By Jae-Ha Kim
Tribune Media Services
December 25, 2012
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jonny Moseley first saw snow when his family moved to Northern California. The mogul skier would go on to compete at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, where he won the first American gold of the Games. Since then, he’s hosted shows for MTV, was named one of People magazine’s most eligible bachelors, graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, got married and became a father. He has also added the title of “guru” to his resume. Moseley is one of ZOZI.com’s celebrity guides, who lead everyday folks on adventures. To stay in touch with Moseley, check out his website or follow him on Twitter.
Q. What is your favorite vacation destination?
A. Squaw Valley (Calif.). Days off there are the best.
Q. To someone who was going there for the first time, what would you recommend they do during their visit?
A. Ski KT-22, drink beer on the deck at Rocker@Squaw and make a trip to the indoor action sports park Woodward Tahoe with your kids.
Q. What untapped destination should people know about?
A. Shiga Kogen, Japan. Alyeska, Alaska. Wanaka, New Zealand.
Q. What was the first trip you took as a child?
A. I think the first one I remember vividly was a road trip with my parents and two brothers to Howard Prairie Lake in Oregon for a sailing regatta. I was too young to race, but I loved being by the lake in a campsite with the RV. I remember seeing chipmunks for the first time, catching crawdads and my first ever stiff neck, which crippled me for a couple of days.
Q. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from your travels?
A. Squeeze the air out of all your bottles, never drink and fly, drink a ton of water on the first day and go out the first night to gain some local knowledge. Don’t wait until the end of the trip.
Q. Where are your favorite weekend getaways?
A. Santa Cruz for some surfing, Squaw Valley for skiing, the Sacramento Delta for boating and waterskiing, New York City to catch up with my wife.
Q. How do your travels differ these days?
A. I have 5- and 2-year-old boys, so the experience is very different. Currently we resist traveling as a family. A day trip to Bolinas (Calif.) for some surfing seems to be plenty of fun. We do travel often as a family to Squaw and that is getting easier now that the younger boy is starting to ski and has stopped napping. In general, when I am on the road alone I jam-pack my schedule and it is the opposite when traveling with my family. I don’t really travel for fun with friends at this stage.
Q. What are your favorite hotels?
A. Dream Inn in Santa Cruz, Calif. The Village at Squaw. The Essex House in New York City. I am all about location and these three are stars. Dream Inn has a mellow, perfect break merely steps away. The Village at Squaw is steps from KT-22. The Essex House is on the south side of Central Park. I love Central Park.
Q. What are your five favorite cities?
A. San Francisco, New York City, Tokyo, Sydney and Oslo.
Q. Where have you traveled to that most reminded you of home?
A. Portland, Maine.
Q. Where would you like to go that you have never been to before?
A. Russia and Africa.
Q. When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?
A. These days, the only thing I make sure I have is my Sprint iPhone 5 loaded with pictures of my family, ID and money. I’m not attached to much else. I prefer to travel very light and make it happen when I get there.
Q. What would be your dream trip?
A. Sail the Med and a little more.
Q. What are your favorite restaurants?
A. Dell’anima in New York City and Copita in Sausalito, Calif.
Q. What is your guilty pleasure when you’re on the road?
A. Room service.
Q. What kind of research do you do before you go away on a trip?
A. Send out a tweet and see what comes back.
Q. What are your best and worst vacation memories?
A. When my wife was pregnant with our first, we went on vacation to Hanalei Bay on Kauai. It was summer so I thought it would be flat, but there was swell. I jumped out there and surfed while she lounged. The most memorable part of the trip was not the surfing, however, it was the full-body sunburn that disabled me for the rest of the trip. (Later) my wife and I took our oldest son, when he was 6 months old, on a multi-stop trip across the country and back for some work and play mixed together. He picked up a double ear infection somewhere along the way and was miserable on the plane before we figured out what was up. I feel like the best vacation ever was right in our backyard. It was only two nights. We went to Santa Cruz and stayed at the Dream Inn for my son’s fifth birthday. We got Jack a surf lesson, which went great. The rest of the time we hung out in the pool, on the beach, on the boardwalk and ate room service.
© 2012 JAE-HA KIM
DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
