Bluebird Days, Outings to Vancouver & The Final Countdown

This time next week we will be jobless, homeless and no longer living in the Whistler bubble. We’ll be in Vancouver for a couple of nights before going to Vancouver Island then heading down the West Coast. Spring has arrived in Whistler and we’re loving the weather! The last few weeks in Whistler have been great, we’ve had a bit more snow, some awesome bluebird days and we’ve made a couple of trips to Vancouver for football and hockey games.

Going back a few weeks we had 35cm of snow overnight when the forecast only predicted about 5cm – always  nice surprise  Luckily we had already planned to get out early (6am!) for our last Fresh Tracks Breakfast of the season. Pow and a bluebird – what a day that was!

McDonalds Reunited in Canada For Christmas!

What a week this has been! My mum and dad came over from Bradford and brother from Saskatoon for Christmas. I’ve just had to say another emotional goodbye, but we’ve had such an amazing week in Whistler and few days in Vancouver!

So my mum and dad flew over on Friday, after a hectic day at work I met them at their nice little apartment in Whistler village (courtesy of airbnb – highly recommended!). Straight to the pub for a beer we went, in true McDonald / Whistler fashion!

Luckily we ha a bit of snow the night before they came so Whistler was all pretty and snowy again! I had quite a few shifts at work, so tried to fit showing them around and doing touristy things between that. We went to lost lake and Alta lake which looked very different to how they did a few months ago, with all the snow on top of the now frozen water. Cue pictures…

Opening Weekend At Whistler Blackcomb 2013

Whistler Blackcomb opened for the season on Saturday, two weeks earlier than expected. Luckily I wasn’t scheduled to work on Saturday so I could go snowboarding for the first time in two years woo (Kyle wasn’t so lucky and had to work). So exciting to hear opening was sooner than we had all expected, although I wasn’t quite as keen to get up there as the people who had queued 24 hours to make sure they were first up the mountain.

I wasn’t expecting too much of the conditions as had heard it was pretty icy and not that much snow up at the top, plus only a couple of lifts and runs were open…how wrong I was! There was quite a bit of snow overnight and the sun was shining, what could be better than powder and a bluebird day for the opening day of the season?!

The conditions were great… my snowboarding not so good! After two years of not getting on a board and only having done a week anyway it was safe to say I was a little rusty. Nevertheless it was so good to be on the mountain, despite all the falls and many bruises! Roll on the rest of the season 🙂

I had to work on Sunday and had my first shift as a Ticket Validator at Creekside Gondola (where most of the locals live) so no snowboarding for me. A pretty easy job and it was quiet for most of the day, apart from a few keen people queuing from 7.30 to hit the pow. It snowed pretty much the whole day so was pretty jealous of all the people I was letting up the mountain, better get used to it I guess!