Trip To Whistler

Our trip to Whistler with our great friends Holly and Mark was so much fun.  There were a few bumps in the road but overall the trip was great!  One of the bumps in the road was our travel day to Whistler.  Daniel and I flew out of Houston and Holly and Mark flew out of Nashville.  Our plan was to meet in Seattle and drive 4.5 hours up to Whistler.  When we got to Houston on Sunday, Jan. 2nd, we knew the airport would be busy but we had no idea how bad it was going to be.  The traffic lined up to drop people off was so bad that Daniel and I ended up getting our bags out of the car and walking to the terminal.  When we got there, 1.5 hours before our flight's departure, the line to check our bags was ridiculous and took over an hour to get through.  By the time we made it to the security line we had less than 20 minutes to catch our flight and the sign at the beginning of the security line informed us that our wait was approx. 45 minutes!!  WHAT????  Luckily, we overheard a TSA agent telling people that unaccompanied minors and military to go to the fast lane.  We quickly whipped out the military ID's and headed to the front.  Once we got through security we didn't even put our shoes on but simply grabbed our stuff and ran as fast as we could to the gate.  We walked onto the plane 5 minutes after it was supposed to leave.  Luckily they were holding the plane for a few more minutes since the airport was so crazy.  We were so relieved to make our flight but we knew for sure that our luggage probably wouldn't make it with us.  Sure enough, when we got to Seattle we had no luggage.  We met up with Holly and Mark and waited for the next three flights from Houston to Seattle in hopes that we would soon have our luggage.  On the third flight, 3 of our 4 bags showed up.  At that point we were already 4 hours behind schedule for our drive to Whistler.  We headed to the Southwest claims counter and the promptly gave us $600 ($100 for every day of our trip) and sent us on our way.  The bag we were missing was Daniel's and pretty much included all of his stuff.  We stopped at a Sports Authority about 20 minutes north of the airport and dropped a quick $400 on ski clothes for Daniel.  Then we headed to Target and had a cart full of t-shirts and underwear when we got a call from Southwest letting us know that our bad had arrived.  We dropped our stuff at Target, went back to Sports Authority to return all of the purchased items, and then headed back to the airport.  The good thing is that we didn't have to return the $600 but it was definitely a big hassle and we didn't end up arriving to Whistler until midnight that night.  Luckily the rest of the trip went pretty smoothly and we had $600 extra spending money!

Day 1 of our trip started out on the slopes.  We headed to the top of Blackcomb Mountain, took the peak to peak gondola across to Whistler Mountain and skied the rest of the afternoon.  We took it easy the first day.  It was a really sunny day and the views were amazing.

Here we are in the Peak to Peak gondola.

The first two days we spent on the slopes, but by day three, we were ready for some relaxation.  We were all nursing sore body parts so we decided to spend some time at a local spa called the Scandinave Spa.  We all booked massages for that morning and after breakfast we headed the spa.  It was a prefect day to take a break from the slopes as a big winter storm moved in and dropped over 15" of snow that day.  Here are some pictures we took on our way to the spa.

The spa was situated in the woods and, in order to get there, we had to walk down a snow covered trail in the woods.  Here we are at the entrance to the trail to the spa.

Here are some pictures of the trail.

 This was the last picture that I took once we entered the spa.  After that, cameras weren't allowed.  However, I've included a picture that I took from their website so you can see what it looked like.  After the massages, we spent time in the outdoor spa area that included an eucalyptus steam room, cold dipping pools, hot jacuzzi pools, and saunas.  If you weren't relaxed after leaving this place it was your own fault.  It was amazing sitting outside in the pools huge amounts of snow mounds and snow falling on us at the same time.  So neat!

After the spa we went to the movies which was a treat since we all have toddlers that don't allow for adult movie time that often.  

One of the best parts of Whistler is the amazing selection of gourmet restaurants.  We've been to Whistler twice now and have probably only eaten at 10% of the restaurants the village has to offer.  Holly and I did a really bad job of documenting our evenings out but here are a few pictures of us on our strolls to dinner.

 

  

There was so much snow that Mark had to dig out the trail map so we could see where we were going.

  

For lunch that day, sans Holly, we ate at a famous hot dog place just at the base of Whistler called Zog's.  Their hot dogs are great and they also serve a Canadian special called poutine (fried with gravy and cheese curds)  We all shared an order!

 The last day of our trip we decided to go souvenir shopping and then head back to the Scandinave Spa that evening.  We had fun shopping for our little ones and the we had another great experience enjoying the spa at night.

  

  We had such an great trip with our friends!  Now we just have to talk them into buying a Whistler time share as well so we can have annual family vacations in the mountains.  Our next trip will include Claire who can start ski lessons at age 3.  We can't wait to get her on the slopes!