Mom and Dad come to visit!

Mom and Dad leave tomorrow in the very early morning, bound for Ontario. It will be a disappointing change, after visiting Whistler for six days. I got a few days off while they were here, and was able to go up the mountain with dad for three days.

Mom decided not to ski, so she rented movies and napped. And made great suppers! I haven't eaten that well in a long time. We also gamed, playing Settlers and Train Game Europe every night I wasn't driving.

Today was the last full day that Mom and Dad were here, and I finally remembered to bring my camera up the hill. In the afternoon, Mom bought a sight-seeing ticket and we took the Village Gondola up with her, then the new Peak to Peak from Whistler over to Blackcomb.

Here are some pictures from today.



Mom and Dad enjoy the scenery on Blackcomb. The Glacier Express chair might be visible in the background.



Mom and I ride the Peak to Peak Gondola. It's a pretty large-scale lift. When I left Whistler in October 2006, they were still talking about it in theoretical terms. When I arrived back in October 2008, it was pretty much finished. It opened to the public in December. To me, it appeared out of nowhere since there wasn't a trace of it the last time I was up on the mountain.





The cabins are quite large, and fit about twenty people. I think. I never counted, but there are hand holds dangling from the ceiling like on public transportation so I guess they can really pack you in there if they want!

There are 28 cabins (if I remember correctly) and two of them are silver. The silver ones have a section of glass floor, as well as real glass windows instead of plexiglass like the red cabins. Some people will wait so they can ride in one of the special silver cabins.





Dad looking over the Burnt Stew basin. Lots of terrain to sample! We had sunny days the whole visit, but no new snow. Since Dad and I both honed our craft in Quebec and Ontario, we could handle the conditions, and actually found them to be quite ideal.





Dad and I are on Whistler Peak. You can see an the inuksuk that they built in preparation for the Olympics. Did you know that the plural of inuksuk is inuksuit? Now you do!



Here's Dad at the top of The Saddle, the run that injured his arm back in 2005. It was fast today, and I could feel the wind billowing into my cheeks and I rode down. Blbblubblubblablub!

It was a great visit, and especially nice since I didn't get back home for Christmas. I also put my first three snowboarding days in, and ate really well. Dad loved the skiing, and was really enjoying runs that were more than 13 seconds long (the Ontario norm.) Mom enjoyed relaxing and gaming, and finding her way around on Whistler's transit system.

Good times all around!