Pre-Olympic Whistler Weekend – Part 1

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Living in Vancouver, there’s something that we miss just about every other part of Canada will experience a real winter. Right now, in January, most of Canada is covered in snow and for better or worse they are experiencing a real winter.

Of course here in Vancouver, that’s a pretty rare event although last year we had a lot of snow between mid-December and January and the whole city was in chaos. Because we get so little snow in our area it’s kind of a running joke that if 1mm of snow falls in Vancouver people will be calling in to their work the next day saying that they will be working from home.

Nonetheless, the desire to experience that real winter motivated us to explore some travel options and the result is that here we are in Whistler, BC for a 4-day stay.

Barb and I are here in Whistler with my sister Wendy and my brother Peter and his wife Liz. We have travelled several times with Peter and Liz but this getaway is unique in that my sister has joined us. It’s probably been at least 15 years since all of us have been away together so we’ve been looking forward to this for that reason alone.

Our plans to come to Whistler only came together about 10 days ago and at first, we were uncertain about coming here given that the 2010 Olympics is only a few weeks away we assumed that there was no way to find accommodations or that they would be outrageously expensive. As it turned out, there were many places available and for the next week or so accommodation prices seemed to be a little lower than normal. However, about two weeks before the Olympics start the room prices go up by at least 300% (if not more). Supply and demand, I guess.

The place that we are staying in is in a relatively new development on Painted Cliff Road which is up the mountain about 5 minutes by car from the main Whistler Village. We’re staying in a nice three-bedroom house and it has the right amount of size for the five of us and has its kitchen and we’ve spent most of the time here in the living room around the fireplace.

When we were looking at the weather forecast in the few days before we left, we saw that there was going to be mostly rain in Whistler Village for the four days that we were going to be here. Yesterday was our first day here and our walk through the village saw mostly rain and occasionally snow falling. All five of us were prepared for rain with suitable clothing and were undeterred to walk around outside.

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However, as I write this section (it’s Friday morning) and as I look outside I see that it has been snowing all night long and a fresh layer of snow is on the ground and trees. Things are picking up.

Baden

 

2 Comments

  • Arlene Witzke

    Sounds like so much fun. Whistler has so much to offer. Have a great time and give Wendy a hug from me…so glad she was able to getaway with you all.
    Arlene