whistler recap…

Ok, so I’m almost a week late – but at least I’m doing it. Finally. =)

Background information: 5  friends and I are all celebrating ‘big’ birthdays this year. The big 4-0! We’ve all known each other either from elementary [Grade 1 - 35yrs!] or highschool, so we all have a lot of history together… My friend Joyce’s hubby called me and asked if I thought it would be a good idea to treat J to a weekend in Whistler BC and he’d pay for a room for all 5-6 of us for Saturday night. GREAT idea I said and helped him with hotel options, he booked and the Saturday night was set.
My hubby and I were chatting about the trip a few weeks before and he asked why we didn’t go up the night before on Friday? Wouldn’t it be better to have ALL day Saturday up there instead of driving up one day and driving back the next? Good idea babe! I talked to the other girls and it was a done deal… Friday night, Saturday and home late Sunday afternoon. Perfecto!

So last Friday rolled around and by 7:15pm we were sitting in front of Joyce’s house. I picked up Sue first, then Janice, last was Joyce. Eliza one of our other friends couldn’t make it at the last minute due to an interview in Santa Rosa, CA [they were flying her down from Seattle for the weekend]. We officially hit the road/highway at about 7:30ish and were on our way to Whistler.

View of Improved Sea2Sky Hwy

Have to say… the new highway connection and improvements on the Sea to Sky highway are LONG overdue and much needed. It shaved a few minutes off the drive for sure, and once all the construction garbage, barrels, etc are gone it will be a much safer route than before. Wider lanes are great and the additional passing lanes are most helpful especially when you’re stuck behind a motorhome and have a hotel room waiting for you 75km away!  We arrived in Whistler at about 9:30ish after a brief pitstop and pee break in Squamish earlier on and clocked a time up to the village from Joyce’s home in Burnaby of about 2hrs. Not bad. We checked into our ’suite’ at the Delta Hotel in Whistler [right in the heart of the Village], dumped our bags, got changed and headed out for a late night bite to eat.

Friday night in Whistler is ‘normally’ hopping… but it’s actually mid-season and there is a decided switch between Spring and Summer activities/events happening up there. It was QUIET.  Luckily a restaurant that was closing down for the night [at 10:15pm on a Friday - isn't that kinda early?] suggested the Mountain Club Lounge for late night bites and drinks. Conveniently, it was located next to our hotel and so, since it was getting late, we stopped there for nibblies.

We had no idea how good the food would be and were very very pleasantly surprised to discover the BEST yam fries and mini-burger sliders in BC at the Mountain Club Lounge! YUMMY!! We had a couple of drinky-poos too [Kingston Crowns for Joyce and I, Cool Az for Janice] while Sue, who does not handle alcohol well [she may actually be allergic to it] didn’t join us in the ‘drinks’; she had copious amounts of h20 =) instead. We thoroughly enjoyed the food, drinks, great atmosphere and service at the Mountain Club,  so much hat we actually cancelled our reservations at Araxi [a Whistler landmark] and had dinner at the MC again on Saturday night… more on that later.

We wandered back to the hotel after our late night snack [so against my diet - but I gave myself the weekend 'off'] and hit the sack at about 1am. Late for my friends as a rule – they are usually in bed and asleep by 9pm LOL! A usual Friday night bedtime for me though since I’m a nightowl.  Now for the pillow ‘fight’ Sue and I were asked to have by Janice. She ‘claims’ she wanted the photo-op only… no other ulterior motive for a pillow fight between two girls in pjs. Yeah. Riiiiiiiiiiiight… maybe we should have had more to drink?!? LOL… Nah, Sue would still have all her wits about her and she’d beat the crap outta me with the oh-so-fluffy-Delta-hotel-pillow. And that was NOT going to happen… NEVER! She’s older than me and I ain’t gonna let some old broad beat me up with a fluffy pillow. NO WAY! LOL!

View from our hotel room

Saturday dawned bright and sunny with a few puffy clouds. We all had spa appointments that we were eagerly anticipating. The funniest thing I heard that morning was from Joyce, my roommate in the two bedroom suite we were sharing… She said, ” That was the best sleep I’ve had in years! You don’t snore. You hardly move! Percy snores so loud that he wakes up the neighbours and constantly thrashes around. Thank you!” LOL!! Huge bonus points for me. I’m usually not the ‘quiet one’ of the group, but I guess I am when I’m sleeping. Go figure =)

Poor Sue came flopping into our room, bridging the gap between our very fluffy, very comfy twin beds shortly after she heard us talking and proclaimed that Janice snores like a chainsaw. LOL! Again, Joyce thanked me for being so quiet. Sue ended up on the couch, using my wooly, oversized brown sweater as a blanket [she didn't want to search the room for the extra blankets]. Apparently my wooly sweater is a great blankie. I’ll have to remember that…

Janice stumbled in a few minutes later looking a little confused. We told her she snores. LOL… She apologized profusely, but Sue already knew that Janice snored, so it wasn’t a big surprise. We teased Janice about wallpaper and paint peeling with the vibrations, it was so funny! Too quickly, we realized that it was getting late, so Joyce and I got ready and walked over to the Solarice Spa for our massages and my manicure].

Spa treatments on a Saturday morning away in Whistler was lovely, relaxing and beautiful thing. Great idea girlies! We had ’student’ massages at the Solarice Spa in Whistler and they were excellent. SO much cheaper than the ‘real’ RMT massage treatment price and they were probably just as good. I’d go back again in a heart beat because the price and the care/massage treatment were very good.  Sue and Janice were scheduled after Joyce and I for student massages as well; we met them back at the hotel after a quick pitstop at the Village Starbucks for coffee and a light snack.

We all cleaned up after our spa sessions and then headed off to a late lunch at Caramba! and that is when the photo hilarity ensued. I brought my ‘big’ camera with me and started snapping pics whenever the mood struck. Janice, famous for pulling funny faces in photos, didn’t disappoint. This is a new favorite of mine:

Janice

Janice, you absolutely kill me… Everytime. In the best possible way =)

Sue and Joyce didn’t disappoint me either. Although, I did notice Joyce [if you're reading this] that you pull the same face all the time – gotta practice in the mirror like Next Top Model. We need some ‘variety’ in those shots LOL!

Sue

Joyce

to be continued…