-ed sauna, clubhouse and meeting rooms. The condos all have fireplaces, a washer and dryer, and some sort of sleeping arrangement in the living rooms. Many of the condos are on two levels. They have many more 4 bedroom condos with single bedding than 3 bedrooms, so consider the 4 bedroom with larger common areas for your mini-groups.

For those of you who want to stay in a hotel, we are offering the Ptarmigan Inn, which is two doors down from the Phoenix. The Ptarmigan (http://www.steamboat-lodging.com/about-the-ptarmigan-inn) is slope-side with true ski/in ski/out access. They have an outdoor hot tub and pool, ski shop (Christy’s) and a popular restaurant. The rooms feature one king or two queen beds, free internet and a refrigerator. The Ptarmigan is $200 more per person that the 2 bedroom units at the Phoenix. A daily breakfast buffet is available for $80 for the week.

We will have the traditional ski club activities – reception, pot luck, pizza party – and a few more that the Trip Committee may dream up. On Sunday, February 1, 2015, your après ski experience can include viewing of the XLIX Super Bowl between the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders.

The prices for all this are on the Registration Form which has already been emailed to current members. If you have not received a form please contact Jonathan ( jonathan@hawaiisnowskiclub.com ). If you are not a current member and wish to join the Club, the membership form can be found on our website
( www.hawaiisnowskiclub.com ). Please fill out the Registration form carefully and mail it in with your first payment (due June 15). The flights and rooms are limited so mail in your forms as soon as you can. Don’t worry if you do not have roommates lined up yet; that can be worked out later. If you cannot read or print the Registration Form, please contact Jonathan.

Trip insurance is available from our travel agent. It is possible to pay for your trip with a credit card, but there is a 3% surcharge. Let Jonathan know if you want either of these options.

TRIP COMMITTEE

Nine ski club members showed up at Lanakila Meals on Wheels at 7:30 a.m. on September 27 to help pack and deliver meals to homebound individuals who are 60 years or older and unable to prepare their own meals.

Jill Cripe, Bill and Anita Hodges, Margaret Lefton, Roy Manzoku, Wanda Sagum, and Sam Wright packed meals; five individual frozen meals per bag to sustain a person for a week. The individual meals were stored in a very, very cold walk-in freezer. We retrieved the individual meals from the freezer to a work area, packed 5 different individual meals per plastic bag, and returned them to the freezer for later delivery to the seniors. There were so many meals that we lost count of total bags packed. We also helped to stack individual meals in the freezer for the next packing crew.

Mike Basso and Wanda Sowell delivered meals to six residences. Mike drove and Wanda was the navigator. They had a great adventure finding the seniors’ residences and providing them a week’s worth of meals.

As an aside, every Tuesday Carl Nakamura picks up frozen meals from Lanakila Meals on Wheels and delivers them to the Wahiawa Community Center, where five volunteers, including Roy, deliver them to seniors in Wahiawa.

In the late afternoon of Friday, October 24, as many as fourteen (a record, maybe?) Ski Club members came to the Club's old stomping grounds, Murphy's, where, thanks to Bill Hodges' initiative, we scored the same table in the back room which we used to use for our General Membership Meetings. Even our old waitress was there, but as a customer, I think. Although there were no happy hour prices on drinks, the free street parking after 5:00 P.M. (I arrived earlier and parked at Harbor Court for $3.75), for those who came at the right time, made up for it. As I made an unceremonious and unpresidential departure (backing over a chair leg and falling on my back) at 6 P.M. to get to the U.H. Wahine Volleyball game starting at 7, I'm not sure how late most everyone stayed, but it was going strong when I left. For those of you who were there and might be wondering, except for an open gash on my left leg, I was otherwise fine and made it to the game (barely) on time: Got to watch those chairs (and beers) in the future.

Effective May 15, 2014, for a limited period of time, one free Ski Club tee shirt will be given to all new "Memberships," i.e. one per Membership, individual or family.

If you are on Facebook, add the HSC as a “friend.” You will be up-to-date with recent HSC activities that members upload. The HSC Facebook page has photos from members on ski trips and at Club activities. You can also include your personal photos and announcements relating to the club for all HSC members to view.

Contributions from the membership to future newsletters are encouraged and will be greatly appreciated: Please e mail them to Toby (see Contacts) no later than 9 calendar days from the end of the month. Thanx much.