I wrote about the medical part of my Whistler Elective in another blog, so this will just be about the fun stuff!
We arrived in Vancouver on December 10th and headed straight up to Whistler on a bus (after a short detour to visit Georgia and swap some bags). We settled in at Tom’s place quickly and seemed to recover from our jetlag in a day or two.
Visiting the mascots at the Olympic store in the Village
It was freezing cold (minus 12 - minus 18) in Whistler for the first few days we were there, which was great for the skating, but not so good for getting used to the cold. We spent 3 days in a row skating on Lakes around the town. The ice was PERFECT and Brent and Tom even managed to find a game of shinny on Alta Lake one day.
Lost Lake
Alta Lake
We had a lot of great dinners with Tom and his friends during our time in Whistler, but the most amazing (and most exciting one) had to be at the Barefoot Bistro. This is probably the nicest restaurant in Whistler and people apparently come to Whistler JUST to come to this restaurant. Tom’s patient, who happened to be the owner of the Barefoot Bistro, was very generous and offered Tom (and his guests- me and Brent!) a free night at his restaurant while we were there.
The night started with some drinks at the bar. Then, we headed downstairs to their MASSIVE wine cellar where the taught us how to sabre champagne. Brent sabred the bottle we drank at the restaurant that night and Tom got to use his new skill a few weeks later with a bottle we brought home from the Hunter Valley. Dinner consisted of about 8 separate ‘tasting’ courses, each paired with a different kind of wine. We had venison, sushi, pasta, cheeses, veggies, pastries, and an amazing dessert with ice cream, nuts and berries. Every time a new course came we’d have 3 separate waiters come to the table so that our food arrived at exactly the same time. Then, shortly after each course was delivered the wine guy would arrive with a special wine that he’d paired with the dish. I’d never experienced anything like it before (and might never again!).
I spent a lot of time in the clinic for the first few weeks while Brent started looking for jobs. The first job he found was working construction on the new Scandinave Spa near Lost Lake. Brent wasn’t too crazy about it, but luckily he only worked for about 5 days before the family arrived in Whistler and he quit! Also, Jim got home from the Baja and with his crazy connections got Brent a much better job guiding for Blackcomb Snowmobiles (Brent’s dreamjob)!
Georgia came up to Whistler when her exams finished and spent a few days with us (putting us to shame on the ski hill) before the rest of the family arrived.
George on the ski hill
The bottom of the Olympic downhill course
A SUN-DOG
Apres ski at Dusty's
Mom, Jamie and Jules arrived on the 22nd. Speaking of Jim’s connections- my entire ski outfit and all my ski gear was thanks to Jim and his friends at CanSki. They also gave Mom, Jules and Jamie free rentals for the entire time they were in town. Pretty awesome!
Jim's house on Green Lake
View of Black Tusk
The whole family skied for the next 3 days straight. The weather was perfect and the crowds were surprisingly small. We found some powder on the third day, which made for some good skiing and very funny wipeouts. Jim showed us around a new part of Whistler Mountain (opened last year) called Harmony. We ended up going back there several times before we left Whistler in January!
Peak to Peak chair
Triple powder wipeout! :)
A view of the Village from Whistler Mountain
Jim's house on Green Lake
View of Black Tusk
The whole family skied for the next 3 days straight. The weather was perfect and the crowds were surprisingly small. We found some powder on the third day, which made for some good skiing and very funny wipeouts. Jim showed us around a new part of Whistler Mountain (opened last year) called Harmony. We ended up going back there several times before we left Whistler in January!
Peak to Peak chair
Triple powder wipeout! :)
A view of the Village from Whistler Mountain
On Brentmas (the 24th), Mom treated us all to a Christmas Eve buffet at the Four Season’s Restaurant. It was one of several amazing dinners we had in Whistler.
On Christmas Day, we got a pre-made meal from the local IGA and had a nice night eating and opening gifts at Jim’s place. We were all pleasantly surprised with the pre-made IGA Christmas dinner, but everyone seemed a little less impressed with the cake I tried to make Brent for his birthday. (I may have been missing a few key ingredients. : (… )
The next 2 days we spent cross country skiing (once at the Callahan Valley and once at Lost Lake), snowmobiling (with Brent as our guide), and BUNGEE jumping. How did we all end up Bungee Jumping? Well, Jules and George convinced Jim to call in one of his many Whistler connections and arranged for all of us (me, Brent, Jules, George, MOM, Jamie, Uncle Tom, and Uncle Jim) to all go bungee jumping at Whistler bungee for free! It was definitely not on my list of things to do, but there was a lot of peer pressure from the family, so everyone ended up doing it. (Even Jamie, who was really not impressed with the idea.)
Mom took us all out for a fabulous sushi dinner for the last night in Whistler together. We all drank much more saki, beer, and margarita saki than we needed, and had a great time. Jim took us to a bunch of different bars and clubs after dinner and ended the night giving a lecture to a bunch of the guys from Peak Season (a reality TV show filmed in Whistler) about herpes. It was pretty hilarious.
New Years in Whistler was incredible. It was probably one of the best New Years I can remember. Uncle Jim had a party at his house on Green Lake. His friend, who is the GM at the Four Seasons Restaurant in Vancouver, brought us cheese fondue for dinner. It was most definitely the tastiest fondue we had ever had. There was meat, veggies, and bread for dipping and more wine and champagne than we could drink.
New Years in Whistler was incredible. It was probably one of the best New Years I can remember. Uncle Jim had a party at his house on Green Lake. His friend, who is the GM at the Four Seasons Restaurant in Vancouver, brought us cheese fondue for dinner. It was most definitely the tastiest fondue we had ever had. There was meat, veggies, and bread for dipping and more wine and champagne than we could drink.
After dinner, everyone headed down to the rink that we had cleared right in front of the house. Jim had spotlights out so that the boys could play a game of shinny (which went from around 10pm till past 1am!). Everyone spent the night outside and we celebrated New Years with 12 bottles of champagne down on Green Lake. Uncle Tom, Trevor and lots of Jim’s friends were there too. It was a great night!
A few days later was our first anniversary and Brent organized a surprise evening for me! He booked a night at the Crystal Lodge (one of the nice hotels in the village) and arranged for in-room massages. He also found us a great spot for dinner called Element which was a tapas bar/restaurant in the village.
Brent and I went skiing a few more times in the next week (one day with the ski patrol doctor) and I spent a few more days in the clinic. We also went swimming a few times, went to a few free Yoga classes at Lululemon with Tom, made a few trips (with Tom’s bike buggy) to the Laundromat, and met up with a few friends in the village (a friend from Branksome and a classmate from Sydney). It was a great month and we were sad to leave.
We headed to Vancouver the night before we left and had a really nice dinner with Aunt Chrissy and Brian, Uncle Mike and Barb, and Georgia. We stayed there for the night and Chrissy drove us to the airport in the morning so we could head back to Toronto.
Brent and I went skiing a few more times in the next week (one day with the ski patrol doctor) and I spent a few more days in the clinic. We also went swimming a few times, went to a few free Yoga classes at Lululemon with Tom, made a few trips (with Tom’s bike buggy) to the Laundromat, and met up with a few friends in the village (a friend from Branksome and a classmate from Sydney). It was a great month and we were sad to leave.
We headed to Vancouver the night before we left and had a really nice dinner with Aunt Chrissy and Brian, Uncle Mike and Barb, and Georgia. We stayed there for the night and Chrissy drove us to the airport in the morning so we could head back to Toronto.
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