ah yes! After the spa treatments, a yummy lunch at Caramba! and a wander through the village to purchase our Peak to Peak lift tickets, we headed back to the hotel.
Both Janice and I were the ‘camera’ people for the weekend [Janice your's is infinitely MORE portable than mine LOL!] so while walking, we snapped away taking random shots throughout the village. Like Sue’s arse and her lovely, sparkly, shiny new wedding/engagement ring/band combo. I also have shots of places like the ‘Hot Buns Bakery’ where a yummy oat/apple muffin saved me from a low-blood-sugar moment and passing out in the middle of the Village stroll. That would have been so embarassing!
As we wandered through the Village, Janice in search of gelato and Joyce in search of the ‘perfect’ waffle cone [cone only, no ice cream?!?] we were surprised at how quiet things seemed in the village. Not like the beginning of a summer weekend away at all. We think it was because most kids were still in school, so families weren’t in abundance and universities were just finishing up too… and those kids have no moolah until they’ve worked a few weeks. Anyways, we did find some gelato and a waffle cone for the Js and in the process, I was nearly run down by a rather LARGE, older woman who desperately HAD to get in front of me in the line [that I wasn't even in]. That nasty, rude ‘lady’ nearly flattened me and didn’t even offer an “I’m sorry” or “Excuse me!” Nope. Nothing. It was all about the gelato to that miserable woman.
Sue and I waited for the two Js and then the four of us proceeded up the stroll to get our passes for the Peak to Peak Gondola for the next day, since there was no way we’d make the last rides at 4:30pm on Saturday.
As we got in line, we chatted and marvelled at how many of the Whistler employees including hotel staff, restaurants, shops and service areas were either from Australia, New Zealand, the UK or elsewhere. There seemed to be very few Canadian staffers, which was a little odd and a little disappointing considering that BC university students were just looking for summer jobs now. Funny enough, just as we were discussing Whistler’s ‘foreign’ content we made it up to the counter to get our tickets and of course, a very nice girl from Adelaide Australia served us. LOL! Of course she was from Australia, 75% of the employees we encoutered certainly seemed to be LOL. So, tickets in hand… we wandered back through the Village, looked in a few shops and evaluated our dining options.
The three girls are pretty good about going to church every Sunday. Me, I’m another story. Yes I too went to both a catholic elementary and high school… but I’m a non-practicing catholic. I know, bad right… ah well, I have my reasons. BUT… I digress. The three of them had mentioned going to church on Sunday, or should we go Saturday evening before we go to dinner? We decided on Saturday night at 6pm and headed over to the church. As we arrived, we noticed that people were bringing in plates of food, potluck style, and that there were a LOT of cars in the parking area. Uh oh, were we crashing some evening event? Turns out yup, it was Confirmation night and there were a ton of people in the church and greasy, cheesy smelling food stinking up the place. So… knowing the service would be longer than usual and combined with the food smell, we decided to go to church in the morning. Instead we opted to drive around the Village, admiring real estate that none of us could afford, even if we all sold our collective houses and moved into a big one all together, and dreamed about retiring up here in a big luxurious-commune-style home. LOL! Yeah, right…
So, with church out for the night, disillusioned about the real estate options we had [yeah ok], we decided that at 7pm we should go for dinner. It was an obvious choice to the four of us, based strictly on the food we ate the night before. Mountain Club. No brainer PLUS they had an amazing dinner special that they were running – a THREE course meal for $29!! Their main dinner entrees started at $24 so 3 courses at $29 was a kick-ass deal. We kicked back in the hotel room for a bit, got changed and headed down for a fabulous dinner at about 7:30pm.
Dinner at MC was amazing!! We had great food to choose from including appies, main course and dessert [yes! I indulged much to my scale's dismay]. We each had a different appy, different main course and 3 different desserts. I had the amazing crab cake on pureed avocado to start, the incredible MC Burger with truffle-oil fries [so NOT diet food, but oh so good!] and the VanGogh Espresso Creme Brule… It was the BEST creme brule ever! After hearing the words Van Gogh Vodka, I asked the waitress [who was actually from BC!] if they did any Van Gogh Vodka martinis? “Not on the menu,” she said “BUT… I can ask the bartender. Are you open to experimenting?” Me experiment? Uh, yeah! So away she went with only the instructions of VanGogh and whatever else you can come up with. Janice and Joyce both chimed in with a “we’ll have what she’s having” and so Van Gogh cocktails were the order of the night.
The bartender came up with what they called a ‘Wise Guy’ and it was to die for. Utterly fabulous and infinitely drinkable. Those babies will get you sloshed in no time! They are easy to drink, a little too easy… thank goodness we had to go to church the next morning!!
Van Gogh Wise Guy recipe
A hazelnutty iced coffee martini!
- 2 oz Van Gogh Espresso Vodka
- 1 1/2 oz Frangelico
- 1/2 oz lemon juice
- garnish with 3 espresso bean and a lemon curl
MIX: Shake all ingredients together till cold then strain into chilled martini glass
The food… I can’t say enough about how GOOD the food was, especially considering the price paid. It was easily a $50 meal and we only paid $29. The drinks were wicked and oh so good! The atmosphere in the restaurant was great – nice interior decor, fresh and very alpine with a modern edge. Service was exceptional – thank you Caitlin you rock! All in all, I think the four of us will all agree that the Mountain Club is officially our favorite and one of the best restaurants in Whistler.
So after a very leisurely dinner [and 2+ hours of eating so much my stomach hurt!] we strolled a bit in the Village and like the ‘oldies’ we’re becoming, were back in our hotel by about 10:30pm. We were all so exhausted from the food-fest and walking, that we called it an early night. Well, we thought we’d have an early night…
At about 2:30am, I woke up to a commotion in the hallway of the hotel. People [damn inconsiderate ones at that!] were having a grand old time in the HALLWAY and had decided that it would be perfectly ok to continue their partying in the hallway outside our door at 2:30am. RUDE! So after trying to ignore them, I noticed that Joyce was awake. “Can you hear them? Bastards!” I said. Joyce, who was wide awake said, “I’m calling security!” We laughed about the security guards hauling away the party boys, and it seemed shortly after that phone call the noise quieted down… Maybe they finally realized how loud they were? Nah… Coincidence I’m sure. Security arrived about 10min. after we called the front desk and we could hear the guards knock on their door. “Security!” they said, and then nothing but muffled protests of no, it wasn’t us and ok, we’ll keep it down. It quieted down after that and we were asleep soon after.
to be continued…
COMMENTS