Our "sick" ski trip

And not sick as in great, too good to be true...sick as in...SICK! Julie, Jen and I left Bend early Saturday morning to a beautiful sunrise. We made pretty good time, stopping in Vancouver for a little grocery shopping and dinner. OMG, I almost forgot...the border crossing into Canada was INSANE! The guy in the booth didn't take our passports, he DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT US!!!! :) Man, we could have taken anything we wanted in. He asked if we all lived in the US (not if we were residents), where we were going and that's it! Wow, never had that happen before.

We arrived in Whistler about 7:30 or 8:00 in the evening. My parents had skied that day and were at the cabin to warm it up and shovel the driveway. What we didn't know is that they'd been there pretty much all day. My dad took a tumble on Cockalorum, a double black off the Peak, and gave himself a concussion. This was his very first time skiing with a helmet, and the doctor said he was very lucky to have had one on. Without it he would have been in much more trouble! They left, and we wandered off to bed. By this time Julie was starting to sound not so good. Jen had been feeling a bit rough all the way up too...but little did we know what we in store for us! We got up the next morning bright and early to be on the slopes by 8:30. The cabin is really cute. Quaint and cozy...a typical '70s Whistler cabin. Here we are making breakfast that first day.

The weather was grey and wet. Wet, wet, wet snow...but at least it wasn't windy! By the time we got to the mountain Julie was feeling much worse. We knew that in her condition we were going to be slower. Luckily, Jen ran into another tele skier at the ticket counter, so she had someone to ski with. It all worked out for the best. So this is Julie coming down on one of our warm-up runs. Nice weather! :) But despite the wet snow it was still great.

We stopped for lunch, then continued on until about 3:15. Then we skied all the way down to the village. When I was little, my family used to take the last possible chair as high up as you can go, then ski all the way down. It could take a good hour. Fun! :) Here is the view coming into the village at the end of our first day.

We had an apres ski drink and snack at the Longhorn...which wasn't too impressive. Julie and I were feeling pretty crappy by this point, so Jen stayed in town with Chadwick (the tele skier) and we went back to the cabin. I picked her up around 10:30, then Erica and Wendee arrived at 11:30 or midnight. Oh yea! Almost forgot! That day there had been an avalanche on the highway from Vancouver to Whistler with truck-sized boulders covering the road. This is the only way in or out of Whistler, so we weren't sure that they were going to get through at all. But they finally did.

The next morning, it was obvious that neither Julie nor I were in shape to ski. Erica wasn't either, so Jen and Wendee decided to just go Nordic instead of up the mountain. So this was our first "sick" say in the cabin. While they were out Erica, Julie and I did inspire ourselves to go to the village and wander around. We also found the library and used their Internet. :) What can I say, we're geeks!
We went for sushi that night, but poor Julie was really suffering. I wasn't doing well, but not nearly as bad as her. After dinner the two of us just went back to the cabin and lay down. The next day...we were really sick. Wendee and Jen were still feeling fine, so they went up Blackcomb. The rest of us...slept all day. I fell asleep for about 4 hours...which anyone who knows me can attest is very unusual! I needed it though. By the time they got back, Wendee was obviously sick. We hauled ourselves to the Whistler sports center and went to the hot tub and saunas. Mmmmm, that was really nice. We then made some soup...and crashed. How sad.

The next day Erica, Julie and I were feeling much better, but nowhere near 100%. Wendee was really sick by now. LOL, what a ski vacation! :) Poor Jen was going crazy! Here she was on a ski trip, the only healthy one, while all we wanted to do was sleep! I hope she had a somewhat good time though! So anyway, Wendee was forbidden to do anything. Jen decided to Nordic again and so the three of us went up Whistler. Another grey, wet day. But we had some good skiing. It was fun! Here's Julie and Erica getting all strapped in.

That evening we all went out into the village one more time. This trip did NOT turn out like I wanted. I brought a bunch of cute stuff to wear out the clubs. I mean, it was WinterPRIDE in Whistler!!!! But it didn't turn out that way. We wandered around, shopped and just looked to see what we could see. Erica just HAD to ring the cow's bell...but it had no clapper! :(

The lights were just beautiful. Maybe we can try again next year and NOT BE SICK!!!

And the next morning it was back to Bend for Julie and I. We coughed and hacked our way down to Vancouver, stopped at my parent's house for me to pick up some stuff and then continued on down to Bend, arriving at about 7:00. Jen, Erica and Wendee stayed at Whistler one more night, and then went to Vancouver for a day or two. They should be arriving back here today.

And poor Jen was starting to get sick just as Julie and I were leaving...oops! :) So that was our trip. Not fabulous...but memorable. Still glad we went...but I hope we can do it again with better results!