UMTravels

After several weeks at home, it was time to hit the road again.

But first, it’s an 8am doctor’s appointment followed by waiting to new pills. The joys of being in a clinical study (no, I’m not dying, just trying to keep others from).

Pills in hand, headed north to hook up with DancingBear, and onto the road. Whistler here we come!

And into the condo I booked almost a year ago…

Threw the bags down and headed to Guest Services in the Village to pick up our season passes for the Peak-2-Peak Gondola. At the end of the day, no line at the counter – woohoo!

Grabbed some fill-in groceries to go with the quantities of food from Costco so we can make Costco roasted chicken pulled off the bone for a chicken Caesar salad – the Caesar also coming as a platter from Costco.

We actually made it to the mountain by noon after a nice “Mother and Child” scramble…

Lots of snow and eye candy on the mountain:

Up the mountain on the Whistler side – across the canyon on the Peak-2-Peak (above), and then down the Blackcomb side on the Solar Coaster, and open lift:

One of the reasons I opted for this first day is that if you are going to see Black Bears, you will most likely see them on the Blackcomb side – and we were lucky to spot one on our first day!

Apparently, “Hey Bear, Hey Bear” doesn’t get them to look up.

Back up the mountain we go!

For a lunch on the Blackcomb side – sadly, Christine’s, my favorite restaurant isn’t open yet for the season, so we are in the burger side of the place – at least they have wine.

Actually got done with lunch in time to grab one of the last busses to the 7^th Heaven run… another open chair lift:

Passing over a summer downhill ski run that ends up at the Peak-2-Peak terminus on Blackcomb:

Even snowboarders are using the run:

And they have cocktails at 7,500 feet!

And VIEWS!

Pardon my hand in this photo….

Soon enough we are headed back down…

Apparently, that is my post-cocktail look. STUNNING views – a reason I keep coming back year-after-year.

Back at the Blackcomb main lift area we ran into this really cute Whistling Marmot….

Sadly for us this trip, no Alpine hiking due to the amount of snow still on the trails – maybe next time.

Popped back on the Peak-2-Peak and back to the condo.

Sadly, there are no grills at The WorldMark Cascade Lodge. That said, DancingBear brought his Sous Vide unit to get the steaks to exactly 129 degree (F)….

And then finished in a grill pan (which he also brought), along with sautéed mushrooms, broccoli, and the “forbidden” backed potatoes (at least we split just one of them):

After dinner, we retired to the hot tub before turning in for the evening.

In the morning, another scramble, another ride up the hill and across the top.

Today, we take the Peak-2-Peak BACK across to visit the viewing platform to see how the gondola works:

And back to Blackcomb we go to hit the Upper Village at the base of Blackcomb for lunch. I’d picked up a 15% off coupon (in addition to the fact that everything in Canada is 25% off because of the exchange rate) for Merlins, but it is back down on the open lift, and another encounter with a Black Bear (sorry, no photo).

And lunch came with Old Fashioneds!

And WAY too much food for one sitting – we should really just decide on one entrée and split it:

And I had to have a Manhattan after the Old Fashion…

We decided to call it a day and walked back the condo, stopping at a lovely little park along the way:

Tonight’s dinner was the Chicken Alfredo from Costco, with a lovely dip in the hot tub after…

After an eggs scramble, back to the mountain we go – with a BIG surprise animal spotting in a place I’ve never seen one before; actually, NEVER seem a Brown Grizzly up here:

Pretty close to the lodge and headed to the kid’s inner-tubing area – like Kiddie McNuggets. Easy to spot one a big white snow field on the Whistler side.

Saw that bear on the Peak-2-Peak, and at the other end – a selfie.

We actually got a shot at the end of the Sun Coaster (on the Blackcomb side) of the crew adding a chair to the chairlift.

Next up is the Wizard down to Blackcomb’s Upper Village – where we saw a Black Bear:

Back up the hill for lunch – I got the Kiddie Hot Dog Meal with a little bottle of wine:

Before long, it was time to go down the mountain – with a little stop along the way for some reason, but great for taking a couple of pics….

Once back in the condo – we are in leftover mode for our last night at Whistler. Leftover rib eye, warmed by the Sous Vide, a little potato salad, some Caesar…

Like the white wine chiller – the top of blender…

Our Last Supper at Whistler – bought way too much food, so hopefully the staff will that it home because I’m not throwing it out.

We even ate leftovers our final morning….so we left four eggs as well.

Soon, we were on our way home…one of my favorite bridges even though it’s a toll bridge.

Traffic wasn’t that bad getting back to DancingBear’s place, it was me getting home from his house that took twice as long as usual…

Another week, another journey.

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