Weekend at Whistler...

For Easter, my lovely in-laws treated the family to a weekend at Whistler. So early Saturday morning (and I do mean early) Sean and I took the first ferry off the Coast (it leaves at 6:20 am). By just past 7am, we were on the Sea to Sky highway:







It's been a long time since my last trip to Whistler, and I'd forgotten how magnificent the Chief at Squamish is:





Just past 8:30, we pulled into the parking lot at Creekside, put on our gear and headed to the Gondola. The weather was just starting to clear and and we took a few runs while waiting to meet up with the rest of the family. Because I love playing with the black and white feature on my camera, I took the opportunity to snap a few shots from the Little Red Chair:









Around 10:30, we met up at the lights:



Then we set out down the Green chair line. At one point I just had to stop and take out my camera:



Sean goofed around with my hat during our lunch break:



The end of the afternoon saw us return to the rented condo. Here's the view from the back garden:



Easter morning involved an easter egg hunt with our niece and Sean playing with the bunny ears our 10 month old nephew refused to keep on:



On Sunday, I decided to forgo skiing, to save my wrists, and headed into Whistler village - a pleasant 10 minute walk from the condo. First stop was Starbucks for a latte and the first 1/3 of a script I'm reading for a friend of mine. After that, I trundled out into the rain and the rest of the village. Within an hour, the sun had broken through the clouds:









After shopping and lunch, I went back to see how things were going, visited with our nephew and chatted with my mum and sister back in Ontario. Sean called to see if I wanted to meet him in the village and do the après ski thing. Never one to give up that kind of opportunity, I walked back and we repaired to The Brew House, where we watched the cool little train run a track suspended from the ceiling of the restaurant, while enjoying beer and snacks:







For dinner, we returned to The Brew House, this time eating on the restaurant side with my in-laws. We were by the window, so when the snow began in earnest, I managed to get a couple of good pics:





Monday morning, we packed up early and headed back to Creekside, where we parked in preparation for another day of skiing. It was cloudy and a little cool, but there was still plenty of fresh snow. The line for the gondola was quite long. While Sean lined up for the tickets, I took some more pics *g*:





The weather once we got up top was windy, and as the Peak was still shrouded in cloud, Sean figured we'd be happier skiing the Green Chair again, rather than freezing our butts off on the Peak Chair. It was a strange kind of day - sun, cloud, wind and even some snow:





I grew up skiing back East, where ice is the norm, rather than lots of really fresh snow. It's been years since I've done a lot on moguls, and certainly not the size they are out here. So we played on the easier mogul runs, so I could practise:



I did manage to get the hang of things after a few runs, and fortunately the soft snow made it a pretty soft landing when I did fall.

By noon, we figured we'd ski out, have lunch, and head back down the highway before things got too crazy. During the first half of the run down to Creekside, we were in cloud:



so the view when we broke through it was really cool:



You can see some of the runs we took coming down, off to the left:



Lunch consisted of nachos at Dusty's followed by a photo-op with the self- timer out on the deck (note my very attractive hat head!):



Sean posed for a pic on the bridge during our little post-lunch stroll:



then it was onto the highway. We pulled in briefly at the Tantalus lookout. Unfortunately the camera really couldn't capture the full majesty of the view:



It was a lot sunnier when we passed the Chief this time:





You can hike it round the back, or, if you're brave and very skilled, can climb up the face.

Howe Sound is larger than I realized - my camera hand was busy:





Looking towards home from the highway:



One last neat b/w shot I got on the trip home:



We just missed a ferry, so did have to sit in the lot for an hour and a half, but as we had plenty to read, plus a couple of pillows, we managed to read/snooze until the Queen of Surrey pulled back into Horseshoe Bay.

The cats were thrilled to see us when we got home, exhausted and sore, but very, very happy. We unpacked, ate popcorn and watched Rome before turning in for the night.

Teresa

PS - While in the ferry line up I read a pair of interesting articles in the March issue of The Writer magazine - hope to blog about them later this week.

Currently Reading: Sepulchre by Kate Mosse