Whistler for the holidays

and the beginning of another winter road trip  

We once again had to rip the van interior apart to trace some templates, and running a bit behind as always, the van was still an empty shell the morning we were supposed to depart for meeting our friends in Whistler, BC for the holidays. 

It made for a frantic, anxious and hurried day, but we did get everything thrown back together and hit the road attempting to try and get out of town before traffic.  Didn’t get far and decided to stop at the new casino just out of town to sleep and tried our luck at the tables for  while before crashing in the parking lot. Nice early start in the morning and we pulled into whistler thrilled to unwind, soak up friends we haven’t seen in all too long (okay, in reality only a couple months) and enjoy the holiday in cabin style perfection.

Our days were pretty repetitive, but why change what already seems perfect?  We’d get up each morning and slowly have breakfast, coffee,  gear up and make our way to the hill by late morning for a few hours of riding.  There wasn’t much new snow, so why fight for first chair for the same conditions?

After a day on the hill we’d stop for a beer at the brewery, take care of some grocery shopping and other errands and then return to the cabin for our evening routine of nature walks, playing games, dinner and time connecting with our friends.

We did make it out for a few day trips, one to Nita lake for a bit of a team walk and for an almost daylong soak at the Scandinav Spa (this place is an amazing experience of the traditional scandinavian "hot, cold, relax" cycle and no doubt is now part of our "normal" whistler routine), but otherwise mostly soaked up the cabin and our friends.That all changed midweek when a storm rolled through and dropped 10” of fresh powder on Whistler.  Suddenly we were all scrambling to get geared up, warm up and shovel out the cars and get to the mountain well before sunrise trying to get first chair (or at least close to it). 

The midweek dump was perfect for our stay and despite decent crowds in for the holiday we had a blast both on the hill and back at the cabin.

Christmas was a nice and relaxed day of turns in the morning followed by a feast and new years started the same but ended a bit more rowdy with the tiny cabin turning into a bit of a dance party.

A few days after the new year we eventually pried ourselves away (wasn’t too hard as all our friends were headed back to vancouver or out of town) and we pointed the van in the direction of the rockies.  Such a perfect stop and a great way to kick off this year’s winter road trip.

Looking back, it's hard to describe how much we needed this trip.  To get back to the simplicity of living on the road, to be surrounded by nature and exercising on the daily and to be breathing deeply.

The last stretch of this year has been a rough on as Jen's mom's health faded and she ended up passing right before the holidays.  The grieving process will clearly take some time, but these are the things that will facilitate it happening...