Whistler/Blackcomb Days 3-7

Monday, 5th March 2007

Today my shoulder really hurt. Which was not fun. So I decided not to do any sort of skiing craziness. Chris and I instead stayed in and did some laundry and made a snowman in the back yard. The back yard of this chateau is the first hole of the Nicholaus North Golf Course in Whistler so there was a large expanse of nice fresh snow. Of course, rolling up snowman parts like the body and stuff are really hard when you can only use one arm. Our goal to make him as tall as a normal person was a bit too ambitious. We ended up naming him Jif because I thought the snowman needed a name.

Tuesday, 6th March 2007

Soooo I guess I had to try skiing today to make my lift tickets and week long rentals worth it. I decided to switch boots and skis with my sister, because my boots made my feet fall asleep (note to self — go complain to the guy who sold me the boots @ the Ski Chalet).

Today Aaron, his Aunt Kathy, Chris, and I went up to the midstation of the Whistler Gondola to the Olympic run. This run was a lot more my style — aka where all the beginners hang out. The ski/snowboard school was here as well as the slowest chair life in the world. The run was also really really really wide. There was another run next to it called It Happens which I think was supposed to be Shit Happens. Which it does. But anyway, I subjected Aaron to going down the bunny hill a million times. I was feeling a lot more accomplished today. My goal was ‘don’t fall and slam your shoulder again’, because that would have been painful. I was very suspicious of the green run on the left side which turns into a blue run towards the bottom of the mountain. Yech. Maybe greens are like blues in the States. Or maybe I just suck at skiing. :)

Wednesday, 7th March 2007

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Thursday, 8th March 2007

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Friday, 9th March 2007

Last day of so called ’ski vacation.’ Well, Aaron kept saying that he wanted to go on a vacation, but since I’m such a crappy skier I can’t place the two words next to each other. It’s more like ’ski torture.’ Anyway today I decided to rent boots because Chris was having problems with mine being too tight. Go figure! Today I tried size 25 Technica boots (mine are 24.5). They were ok. I also got a different pair of skis. Well, upon getting back up to Olympic Run I decided that different skis and different boots means Kathy Sucks At Skiing Again. Aaron made two runs with Chris and I but then went up to Blackcomb. It was very very foggy today, which was a little disappointing. The top of the chair was clear, but most of the hill was shrouded in fog. There was also a lot of powder. I’m still at the point where I’m still not sure what is so great about powder. I was stuck in it and it was somewhat hard to turn in it. Maybe one day I’ll get ‘it’ when it comes to powder.

Chris and I got off the slopes around noon and had some coffee at Second Cup — we’re supporting the local business. Aaron and Chris really wanted sushi for lunch so we went to Sushi Village. It was pretty quaint. They had a wall of fame full of signatures of famous people who had sushi there — for instance, William Shatner. They also had a blanks sheet of paper that said “Matt LeBlanc refused to sign this when he was here in 1999.” I thought that was pretty funny. What is he doing now? NOTHING. The fish selection was not up to Aaron’s par (he kept pining for Hama Sushi, which is back in Herndon) but it was ok. They made a really good Spider Roll — fried crab, avocado, and some other yumminess in roll form. Sadly, their toro and unagi were not that good.

After lunch Chris and I headed over to Blackcomb Snowmobile, who also does Dog Sled Tours, which we had signed up for. We took a 15 minute bus ride to Brandywine Valley to mush some sled dogs! They were really adorable. It was about a 2 mile trip up to the top of a hill and back. Chris and I took turns riding on the back of the sled with the driver (musher) which was really bumpy. You had to have good balance. I re-hurt my shoulder staying on the sled because going downhill involved bumping over a lot of snow drifts and I needed the strength of both of my arms. Our driver, Woody, told us he was moving to Aberdeen, MD, after I told him I was from the DC area. How random! He was very nice. He invited us to a party on Tuesday, but we are leaving tomorrow.

After the sled ride we went up to the Puppy Pen, where two really really adorable puppies jumped all over us. One of them even budged against my feet. Really really really cute. Then we went back to Whistler Village and poked around some gift shops. Then Sean, his Dad, Aaron, and Tim played a ton of Wii Golf. Mr. Crickenberger played with my Dad’s mii, which is named Tender. Haha. Then we had a discussion of where his name came from. There was much curiosity surrounding it.