Skiing

Diane Christie My friend Sue Jeffries, whom I met at St. Andrew's Church, invited me to go to Alaska with the Balboa Ski and Sport Club. We were going to stay at the Alyeska Prince Hotel for four nights, including lift tickets for skiing, and three nights at Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage to see the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race -- all for $999. This seemed like an excellent bargain and place to meet new people who want to have fun. However, Sue, a member of the club since 1968, became very ill and couldn't attend, so I ended up going with 35 people I didn't know.

Osterhout, Royal Hargrave, 81, loving husband for 38 years of Mary Osterhout, long time resident of Newport Beach, CA, passed away peacefully in his sleep on September 29, 2007, after a courageous battle with cancer.  A native of Southern California, he graduated from Huntington Park High School, class of 1944, attended Cal Berkley where he served in the Navy ROTC, then transferred to UCLA where he graduated in 1948 with a degree in accounting. Roy was re-activated for the Korean War and served his country proudly on the USS Iowa.

Young Chang What remains at the front of Loren and Richard Moriarty's memory of their trip to Utah last month is not the women's hockey game at the Winter Olympics nor the skiing and the yoga classes, but ice angels. And ice eagles, frozen gods and goddesses, even an iced scene of a lion attacking a deer attempting to flee. They arrived at the spot of the International Ice Carving Competition in Provo, Utah at about 11 p.m. They found more than 30 international ice sculpting teams from around the world creating art from 300-pound blocks of ice. "It was all lit up by light," said Loren Moriarty of Newport Beach.

Esnard, Raoul Paul Paul Esnard passed away the evening of September 1, 2011, at the age of 86, in Corona Del Mar, California, where he lived for over thirty years. The son of Raoul Paul and Mary Benita Esnard, he was born on November 11, 1925. He is survived by Audrey Jane Hemphill Esnard, his devoted wife of 57 years, their six children, Catherine Leslie Owens (Mark), Allyn Marie Esnard, Dwight Cooper Esnard (Patti), Adrienne Christine Miller- Heckman (Jim), Maureen Elizabeth Gilmer (Jim)

Sarah Brazer, a senior at Costa Mesa High School, was born blind. She sees only in big blurs and dark images. If she’s lucky and the letters are written large enough, she’ll be able to read them, but only with a magnifying glass. She’ll probably never drive. And yet since the moment Brazer was diagnosed with visual impairment when she was 4 months old, she’s been getting on with life just like everybody else — thanks largely to her mother, Jennifer Brazer, who made sure she received the appropriate schooling.

"We can put our minds at ease because God's mind is on us." --Unknown Last week I mentioned that I had the pleasure of skiing a few weeks ago. Besides relishing the beauty of God's creation, I also really enjoyed watching children ski. They were so well padded and protected that they practically bounced right back up whenever they fell. I also loved hearing their comments in the lift lines. One of my favorites was by a little boy wearing a big helmet.

STEVE SMITH On Feb. 23, 1987, my wife and I boarded a plane on a major airline to take us from John Wayne Airport to the Lake Tahoe Airport. It was to be the start of our honeymoon -- a week of skiing and playing in the mountains. But on the way from our stop in San Jose, the pilot told us that it was snowing too hard in Lake Tahoe and that we would be diverted to Reno, where buses would take us up the mountain. Upon hearing the news, the passengers let out a group groan at the thought of the inconve- nience of driving up to Tahoe in a bus. After all, these people paid a premium to fly directly to the slopes.

It was not so long ago you could water ski down the main channel of Newport Harbor. The Back Bay was also a great place for skiing, with the bluffs on one side blocking the wind. It was a time when fiberglass was making its debut and boats were powered by Ford Flathead V-8s boasting 125 horsepower. Paralleling Lido Isle on a pair of wooden skis at 30 mph outside the wake was considered quite daring. Things have changed since those days, changed a lot, as 13-year-old Newport native Marlo Sciarra proved to the world Oct. 8. Marlo is an eighth-grader at Carden Hall School.

Sometimes we don't really know whom we've married until there is some challenge that reveals what we wish we'd known during courtship or we experience something that supports our good decision to have married that person. I learned all I needed to know about my wife, Cay, the day after we were married Feb. 22, 1987. It rained most of the day. Our outdoor wedding at El Adobe restaurant in San Juan Capistrano was moved inside to the ballroom. We didn't mind the rain because we'd planned a skiing honeymoon in Lake Tahoe and figured that showers here meant snow there.

Esnard, Raoul Paul Paul Esnard passed away the evening of September 1, 2011, at the age of 86, in Corona Del Mar, California, where he lived for over thirty years. The son of Raoul Paul and Mary Benita Esnard, he was born on November 11, 1925. He is survived by Audrey Jane Hemphill Esnard, his devoted wife of 57 years, their six children, Catherine Leslie Owens (Mark), Allyn Marie Esnard, Dwight Cooper Esnard (Patti), Adrienne Christine Miller- Heckman (Jim), Maureen Elizabeth Gilmer (Jim)

Sarah Brazer, a senior at Costa Mesa High School, was born blind. She sees only in big blurs and dark images. If she’s lucky and the letters are written large enough, she’ll be able to read them, but only with a magnifying glass. She’ll probably never drive. And yet since the moment Brazer was diagnosed with visual impairment when she was 4 months old, she’s been getting on with life just like everybody else — thanks largely to her mother, Jennifer Brazer, who made sure she received the appropriate schooling.

As high school boys’ basketball coach, Ryan Schachter knows the importance of a loud, energetic home crowd. He said he appreciated the Corona del Mar High fans’ spirit when his Sea Kings beat San Marcos of Santa Barbara, 67-48, Friday. But he expects a bigger and louder group tonight. The CdM boys could use the support, as they’ll have their 18-game-winning streak and 6-0 home record on the line against Gahr of Cerritos. Even more important it’s a CIF Southern Section Division III-A quarterfinal game, that tips off at 7. The Gladiators (24-4)

The Winter Olympics are in full swing and it’s Ski Week for area public schools, so we’ve opted to check in with longtime family business owner Phil Carter of Costa Mesa-based Phil’s Ski and Snowboard, founded in 1984. How’s business? How have the record storms this season benefited you? The snow’s great and the weather’s great. We’ve been extremely busy — the good kind of busy. It’s Ski Week for Newport-Mesa Unified right now, so everyone goes to Mammoth and Big Bear; we’ve been helping a lot of people out. I was actually going to Mountain High the morning all the roads got shut down from that big storm; there was about 8 inches of snow on our car when we came back to the car. Do you typically see increased business during and following the Winter Olympics?

It’s been a month an a half since beachgoers at Newport Pier have seen Ski Meinschein’s red electric scooter making its way down the boardwalk, with his two scarlet macaws perched on the front. Laid up in Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian for the past month and a half, Meinschein, known as the Bird Man of Newport Beach, misses his birds and making children at the pier laugh with their tricks. A retired oil field worker from Indiana, Meinschein and his birds have been a beloved fixture at the pier for the last 30 years.

Mt. Baldy has a history of skiing dating back to World War II, when the area was first developed for commercial skiing. Herb Leffler and Jim Chaffee would occasionally run into each other while skiing at the few Southern California areas available at that time. Herb and Jim eventually decided they wanted to create their own rope tow. After receiving permission from the U.S. Forest Service, they chose Mt. Baldy — which was known as Camp Baldy — as their new skiing home.

In the midst of a severe drought, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue stood on the steps of the Capitol building in Atlanta several weeks ago and asked the public to pray for rain. Last night, skiers, snowboarders and anyone hoping for the first “dump” of the season, joined owners Stefan and Stascha Kaelin for a snow dance outside the Stefan Kaelin Ski & Golf store in Newport Beach. Over a glass or two of wine, Stascha Kaelin and store manager Janet Nicholas came up with the idea after hearing about the Georgia situation.

Osterhout, Royal Hargrave, 81, loving husband for 38 years of Mary Osterhout, long time resident of Newport Beach, CA, passed away peacefully in his sleep on September 29, 2007, after a courageous battle with cancer.  A native of Southern California, he graduated from Huntington Park High School, class of 1944, attended Cal Berkley where he served in the Navy ROTC, then transferred to UCLA where he graduated in 1948 with a degree in accounting. Roy was re-activated for the Korean War and served his country proudly on the USS Iowa.