Whistler Love

Friday, December 30th marked the first day of vacation for Jeff and me in eight months.  The week between Christmas and New Years was stressful for both of us at work.  For me-a 600 person, brand new event was in the final stages of planning and due to unfortunate timing, I would be missing the event.  Any meeting planners out there might understand the extremely high level of anxiety I was feeling trying to make sure I had everything wrapped up in a nice, pretty bow for my coworkers who I would leave with the last minute details.  Not being on site for an event I did the majority of the planning and work for was somewhat incomprehensible to me.  Knowing I have an awesome team whose very capable hands I was leaving it in, I did the best I could working 12 hour days that week to ensure they had all the information they needed to carry it out.  Jeff is also swamped working on three different jobs at the moment all with tiny details.  We didn't see much of each other that week and unfortunately not much of Uncle Will. Aunt Catherine and cousins Julia and Laura while they were visiting.  Lucky for us, we would see them again very soon.

When we left work on Thursday night, we both came home at ease with promises to each other that we would leave our work worries behind and enjoy the hell out of this vacation.  So, I poured myself a giant glass of wine and began to pack.  I also called my Dad and yelled in his ear, "I'm on vacation!!"  

At close to 11:30pm, we were done packing with our alarms set for just a few hours later.  At 3:45, we awoke, showered, loaded everything in the car and set off for the airport thinking we had plenty of time.  NOT.  As soon as we walked in the airport, the nice airline rep at the bag check was yelling a last call for anyone on the Delta flight to Atlanta.  We looked at each other quickly, said, "Oh shit! That's us," checked our bags and hightailed it to security.  The line was a mile long so in my sweetest voice, I asked a family at the front of the line if we could cut.  Thankfully, they were also sweet and we skipped ahead, disrobed for security, put everything back on and quickly walked towards our gate.  At that point, another airline rep came over the loudspeaker and said, "Last call for Delta flight to Atlanta."  "Shit," we said again and started running.  Out of breath we arrived at the gate, scanned our tickets and got on the plane.  We were sweaty, breathing heavily and had coats and bags hanging off of us.  Basically we looked like the Griswalds.  

So, after a really calm and laid back morning, NOT!, we were on our way.  We had a quick layover in Atlanta and then we boarded our flight to Seattle with the excitement of knowing we were meeting not only my sis, Jason and Claire in Seattle, but also Lisa and Andy!  YEAHHH!  All of our flights were on time and we gathered up our luggage, grabbed our rental cars and began the trek from Seattle to Whistler.

Lisa and I live thousands of miles apart yet we somehow end up wearing the same outfit every time we see each other.  

We caravanned on the way there with a quick stop in Skagit River, Washington at a brewery for a quick bite to eat and time for a conference call for Jason.  He did NOT make the same promise to leave his work behind.  After a sampler flight and some sandwiches, we were back on the road.  Claire did so well most of the way but did require her baby crack music at several points when she got a little fussy.  By the end of the trip, we could all teach her baby music class due to the fact that we had all memorized the songs on her CD. "Hello, everybody-so glad to see you...."

When we arrived, we unloaded, checked in and quickly went for the essentials-beer, wine, cheese and crackers.  These items were imperative in keeping our hunger and thirst at bay until mom and dad arrived with all the food and drink they were planning to purchase on their way up the mountain.   When they finally arrived, they and most of the rest of our group went across the street to rent skis and poles since they had opted not to bring their own due to checked baggage prices.  Jeff and I had free check thanks to our Delta credit card.  While they were off taking care of business, Jeff and I got dinner ready and set the table.  When all were back, we feasted and chatted and enjoyed night one of vacation.

I think the first night of any vacation is always my favorite.  Everyone is always excited to be wherever we are and the entire week is still ahead of us.  

On Saturday morning, we were all up early and prepared ourselves for skiing.  We layered up, bought our lift tickets and were off for a great day on the slopes.  I love Whistler/Blackcomb for the size of the two mountains and the unlimited terrain available for skiers at our level.  The lodges are a great place for lunch and warm-ups and all the staff and liftys are so nice.  We skied all day on the first day with a quick stop for lunch and a trip down the Blackcomb Glacier before the day was done.  When we got back to the condo, Lisa had already been in the hot tub so she and Andy hung back in the condo, Ash and Jason played with Claire after Claire's first day ever with a babysitter and Jeff and I spent some time soaking in the hot tub.  Awesome.

When we all got back to the condo, we showered up and headed upstairs to mom and Dad and Ken and Marty's condo for Ashley and Jason's dinner night.  They prepared tacos so we feasted and then played Left, Right, Center with $1 scratch off tickets.  My family is nothing if not competitive and there was lots of cheering and yelling going on and Mom ultimately won the giant stack of scratchers.  Lucky.  Thanks to Lisa and Andy for bringing the game.  We started another game that involved talking dirty and poor lisa had to read a card out loud to us and my parents involving blow jobs (not awkward at all-ha!) before we ended the game so Lisa, Andy, Jeff and me could get ready to leave for New Years Eve.  

We left the condo around 10pm with plans to go to local bar Merlin's.  When we arrived, the line was out the door and was mostly dudes so we decided against it.  We walked instead into Whistler and settled at the Brewhouse and had some beverages while waiting for the clock to strike midnight.  We were a little jet lagged and had had a long day of skiing so we were anxiously awaiting midnight.  When the clock struck, we said "Happy New Year," did some smooching and then were back on our way to the condo to get some shut eye.  When we arrived back in Blackcomb, we encountered a very drunk and probably on drugs too youngster.  I guess now that we are older and wiser, we tried to help him and he didn't want it.  We agreed, though, that we felt better about him getting arrested than dying in the cold so we alerted the front desk rep at our condo about the poor fellow and asked that he call security.  We never will know what happened to the guy, but hopefully he found a safe and warm place to pass out and simply had a horrendous hangover the next day.

The four of us out on New Years

Day two skiing was just as good as day one and Lisa and I returned the condo early with Ashley and Jason to take Claire out on her first attempt at skiing with her little plastic skis.  Cutest thing ever.   We celebrated with drinks at Merlins as we waited for Jeff and Andy to come down off the mountain and join us.  After drinks, it was more hot tub time.

Mom and Dad's friend's, Mark and Janet, arrived late on New Years Eve and the old-ER folks condo had plans for a nice dinner out.  Ash and Jason wanted a date night in with Claire so Jeff, Andy, Lisa and I ventured into Whistler with plans for a sushi dinner.  On the way into town, we paused to watch the fire and ice show for a few minutes and were in awe at the boarders and skiers doing crazy tricks through a ring of fire.  All sushi places were packed so we ended up back in Blackcomb at a place called Milestone's.  The food was really good and we were successful in weirding out/scaring our really nice waitress.

Day three of skiing was also great and unfortunately was Andy and Lisa's last.   We skied as long as we could-I was having some major issues with my boots and my shins were in massive pain.   After some apres and some lounge time, we got ready for dinner.  This time it was Lisa and Andy's dinner night and Lisa made a solid tofu pot pie.  So good!  After dinner, we played another great game thanks to Lisa and Andy-The Name Game.   It involved charades and one word descriptions and celebrities.  So fun.

Sadly, Lisa and Andy left on Tuesday morning and both had gnarly colds-sorry guys!  We skied all day Tuesday was Ken and Marty's dinner night and they made a chicken and pepper dish followed by the best homemade bread pudding I have ever had.  I still need to get that recipe. 

Wednesday skiing was shitty.  It had such promise.  It snowed all day on Tuesday and Tuesday night but I guess it snowed too much combined with it being warmer in town.  So in town it was rainy and on the mountain it was snowy.  We decided to ski Blackcomb on Wednesday but when we got to the higher elevation, they weren't letting anyone up the lift.  The avalanche risk was too high and they were avalanche bombing the actual runs, not just the backcountry.  We waited in line for about an hour before we realized Whistler was open so we skied down, took the Whistler gondola up and tried to ski there.  The rain had made the snow like cement.  So awful.  So what do you do when, as Ashley said, "Mother Nature takes a shit on your powder day?"  You go to the bar.  So that we did.  We enjoyed a pitcher or two of beer and some waffle fries.  So healthy and awesome.  Then it was back to the condo and into the hot tub.

Wednesday night was our turn for dinner and we made a standby delicious recipe.  Spicy Italian (Turkey) Sausage, Tomato and Mushroom Polenta.  We had to improvise a bit due to the lack of polenta in the grocery store so it became a pot of polenta and a pot of risotto with the same sauce. Both really good.  We realized we needed dessert so Dad ran out for some Smarties (the European m&m type candy) ice cream and mint chocolate ice cream.  Can't go wrong there.

It snowed all night Wednesday night which meant Thursday skiing was AMAZING.  We all rented powder skis, made sure to be at the lifts when they opened and then enjoyed a day of amazing powder skiing.  It really does feel like floating.  The only downside was that the mountains had not seen powder like this since November so EVERYONE was jonesin for it and the friendly Canadians weren't so friendly on that morning.  Everyone had a crazed look in their eyes as they hauled ass down the mountain.  Snowboarders were emerging from the trees all over the place and you never knew when someone was going to come flying out onto the trail.  All the stupid helmet cams were out in full force and some snowboarders even had their cameras mounted to the end of a ski pole so they could film their faces as they were coming down the mountain.  Insane.  It was really fun, though, to watch all the extreme skiers flying through the powder and going off huge jumps.  I definitely felt like an amateur but had so much fun.

On Thursday afternoon, we returned our powder skis and then Jeff and I headed off into the village to explore a bit and pick up our usual vacation purchases: a print and a beer mug.

Back at the house, we got packed up and then joined everyone upstairs for a delicious takeout sushi dinner.  Then it was back to more packing to get ready to leave the next morning.  Sad.

On Friday, we cleaned out the condo and loaded up the car for our trip back down to Seattle.   Goodbye to Whistler-I KNOW we will be back soon.

I requested that we stop in Vancouver for a Dim Sum lunch and so we did.  The food was so great.  I love Dim Sum.  With full bellies, we were back on the road to Seattle to make it to the Jackson/Horan house at a good time.   So just a week after seeing them before, we saw Uncle Will, Aunt Catherine, Julia and Laura again.  We enjoyed catching up, had another Christmas and a delicious dinner with them before everyone left to go to the hotel for flights back east the next day.  Well...almost everyone.

Jeff and I had planned to spend an extra day in Seattle but we wanted to surprise the girls so we left the house with the rest of my fam but only to grab our bags.  Then we came back to the door and let out the surprise that we were staying another day and night.  It was exciting for all and we settled back in for the evening.

The rest of the vacation will come in a separate post.