North (Part Three)

The slopes opened at 8:30, but everyone didn’t awaken and finally get going as early as we hoped. At about 11am, some of us drove up to the village to do some grocery shopping. We went back and picket up Stan and Hong, and headed back at about 12:30. This was at least fortunate in the spending department, as Hong and Stanley were able to get the half-day rate.

After dropping them off, we drove around looking for parking, eventually finding it in an underground parking garage. Luke, Lena and I started to wander around the village until the slopes closed at 3, did a little shopping… I took some pictures of falling snow, it’s actually the first time I’ve been outside when it’s actually snowing, for all the times that I’ve walked around in already-fallen snow. Fortunately, the ground was warm enough that the snow didn’t pile up… so we never ended up using the chains. Of course, I forgot the nice warm hat with the brim that I bought back at REI, so I had to use the hood on my jacket.

Did I mention that when we were at REI, I bought a replacement Leatherman? It’s very nice, a lot nicer than the one I lost. I can’t remember if I mentioned that.

Anyway… I forget exactly what we did on Saturday, as it’s a bit of a blur with Sunday. I think that night, Luke, Lena and Hong went back to the village at night and tried to go clubbing, but Lena only being 18 sort of hampered them.

Sunday was more of Saturday, wandered some more around the village, actually went up on the Gondola and got snow blown in my face by the wind instead of falling gently on my head. After that day, we went back and watched some DVDs and last thing of the night we packed up.

Now, it’s time for a little digression about travel plans: Originally, when planning this trip, we didn’t have much in the way of synchronization. It’s why two of us flew out of SFO, and three from San Jose, and most at different times. Luke and Lena were the first to book their flights, and they booked the return flight at noon on Monday, so they could get back to the Bay Area in time for Lena to get back to SLO on Monday night for her Tuesday classes. So, I booked my flight at about the same time, because if we had to be at the airport that early anyway…

Of course, if anyone can do math… which no one bothered to do until Saturday, getting to the airport in time for a noon flight would involve leaving Whistler at about… oh, 4 in the morning, and leaving Stanley and Hong about 8 hours to kill.

So, Luke and I decided to change our flights. It wasn’t much of a hassle (besides getting moved from a window seat to a middle seat), but I did incur an extra $90 fee. Luke, in his infinite luckiness, didn’t have to pay as much. I still don’t understand why. I also called the car rental, but they said (after a very lengthy wait on hold and talking through Travelocity) I was SOL and would have to pay $73 for an extra day.

It just goes to show that by throwing time and money at it, any bad itinerary can be fixed.

Back to Monday. We were able to leave at 10:30, and there was a bit more traffic going down then going up, and we got lost a bit in downtown Vancouver… but when we made it to the U.S. border there was another line. (Although, once again, there wasn’t a line in the other direction.)

After an hour, we get to the front, and the U.S. agent asks for our papers (which we have all ready). This time, the conversation went like this: “Let me see your papers” [gives a cursory look at the pile of Driver’s Licenses, Passports and Birth Certificates] “Were all of you born in the U.S.?” [Hong wasn’t, but had a valid passport] [Another cursory glance at the papers… not even opening the passports.] “Okay, you can go on in.”

I feel safer already.

Chico met us at the airport, and we gave him the chains to return. Strangely, there wasn’t nearly as long of a line at the Security Checkpoint at SeaTac, about, oh… ten seconds instead of the hour and a half at SFO. I also didn’t get swabbed, metal detected around my body, or had to take my shoes off. Also, I didn’t get charged the $73 for the car… it just came out to four days worth. Strangely, I ran into a co-worker in the airport. My flight was not supposed to be the last to leave, but it was delayed for an hour, and had it’s gate changed twice. I finally got home at about 1am, and didn’t even unpack (I still haven’t) before going to sleep. So, Monday was a solid travelling day… and I was stuck in a car with two insane people, and two people who had to have lost their sanity somewhere along Route 99.

It sounds like I complained a lot about this trip… granted it could have been planned better… and as one of my coworkers commented, “only you would go all the way to Whistler, then not ski.” It was fun, but next time I’m going to vacation at a place that doesn’t require a day of travel each way.

Like home.

I took pictures, and I’ll try to get them online soon.