Here we go again....

Sun, snow, ski. My feet are wondering what the hell just happened to them, and the legs are complaining after 7 runs, but that is what the hot tub is for....

Whistler - 2 weeks in...

and what a busy two weeks it has been. In addition to clearing out kitchen cupboards to make room for food (there are so many pots, pans and gadgets) and filling the freezer with all the meat we bought at Costco and other supermarkets (yes it did all fit although occasionally a pork roast tries to break free and my toes at the same time)

we have been volunteering at Cornucopia - Whistler's 11 day festival of food and drink. The recipient of many of the events was the Whistler Adaptive Sports Program, a not-for-profit society that provides year round recreational programs for people of all ages with disabilities. It was a chance for us to meet locals and help a worthy cause at the same time. We also learned how to get 20 - 26 pours out of a bottle of wine (for the tasting seminars). the professional tricks for glass polishing, how to run a coat check (the last Saturday night was manic, and all the c. 400 coats were given to their owners in less than 15 minutes) as well as helping out where we were needed. There were a few perks such as sitting in (and tasting) at some of the wine seminars, tasting some of the food prepared at one of the culinary stages (Mark was handing out the wine pairings for that one) and getting to taste as many BC beers as we could in under an hour (I was taking tickets and handing out glasses for that one, so I got given a couple for us). 

I'm back with the Whistler Singers and so sang at the Remembrance Day service. I've never seen so many people - I think the whole village turned out for the service. It was a holiday here and many of the shops were closed too.

We've also had a couple of glorious sunny days so we went to see Brandywine Falls

and had a lovely walk around Lost Lake before the snow sets in and the cross country skiers take over the trails

It started snowing in the village this morning so we went down to our pool for a swim them a bubble in the hot tub. What a great way to start a Monday morning. It has been snowing all day so there is a lovely covering on the ground, and the mountain opens on Thursday, a week early which is making Mark happy.

To top it all off, today we got the wine delivery from our favourite Niagara winery  :-)

That should keep us going for a while

Summer 2015 in review

Well 2015 all went pretty much to plan...ish. After visiting Vancouver Island and the Alaska cruise we picked up Badger and took him round the central and southern rockies and west coast for about 6000 miles, with another 5000 miles in Toad as side trips. We modified our original plans slightly to see Bryce and Zion canyons before the monsoon rains on the advice of someone I met on a chairlift, and that proved to be a good decision - people were killed by flash flooding in Zion at the time we had originally planned to be there. We also had an unexpected trip to Tijuana for dental treatment but that worked out well - much cheaper than getting treated in the US, and my travel insurance paid out to the policy limit which helped temper that pain.

We had a couple of issues with the car (serpentine belt) - and coach (ice maker, jacks and charger/inverter) but there is always the possibility for things to break, and we paid a lot less for an older coach than we had originally budgeted, so you expect a few more issues but I think its still working out a lot cheaper than buying a newer coach and suffering greater depreciation. I guess the one thing I have learned is that the west was won by greed, corruption and screwing over everyone else, and that ethos is still alive and well in many of the people and businesses we've had to deal with, so it really does pay to shop around and be willing to vote with your feet and wallet....

It was great to meet the Reynolds and a bonus to catch up with Xav and Reika, and of course Pris and Bill who we met in our first year in California. Shame Yvonne and Tony couldn't make it out to San Fran, but we will probably be back there again in 2017...

Hadn't planned on a trip home but we'd always said that if house maintenance needed it we would fly back, and again that proved to be a good decision as I was able to fix a lot more problems and do a lot more preventative work than just the two headline issues that paid for my flight.

We've now been in the new apartment in Whistler for a week and are getting sorted out, so I think we're on track for this winter. Doug, my ski buddy from last season is due back here in early January, Blair and Cheryl, Knees and Clive and Kevin are all booked to come out to visit and ski in the new year and we should be good here until the end of April...

Looking ahead we are planning to go through the northern US states next spring - Glacier national park, Yellowstone, Devils Tower, Mount Rushmore, Milwaukee and Chicago. From there we may loop down through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas before working our way up the east coast for fall in New England. And Maria has already been looking at apartment rentals in Banff for winter 2016/17.....its good to have plans :-)

Digging in for winter

Having seen what klondike miners had to pack into the goldmines for winter, we thought we would do a Costco run to Vancouver and do the same:

• 6.3kg rib eye, 
• two legs of lamb, 
• 5.5kg minced beef
• 2.5kg minced pork
• 2.6kg stewing beef
• 2.3kg beef roasts
• 2.7kg pork roast
• whole ham
• 3kg pork loin
• 3kg sausages
• 6kg chicken
• 5kg cheddar
• 12 jars Pataks curry sauce

and 72 rolls of toilet paper....might not be enough

and the first person to quote the WHO report on red meat and cancer is going to get a slap.

We're baaa-ack...

....in Whistler.‎ Put badger back in storage at the same spot we used last year, and crossed the border into Canada with no dramas at all - border guard was far more interested in our retirement and lifestyle as something to aim for than as a problem, so we were through in under 5 minutes and never had to get out of the car. Lousy weather for the drive up the sea to sky but the waterfalls were really flowing, and met our landlord about 3:30 

Maria has done really well with the apartment - it has its own front door and stairs up to the living, dining, kitchen area with the first balcony ( and a bbq - have to stock up on steaks at costco) and then another flight up to the en-suite bedroom, guest bedroom and shower room and large balcony ‎ across both rooms, all overlooking the hot tub area just across from our front door. It's a bit overcrowded with furniture and fittings so we will have to put some of those out on the top balcony to make a bit more space in the coming weeks - normally it's let to more people for shorter periods, so I guess they are less concerned with having space to cook and chill out, but I've already worked out how we can rig up the surround sound and projector for watching movies. I think we will be very comfortable. 

It's 3 months until our first visitors are booked in - Blair and Cheryl in early Feb - should have time to  get it all how we want it. It's the same cooker as the last apartment so Maria should be up to speed for her baking pretty quickly with all that prior knowledge. I probably have a little over 3 weeks before the mountain opens - usually for US thanksgiving, so we will have to go down the sea to sky and hike to some of the waterfalls we missed last time as they were running very dry....remind my legs what they are for and try and work off some of that baking ‎.