Last coffee.

Having our last Whistler coffee and a scone. Rain's coming in but it's still sad leaving.

Mmmm....Fresh Bacon

The best was Trav's "Back Bacon" (on his back) - he wouldn't let me photograph it.

He's going again today.

Carolyn and Kathleen celebrate Christmas

Found this tree while hiking. Weird but kind of fun.

Last full day

It poured last night. It's raining this morning. We even cut our training session off with Zoey (we've been taking her to a local park and going through her tricks - see below)

There is a bit of a break right now. Trav is going down hilling again (I'll see if he'll let me get some pictures of his fresh bacon for a blog post - for the non-downhiller "bacon" is a scar from falling off the bike - "fresh bacon" is a new abrasion). Fran and I are going to take a hike and get some pictures (hopefully of things other than mushrooms). Chris: Elliot has no bacon or any other injuries as of 10:37 on Friday. Good Trip!

Mushroom De Jour

Better Day

It was bright and sunny today...;)

Lost Lake with steam risking off it...That's actually Kelsey and Yvonne on the beach over there.

Blackcomb mountain reflected in Lost Lake

On our walk by the creek.

Mycology

Fran found an interest in wild mushrooms. I think she liked photographing them as much as flowers...

Hiking in the rain

It rained today but we still all wanted to go hiking. Chekamas lake is the place. I've seen photo's from clear days and believe me - it would have been real nice had it not been raining...

Disbrow's and Friends

Doherty's

Fran and Kathleen - the instigators of this whole wet thing...

Your's truly and Trav - soaked to the bone.

Around Town

Some shots of the village...

Waiting

 

Waiting...

Gone to lunch

One of our favorite places around here is the "Gone Eatery" - used to be the "Gone Bakery" but I think it's changed hands.  It's a funky little place that always has four or five different soups served with slices of homemade bread.  Highly recommend it.
 
Zoey likes it (or likes Elliot's chili)

Kelsey is having french onion soup.

We pretty much eat lunch here every day.

Skateboarding at night?

Kelsey and Elliot longboarding at night.

Birthday dinner

Here's some birthday dinner pics. This is at Blacks by the gondola (one of the most dog friendly places around - Zoey is under the table).

The family took me (frisbee) golfing on my birthday

Trav and I have an annual disk (Frisbee) golf competition. This year the whole family decided to go for my birthday.

Trav and I always play holes 1-9 and then 19-27. They are closer together than 1-9 and 10-18. This year we started on 10. Turns out 10-18 is a class 4 scramble with some 5.1 climbing involved. Probably a 1000 foot elevation gain total. The picture here is Fran and I on the 18th "tee" - it's a 150 foot drop to the pin. Yes I'm "glowing" a bit - this is a 1000 calorie course.

This is the family celebrating our surviving er rather completing the "back" 9. Overall this was fun. My knees hurt - time for some asprin.

Spawning salmon kills kayaking

For my birthday the kids and Fran were going to take me kayaking. This is one of our annual rituals. However this year the salmon are out and they don't allow water activites right now. Bummer - guess I'll just take a nap for my birthday (actually we're going to ride the valley trail in an hour - after the nap).

Made it

Made it up here w/o much incident. Walked the village noting the new places. It's sort of the same locations that change ownership. The upper village is definitely more stable than the lower. There's a new tapas place I want to try... after the usual's: auntie ems, ingrids, gone eatery etc.

John and Kathleen won't be up until Sunday. Looking forward to seeing them.

They sure have a lot of work to do before the olympics. The awards plaza us still a dirt hole and the roads into whistler remain really bad. Not my problem I guess.

Excited

Trav is off shift in 30 minutes and will then be home in 2 hours. Kelsey is downstairs packing. Our house sitter is here. Fran and I are packed. I still bet we won't get out until 1 today.

This is the first time in a year we'll have really been together as a family in a relaxed setting - really looking forward to it. Will post some packing pics in a bit.

What do you do in Whistler?

So I'm often asked what I do in Whistler...in September there's no snow.

Well for starters:

• Down hill biking
• Cross county biking
• Hiking
• Kayaking
• Swimming
• Golf (both the real kind and the kind I play - miniature)
• Eating (Gone Bakery - mmmmm)
• Coffee (Moguls)
• Pub-ing (Dublin Gate - is pub-ing a word?)

The picture is of Fran and Zoey last year around Lost Lake.

Starting the travel season again. The trip line up so far looks like:

1. Canada (Whistler)
2. San Juan Islands
3. East Coast (Trenton, New York, Boston)
4. Great Britain
5. Spain and Western France (ending in Paris!) - many are suggesting Portugal here too.

More soon.