Frostbite and Bear Claws

Sun 30 Jan

As it was our last day we woke up earlyish and just as well. It was a gorgeous, clear day. Not a single cloud in the sky. This would mean excellent visibility and awesome skiing conditions. But also meant that the temperatures would be on the low side -> -3 Deg C at base and -13 Deg C at the peaks. Brr. But those pieces of information we only found out later, so did *not* dress accordingly.

Good weather and the weekend mean the queues were pretty impressive. But again moved smoothly with no pushing, shoving, biting or swearing. We went up and up and up to Whistler peak, somewhere above 2km. Took some great photos of the views and an iced-over Inukshuk. It was totally worth the frost bite.

Peak 2 Peak (P2P) Gondola was ridden again. As it was clear today I think this time it counted. Actually not that bad, very smooth ride. But still cold, I managed to de-frost my fingers during the 11 minute death ride, but couldn't feel anything from the ankles down. We skied down to Blackcomb base for lunch. I was starving (sub-zero digits make me hungry) and wolfed down a burger and fries and a coffee served by a fellow P-town traveller. Delish.

After lunch it was now time for our attempt at Blackcomb peak, about 200m higher than Whistler. Even more awesome. I had given up on my fingers and toes and was composing hate mail to the manufacturers of my gloves, socks and ski boots.

We did the P2P again to get back to Whistler side, then all the way down to Whistler Creekside for our last run of the day and our trip. The sweet mountain host lady informed us that actually the better route down was a black run (part of the famous Dave Murray downhill which was used for the Mens' Olympic Super-G race) rather than the narrow blue run we'd taken on other days. And you know what? She was right. There were some very steep parts, but wide enough to not be that bad (I imagine that the Olympians didn't traverse the pistes quite as frequently as I did, but still, we can both say we did it!). The only annoying thing was all the kiddy winkles scooting straight past us. Seriously, they have no fear.

After handing back our skis and boots, La relaxed a bit with some hot chocolate and I went for a jog. Found an awesome walking path along the valley, running between Whistler and Creekside, next to some frozen lakes. Beautiful.

Then after I'd showered, La and I went to our building's outdoor hot tub. May I remind you that the temperature was sub zero, but it was oh so nice and hot in the jacuzzi. It was still super clear so we had the bizarre but beautiful view of stars, heads freezing, rest of us toasty (well, soupy really). An awesome (almost) conclusion to our ski trip.

Soft-boiled, lunch and pasta. Day 15.

Mon 31 Jan

Today was the last morning in our place in Whistler and had to leave the fridge/cupboards empty. So chicken, pasta and salad for breakfast. Kidding. We finished packing then loaded the car and left town. Skiing part of our trip officially over. (sniff, sniff) The drive back is gorgeous and this time we were on the sea side of the road so stopped at pretty much every viewing point along the way for photos. Awesome.

We made good time back to Vancouver and the handy GPS (thanks Francis!) got us nicely back to the car rental place, although human error (mine) meant initially we parked under the wrong hotel (Alamo rental returns is in a Hotel parking lot). Took the Sky Train back to Burnaby, easy peasy, and then we were at La-Sis' place. She had cooked up a storm for us the night before so the fridge was well stocked. Just as well - by this time I was ravenous (returning to sea level makes me hungry) - so wolfed down pasta bake and mushroom tart. Delish.

Spent the rest of the day relaxing and doing laundry with only a minor incident involving a washing machine, a stuck door and a steel coat hanger. You can fill in the blanks. Much hilarity followed (La laughing at me should I say).

Joyful reunions later when Toots came back from work. We'll miss the the snow but nice to be back in Vancouver

Breakfast, Drive and Tacos. Day 16.

Tue 01 Feb

Right, properly back in Vancouver to do some shopping and sight-seeing. We took the Sky Train into town, check at us go, just like the locals! Got out in downtown area and went into The Bay in Pacific Centre looking for a jacket pour moi. I was wearing one of my new T-shirts bought last week. The 'door thing' beeped as I entered the shop, not a good sign. But a quick survey found no heavy set be-suited men with guns bearing down on us, so, all OK. (PS. No jacket found.)

Exiting the shop, the same thing. Beeeep. So, seems like one of those tag things was not deactivated when I bought my T last week. Humph. Then went for a wander down Robson, into and out of shops, looking for Levis, jackets and Bear Claw salad servers. Beeping away. Only in one shop (American Eagle) did anyone query this. Laurel gave me a quick pat down to try locate the security tag but no luck. I told her to look more thoroughly, but we were in a public place after all...

We then met Toots (La-Sis) for lunch near her work in a fabulous food hall-cum-deli-cum-restaurant called Urban Fare. By this time I was starving (security pat downs make me hungry) so I wolfed down a chicken pot pie and a house drip coffee. Delish.

After lunch I frogmarched myself to the washroom (Canadian for toilets) to try locate the offending tag. Success! The bugger was hiding behind the 'do not dry clean' thing. The bastards! Managed to tear it off with my teeth without too much damage to my new T. I showed it to La who threw it in the bin. Damn, think how much fun we could have had tossing that into some SATC-alike's handbag.

We then strolled down to the Waterfront area to check out the Olympic torch. Smoking! And from same spot a great view of North and West Vancouver across the Burrard Inlet. Wandered down to Gastown (the old part of Vancouver) popping into every tourist drek shop looking for bear claws and of course the steam powered clock. Found the claws, but no whistles when we were there.

Then went for a stroll along the Olympic Village side of False Creek, although actually we walked the wrong way so ended up closer to the hockey arena, but that was the sunny side and it was cold so that was alright then. Headed back to Toots' place with a detour up Hastings Road in Burnaby, looking at shops, getting an awesome coffee at Cafe Artigiano, buying some pastries and scouting out barbers as I'm looking a bit fuzzy.

Topped off the day with a visit to La-Sis' building's gym. But some other guy was on the treadmill so I braved the stationary bike (hill program, ouch) and the Inquisition inspired elliptical thing. I'm not sure if I did it right, I got my heart rate up but sure felt strange.

Morning, noon and night. Day 17

Peek of the Peaks

Fri 28 Jan

The morning after the first day skiing is always tough. We had slept the sleep of the very sleepy. Now we woke the wakefulness of those with very sore muscles. Thighs hurt, calves hurt, even the muscles in my feet (?) hurt. Ouch. I had chafe from my rental boots below my calves, not cool. Fortunately we had painkillers.

Breakfast with all the trimmings (fried egg on a bagel and fresh coffee) then headed out to the snow. The weather had turned a bit nasty overnight, raining at the base of the mountain, but this meant snow higher up. New snow is great, but the visibility was not.

Slow, snowplough turns were the order of the morning. Still, the snow was very forgiving so when I had my first tumble of the trip (Mom, don't worry, I was wearing a helmet and pads and had my jersey on) it wasn't too uncomfortable. The sleet and snow was quite chilly so both of us wrapped up warmly in our most stylish headie/neck warmer items. Very dashing. With now only noses exposed to the elements, we ventured onwards.

For lunch we went to the only place in Whistler not run by or for Australians so not much in the way of vegetarian options for La. I was more fortunate and by this time was famished (precipitation makes me hungry) so made do with a super beef curry soup and rare roast beef sandwich. Delish.

After lunch we carried on skiing till the sun went down, with a brief pause for hot chocolate and brownies somewhere high up on Whistler mountain. Another great day on the pistes, albeit one where we didn't actually see where we skied.

After showering and chilling for a bit, we took a drive then a walk round Whistler Village. The shops and restaurants are quite expensive, sorry, extensive. And monuments and plaques and other evidence of the Winter Olympics all over the show.

A quiet, simple supper back in the apartment. Shabbat Shalom all.

Morning, noon and night. Day 13.

Sat 29 Jan

The snow from yesterday continued through the night, roads covered and hopefully a nice dusting of powder on the pistes. Saturdays must be a popular day-trip day for Whistler as there was a steady stream of cars into the village. So much for 'no crowds' comments from a few days ago.

Arriving at the Creekside gondola, oh, boy, yes, there were queues of people. Or rather, loads of skiers standing in line. Absent, though, was any shoving, pushing-in or unpleasantness. Everyone still polite. Even the stoner dudes in our gondola very politely shared their smelly Subway sandwiches' delightful stench with us the whole way up.

At the top, another long line for the first chair lift, but again this went smoothly, everyone waiting their turn, going one/one at merge points. Amazing, and quite a contrast to some of the chaos we'd seen in European resorts.

The morning was quite clear, new snow on the ground made for excellent skiing. We did some great runs close to the peak of Whistler mountain. Awesome. We were enjoying the conditions so much that we almost forgot to eat lunch. Almost. Dropped whatever we were doing and had a bite there and then at a place next to the peak 2 peak gondola. I was starving (fresh powder makes me hungry) so we both had soup and a slice of pizza. Delish.

Then, full of hope and courage we braved that overgrown pendulum swinging between mountains AKA the Peak 2 Peak gondola. I was sweating, butterflies in my stomach. All for nothing really as the cloud was so low and so thick we couldn't see anything. It was like being in a gondola shaped lift with windows looking out onto greyness. Score!

La says that this doesn't count so apparently we have to do this peak 2 peak thing again when we can actually see how far we are going to fall to our certain deaths. Rumour has it Sunday will be sunny. Yay.

We decided to treat ourselves to supper out so strolled down to a great sushi place near our apartment.

Scrambled, pizza and bento. Day 14.

Whistlering as we go

Wed 26 Jan

And so, onto Whistler. Took the SkyTrain (above ground, driverless train system) into Vancouver waterfront area to pick up our hire car. We had reserved something small (Focus) but due to availability, we were given a small 4x4 (Mitsubishi RVR). Very cool!

The drive to Whistler is totally simples, taking the Sea to Sky Highway all the way. Beautiful road with pine tree'd mountains on the one side and Horseshoe Bay on the other. At Squamish the road then winds inland and we started to gain some altitude. A very comfortable 2 hours from Vancouver, we were there!

We were a little too early to check into our accommodation in Whistler Creekside, so we took a drive to Whistler- and Blackcomb Villages. Legacy of the Winter Olympics 2010 were everywhere, the amount and variety of shops, restaurants and accommodation is quite impressive. Stocked up on grocery supplies and then back to Creekside, checked into our apartment and then still had time to get our lift passes and our skis and boots. Score!

Had some tea and croissants then cooked a simple supper - I was starving (4x4 vehicles make me hungry) - relaxed and then early night in preparation for the first day of skiing.

Morning, noon and night. Day 11.

Thu 27 Jan

The Creekside Gondola is across the road from our apartment. So, tumbled out of bed, breakfast and dressed for the snow, picked up skis and then (pow) we were at the gondola. Actually, before this we had dithered for a few moments (10 minutes!) deciding best place to store lift passes. Seriously.

The skiing here is sublime. Very long runs, mostly wide, tree-lined and not crowded. And everyone is so polite! Whole morning skiing then down to Whistler Village for lunch. Now is when we had equipment incident #1 (more details to follow). Lunch was soup and a deli sandwich at a coffee shop run by Australians - by this time I was ravenous (gondolas make me hungry). Delish. Actually, the whole resort is over-run with Australians and Brits and Saffas. Canadians are few and far between. Yesterday was even 'Australia Day' with a number of people skiing wrapped in flags (just the flags, no warm ski kit underneath. Go figure.).

Incident #1: as Laurel clicked off her skis before lunch, her snow brake broke off. This is a small piece of the boot restraint that also serves to prevent the ski sliding off by itself if it comes off during a fall. We managed to find the small screw that is part of the snow brake and luckily were right next to loads of ski rental places. Took her skis into a shop and they swapped them with a new set. Whew.

After lunch we took another Gondola up, this time to the Whistler side of the peak to peak Gondola. Some background - Whistler and Blackcomb are two mountains with associated skiing areas. Our ski passes cover both areas as they are pretty much two parts of a greater whole. In the run up to the 2010 Winter Olympics a gondola was built joining the peaks of both mountains. This is now, I think, the longest such gondola, 4.4km long including 3km of unsupported span. It takes 11 minutes to travel peak-to-peak. Sheesh. And some of the cabins have glass floors. Double sheesh. I'm not looking forward to going on it, but I guess it must be done. Today was not that day; we were going to ski back down to Creekside. Whew.

To recap, Laurel had incident #1, we'd just eaten lunch, taken the gondola up, and now putting skis on is when we had incident #2. This time my skis. Similar problem. Snow brake fell clean off, a different screw had come loose. Anyways, luckily there was a ski service building at the top of the mountain so I got mine fixed. But our confidence in our rentals was falling fast. This did not prevent us skiing down to Creekside, of course, which we did. Awesome!

At the bottom we went and had a bit of a shout at the ski rental place. Much apologies from them and offers of discounts etc. We just really wanted them to assure us this would not happen again, at least not to us on this trip. So they got one of their ski experts to double check both our skis. Mine were ok, but Laurel's (remember, these are the new ones she got before lunch!) needed some serious re-tightening. Anyways, we're all fine and so are our skis. We think. We know. (We hope.)

Headed back to the apartment for tea, chill, supper and another early night. Exhausted.

Breakfast, soup, supper. Day 12.

Short Stack Rock On

Tue 25 Jan

Got up relatively early and went for a jog. Nice to be out on the road, but didn't pick very good route so loads of soot and fumes ingested. Next time I'll head for the suburban hills or the treadmill in the gym in La-Sis's apartment block.

We met a new mom friend for lunch in Dunbar at a cool place called Jethro's. Brunch and burgers sort of place, slightly rock chick/gothic vibe, run by a pregnant punk poppie with nose piercing and hair like Spike from Gremlins 2. By this time I was seriously peckish (leather trim makes me hungry) so I wolfed down a short stack of buttermilk pancakes - not crepes, the type that are 2cm thick and the size of a dinner plate! Delish.

After lunch we were given a tour of all the best places to live in Vancouver by La-Sis - no pressure there. Then went to another friend for tea in Kitsilano, a few blocks up from the beach. Then some window shopping for a laptop for La-Sis and cushions/chairs/mirrors (!) for her flat.

Finished off the day with a coffee- and- cake visit to my aunt, who lives near Granville Island. We met her son (my first cousin) and wife for the first time. Hours of family reminiscing and history and chin-wagging and a most incredible confection invention called Tuxedo cake. Awesome!

Breakfast, brunch, tea, supper and cake. Day 10.

Planes, (no) trains and automobiles

Two for the price of one today...

Sun 23 Jan

Pretty much a travel day, up before dawn and took yellow cab to JFK. Seamless check-in and then security OK. Terminal 8 is huge and new and beautiful and then only has about 2 shops and 2 food places to choose from. Ok, more than 2 but not much.

Arrived in LA to glorious sunshine! Seriously, didn't even need jumper. Luggage checked through from NY so just walked from Terminal 4 to Terminal 3 (outside in the glorious sunshine!). Another boring security queue - La had the (mis)fortune of being scanned in one of the US airports' new X-Ray scanners. For some reason, straight after she was scanned they decided to take a break so I slipped by in the normal metal detector.

Terminal 3 at LAX is a bit of a dump, we're on another BYO food airline and the waiting area was littered with litter and sleeping backpackers (on the floor) and screaming kids and very few food options. Woe was us - I was ravenous (gaining 3 hours makes me hungry). At least La managed to think quickly and grab a space at an available re-charging point giving our netbook and my iPod much needed juice while we waited.

The guy sitting across from us in the waiting lounge was snoring loudly. I mean, this was a crowded, noisy terminal and we can hear him, like some sort of asthmatic cow. And then his head sagged to his chest and, yes, we have drool, people. Lovely.

Side bar, just remembered another quote from the other day: Lifelong swallowing of saliva causes death.

Anyway, flight to Vancouver was only 3 hours so had no inflight entertainment. Except playing 'get your knee and foot away from my space' with the Easter Island statue sitting next to me who was using his blackberry *during* taxiing and probably while we were in-flight, the bastard. Plus he had some BO issues, not ever-present but came through in occasional waves of pong. Never a good thing.

Temperature in Vancouver -> a positively barmy 7 Deg C

Time change -> GMT - 8 hours

Currency -> £1 = C$ 1.5 ish

It was great to clear customs (super-efficient, Canadian style) and bags were waiting and so was La's sister. Yay! Back to her place for chill, tea, supper and sleep. Bliss.

Bagel for breakfast and lunch but proper supper, Day 8.

Mon 24 Jan

Nice and relaxing day spent shopping, eating and schmoozing.

We met up with some of La's sister's friends for coffee and then hit the Sears sales hard. This was for clothes for *me* (gasp shock horror). My personal shopper (La's sister) was on home turf, seamlessly picking out items for my consideration. Deputy shopper and key veto holder (La) was right on hand for the 'aha' or 'na ah' decisions. In a record much-less-than-an-hour, we had decided by majority vote on 3 shirts and a sweater (seriously, that's about all the shopping I could handle). No more 'only fleece top' comments about me on this trip!

Took a pause from shopping for a quick food court adventure. Not a moment too soon as I was starving (trying on clothes makes me hungry). Greek meaty pitta stuff for me and La-Sis and a salad for La. Delish!

The morning rain persisted throughout the day so we pretty much confined ourselves indoors. Window shopping, shopping, food shopping and then some serious tea and homemade cookie consumption back at La-Sis's place.

La-Sis then slaved away in the kitchen preparing supper for us. We rewarded her by treating her to a private viewing of our wedding photos. Mazal Tov!

There was morning, noon and night, Day 9.

Never trust a reversing cat

I began the day with a few miles run in Owings Mills, Baltimore. No new snow overnight but clear skies meant a pretty crisp morning. I ran for 33 minutes, my hands warmed up after 28. It was fantastic! Back at La's cousin's place, furious slaving away in the kitchen by our hosts (thanks guys!) meant French toast fulfilment. Yum.

Noah, the master of the house (a ginger cat) showed off his old trick of chewing leaves off one of the house plants, a nearly dead one specifically left in situ for that purpose. He then treated us to his new (?) trick of a sort of feline moonwalk, backed himself into a corner of the kitchen and then did a great impression of 'ginger vomiting cat'. Much hilarity followed. Not sure if backwards walking in cats is always a pre-cursor to such things or just a once off. Anyone?

We then went to a cool part of Baltimore called Hampden. Think of the neighbourhood depicted in the movie "Hairspray"- there was even a pink flamingo-shaped guitar in a shop window. Went to the Golden West Cafe for lunch. For some reason there was a moose head (wearing a party hat) mounted above our table. Go figure. I was starving (laughing at cats makes me hungry) and had an awesome rare steak wrap. Delish. From there we did some window shopping, all very 'Hon' (look it up!).

Then La's cousin dropped us back at the bus stop for our trip back to New York. Bye Bye Maryland, you were great!

Back in NYC, we met a friend for supper in Soho, great little place called Bread, then back to our NY 'mom' to pack. Tomorrow is mostly a travel day so today pretty much our last day in the USA. For now.

Breakfast, lunch and supper. Day 7

Drop the gun or pick a room

Today we explored Baltimore. Downtown, east side, west side, upside, downside. We saw it all. La's cousin was our fearless driver and tour guide, braving the east side corners and the infamous old Jewish hood - Corn Beef Row.

Baltimore is home to the USA's 3rd oldest synagogue still in its original property. Even though they were closed to the public today, thanks to family gonnections we were given a private tour of the Lloyd street shul, the Jewish museum and the Bnei Israel shul next door. Also in the Lombard Street area we popped into the Kibbitz Room at Attman's deli for a look see - we feasted our eyes only but let me tell you Carnegie Deli better watch out!

Down to Fell's point to check out the trendy restaurants and old harbour area there. While there we saw the building used as the main police station in "Homicide: Life on the Street". And if you're a fan of The Wire, plenty of familiarish buildings, the Domino Sugar sign, street corners and the dock area. To name drop a bit, La's cousin knows the creator of both shows (David Simon) and we saw where he lived before he was famous, and sort of also saw where he now lives. I am not a stalker, serious!

By this time I was starving (Baltimore crime dramas make me hungry) so we went to the American Visionary Art Museum and started with an awesome lunch in their restaurant. Then took in their current exhibition "What makes us smile". My personal favourites included a bench covered in self-re-inflating whoopee cushions and lots of postcard humour - a loosely paraphrased example being 'the sound of your snoring means I can fart'.

We left Baltimore City via the the street where artist Loring Cornish lives. He has turned his house into an incredible piece of installation art - the entire façade (And the one two doors down) have been totally covered with mosaic made from bits of glass and mirror. Apparently the inside is similarly decorated although today was not an open house day. Stunning.

Back for Friday night supper with La's cousins and aunty and friends. Shabbat Shalom everyone!

Morning, noon and night. Day 6.