"-ino -ino"

At breakfast Leia ordered mochaccino and I ordered cappucino. The waiter chirped, "-ino, -ino!" and then went to consult a specialist regarding what a mochaccino was and how to make it. Every day we wake up from the sun a little before the alarm goes off at 0800 but it still takes us until 0900 to get out of bed and ready for our day.

We skied on the Groste side today and I correctly guessed that lift 49 Vagliana would not be as crowded as the blue slopes, because it only accesses a single red run. Leia found her favorite run there and we skied it three times in a row. Today she was crashed into gently by a snowboarder at the top of that lift, in the offloading zone. She said he put his hand on her shoulder like to say, "I'm going to crash into you, I'm sorry." That was her quota of being crashed into by snowboarders for the day. Along that run we found a hair scrunchie and picked it up so Leia can finally shower without washing her hair.

Speaking of Leia, she skied even more amazingly than ever before today. We worked on elongated turns without bringing the skis fully across the hill, which improved her speed and prevented early cutoffs of the turns. Early in the day we also brought in more edge control to complement that technique. Leia skied perfectly all throughout the day. Using the edges properly keeps her from getting too tired and she declared now that she knows how she'll always ski that way.

Leia had bombardino, the third -ino, at 1300 when we took our break at Graffer restaurant, and we shared a giant foccacia. We saw three big doggies playing around there. I had a hefeweizen but it was not too great. There was no water in the bathroom there - nor a toilet, just a long line waiting to use a hole in the ground. Not a good place to stop.

After skiing and before the spa we went into town to shop for groceries and gifts at the big supermarket there. We didn't find a hairclip or scrunchie like we'd "shopped for" in the snow but got everything else on our list. I found the tourist information place nearby to buy bus tickets. Up until now we've been "schwartzfahren" - riding ticketless. We got left by the shuttle again and had to wait for it to come back for us. We later vented our annoyance at an innocent receptionist.

Returning from shopping we rode an elevator up full of people in bathrobes, and Leia correctly commented, "At least we know the spa will be empty now." We found a full-body Kneipp path - a series of hot and cold showers - and Leia danced around in it. By the time we washed after the spa we were already too late to take the 2000 ski bus uphill to aid our quest for dinner.

We walked a ways further than Maribel hotel in search of a restaurant Genzianella, and Leia was again grateful for my headlamp on those dark roads. We might have just found it but we gave up and returned to ask the Maribel concierge where it was. He knew exactly what I meant and said it was 1km down the hill. We decided to quit that adventure and eat dinner at Casa del Campo, that we'd visited yesterday. It turned out to be a fine choice, with generous portions of meat at prices "reasonable for the area." I ate a stew of Bambi's mother, who the almost-too-friendly waiter informed me had been shot two days prior. Leia had beef goulash stew. We got a lot of complimentary food, including Pesach cookies and sparkling white wine.