20120218 Saturday

0345 getting up for a 0615 flight. I got to nap on the first leg. Pretty smooth travel so far. Sara napped for a bit and now it’s Laura’s turn. We’re off our schedule eating lunch early.

Denver airport is wonderful. Flatlands covered in snow with mountains In the background. Fun walking sidewalks. I got lunch at Einstein bagels. I was impressed. It was crowded, but they took my order quickly. Laura liked the bagel with butter. Sara ate her bagel. My BLAT was good except for the bacon that was fake. My only complaint.

Arriving early at Nashville. 1323. Camouflage increases on plane as we head to Nashville. In terminal, many watching Whitney Houston funeral. Fitting given Nashville’s musicality. Got a little teary eyed.

Felt so welcomed and happy to be at grandparents. The house filled quickly with the laughter of a family united. Homemade meatloaf and birthday chocolate cake from Costco. First we’d seen Doug in 20 months! The cats still were loved on first. Spotty continues on. Sunset is off on a farm somewhere. There are only 5 cats left. It’s a more manageable number.

20120219 Sunday
A day of pleasant nothing’s.

Nothing’s not quite the right word. In past we’ve had gatherings and cooking. Nothing was the agenda today. Doug showed photos from his trip to Mexico. it snowed in the morning but melted to cold rain. I sent the girls out twice to play. Once they got completely wet (they stood under the down spout drinking and getting wet. The next time they got muddy. Each time they had to change clothes. Sigh.

Jon and Debbie joined us. We headed to get Cajun at Papa Boudreaux’s in Santa Fe. It’s a place we’ve tried to go for almost 2 years. It’s been interrupted by snow multiple times. This time we made it. Our waitress, Jeanine, was gregarious am told us the restaurant almost didn’t open today. We arrived at 4pm to get a table for our party of 9.

Such good food and glowing company. The shrimp/crawfish étouffée was amazing. The gumbo was good. The chocolate bread pudding was lovely. The girls stayed home with a babysitter (that was a good move).

We watched Cowboys vs. Aliens. Someone had a lot of fun making this movie! I enjoyed their efforts.

Monday
Shirley took the girls and me shopping. We found some pants and dresses at Goodwill. The girls got zhu-zhu pets as a treat- anchor and cheetah. Seems like one member of the family has been to Walmart everyday this visit.

Pulled pork with the whole family. Scott, Phillip, amd family all came. Finally, all the food started getting eaten thru.

Tuesday
Wayne made pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.

Shirley went to work. We explored the Columbia children’s museum. The girls had a blast. They had fun pretending to be pets with all the vet toys. Landon and Karen came with us.

The sun shone and the girls played. Doug and Jon discovered their water pipe is leaking and dug the outside pipes to investigate.

I finished Rainmaker by John Grisham.

Last supper of scrumptious leftovers.

Wednesday
0720 left for Atlanta. Showers joining us.

stopped at Ringgold McD’s for lunch just past Chattanooga.

what a relief to be home. feel more human after naps. walked along the Chattanooga seeing trout lilies. saw the sunset. the warmth is fresh, like a hug. girls threw rocks in the river.

mom made an amazing taco dinner.

Picked up Sara after school.

Rainy, windy drive thru Skagit. Thinking its snow geese/swan season. Only saw seagulls.

Ferndale McDonald’s Exit 262 by 5pm. Hour break. Had to remember to throw fruit scraps out before the border. Reminiscing about past Whistler trips. Last trip 2008? Also remembering ghastly drive up to Vancouver in snow last year with pulled over snow plows. Dinner was very satisfying and girls got out the heebegeebees ( spelling?).

Lions Gate bridge beautiful lit up at night.

Sea to sky is better post Olympics. Still the drive of champions.

Arrived at 2130. Girls tired zombies as expected. Grocery shopping before hotel was vital. Milk, butter, chips, fruit.

Whistler inn and suites is nice. We’re in loft above the girls. No separate, but separated. Our light bothered Laura. She was over tired. They popped up this morning at 0730.

Trying to coordinate with J&C is complex with international calls and expensive data. Wayne has one of our old iPhones Sara uses for games that also becomes our international calling phone with a SIM card.

Man, busy day. Travel is all about logistics with fun melted in like the cheese of a panini. Laura is very tired right now and needing a nap. Thought I’m tired right now, this has been a nice day with degrees of fluidity.

We started by deciding to do less and acknowledge the limitations of time. We switched our meeting Plans about 10 times. Then it turned out we couldn’t call our friends. Texting worked eventually. We got out quiet morning with the girls enjoying Treehouse, Canadian PBS, while Wayne and Claire ran some errands. The 7-11 had good calling/sim cards. We scrapped snowshoeing plans and plans for breakfast out.

We settled on swimming and tubing. The tubing didn’t open till 1pm due to a private party (wouldn’t that be a fun one to attend). We swam at the Westin which has the most awesome pool. Swim lessons are paying off. The girls enjoyed swimming with thee Dad, a rare treat. Bringing robes was nice. It’s especially nice for outdoor heated pools like what our hotel has.

It was a quick dip. We had to do our quick change rate for snow with wet hair in Claire’s room. Stuff was flying everywhere. We actually kept track of all the clothes. Crankiness started to appear as lunch loomed.

We made a quick escape to Misty Pizza and tempers started to equilibrate. Pizza by the slice, not crowded, we could stay dressed in our snow stuff outdoors. Good choice.

We headed up the gondola to the tube park. Lucy called it the turtle car.

Lucy took to tubing right away, going down on her own eventually. Sara was unhappy the first time, but liked going with her Dad better. Laura was roundly enjoyed herself.

The lack of snow made the track FAST. It’s definitely a work out for parents. The key is to get a tube with an excellent handle (I didn’t do this). When you land, you have to get out of the way quickly, navigating icy steep banks.  It was a blast, but we were tired by one hour.

We grabbed our stuff from Claire’s room and hauled it back to the room. We tried to get the girls rental gear from Carleton, but they were only taking returns given it was après-ski time.

Laura was ready for a nap. So was I. We all slept well. It was quick turn around time. Our Whistler Babysitting sitter Ashley was Kiwi and super on time. We chatted and futzed awhile getting the girls awake and their dinner ready. I didnt want them to be too grouchy. Dried pasta turned out to be a great, convenient meal.

We headed out and walked around the village. The lights were extraordinary. 21 Steps was our destination. J&C came later. I got a free mocktail and desert. Fried goat cheese in honey, brownies, and martinis were highlights. We all tasted each others entrees- porch chops, scallops, pork tenderloin with cream sauce. It was a nice restaurant I would try again. Kelly recommended Araxi.

We walked around the village, but circled back to the Westin where the conference had a game room and we played Monty Python flux before heading home.

Saturday

0640 No one wanted to get up. But the rental gear guys recommended we come in early since we’d missed yesterday. We ate breakfast in and scrambled out. 0840 to drop off girls at Whistler Kids. We worried a little how they’d on such a long day, but they excelled.

Wayne and I trotted off for our date. We slid into a booth at Crepes Montagne right before all the other parents joined us. It was good and filling.

Stomachs filled, we went on our snowshoes. Wayne chose Cheakamus River near the Whistler interpretive trail. We just had boots. The snow softened as the day matured but boots worked out well. We got into a steady groove. We didn’t make it off the road to the suspension bridge since we post-holed every step we took off our narrow track. We were mostly by ourselves.

As we picked the girls up, we ran into Kelly and Melina. After naps, they joined us for our family dinner at the Keg. What a cozy booth with a nice view. I got my baby back ribs and caught up on the lives of my friends. Laura and Zoe took crazy photos with iPhones of each other.

We all went to Cows for ice cream. We bade our friends farewell and took the girls deeper into the village to admire the lights and play on the neatest playground near the ice skating rink and Olympic rings.

Sleep by 1930.

Sunday.

We dreamed of sleeping late, but awoke at 0600. We decided to just pack and go. Left by 0930. Stopped for bathroom break in Surrey before the Blaine border. 1240 waiting.

Done right.

A random assortment of thoughts about travel while I’m in the thick of things.

Wayne did a great job of arranging everything being close. We weren’t far from anything, but being by the mountain was golden.

Pack pajamas close to the top for the first night.

Replicate. I had a snack bag of food for the car only with magnetic clips and trash bags since the food for the room always becomes inaccessible.

Bring scissors. Always useful.

Ski. Pack xtra socks and gloves. They are always soaking and the kids want to play in the snow again by dinner.

Bring snow boots for changing into after rentals. I might have forgotten this.

Bring aqua camera next time.

Bring sunscreen.

Bring sunglasses on outings even when cloudy.

Restaurant. Always bring some snacks. We finally found food the girls would eat, but the Keg didn’t have a very flexible menu for our girls.