The End of the Beginning

Laura's tibial plateau fracture is officially repaired! She was in surgery for just under four hours on Wednesday night. The ex-fix was removed from the outside of her leg, the broken chunks of tibia were re-aligned and fastened together with a stainless steel internal plate that should stay inside her leg forever.

There were a few complicating factors. Her meniscus had been driven down into the shattered top of the tibia, so they had to dig that out first. Then they needed a fair amount of bone graft to add to the top of the tibia for parts of the bone that just weren't there anymore. And there are a lot of stitches holding the repaired meniscus together. But, all in all, it was a very successful surgery.

View from the front. The darker spot on the top left side of the tibia is where the bone graft was used.

Lateral view. The white line to the left (front) of the internal plate is a partial view of where the bone broke. It broke in a V-shape when the femur slammed down on top of it.

I think today (Thursday) is a day just for rest and pain management. This is a very painful surgery. She takes narcotics orally every 4 hours, and can get an IV narcotic push every 2 hours, but that means that she spends about an hour in relatively lucid, relatively happy (although still very painful) time, about a half hour on the edge, and about 30 minutes every 2 hours in what appears to me to be excruciating agony. But, even by tomorrow the pain is supposed to be much more manageable. She'll probably start some in-hospital PT tomorrow (Friday) and I'm guessing she'll be released on Saturday.

Then it's time for the journey home. If that truly ends up being Saturday she'll have spent exactly three weeks in the hospital.

The surgery was done through the fasciotomy wounds (reopened at the top) although the surgeon did have to extend them further up toward the knee. So, she'll only have two significant scars on her leg. That being said, they'll be pretty gnarly, very long scars! Not that she needed proof, but now there's physical evidence that my wife is a total bad-ass!

Thanks as always for the kind comments, thoughts and prayers! There'll be a long PT road on the way to recovery, but we're nearly ready to go home. The first stage is nearly over. We can't wait to get home!

The Waiting Game

First of all, some good news: Laura's fasciotomy wounds have been closed!

She was in surgery on Wednesday morning where they closed up all of the existing wounds on her leg. This is a critical step on the road to the repair of her tibia, but just as importantly, it helps her a lot with both pain and mobility. A relatively normal leg (albeit stitched back together) is much less painful than one that is flayed open, with sponges inside and a vacuum pump sucking out fluid and putting pressure on her muscles. And those same vacuum pumps being gone mean 3 tubes that are no longer hanging off/out of her leg, making it a lot easier to get out of bed onto the commode, for example.

By the way, that was Laura's seventh surgery. The OR nurses were joking yesterday morning that by now she should be able to pre-op herself. And we're also rotating back through many of the nurses that were here in the patient care unit before. That's comforting, actually. It's amazing how nice it is to see a familiar face, especially when they can help point out the improvements they can see since they were last here!

Next Steps

Now we wait. She cannot have the surgery to repair the tibia until the swelling in her calf has diminished enough. There was a hope that that might happen by Friday, but now it looks like it will be Saturday, or Sunday (or maybe even Monday) before they can do that. It's frustrating to wait, but of course it's not the sort of thing you want to rush, or they could expose her to the risk of another case of compartment syndrome. And we certainly don't want that again!

Anyway, Laura can't home until everyone here is satisfied that her tibia repair recovery is also in a good place. So we'll be able to fly home somewhere between two and four days after that surgery. It will be good to head home.

Help

Thank you again to everyone who has helped out with kids, who has sent care packages, who has called or texted or emailed or commented on Facebook! It really does help to hear from you. Also, we have been so well looked-after by the nurses, doctors, care techs and cleaning people here at Vail Health. They have all been so kind and friendly and helpful. We're lucky to be cared for by the people here.

The Surgical Team

Laura's surgeon here has been Dr. Randy Viola. He's a surgeon at the Steadman Clinic who specializes in hand, wrist, elbow and "orthopedic trauma" (I'll let you guess which one Laura falls under). Dr. Viola is going on a long-planned vacation on Sunday, so if the surgery gets delayed until then, she'll be handed off to Dr. Tom Hackett. Dr. Hackett is also a surgeon at the Steadman Clinic who specializes in knee, shoulder and elbow. So, even if that happens it's a lateral move, not a step down. 

I know I mentioned before how the Steadman Clinic surgeons are world class, but just as an example, Lyndsey Vonn has been operated on by both Drs. Viola and Hackett along with other Steadman Clinic surgeons for many of her ski injuries, including a tibial plateau fracture in 2016. (I found this information in news reports, so no worries, the doctors here are maintaining client confidentiality and not sharing this info with us!!!) All to say that Laura is in good hands.

Nobody's Perfect

Sometimes I wonder whether I give the impression that we're dealing with things here perfectly, but I think I should admit that neither one us is a Pollyanna. It's a long time sitting here either trapped in the room or running back upstairs to the OR. Laura has her moments of self-doubt about the road ahead, or being overwhelmed with the pain or just the immensity of being here. And I sometimes feel that I'm going to snap when she asks me to do something that most of the day I'm happy to help with.

I think it's really about resilience, right? Being willing to forgive yourself for feeling down, to accept it, and to move on to the next moment. And when we need it, it helps to know that we have all of you looking after us too. Thank you!

Laura - Updates for Saturday, 12/29

One week since the accident!

Thursday was a good day. No surgeries and a quiet day of rest for the most part. Laura felt strong enough to get out of bed and sit in a recliner for a little over an hour. But mostly it was just nice to have a day without surgery.

Friday she was in surgery in the morning to open up, clean out, and examine the fasciotomy. The muscles are recovering nicely and they are putting pressure on the wounds to begin pulling them together so that they will be able to be closed up. The wound on the left side (inside) of the calf is pretty much closed, and the gap on the right side (outside) wound went from 10 cm/4" wide to about 5 cm/2" wide.

As far as next week goes, there are lots of ins and outs, but right now the basic idea is two surgeries on Monday and Wednesday (where they will close up one of the two wounds at least). Then the hope is to repair the tibia next weekend (January 4,5 or 6). As our surgeon says, that's an "optimistic, but realistic" schedule. So it seems likely that we'll be flying back to Boston early- to mid-week of 1/6.

So, this weekend it's all about rest. Nothing particular for us to do except for Laura to relax as best she can. She has for a few days now been moving back and forth between the bed and a reclining chair, and can use the commode herself. (Of course, it does help to have one or two people assist her make the transition with lots of equipment still hooked up, and someone to help manipulate the leg, etc.)*

The ex-fix

One thing I didn't mention before, as it wasn't relevant to her overall status, is that Laura has an external brace on her leg that holds everything in place and immobilizes her knee so that the broken parts of the tibia aren't moving around in there. There are two pins drilled into her femur and then another two drilled into (I assume) her tibia down near the ankle. Then a few bars run between the pins to hold everything stable. It's heavy, but makes a convenient handle when we're trying to move her leg around! (And it's a lot better to move the leg using that stable "handle" than it is to move her leg directly whereby you may inadvertently be moving a bone around that's not supposed to.)

Beware the Ides (last week?) of March December!

A tip for those of you who like ski vacations: the week between Christmas and New Year's is a hectic time, and according to the Vail Health folks, it's the one week out of the whole season that they see the most injuries. That certainly seemed to be the case on Wednesday, 12/26. Laura was scheduled for surgery at 9 am, but it got pushed back to noon, then 3, and on and on until she didn't have surgery until 9:30 pm. All because of emergency procedures that popped up that day. If you do decide to ski between Christmas and New Year's, be careful up there!

* A little plug for exercise

Laura has been exercising diligently and regularly for the past two years, and it is making a big difference for her in the hospital. I know one of the things she's disappointed about is that this is going to set her back on the exercise and fitness regime, but it's been really important here in the hospital. She is much more able to move herself between bed, chair and commode, so it makes a big difference to her quality of life in the hospital room. And, it has also helped with the ability of her muscles to bounce back and recover from the compartment syndrome. So far every surgery since the original fasciotomy has been on the positive side of the orthopedic teams' expectations, and as the primary surgeon has pointed out, it makes a dramatic difference operating on a fit person versus someone who is less healthy.

So, get out there and exercise! If you ever end up with a tibial plateau fracture and compartment syndrome, it will make a huge difference to your recovery!!! (I assume there are other beneficial aspects of exercise, too....)

P.S. I heard that some people had tried to comment on the previous blog post and it didn't work. I'm not sure why that was, but I think it's working now. Sorry about that.

Laura's Injury - Just the Basics

Hello, everyone. You're likely here to find out the details of what happened to Laura in Vail. Well, here is the info in as short a format as verbose old me is able to make it. I've tried to group things so you can find the relevant information you're looking for.

What happened?

Laura had a ski accident and severely broke her leg. She also had a complication that could have been really serious, but is now only relatively serious.

What does "severely broke her leg" mean?

She has a tibial plateau fracture. Basically, a lot of weight/speed/and force were focused through her femur down through the knee joint onto the top of the tibia, shattering it near the joint into a few pieces.

And the "complication?"

She developed compartment syndrome. The swelling in her calf (picture the calf just below the knee swollen to the size of a melon) put pressure on the muscles, nerves, and blood supply that run through two "compartments" in her calf to her foot. If the pressure builds up enough that it could cause damage (as it did in her case), a surgeon performs a fasciotomy, slicing through the skin and tissue between the ankle and knee on each side of the calf, stuffing the wound with medical sponges, covering with a medical film and placing suction on it to drain out fluids.

That sounds relatively serious, but you mentioned really serious?

I'll let the dry verbiage of the Wikipedia entry on fasciotomy tell the story: 

"Fasciotomy is a limb-saving procedure when used to treat acute compartment syndrome."

You're exaggerating, right?

Eh, not really. Laura was rushed into emergency surgery on Monday morning, and it if had been started a half hour later, or if we had been somewhere that doesn't have a world-class orthopedic surgery team, she would likely be missing part of her right leg right now.

That doesn't sound like it should happen. Didn't you know about the potential for compartment syndrome?

Yes. We were aware of the possibility. But, the "danger zone" is mostly within the first 24 hours, and Laura presented at 36+ hours. Plus, it was the middle of the night, Laura presented in an unusual way, she has a high pain threshold, plus other factors and yes, perhaps the nurse didn't elevate some of the signs as he should have. But, really, we'll never know why it took longer to be identified than it should have. Bottom line, she should have been in surgery hours before she was.

So she didn't lose her leg. Does that mean she is okay?

Hmm. Well, she is mostly okay. Parts of her foot are numb, but her nerves appear to be unharmed, so the foot sensitivity should come back eventually. And three of the four muscles in the compartments came through unscathed. But, the surgery came late enough to cut things very close, and she did lose part of one of her muscles. It's the muscle group that pulls the big toe and ankle UP. Pushing down will be fine, but she will likely have less strength to pull the ankle up, and may never be able to pull her big toe up. If that's the case, the tendon can be tied together with the other toes so that she could pull it up, just not independently of the other toes.

That's just the "complication." What about the original break? How will that affect things?

Tibial plateau fractures are graded on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 6 (most severe). Being an overachiever in all things, Laura scored a 6. However, as the surgeon explained to us, while her break is in the most severe category, the tibia shattered into a small enough number of large enough pieces that it can be repaired to the point where it will have no impact on her at all in the long term. Which I guess is lucky?

That's of course if you have a great surgical team, which luckily we do. People travel to this clinic to have surgeries like this done. So there again, I guess we were lucky (not that it would have happened if we weren't here).

All right, so things can go back to normal, but how long will that take?

We don't have real specific answers right now, but the tibia repair can't happen until the swelling has gone down. It's hard to say how long that will take, but we're hoping it will be sometime next week. We won't know until later, but we're keeping 2 weeks from the accident (that is, Saturday Jan. 5) as an estimated date to be able to go home. An estimated date with a big range of error around it.

As far as further recovery, she has to keep all weight off of her foot for 8-10 weeks or so post repair surgery. She will be able to be mobile with crutches, I guess, but she won't be allowed to really "walk" until roughly 3 months post accident? Basically the end of March. Again, as our rough estimate, subject to significant change as time goes on.

And I'm guessing pretty serious physical therapy until June or later to rebuild strength.

I'm guessing the compartment syndrome added time before the repair can be done?

Not really, no. It takes 1-2 weeks post-trauma for the swelling to go down to do the repair anyway. Perhaps the compartment syndrome added a few days, if that. Mostly it just adds extra surgeries in between the accident and repair. Without compartment syndrome, Laura would have had two surgeries in two weeks. With it, she has had four surgeries in four days and will have another three to five before we leave.

Laura's in the hospital for two weeks or more?! Where is she, and who's with her?

She's in Vail Health Hospital and being operated on by surgeons from Vail's world-renowned Steadman Clinic. She has a private room with a big window looking out on the Vail ski slopes and everyone here has been so very kind. It sucks being here, but if you've got to be here, this is a great place to do it! (I hope that made sense.) And I'm with her. As in Jared. As in her husband.

Are you staying in her hospital room? I imagine there aren't extra rooms to rent in Vail between Christmas and New Year's Day.

Nope! Susan, a rather distant relative of Laura's who we didn't know previously is a seasonal nurse here and has an apartment with an extra bedroom. How lucky is that? (Plus Susan is fan-TAS-tic!)

What about the boys?

Uncle Cam was here with us skiing and he took the boys with him to Aunt Britt's house (in Minnesota) where they celebrated Christmas with Jared's extended family. Jared's parents are flying them to Massachusetts on Saturday (12/29) and staying until Tuesday (1/1) and then they'll be looked after by other people.

Do we know who yet? For God's sake, no! That's like six days away! We're kind of busy around here! However, we have lots of relatives and friends who have offered to help out (thank you, thank you!!!!) and we'll work on sorting out those details next.

I've been waiting to ask, same leg or other leg from the ACL repair?

Same!

Oh, boy. Will she need the ACL done again?

We hope not! Because the injury is down through the knee and there's not typically a lot of twisting, the tendons and ligaments in the knee are often okay. (The meniscus is likely destroyed, though.) We won't know until the tibia repair surgery for sure, but there's a good chance that Laura's ACL reconstruction is A-OK. That's what we're hoping for.

Swiss Time & Efficiency

UPDATED: See the bottom of the post for the cool minute change of the Swiss rail clock!

On Thursday I was meeting a friend for lunch and apologized when I arrived seven minutes late. He made the point that only in Switzerland would I apologize for arriving a whole seven minutes(!) late, which got me to thinking about Swiss time, which reminded me of a blog post I started putting together years ago. So, this morning I looked at my drafts and, lo and behold, this thing was 90%+ finished! Why didn't I post it those years ago? So, without further ado....

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With news that Apple recently paid $21 million (!!!) to license the iconic Swiss Federal Railways clock design for  iOS 6, it seemed like high time (haha) that I finally addressed TIME in Switzerland....

Left: The new clock face that Apple will us in iOS 6. Right: SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) clock as licensed to Mondaine.

A few weeks ago, Laura returned from a business trip to the US, and the boys and I picked her up at the Geneva airport. As we were waiting outside the customs area, I received a text:

"Luggage arriving in 4 minutes. See you soon!"

And, when she met us outside, she was once again impressed by Swiss efficiency to time. We've grown accustomed to it living here, but returning from a trip abroad brings it back into focus. You see, she knew when the luggage was arriving because the Swiss airport workers post a count-down timer at the luggage belt. At five minutes, they start the countdown. And, the precise moment that timer hits 0, a klaxon sounds, a light starts flashing, the belt starts moving, and luggage begins descending from the ceiling.

Now, is there any great secret to how this is done? Probably not. My suspicion is that that luggage had been sitting on the belt above the customs area two or three minutes before the countdown timer started. In fact, they could probably cut a few minutes off the average time of luggage delivery at Geneva Airport. But, that is not what efficiency means to the Swiss. It's not so important how fast you can get something done, but that you can depend on it being done when promised, every time (or nearly every time).

Consider the trains in Switzerland and France.

When we first arrived here in Switzerland, I have to admit I was initially a bit disappointed with the Swiss rail system. If the French can run the TGV from Lausanne to Paris in 3 hours 41 minutes (7+ hours driving time), why does it take the Swiss 2 and a half hours to make the trip from Lausanne to Zurich (driving time 2-1/2 to 3 hours).

See here the wicked fast French TGV:

And here, for comparision, is a typical Swiss train:

Okay, so I cheated a bit there. The top video was a French TGV specifically outfitted to make a world-record breaking speed run. But, still the point remains. How can a Swiss train be efficient if it runs so slowly?

Again, for the Swiss

efficiency does not equal speed or throughput

efficiency equals reliability!

Remember how I said the TGV runs from Lausanne to Paris in 3 hours 41 minutes? Well, I've taken that train six times so far, and only once have I made the trip in that time. The trip has taken close to four hours most times, pushing close to 20 minutes late on average. 

The Swiss 2.5 hour trip? Two and a half hours, every time.*

The Swiss rail administrators endeavor to ensure that passengers complete their entire connected trip with less than 3 minutes of delay. Keep in mind, they're not just counting a simple rail route, but connected journeys in their measurements. If a person makes a journey from Geneva, on the western end of Switzerland, all the way across to the eastern tip of Graubunden, with 4+ connections, they are supposed to arrive there with less than 3 minutes of delay.

When you first plan a long Swiss rail journey and see your planned connection times are 6 minutes at a station, you may be a little concerned. But, before long, you'll realize that's plenty of time. They've planned out the walking route between platforms, figured weather/other variability into the route planning of each train**, and you can count on it working almost every time.

I remember catching a train at the Geneva airport. A group of people was dashing down the corridor to catch an escalator to the train platform and a Swiss rail official called out, "Don't run! Don't worry! The train is not leaving for 2 minutes! You have plenty of time!" This is the voice of experience from a man who knows precisely when that train is leaving, and precisely how much time it takes to get from one place to another.

• Metrics: Of course, nobody is perfect, and no one can deal with all possible delays, so how does Swiss rail do?
• In 2013, 87.5% of all passengers made their selected destination in less than 3 minutes of delay. It's hard to tell whether this is good or just okay. More impressively to me (and perhaps more important),
• 97.3% of connections were made.
• Think about that! SBB carried 365.9 million passengers last year, and 97.3% of them made their planned connections! (And 320+ million of them arrived at their destination within 3 minutes of their planned arrival time!) You can count on Swiss rail.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, a few more examples:

• The first day Laura took the train to the office, she arrived at the train platform about 10 minutes before her train was due to depart. There was no one at the train station. She was worried she'd read the timetable wrong. 
• 7 minutes prior to departure: crickets. 
• 5 minutes prior: still nothing. 
• 3 minutes prior: first person shows up. 
• 2 minutes prior: 3 people.
• 1 minute prior: a stream of people begins arriving. 
• 30 seconds prior: full platform.
• These days, Laura leaves the apartment to arrive about a minute prior to train departure.
• Similarly, the first time there was a coffee meeting in her office, Laura headed to the meeting area about 5 minutes before 9. She figured, as in the US, she would get a chance to chat to a few people before the meeting started (which would probably begin around 9:07 or 9:10). And, of course, there as no one there. And, at 8:59 the room filled up. And, at 9 am the leader started talking. 9 means 9. Not 8:55. And, not 9:07.

So, of course this has affected me, too. 

It's safe to say I was almost never on time to anything in my previous life. It's not that I didn't plan on how long it would take to get somewhere, but I didn't do it properly. If I was going to a meeting somewhere, I knew how long it took to drive there (like, the fastest I had ever driven it, during, probably, the middle of the night on a weekend, or something, when there was no traffic), and that was my planned time. 

Now, things are a bit different:

• What is a reasonable drive time, considering the time of day and my route? Do I want to build in some extra time for contingencies?
• What is the parking situation? How long will it find a space to park?
• How far away will that be from where I'm going? How long will it take me to walk that distance?
• Do I know where I'm going once I get to the building? How long will it take me to find out?
• Is this a doctor's appointment? Am I going for the first time so I'll need to fill out documents before the appointment?
• Etc.

Which is not to say I don't make mistakes. After all, I was 7 minutes late for my lunch date on Thursday. And, Swiss trains are late occasionally, too. But, in the olden days, I would have felt pretty good about 7 minutes, and like I was on time. (Let's be serious, I wouldn't have known I was "7 minutes" late!) Now, that's something I find myself apologizing for.

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And, by the way, for those of you who miss it, or are just curious, here is the real Swiss Federal Railways clock.

Real SBB/CFF/FFS clock, designed in 1944.

Do you know/remember how that clock works? I love how it dramatically emphasizes the change of the minute. That red second hand sweeps smoothly around the clock face. Then, it arrives at the 60/0 second position, pauses briefly, and the minute hand CLUNKS ahead to the next minute. The minute hand doesn't move during the minute. At any specific time, you can see at a glance precisely what minute the Swiss rail service is counting as valid.

And, now UPDATED in video!

Endnotes:

* Not every time. As we've established, even Swiss rail is not perfect. And, unfortunately, I did experience one of those late experiences one day when I really, really needed not to....

** I absolutely love the way they do this. They build in extra catch-up time into the train schedule at periodic intervals. For example, the Pully Nord train station is right near our apartment, and it is one stop from Lausanne. For the Lausanne - Pully Nord trip, this segment is scheduled for 2 minutes. On the Pully Nord - Lausanne trip, it is scheduled for 6 minutes. That's four minutes of slack time (or catch-up time) built into the schedule right before the train reaches Lausanne, where many of the train riders will be catching a connection. Also, the train is scheduled to sit in Lausanne for six whole minutes(!), much longer than the 1 minute scheduled time for the non-connecting stations. That's another five minutes of slack time built directly into the train schedule.

Egypt in April? Maybe we should wait....

Tuesday I was just about to book two flights for next April. One to Cairo on Egypt Air, and one returning from Hurghada on easyJet. Our plan was to fly there and then follow an itinerary to include Giza, the Valley of the Kings/Luxor, and three days snorkeling reefs in the Red Sea. (Basically, this trip with a few minor adjustments:  http://www.egypt-uncovered.com/tours/docs/egypt_tour_cultural_holiday_eguc.pdf )

Needless to say, the events of the last few days have made us rethink things. I'm still not ready to give up on the Egypt trip yet, but we're also definitely not booking it yet. And when we do, I think travel insurance is called for. How much will that cost?

In the meantime, we need to think about alternative trips for a week in April. Morocco? Slovenia? Cyprus?These are very big problems to have, I know.... In the meantime, if you have any suggestions, we're all ears.

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So, it's been a very long time since I've made any posts. I know, and I'm sorry. It's sort of a lot of pressure to think of things that people might be interested in. And, by the time I do, I've lost all energy to actually write about it.

But, I may move this into a travelogue type blog. They're easy -- just upload a bunch of pictures. Our trips since the last update are as noted below. Perhaps I'll make an entry for each over the next few weeks. And, tomorrow we're off to Dublin for a three day weekend.

• Skiing in Avoriaz, France with my parents and brother during the week between Christmas and New Year's
• Ski week in Nendaz, Switzerland with our friends from Holland, the Van de Poll/Noordanus family (February)
• Amsterdam, Belgium (Bruges and Flanders) with my parents in April. The boys liked our return to Switzerland on an overnight train the best.
• London over a three day weekend in May
• Italian Lakes during a five day weekend in May (Lago d'Orta and Bellagio, Lake Como)
• Jubilee Marathon in Stockholm in July
• Minnesota/Maine in July/August

Whew! This is why I like living in Switzerland!

Madeira

Laura and I honeymooned in Madeira nearly ten years ago. We always thought we'd go back someday, so when we found ourselves only a few hours' flight from Madeira we starting scheming for a vacation there. And, during the boys' week-long break in October we made our return. Ostensibly, this was our ten year anniversary trip. It's actually closer to nine years since our wedding, but it provided a good excuse to totally blow the budget. It's a good thing milestone anniversaries don't come along more often!

Photos follow. I don't think we need a lot of commentary. But, knowing me, I may not be able to hold back.

Relaxing on the balcony with a glass of Madeira after our long flight. (Yes, it is a lot closer than when we were in the US, but it was still 4 hours of flying plus a 90 minute layover.)

What I was looking at.

The hotel did a great job with the kids. These bears were part of a "welcome package" for each child.
They felt really special.

We went to see some caves, but the boys were most interested in the ducks there. And, as you can see, Calvin never let go of his bear once during our stay in Madeira....

Laura's favorite flowers.

The caves. Yes, the boys are out of focus, but if I'd used a flash everything would have been pitch black behind them.

We had to drive over the mountains to get back from the caves.
Can you tell it was really windy up there? Are you sure?

Calvin wouldn't come out of the car.

A beach. Laura is an artiste. Actually, doesn't this look like the front of an album cover?

Man, I wish the kids would always behave like this!

Sorry, I don't know why I included this. Me playing with a polarizing filter on the camera.
I have a lot more if you're interested....

Laura and Elliot sitting close to the water.

Hahaha! A little too close!

The next day we took a cable car up into the hills above Funchal. But, how would we get back down?

We ride these wicker baskets down the streets of Monte. Ernest Hemingway rode these and found them to be exhilarating. A guy who wrote about fighting with bulls. Apparently, he'd never ridden a roller coaster.

On the other hand, a roller coaster doesn't travel down normal streets. Later, when we were going fast enough that these dudes where riding on the back of the basket hurtling down a rain-soaked hill as cars narrowly missed us zooming up the hill? Pretty frightening, actually.

This was the closest thing we saw to a smile from Calvin on this particular day.

We stayed at Reid's Palace, an old British-oriented hotel in Funchal. One of the things it's known for is high tea on its Tea Terrace overlooking the ocean. We weren't sure about bringing the kids to this traditional, semi-formal event. But, the kids club at Reid's announced they'd be taking kids to their own tea in the cocktail bar one afternoon, so Laura and I immediately booked our own grown-up tea reservation!

High tea at Reid's.

Oh! Calvin doesn't look very happy in this picture, either. I think he was having a good time.

Older boy.

The Fun @ Reid's child minders really dressed up!

Random shot up toward the hills from Reid's pool. Beautiful, no?

Every day we hoped to take a hike along the levadas, or irrigation canals, up in the Madeira mountains, and day after day it was too rainy or overcast up in the higher elevations (we generally had sunny warm weather down by the ocean). Finally, on Thursday, we got our chance to take a hike.

These levadas have had maintenance paths that run along side them for years and years. Then, one day someone decided to catalog many of the different routes as potential walks or hikes and the idea took off. Today, one of the most famous activities in Madeira is to go for a "levada walk."

The area on the north side of Madeira where we began our walk.

Early in our walk. Calvin is in a backpack because he's not as good a walker as Elliot and also because we didn't trust him to...well, you'll see.

At the beginning of our walk, these levada paths were wide and were used basically as sidewalks to get to some of these little houses on the side of the hill.

See what I mean? This is practically a boulevard!

Then things got a little bit smaller.

Then, quite a bit more treacherous. See why we wanted Calvin in a backpack?

Okay, this is ridiculous! At least they provided a railing! (Sort of - it was just wire threaded around those poles and I wouldn't let Elliot actually touch it....)

Waterfall across the valley.

I love how Elliot is "explaining" how these work! Anyway, this does two things, moderates the water flow before the levada starts a new course, and catches gunk (leaves, branches, dead animals) that falls in upstream.

 

This goat was not wild. Why someone had a goat in some random enclosure up here I can't figure out.

Looking up the valley toward the interior.

Looking down the valley in the other direction toward the ocean.

I can't remember if this was an overflow to release excess water or a place where a waterfall came down and the levada captured part of the water. If you lean to your right and look to the left of us in the picture, you might be able to tell! ;-)

Taking a little break. Notice these poles are missing the top wire....

It's a good thing our battery died, or I'd treat you to a hundred more pictures of the levada.

Reid's Palace includes a restaurant called Villa Cipriani that is on a cliff right over the water, and we ate there every night but two during our vacation. The service was impeccable. When we went to dinner there the night we arrived the boys were tired because it had been a long day and it was past their bedtime in Switzerland. When one of the waiters saw how tired Calvin was, he went inside and got another chair to slide together with Calvin's and make a sort of bed, and then showed up five minutes later with a wool blanket to lay over him! Talk about service! Anyway, after that night, we were in love with Villa Cipriani.

Laura at dinner on our last night in Madeira.

Elliot and me.

The little man.

 

The whole family with Reid's in the background.

Calvin in his "bed" the first night on my crappy camera phone.

Of course, the thing that really made the vacation great was the pool. We spent most of our time most days hanging around the pool. Calvin liked going to the Fun @ Reid's play area, but Elliot just liked swimming in the warm freshwater pool and playing with parents, new friends, or by himself. I liked catching up on reading. Laura? I think she liked playing with Elliot in the pool best of all. Pool pictures get old fast, but here are a few to show you what we did with most of our time....

The main pool area.

Where were we, again?

Laura playing with Elliot.

Laura playing with Calvin.

I don't know what Laura is doing behind Elliot. Nor do I want to.

Elliot out of the water.

Calvin out of the water.

The pool area was at the top of a cliff 30 meters or so above the water. But, there was also a small salt-water pool and bathing area at the bottom of the cliffs. We did go swimming in the ocean one day, but, alas, no photos!

Madeira is not the easiest place to get to, but it remains the most beautiful island in the world, in my opinion. If you have a chance to go, please do!