USA and Canada 2008

Blog now in Chronological Order

2011-01-08T22:09:00.000-08:00

This blog now reads from first post to last, so you can read of our adventures in order as they happened. The final post was made in Los Angeles after we left Whistler, so if you are reading and haven't got that far, there is still more!!!

Enjoy.

7 days to wheels up...

2008-03-31T03:36:00.000-07:00

All hotels booked. Almost time to start packing (well, almost time for Diane and Lorraine to start packing anyway).

Accommodations:
7th Feb - New York - Grand Hyatt
10th Feb - Niagara Falls - Embassy Suites
12th Feb - Los Angeles - Westin LAX
13th Feb - Las Vegas - The Palazzo
16th Feb - San Francisco - Stanford Court
19th Feb - Big White Ski Resort - Stonebridge Lodge Unit 405A
29th Feb - Vancouver - Pacific Palisades
2nd Mar - Whistler Ski Resort - Woodrun Lodge Unit 403
9th Mar - Los Angeles - InterContinental Century City

A few days closer...

2008-03-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

A few days closer.

Useful links:

Big White Ski Resort.

Big White temp/snow forecast for top of mountain.
Big White temp/snow forecast for village.
Big White temp/snow forecast for bottom - Gem Lake.

Whistler/Blackcomb Ski Resort.

Whistler/Blackcomb temp/snow forecast for top of mountain.
Whistler/Blackcomb temp/snow forecast for mid station.
Whistler/Blackcomb temp/snow forecast for village.

2008-03-04T17:31:00.000-08:00

Nice snow down to the village at Whistler. The dreaded 'r' word hasn't raised it's ugly head for a while, so this good solid base of the white stuff should be able to withstand all but the most severe rain events until our arrival.

Temperature links...

2008-03-03T05:55:00.000-08:00

More links.

These links will give you current temperatures, weather conditions and forecasts for the day.

New York
Buffalo (Niagara Falls)
Las Vegas
San Francisco
Big White
Vancouver
Whistler/Blackcomb
Los Angeles

Today's the day we've waited 12 months for...

2008-03-02T11:40:00.000-08:00

Well, the day has finally arrived for Diane and myself and we are enjoying our final cup of coffee, possible the last decent cuppa we'll get for 5 weeks, ready to be taken to the airport by Bob Snr.

My next report will be from the 'Land of the Giants', that's New York for those not au fait with the Superbowl.

A click on the weather link below shows we will be greeted with clear skies and a maximum of 7 degrees. The Swannies scarf has just been moved to the outside zipper, lol.

Thx all for words of encouragement and Clive and Lorraine, we'll see you next week.

Bye for now.

Greetings from The Big Apple...

2008-03-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

7th Feb, 2008

Arrived safe and sound in New York, 28 hours from the time I locked the door behind me at Hoddle Place until we checked in at the Grand Hyatt.

New York is cold.

Found a great bagel place for breakfast with all kinds of flavoured cream cheeses to spread. I had Jalapeno flavoured cream cheese and Diane had Apple and Cinnamon, Mmmmm.

Went to the top of the Empire State Building today. We paid $7 for a hand held device, something like an oversized mobile phone. You enter numbers on the keypad as you come to the corresponding numbered sign on the Observation Deck and it gives you a couple of minutes narrative of points of interest at each point. Amazingly, only about 20% of people seemed to have them, but it was easily the best $7 you could have spent. It pointed out all the areas of Manhattan and a few historical facts as well. Fully recommend.

A few pics of the view from up top, though it was quite misty:

Did a fair bit of shopping afterwards at Macy's and a menswear shop.

Tonight we are off to the theatre to see Chicago and to have a post show dinner at Carmines.

Later.

More from New York...

2008-02-29T14:00:00.000-08:00

9th Feb, 2008

Great night at the theatre last night. Chicago was good and a great meal at Carmines afterwards. We only had to wait 10 minutes for a table, but they were still streaming in at midnight. Frank wasn't lying when he said "a city, that never sleeps"

The theatre - great seats!!

A toast to Dulcie on Feb 8th, New York time.

The hotel, the room and the view (of sorts).

Finally, some sights around Times Square and Broadway.

Later.

Greetings from Niagara Falls...

2008-02-29T07:59:00.000-08:00

11th Feb, 2008

Firstly, the good stuff.

All these pics were taken through the window of our room. We are on the 37th floor and though the pictures make it look like we are bit further away, we are less than 100 metres from the edge. The view is seriously breathtaking, even for a cynical old bugger like me. We are on the Canadian side of the falls. The border runs directly down the middle of the main river and dissects the Horseshoe Falls, Canada on the Northern bank, USA on the Southern bank. About 200 metres before the Horseshoe Falls, the river branches off to the right and comes down to form the American Falls which are solely in the USA.

Both falls, American Falls to the left, Horseshoe Falls to the right.

American Falls

Horseshoe Falls

From the lift lobby on the 37th floor, looking over suburban Niagara Falls

Now for the not so good. This picture of the plane we flew into Buffalo on gives you an idea of the weather. As you can see, snow is flying around all over the place, but it is all windblown, it wasn't actually snowing at the time. When I walked out of the terminal to meet our transport to Niagara, it was the coldest weather I had ever experienced, colder than anything Charlottes Pass had served up in my times there. But, it would get worse.....

From this picture, you can see that the casino is on the next corner.

We had a late lunch after we checked in, so decided to relax in the room, watch the view and have a nap because both of us have found it difficult to sleep, I've had about 4 hours each night. Around 9pm we decided to get dressed and go check out the casino. Unfortunately we just missed the shuttle which loops around Niagara and can drop you at the casino. No big deal, it's only a block away and we could do with the exercise.

Big mistake.

Well, if we thought it was cold at Buffalo, we hadn't felt anything yet. I had a skivvy, a jumper and my thick Swans 'bomber' jacket on and within 20 metres I was frozen solid. The wind and cold was totally insane. We made it to the casino, 150 metres away. My glasses were fogged/iced? over, I had the kind of 'brain freeze' headache you sometimes get when you eat an ice cream. It was madness.

But it didn't end there. I said to Diane we will get the last shuttle back at 2am because I have no intention of walking back in that weather. We agreed, but when we went to get Diane's coat from the coat check, it was closed and she had to go to the other end of the building to the 24hr coat check and, yes, you guessed it, we missed the last shuttle. The walk back was just ridiculous, how do people live in this weather??

We shivered our way back to the hotel and collapsed in bed.

When we awoke this morning and turned the TV on we were greeted with the news that it was currently -17!!!!, the wind chill was -40!!!!, there was a severe weather and wind chill warning and all schools from Buffalo to Toronto were shutdown for the day because it was too cold for children to leave their homes!!!!

Unfortunately, ALL our ski gear, jackets, gloves, balaclavas etc are in a locker at JFK. We left them there, along with one of our suitcases so we didn't need to lug them up here for 2 days. NOT HAPPY, JAN. I thought I had done as much investigative work that was humanly possible in arranging this trip, I just had no idea I would need to prepare for insane cold snaps like this one. I'm sure we'll laugh about it in years to come.

It's almost midday here (Monday) and we are rugging up as much as possible to go down to the edge of the falls. It is still -15 outside. I have no idea how long we will be able to stay outdoors, but we'll never forgive ourselves if we don't attempt to get a closeup view from the falls edge. All the major attractions are closed, as you can see from the pics the river that the Falls flow into is iced over in winter so some don't run anyway, but the 'Cave of the Winds' and 'Behind the Falls' walk is shut for obvious reasons.

Sorry for the novel, more later.

Cheers Bob and Di.

Spielberg be afraid, be very afraid...

2008-02-28T18:04:00.000-08:00

12th Feb, 2008

A few short videos taken at high resolution (100MG+) and shrunk down to fit on the blog. The video quality is not too bad. The director/producer/cameraman on the other hand........

This is the Horseshoe Falls taken right at the edge of the falls

Next two are the Horseshoe Falls a bit further downstream

Finally the American Falls

Greetings from Las Vegas...

2008-02-27T17:53:00.000-08:00

13th Feb, 2008

Well, we are all together and checked into our palatial suites in Vegas, eventually.

Diane and I took almost as long to get from Niagara Falls to LA as it took Clive and Lorraine to get from Sydney.

We were picked up promptly at 09:30 by the taxi to get back to Buffalo for the flight to JFK. A blizzard was due to hit in the afternoon so we were just happy to get out of Buffalo at 12:30, albeit 30 minutes late.

We were greeted in New York by a steady stream of light snow. I went to Terminal 4 to pick up our bags we left in storage, doh!!, so we checked in at 14:30 for the Qantas flight back to LA, due to leave at 18:40. With 4 hours to kill we had some lunch and I had a pedicure at a SpaExpress outlet in the departure lounge (yes, this is Bob typing!!!). I was unable to get internet access so it was just a case of waiting. Boarding time rolls around and it is obvious that this flight won't be leaving at 18:40. The plane hadn't even arrived from LA yet, although it was due at 16:30. The snow is getting heavier, cancelled flights are starting to dot the TV screens and we find out even if the plane arrives now, the pilot and co-pilot are stuck in gridlocked traffic somewhere on the streets of NY, ETA unknown. Eventually the plane arrives, the pilot arrives and although most flights are now cancelled due to the weather, we are still good to go. We board at 19:45, 90 minutes late, settle in and get ready, we should be airborne shortly.

Yeah, right.

The plane gives a bit of a jolt at the gate, moves a foot or so and comes to a stop. After 5 minutes the Captain advises that the tug (?) that pulls the plane away from the gate couldn't get traction because of the snow and had to leave and get chains fitted, delay about 20-30 minutes. Finally the plane pulls out and the Captain tells us that because of the time spent in the gate, we had to proceed to the de-icing hanger and get the wings de-iced and treated. We wait for at least an hour for a British Airways flight in front of us to get treated. We eventually pull in and they go to work on us. They appear to be finished but still we wait. Now the Captain tells us that the British Airways flight that was in front of us had to wait so long to get clearance that the wings had iced again and it was on it's way back. As such, they decided to redo our plane, so another hour wasted.

We finally leave the ground at a quarter past midnight !!! 4 1/2 hours on the plane and we are finally in the air. Dinner is served, Skybed reclined and we are both off to sleep. We get to LAX at 02:00 (gain 3 hrs with time change). I go to the counter and ask what is the ETA for Clive and Lorraines flight, due in at 06:30. At this point I'm secretly hoping it has been delayed so we can check into our hotel and get more than 3 hours sleep. The agent checks "Sir, you'll be pleased to know that flight is early, arriving at 05:55" Terrific.......

Clive and Lorraine clear US Customs at 07:00 and are met by their chauffeur, me, holding a sign "The RATS". It was clearly the most impressive sign among the many signs held by those poor souls who meet and greet tired and irritable travellers for a living.

We returned to the hotel, picked up Diane and finally all 4 of us are together for 'USA and Canada 2008' and headed for the US Airways terminal for our flight to Vegas. The plane was an hour late, only an hour...not bad, not bad...., finally touching down in Vegas at 14:30. The highlight of the flight was when a male crew member asked Lorraine and Diane if they were twins or just sisters. Considering Lorraine had just flown from Australia with little sleep, she was rather chuffed. We expect Diane to talk to us again sometime tomorrow, although I believe US Airways are off the agenda for future travel.

We jumped a shuttle and headed for The Palazzo. We were the last drop and as the door closes behind the second last drop at Flamingo, it snaps a hinge and falls on the ground!!!! Now we are about 300 metres from our final destination, all of us have been on the go for over 24 hours and we have to wait 30 minutes for a replacement bus to take us the last bit. Not sure if I'm down to my last or not, but there cannot be too many straws left!!!

Clive, always the engineer

We finally checked into The Palazzo. It is just superb.

This is one of the many fountains in the check-in lobby

The walkway off the gaming floor to the shopping arcade and link to The Venetian

And finally, the room......

More later....

Valentines Day in Vegas...

2008-02-26T05:40:00.000-08:00

14th Feb, 2008

More pictures, slightly less editorial today......

The Palazzo external....

....and at dusk

Clive and I took the girls out for Valentines Day lunch and told them to eat ANYTHING they fancied. After all, if a girl can't indulge on Valentines Day, when can she indulge.

They both started with a Spaghetti Alfredo entree, a creamy white wine sauce with fresh field mushrooms, a hint of garlic poured over fresh al dente spaghetti. Diane then went for an Asian main, mouth watering beef in a spicy black bean sauce and a delightfully fruity Orange Chicken. Lorraine chose a more western creation, succulent lamb cuts, complimented by a gorgeously creamy sweet potato mash.

These meals were washed down with a refreshing iced tea before the piece de resistance...deserts. They both chose a wickedly sweet creme brulee' followed by large strawberries dipped in chocolate and a small section of banana, also dipped in chocolate and coated in nuts. Yummyyyyy.

The evidence...

That Clive and I, aren't we just the best !!!!!!

Yep, no doubt about it, that $15.95 all-you-can-eat buffet at Treasure Island is great value.

We then needed to walk off the calories, so headed down the strip visiting casinos as we came to them.

A couple of Valentines Day shots at the Mirage....

and a nice shot of the girls....

We didn't actually get to see too many casino gaming areas. With all the shops along the way in Caesars etc. it was painfully slow progress, certainly for Clive and I anyway.

Diane tried on a pair of $3,000 sunglasses.....

I was pretty safe in the knowledge that even Diane would understand they were way out of our budget. Clive on the other hand was looking decidedly fidgety and rather nervous.

One of the dozen, no make that dozens, of shoe shops that the girls just HAD to look inside. What is it with woman and shoes??

We headed back to The Palazzo via the Flamingo where the girls covered the weekly rent for some lucky clothing store. We then went through the Venetian where we saw the living statues....

....I'm sure those who have seen them are also amazed how they can keep so still for so long.

Finally, Clive and Lorraine came across a welcome sign, obviously unveiled for their arrival.....

In the evening we went to a dinner/show, Tony and Tina's Wedding at the Rio. Whilst not that bad a night, it wouldn't go down as a must see. Lorraine had seen the show previously and said that the cast and show had completely changed and she was very disappointed.

That's all for now, until later.......

Goodbye Vegas...

2008-02-25T18:04:00.000-08:00

15th Feb, 2008

Well, we have left Vegas and have arrived in San Francisco.

After a nice buffet breakfast at The Palazzo Cafe, our final day in Las Vegas saw the girls take off to do some shopping, again, whilst Clive and I stood in a line for an hour to get some show tickets. We obtained tickets to see 'Stomp Out Loud', then we had to get to Planet Hollywood Casino where the show was playing to pick up the actual tickets and get seating. The whole process took about 3 hours, but as devoted husbands we didn't complain......much.

Both girls came back from the shops modelling new jackets/coats. Clive wanted to know why Lorraine needed a 'raincoat' and in his typical shyte stirring way has managed to slip the word 'raincoat' into every second sentence the past 24 hours. For those that know Clive, I'm sure you can just hear him saying it as you read. BTW, it's a lovely jacket and Lorraine has told Clive "It's called style Clive, you wouldn't understand".

'Stomping Out Loud' was brilliant. It ran for 90 minutes and not one word was spoken nor sung. It was a group of young dancers/musicians/performers that used everyday items to compose music and melody. It was just so well done.

After the show we had dinner at The Bellagio, watched the dancing waters show before casino hopping our way back to our suites at 2am.

A few piccies of the Vegas strip....

The Bellagio

Paris

Venetian

Wynn's

Caesars Palace...note the circular escalator

Mirage

Bellagio dancing waters show.....

Greetings from San Francisco...

2008-02-24T22:30:00.000-08:00

17th Feb, 2008

Greetings from San Francisco.

The flight over on Southwest was fine, about the first leg that has actually been on time for the whole trip so far.

We arrived at around 3pm and caught a taxi to our hotel. Our hotel room is fine, but it suffers badly from following on after The Palazzo suite, we were so spoilt by that room!!!

Like all good tourists, we headed off to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner via cable car....

The Cable Car ride is intriguing. I just can't imagine OH&S laws in Australia would let people just jump on the outside of a vehicle, stand on a 12 inches wide wooden platform and start careering down a hill a foot or two away from traffic coming in the opposite direction, hanging onto nothing more than a railing. the part that is hard to believe is that it happens here in the US, the absolute home of the dopey litigation claims. Go figure.

At our final destination....

We ate at a seafood place that Clive and Lorraine realised they had eaten at 20 years earlier when they sat down and saw the view. Clive was having trouble reading the menu in the soft lighting, so borrowed Dianes reading glasses. They suit him, don't you think??

We returned to our rooms for an early night after a late final night in Vegas the evening before and a tiring flight to SFO. I managed to get a live audio feed of the Swans/Hawthorn match on the internet, but was so sleepy I fell asleep at half time. I awoke in the morning to find out the Swans got beat by just 2 points. Considering the very inexperienced team we fielded I was quite happy until I read that Nick Malceski did an ACL (knee) and will miss the rest of the season. I was instantly gutted.

We all walked to Union Square for breakfast this morning. Union Square is about 5 blocks from our hotel, fortunately all downhill as this pic of a passing cable car shows....

On the way about 2 blocks from our hotel is a 'nude male revue'. Clive reckons the theatre is very aptly named. I have to agree....

At Union Square we passed an eatery that had a lineup of at least 50 metres. This was at 09:30 in the morning!!! During the course of the day we found plenty of evidence that San Francisco folk have no qualms about lining up for quality food or restaurants.

After breakfast we took a taxi trip to a Sports warehouse that has among other things a large variety of ski equipment. We walked out with thermals, gloves, liners and neoprene face masks.

We jumped a cab to Sausalito via the Golden Gate Bridge....

Sausalito is a quaint little village with no shortage of expensive arty crafty type shops. A highlight of Sausalito was some guy who balanced rocks on the shore, much to the amazement of a crowd of onlookers. I have to say it was an impressive display....

The attempt....

The result....

Whilst walking back to catch the ferry back to San Francisco Wharf we walked past the local hamburger shop. Earlier in the day we looked thru the window of the shop as burgers rotated on a circular grill. Again we had evidence that the locals are prepared to lineup and wait for quality....

The lineup to get on the last ferry back to SFO wharf was seriously massive. There are any number of places where you can hire a bike from SFO and ride over the Golden Gate Bridge and cruise all the way downhill to Sausalito. To avoid the trek back uphill to get home, you can take the bike back on the ferry. As you can see, half of San Francisco decided to ride the bike to Sausalito today....

We returned to San Francisco Wharf at about 6pm. The girls cut loose in Walgreens, a drug store that sells just about anything, for the best part of an hour. Makeup, medication, just about anything 'chemisty' is way cheaper in the US and the girls took full advantage. Just outside of Walgreens is the end of the Cable car line....

.... and the line starts it's climb up to Nob Hill and ultimately down to Fisherman's Wharf. Our hotel is right in the distance at the top of the hill....

We then jumped a taxi to Chinatown. We asked the driver to take us to somewhere nice and without further ado drove us to the House of Nanking, supposedly one of the finest Chinese restaurants in San Francisco, which itself has the reputation of being the best Chinatown in the US. So we have been delivered to the best and guess what, there was a lineup to get in....

We were advised by the taxi driver to just let them order for you, they will just bring out nice dish after dish. At first we took that advice with a grain of salt, but whilst waiting in line we became chatty with a young local couple who claimed this was the best Chinese restaurant in SFO. They told us we must order the 'pan stickers' and 'sesame nanking chicken' but after that the house would probably choose the meals for you. This appeared to be a weird local custom that the restaurant chooses what you want to eat, but we thought we'd see what would happen. However, upon seeing the menu we decided we want this, we want that, we also want the other etc. The boss appears to take our order. Lorraine orders the sesame chicken and pan stickers, she begins to order something else and the boss snatched the menu from her hand and say's "first time?...I look after you, don't worry" and takes off before we can say anything leaving us all rather shocked, but also amused.

The meal was delicious, although a tad more expensive then we imagined it would be. When we left, guess what, the line had grew....

Taxi back to the hotel room, after dinner drinks and coffee and it's bedtime.

Tomorrow Clive and I will head to Alcatraz whilst the girls head to some shops...there's a shock!!!

Janet, rest assured, Lorraine has been racking up the shoe purchases. The last count was 4 I think, but one of those pairs has interchangeable top straps, or something like that I don't really understand, so she reckons she has bought 8 different pairs so far.

One more sleep....

2008-02-23T18:42:00.000-08:00

18th Feb, 2008

....until we head to the snow.

This morning we headed off to Ghiradelli Square for breakfast. We found a real old style All-American diner....

....complete with red leather booths with jukeboxes, black and white checked floor and wall tiles. The jukebox was playing all the ballads from the 60's.

Clive and I left the girls at The Cannery to shop hop whilst we headed to Alcatraz. Unfortunately, because it was a public holiday in America, Alcatraz was booked out and we couldn't get a ticket. We came back to Fisherman's Wharf and found the girls who didn't seem particularly happy to see us. Not sure what they had planned in our absence!!

We decided to take a motorised cable car tour of the city and surrounds. The tour lasted 2 hours and was extremely informative, although we sat on the left hand side of the car and all the sights appeared to be on the right side.

A couple of shots of the famous Golden Gate Bridge....

After a clam chowder lunch served in a sourdough damper, we headed back to the city in a bus. The girls jumped a cable car in Union Square to head back to the hotel whilst Clive and I walked about 2kms to a gear shop to buy walking boots.

Although we didn't have to walk up any hills, these pics give you some idea of just what a hilly city San Francisco is. The first shot is of famous Lombard Street. At the top of the street you can see it is so steep that a series of half a dozen hairpin bends switch back and forth across the street as it is just too steep to drive straight down....

Diane wasn't feeling 100% tonight, so she stayed in the room to recover. Clive, Lorraine and I had a nice pasta meal at a recommended restaurant close to the hotel. The food was very nice and guess what.....there was a line and 20 minute wait to get in.

Just packing now before we call it a night. Early start in the morning (05:30) as we head to Big White........let the fun begin!!!!!!

We're here !!!!

2008-02-22T22:01:00.000-08:00

19th Feb, 2008

Just a quick update to tell everybody we have arrived at Big White.

Long travel time today, we are all knackered and ready for bed at 10pm.

Plane was late from San Francisco and when we arrived in Seattle for our connection, that plane was put back 90 minutes because they had no crew!!

We went to the food court for lunch and wait the 90 minutes, now due to leave at 2:45pm. I decided I needed to visit the restrooms and on the way looked at the board. I nearly soiled my pants there and then. The departure time had changed to 1:55pm and it was now 2pm!!! We all ran to the gate like the Griswalds and just made the flight. When we asked what happened to the times they said they had managed to find a crew. Thx for letting us know.....not.

But the fun was not to end there. Lorraine managed to lose a crown on her tooth due to a particularly tough pretzel!!! She didn't swallow the crown and retrieved it, but 10 days in Big White unable to chew anything was not going to be a good thing. When we arrived at Kelowna we linked up with our shuttle driver who went well above his call of duty to arrange alternative arrangements so Lorraine could get to a dentist. The shuttle driver took us to a dentistry in Kelowna, took our bags (all 9 of them) to Big White and arranged for another shuttle to pick us up from the dentists which was located in a big shopping centre. This 'good fortune' allowed us to do a grocery shop as well.

We are now safely tucked into our condo, 2 weeks worth of washing is running thru the washing machine and the mountain looks amazing, even if it is dark outside.

Lots of piccies and videos to come.

Later....

Day 1 on the snow....

2008-02-21T22:08:00.000-08:00

20th Feb, 2008

Hi all,

Well, no broken bones to report, just plenty of aching muscles and weary bodies.

The weather today was just magnificent. Not a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately, they have not had a lot of snow over the past fortnight and the unusually hot conditions has taken it's toll on the snow quality, although the quantity is still more than a good year in Australia. Hopefully we will get some snow to freshen up the cover before we leave.

We spent a bit of time getting our hire skis, lift tickets etc. but headed out on the mountain at around 10:30. From our condo it is a short ski thru a tunnel under a road to the 'Bullet Express'. The village is about a third the way up the mountain and the Bullet almost reaches the top of the mountain, so it is a fair lift ride.

Understandably, Lorraine and Diane wanted to take it easy and explore the green runs. Clive and I were happy to tag along for the day hoping to get the girls up to speed. It's fair to say, the green runs here are decidedly tougher than a green run back home. This caught both Lorraine and Diane out at the top of the mountain for the first run of the day. They both tentatively made their way down a few times before deciding to have a break. Clive and I took the opportunity to explore the rest of the mountain where we did a reconnaissance of all the green runs. There are one or two green runs that have no right to be rated green.

Armed with this information we met up with the girls again for the last hour or so and took them to Big White's signature green run, Serwa's. This run is around 3-4 kms long, goes up, down, all around and near the finish travels along a road where units stand with the ultimate ski in/ski out access. The run is 1 metre from their door!!

All in all it was a great first day. Both Lorraine and Diane skied much better in the afternoon and no doubt will find their feet soon enough. Both of them are keen to get to Serwa's run first thing in the morning.

No pictures of the ski runs today, I will get the camera out tomorrow providing the weather holds up and supply some snow pics.

Never fear however, I have a few pics of....

The propeller powered plane we flew from Seattle to Kelowna....

The view of the village from our condo window....

The view uphill of the run from our condo window....

Relaxing in the jacuzzi at the end of a hard day's skiing....

Yep, no doubt about it, it's a tough life over here in Canada......

Later

Another day in paradise.....

2008-02-20T20:11:00.000-08:00

21st Feb, 2008

Morning to all back in Oz.

Today was just another brilliant day on the slopes, not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind. It was a bit colder than yesterday, but still unseasonably warm and snow is needed desperately. The locals are all complaining how bad the snow is, but to us it's just like a good day back home.

Diane wasn't 100% this morning so Clive, Lorraine and myself headed out at around 9:30. We went straight over to Serwa's, a great long, long cruising green run to blow away the cobwebs. And Sue, yes, green runs are the easier runs, although there is nothing particularly easy about a few of them here.

After the first run down, Lorraine wanted to do it again, so up the Snow Ghost 6-seater we went. I took a video as we went up, but with zoom the quality is not too good, so I'll redo it again later. At the top of the lift I wanted to get a couple of shots of the board. This place is very well organised. At the top of EVERY lift as you get off are giant boards with trail maps and the grooming status of all the runs off that lift and adjacent lifts. It is a brilliant help....

...while Clive and I farted about with gloves etc so we could use the camera, Lorraine took off down Serwa's to get a head start.

After a few minutes we took off after her but she wasn't in sight. Maybe around this corner, no, maybe over this dropoff, no. Finally we caught her but both Clive and I sat back about 30 metres to see how far she would go. About halfway down the run, around the 2km mark, Clive commented he reckons this is a far as Lorraine has ever skied without stopping. On and on she went until it was obvious that she was determined to ski this run top to bottom!!

The final part of the run presents you with this view of three lifts, the left chair is the Plaza Quad which takes you back up to the village, the next one is the Ridge Rocket Quad and the right hand lift is the Snow Ghost 6-seater....

....Lorraine skied down to the lift and let out an almighty cheer. She'd skied the run top to bottom, non stop!!

At the top of the lift I took a happy shot of the proud couple....

We then skied over to the Black Forest area where we skied Millie's Mile, another wide green cruiser with a fairly consistent pitch. For those who know Charlotte's, it is a similar pitch to the run off the T-Bar, except as the name would suggest it is a mile long, although I suspect it is further.

Lorraine decided to rest as her legs were giving her trouble and went and joined Diane in the unit. We arranged to meet for lunch at 1:30pm.

Clive and I then explored. We headed to the T-Bar and the top of the mountain amongst the Snow Ghosts....

The Ghosts are starting to struggle with the warm temps and lack of snow, but high up there are still plenty around.

We decided to tackle the blues. We took off down Powder Gulch, a long wide cruisy bowl. Half way down we were wondering how it was rated blue, it didn't seem any more difficult than some of the greens we had been skiing. We soon found out why!!!! About 400 metres from the end we came to a ridge and the run goes down from there....straight down!! It was very icey where the cover had been scraped off and ridiculously steep for a blue. It would be rated black, even double black in Oz. I doubt we'll be heading back there anytime soon, but if we get some snow between now and when we leave it would prove a good test with a bit of cover and we will try it again.

We met up with the girls for lunch and Lorraine came back out for a couple of runs.

We came upon this run....

....piece of cake, yeah, right!!

All in all a good day was had. We finished the day with a jacuzzi and a few beers, fired up the BBQ on the balcony and had a nice steak meal in the unit.

I did say that Serwa's had some great ski in/ski out accommodation. Check out this video of some of the houses and the pretty scenery of the snow....

Later....

The blue runs beckon....

2008-02-19T22:04:00.000-08:00

22nd Feb, 2008

The girls had a day off the slopes so Clive and I headed out to find some blue run action over at the Gem Lake area.

That's exactly what we found. Very long, very wide and very steep blue cruisers abound in this area. It's just an absolute playground for true intermediates and above.

It is also a very pretty area of the mountain, snow ghosts such as these are everywhere due to the altitude and openness of the top section....

....as you can see, there is a fair bit of greenery showing through as it has been over a week since any snow has fallen here. You can be sure they will be completely covered as soon as the next snowfall arrives.

Clive and I found a large ghost to pose with....

....as I said, a very pretty area of the mountain but unfortunately not an area that Lorraine or Diane are likely to see as there is just no easy way back from the top of the lift. The trail map shows a 'green' run from the top, but one suspects it has been rated green so Big White can boast they have "a green run from every lift on the mountain". It hardly resembles any green runs either Clive or myself have ever seen!!

The main blue runs which were groomed were Blue Sapphire, Blue Ribbon and Kalina's Rainbow. We spent most of our time on Kalina's Rainbow but will certainly spend time on the others in the days ahead.

Firstly some pictures of Kalina's Rainbow. You will have to trust me when I say the pics do not capture the steepness of some sections of the run, but they show the great width and sheer length of the runs here....

....did I forget to mention how crowded it is on the slopes????

Here are some short vids of Clive and I.....

Clive, then me, skiing the first part of Kalina's Rainbow.

Me, then Clive, skiing the bottom part of Kalina's Rainbow.

We headed back to our unit at around 1:30pm where Lorraine and Diane had prepared some hot rissole sandwiches. We had lunch, collapsed in the lounge chairs and at around 2:30 realised we only had 90 minutes ski time left for the day (lifts close at 4pm). It appears we both had the same idea. We'd had a pretty huge morning, covering heaps of vertical and the thought of going back downstairs and spending 15 minutes putting on boots etc. just didn't appear at all appealing. We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon watching the passing ski parade from our unit window.

We still had our jacuzzi and 2 beers at 4:30pm as normal, but we are yet to find a decent bloody beer!!!!

Dinner tonight was at 'Snowshoe Sam's', a popular restaurant on the mountain. The food was sensational and Sam's is famous for 'Gunbarrell Coffee'....

....which starts with a shot of brandy, Creme de Cacao and coffee. Then Grand Marnier is lit and dribbled down a shotgun barrel into the glass. The whole process is completed on a trolley at the table. That photo is not one of mine, but the food was just so good that as we walked out we booked a table with a view for next Thursday, our last night. I hope to take a video of the coffee making process then, so you'll all have to wait a week.

As an aside, Clive had peanut butter flavoured ice cream for desert. We all had a taste and it was really nice, BUT, it appears to have given Clive a touch of wind. I can tell you now, Lorraine is in for a torrid night.

PS.

Casey, don't worry, I won't use the orange background again.

Brenda, the reports may be later each day, but they are still daily. I'm in the routine of preparing them in the night if I have time and saving them to draft. I'll then post them each morning our time, the wee small hours your time and a new report should greet you each morning when you awake.

Karmen, good to see you have been able to grasp the technology to reply, it's great to hear you're enjoying the adventure with us....thx Janet.

Sue, so your skiing boss told you they were called 'gloomed' runs did they. How long have you been working in the Chinese Restaurant up there at Katherine????

Until tomorrow....

Kody Franks - Happy Birthday !!!!!!!

2008-02-18T07:01:00.000-08:00

23rd Feb, 2008

It's only the 23rd here, but we know a little somebody who will be waking up soon on Sunday morning the 24th and he'll be a whole year older....

Happy 2nd Birthday Kody !!!!!!!

Boys ski, girls shop, everybody's happy...

2008-02-17T16:44:00.000-08:00

23rd Feb, 2008

It was our biggest day on the slopes so far for Clive and I. Diane and Lorraine took the bus down to Kelowna for a day's shopping, not just for clothes and shoes, but they managed to bring back some supplies as well.

Clive and I headed out just after 9am. We headed for the Black Forest area where we saw another type of Snow Ghost whilst riding the lift up....

We did a few runs at the Black Forest, exploring the blues which we found to be pretty tame in comparison to other areas of the mountain. Tried a quick venture off piste as there is a particularly spacious gladed area with lots of room to manoeuvre, but with no snow now for over a week, we soon got sick of sliding around on ice so moved back to the main runs.

We then headed off to Gem Lake via the T-Bar, taking a quick trip up the Falcon Chair as we hadn't been on it before. It is an old fixed grip double chair and has a very steep pitch at the end. There is some marvelous scenery near the top of the chair, I'll take a video before we leave.

Gem Lake was brilliant as usual, although being a Saturday there was a lot more traffic on the run, yet still minimal lift lines or waits, if any. Blue Ribbon was ungroomed according to the grooming report but still looked OK from the top. As so often happens, you ski just far enough over the lip to make it impossible to turn back when you realise it is indeed ungroomed, lol. In truth, we made it down comfortably, it was a very 'interesting' run ungroomed, but if they groom it tomorrow we'll be there with bells on, heaps of small dropoffs and rollovers, looks like a ripper.

Kalina's was a bit of a highway so we headed off to a few different spots, finally stopping for lunch around 1:30. Pies from The Bakery and coffee from Beano's is the current lunch of choice, yummy. The World Cup is on at Whistler over this weekend and as you'd expect it is live on TV here. We watched the final stages of the men's downhill at Beano's whilst having lunch. The large crowd gave an almighty cheer when the Canadian skier posted the fastest time with around 6 or 7 skiers still to run. Predictably, his time was beaten and I think he finished 5th.

We took off again, heading up the 6-seater, down to the Powder Chair and finally heading back to Gem Lake via Blue Sapphire. I got a video of Clive coming down Blue Sapphire....

I have sorted out the zoom aspect so that we don't look like ants on the slope, but I'm still a bit shakey. I'm sure I'll improve by the end of the fortnight, just bear with me.

We did a few runs down Blue Sapphire until they called last lift at Gem Lake at around 3:15. As we went up the Gem Lake chair for the last time, it is 2450m long, it started to snow, but not the champagne powder I have heard so much about, it was Aussie like sago. For the uninitiated, sago snow is like tiny hail stones the size of small grains of rice.

Getting off the chair we needed to head down to the Powder Chair to return to the village. Normally this is a real fun run down a cat track, steep in parts with fun kickers and bumps. This time however with sago snow smashing into our unprotected faces it was.....mmmmmmmm.

By the time we got to the Powder Chair, a drop of around 300m vertical, the snow was light and fluffy, woohoo....

We decided to head back, we'd had a pretty full on day, it was snowing and the jacuzzi was calling. We skied back to the unit on snow that appeared to have already been ever so slightly freshened by the brief snowfall. As we came down the mountain the snow stopped and by the time we got back to the door of the ski lockers in the condo block, the sun was out. We looked back towards the area we had been and it would not have surprised if it was still snowing there.

With the sun out we decided to do an extra run off the Bullet Express which is the lift that remains open for night skiing. We enjoyed it so much we had 3 final runs, lol.

Finally made our way back to the unit. I forgot to mention on Friday when we came home the lift was out of order. After a full days skiing, it is no fun having to walk from the ski lockers in the basement to the 4th floor, grrhhhhh. Fortunately the lifts have worked since.

We had only been back in the unit 2 minutes when we spied the shopaholics returning with heavy bags, struggling across the snow from the gondola....

I said to Clive that we should go down and help them, but he thought it would be more fun to jump out and surprise them with the camera as they struggled down the hallway, lol....

We had our daily jacuzzi and 2 beers, the girls joined us for a while before jumping out to prepare a nice dinner.

That's about it for today, but keep those comments coming. I believe lots of people are waiting for the daily reports but the 4 of us are equally eager to log on and see who has left a comment, so if you are reading of our adventures and haven't replied, leave a comment and say hi.

The girls go dog sledding....

2008-02-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

24th Feb, 2008

Well, at last we got some snow. It lightly snowed on and off during the day but it seems to be coming down fairly consistently into the evening. It is expected to clear for tomorrow with maybe an inch or two all up. Not a great deal, but should freshen things up.

Clive and I had another full day skiing. Lorraine and Diane decided not to ski, the light wasn't great, but instead went dog sledding. We had the cameras with us on the mountain, so the girls didn't get any dog sledding shots. At least when we get home they will have something to tell you about because you didn't read all about it on the blog.

First off today is the video of our unit as requested by some of the folk leaving comments. At the end it also explains the origin of our pyjamas/convict outfits....

Mid morning the temp was just below zero, as our deck thermometer showed....

....and a class of mighty midgets skied past our window, a couple were no bigger than Kody. Riley and Jack would have towered over all of them....

Over at the Black Forest area we stopped and had a look at the new Feathertop Estate area where they are currently selling blocks to be built upon adjacent to 'Millie's Mile'....

Because there is no night skiing on Sunday and Monday, last lifts were strictly 4:00pm, so Clive and I were forced to finish on a day when the light snow had made the skiing very enjoyable. Almost as enjoyable as our daily jacuzzi and beers....

I have some video footage you'll get a good laugh from, but I am having trouble getting it uploaded. I'll try for tomorrows edition, sorry to keep you in suspense.

Comments on the comments...for all those who are eager to get them out of the unit and onto the hill, the girls have promised to ski tomorrow, so I'll hopefully get some footage of them on the mountain, let's hope the weather is not too miserable.

Clair, thx for leaving a comment, it's great to hear you and Glenn are reading and enjoying, say hi to the kids from us all.

Later....

Newsflash - Girls ski !!! - Amazing video footage available !!!

2008-02-14T17:19:00.000-08:00

25th Feb, 2008

Yes it's true !!!!!!

Firstly, we awoke this morning to the glorious sight of fresh snow covered roofs and a couple of inches of fresh snow on the ground. The view out of our window of the trees across the run showed....

Clive and I headed out reasonably early and arranged to meet up with the girls at 11am on the Hummingbird Run, a shortish run thru a tunnel starting in the village leading down to the Plaza Chair. We were there at 11am sharp, but no sign of the girls. Their skis were gone from the front of the unit where we left them out for them, so we knew they were somewhere out on the mountain. We did 3 or 4 laps of the run, knowing that we would surely catch them at some stage, but still no sign of them. Clive decided he would wait at the top of the lift and I would ski the circuit again, but when I returned 10 minutes later, they had still not come thru. We had all but given up on them and began to ski off when they came off the Plaza Chair.

What happened you may ask (we certainly did)? Do you remember this picture I posted a few days ago of the three chairs side by side?....

One leads back to the village and the other two take you way up to the top of the mountain......have you worked out what happened yet? Yes, they managed to ski down the Hummingbird run, ski straight past the Plaza Chair and hop on the Ridge Rocket. Lorraine said it wasn't until about the third pylon and the chairs in front of her disappearing into the clouds that she realised they had jumped on the wrong lift!!!

It took them the best part of an hour to negotiate their way back down from the top part of the mountain back to the village to meet up with us, 45 minutes late.

Like the great blokes we are, Clive and I dutifully shrugged it off and the 4 of us headed back up the mountain to a run that we had picked out as suitable for the girls. We branched off the girl's favorite run, Serwa's, to go down a nice little run call Meadowlark (more on Meadowlark later). This run leads us to the Powder Chair which takes us to an advanced area with a neat little green run exit that is shaped like a half pipe. Here are the girls and Clive negotiating 'Sleepy Hollow', bearing in mind that it hadn't been groomed....

....after that section of Sleepy Hollow, the run continues along a cat track thru some beautiful trees but traverses across 3 black runs which lead back down to the Powder Chair, so you need to keep alert when you come to the crossings....

After a couple of runs down Sleepy Hollow, Meadowlark and Serwa's, we headed back up the mountain to head across back to the Black Forest area. As we approached the run thru to the Black Forest, Diane decided to call it a day after 4 hours on the snow, not a bad effort. Lorraine said she would like to do Millie's Mile again so came with Clive and I to the Black Forest. The chair run up was lovely with tall pines on both sides of the chair lightly covered in snow. I hope the pictures do the view justice....

I took some footage of Lorraine and Clive on Millie's Mile....

....before Lorraine decided to call it a day.

Clive and I stayed around the Black Forest area until last lifts before coming in for the regulation hottub and beers. A very nice meal was cooked by the girls tonight and Clive and I cleared up afterwards. I'm guessing you want video proof of Clive and I clearing up, but my camera was playing up so you'll just have to trust me, lol.

Finally, the video I couldn't get up yesterday. Whilst exploring around for the girls we came across the afore mentioned Meadowlark. It's just a simple nice pleasant green run thru some trees which requires no effort or any concentration to negotiate, even with no stocks and a camera in your hand....or does it....

We are off to Silver Star tomorrow for a day trip, so to the Pangas's, if we see Mick and Carolyn we will say hi for you.

Keep those comments coming.

Later....

Silver Star - Day trip...

2008-02-14T16:39:00.000-08:00

26th Feb, 2008

Up early this morning, needed to be at the Village Mall by 8am for our bus to Silver Star. When we awoke we were greeted by this....

....the famous 'Big Whiteout', so our decision to go to Silver Star for the day was fortuitous.

It was a 2 hour bus trip, arriving at Silver Star at 10am. The first thing that hits you is how much smaller the village is, or appears to be, also the quaint architecture. Like a lot of ski resorts in Nth America, they go with a theme and all buildings must follow that theme when they are built. Silver Star goes one step further and legislates what colours you can or cannot use. You probably wouldn't want to paint your house in Sydney these colours, but it works well in Silver Star for the old western town theme....

By the time we sorted ourselves out with lockers, geared up and grabbed a quick coffee etc. it was closing in on 11am. Clive and I did a quick shoot up the Comet Express 6-seater to check out a fun route down for the girls. We found the perfect run first up so straight back to the village and linked up with the girls. We headed out and not long after we started it began to snow.

The scenery was just lovely with the snow coming down so a few happy snaps were mandatory....

I then filmed Diane, Lorraine and Clive on 'Far Out' a nice green run, snow falling and a really pretty setting....

....of course the director found it hard to keep his temper, why do these actors refuse to keep to the script 'straight down, don't stop' I said!!!!

I shot another video as we went up the Comet Express 6-seater hoping to capture the pretty village back down the hill. Unfortunately with all the snowfall at the time it doesn't show the village and all it's colour well, but it shows the nice snow if nothing else....

Diane and Lorraine called it a day around 2'ish which gave Clive and I an hour and a half to get some blue run action. We headed towards Putnam Creek via 'El Dorado' run. This is a particularly long run, I'm guessing at least 5km, with 3 distinct sections. The top half was skied on easily the best snow of the week and undoubtedly the best snow I have ever skied on, bearing in mind I have never skied outside of Oz and NZ. After the few hours snowfall it was just a thin fluffy cover...glorious. This is the view about 1km into the run, looking back up....

....the second section of the run is the steep section which leads down to the creek, fairly steep but with the great snow it was quite easily negotiated. The final 3rd is a long runout along a cat track which winds around the creek. Not particularly exciting, but it didn't require any poling, just straightline it and negotiate the twists and turns.

This run took us to the bottom of the Powder Gulch Chair. We ascended the chair and traversed across the top of the mountain looking for some blue runs to take us back down. Whilst traversing we came upon a series of double black chutes which looked just insane. The camera just cannot capture the pitch of these runs, nor the massive moguls (bumps for non-skiers) which cover the runs. This was the entrance to the last of the chutes....

....a pretty sharp dropoff into a field of moguls.

This is the run itself. Note at the bottom it appears to flatten out, but believe me it doesn't flatten out, it just goes from stupid steep to normal steep....

We opted out of the chutes, lol, but found some nice blues further on. Time was limited, we didn't want to miss the bus home, so we had to take the lift back to get back to the village by 3:30.

When we got back to the village we ran into Mick and Carolyn Glossop (Charlottes Pass ski school). Mick said that the new owner of Charlottes had just been over looking at a few things they do at Silver Star and Mick thinks that some big plans for Charlottes will come to fruition. Jim and Sharon (are you there?), we said hi to them on your behalf.

Overall, Clive and I both really enjoyed Silver Star and if the opportunity presents itself would love to return. In truth, we only skied 2 of about 5 areas, so we just saw the tip of the iceberg, but liked what we saw. Diane skied particularly well, I think the snow conditions made a big difference for her. Lorraine, who has skied brilliantly all week left her ski legs back at Big White and didn't enjoy the mountain as much.

We arrived back at Big White around 6pm and it was still in heavy fog, but I don't know if it was like that all day. It snowed really heavily around 8pm for an hour and we can't wait to get out first thing in the morning.

Comment on the comments....
Sue, you are correct that skiing across the mountain controls your speed....Jason, are you reading this?????
Thx everybody, I'm glad you found my fall amusing and yes Karmen, you didn't teach me to fall like that.
Brenda, we have 2 more ski days at BW before we leave on Friday morning. I can hardly believe we are nearing the end of this leg, it has gone sooooo quick.
Casey, good luck at the Athletics carnival. By the sounds of the weather, you should be practising your freestyle and butterfly.

Skiing above the clouds...

2008-02-13T21:30:00.000-08:00

27th Feb, 2008

A very 'interesting' morning. Clive and I headed out and the girls said they would meet us doing laps off the Plaza Chair until we come and meet up with them. Straight to the top of the Bullet and the further we went, the thicker the fog. We unloaded and you could barely see your hand in front of your face. We picked our way back down the mountain slowly, but still as fast as we could because we needed to catch the girls before they wasted their money on a lift ticket. We just managed to catch them near the ticket office and told them to hold off and see if conditions improved for the afternoon.

We the headed up the Ridge Rocket and we rose above the cloud bank where it was fine and clear. A run up the Powder Chair was where I took this video of the scenery....

At the top of the Powder Chair I took these great pics of a fog and cloud filled valley and village....

The weather was clearing after a while, but was changing all the time. We headed back to the Village Mall for a coffee and to tell the girls they should come out after lunch. Clive and I headed over to Gem Lake for a few fast blues and then skied our nemesis from Day 1, Powder Gulch. What a difference some snow and a week on skis makes. We had no trouble skiing down it this time around.

We met up with the girls and took them up the Snow Ghost. We headed to one of the girls favourites, Meadowlark, where I took this video and managed to stay on 2 skis this time around....

We headed down Sleepy Hollow where we came to a fork in the run. We were split 2-2 on which way we should go....

After a few hours of fun in that area we went across to the Black Forest. Diane called it a day around 3, but Lorraine decided to stay out, she was having so much fun. She reckons she was going to 'do a Janet' and stay out with the boys. Lorraine finally went back in at around 3:45, just before lifts closed. Clive and I did a quick cruise down a couple of the Black Forest blues before the lift closed and we had to make our way back to the Bullet.

We came in at 4:30 and changed from our boots to our walking boots and the 4 of us headed down the Gondola to Happy Valley to ride the 'snow tubes'. On the way down we took some shots of the houses in the Lower Village area....

This is me coming down the Snow Tube track. It was fairly tame/lame, but I'm sure the younger kids will love it....

The girls prepared for their run down....

....and here it is....

When we returned Clive and I changed back into our ski boots and headed out for night skiing. It was a new experience for me and I loved it. The snow is crisper and you certainly get some speed up. We were doing top to bottom runs at a cracking pace, the run being about 2.5 kms long. We both thought we were skiing the fastest we had skied all week when our bubbles were burst, bigtime. An instructor came flying past us, nothing to be ashamed of, until following the instructor were 2 girls about Casey's age flying past us with no stocks and one ski on, their free leg just swinging alongside. They were absolutely hurtling, amazing stuff.

We went inside for our jacuzzi and 2 beers, whilst the girls prepared a nice meal.

That's all for now. It is snowing heavily outside and we are preparing for a huge last day.

Later....

Last day on snow at Big White...

2008-02-12T18:02:00.000-08:00

28th Feb, 2008

Last day on snow turned out to be disappointing, especially for the girls. 12cm of snow fell overnight according to the resort, I suspect more actually fell.

Clive and I headed out early, straight up the Bullet Express. Like yesterday, visibility was poor but we decided to head up the T-Bar to see if we could get above the clouds. The run down to the T-Bar was less than enjoyable. Heavy snow on an ungroomed run. It was apparent very early that the snow that had fallen was not the famous 'Okanagan Champagne Powder' but heavy snow, similar to what falls in Oz. We headed to the top of the T-Bar where our problems became worse. It was blowing hard, in essence the first breath of wind we had encountered our whole stay (Clive's wind notwithstanding) and the snow was in deep wind drifts across the runs, plus it was a complete whiteout!!!

We skied/slid/snowploughed 50 metres down a run looking for the trail to take us back down to the village and some visibility. We found a yellow pole which denotes the easiest way down the mountain should visibility be bad. We headed along the trail, but deep wind drifts covered the track. It was slide 5 metres, walk 5 metres, curse 5 seconds etc. It was so bad we couldn't tell if we were actually on the run or was the run on the other side of the yellow poles? The skiers reading this will probably know the conditions we were faced with and can empathise. It's no fun at all.

We made our way down to better visibility and did a run down Serwa's, knowing that if it was not very good the girls would not be coming out for the day. It was very, very choppy and cruddy even at this early hour. My legs were struggling for the first time this week and even Clive said his legs were complaining. It was hard work.

We headed back to the unit, yelling at the girls from the edge of the run, telling them not to worry about coming out. We had a coffee at Beano's and headed back out to see if we could salvage anything from the day.

Fortunately the weather turned for the better, but the runs were a disaster area of chopped up, heavy crud. It soon became apparent that the blue runs were easier to ski because you needed speed to blast thru the snow.

We headed to Gem lake via Blue Sapphire....

....and found some real nice snow ghosts at the top of the Gem Lake lift....

We headed up the Falcon Chair where I took a video as promised earlier in the week....

From half way up the mountain I took this picture of the village....

....before hearing a huge blast from the cliff area. It was obvious they were doing avalanche control, so our final run for the day was done from the top of the Bullet where this shot of the Ski Patrol and avalanche control guys was taken....

We came in at 4pm for our final jacuzzi and beers at Big White. All in all, our final days skiing made us challenge ourselves and it is very likely that it will be the type of snow that we will encounter often in Whistler, especially on the bottom 2/3rds of the mountain. If it wasn't our last day, I'd have probably have been back in before lunch, but in the end I'm glad I stayed out. Multiple laps of the Powder Chair coming down both the steep Powder Gulch and Powder Keg in difficult conditions , with no falls for the day, will keep me in good stead for next week.

I know it's a cliche, but I seriously cannot believe how fast this 10 nights has gone. Clive, Lorraine and Diane are thinking the same.

We headed off for our final night meal at Snowshoe Sam's....

Clive didn't have the Peanut Butter Ice Cream this time but Diane decided she wanted it!!!! Well, if I'm sleeping in the same bed, I'm having it too!! As at time of typing, it hasn't had the same effect as it had on Clive.

We finished off with the famous 'Gunbarrel Coffee'. The first shot is taken with flash, so the flame won't show, but you can see what the waiter is doing, pouring flaming Grand Marnier down the heated shotgun barrel. The second shot is with flash off, shows the flame....

Walking back thru the village for the final time I took some pictures of where Tayla, Riley, Jack and Kody will call school for 10 days in 2011.

Well, the fat lady is singing at Big White, but the forecast for Whistler is over 2 feet of snow on the weekend, starting to clear on Monday, our first day skiing. Here's hoping they have the forecast correct.

Later, from Vancouver....

Brenda Franks - Happy Birthday

2008-02-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

28th Feb, 2008 (for the 1st)

Happy Birthday Brenda...

Sorry the first few seconds appear to be cutoff, but when you are picking up an ad hoc cameraman who just happens to be skiing past, you get what you can.....

Have a wonderful day and we'll see you on the 13th.

Bye bye Big White, Hello Vancouver...

2008-02-10T09:03:00.000-08:00

1st Mar, 2008

Well, we are in Vancouver now. Hotel is very nice in a great location smack bang in the middle of all the action on Robson Street.

A few pics upon us leaving Big White.

The bags sitting outside waiting to be picked up whilst we waited in the lobby because it was cold and snowing....

The poor parking attendant whose job it is to make sure people keep the area clear for all the shuttle buses which run continually up and down the mountain to the airport. It was as cold and miserable as it looks....

Some of the lucky buggers skiing in the nice conditions as they go under the bridge towards the Bullet chair....

A nice pic of snow covered units on our way out of the village....

Last look at the slopes, looking up Blue Ribbon from the bus as we leave Big White....

Amazingly, our flight was on time!!! An uneventful flight to Vancouver, all done in under an hour saw us safely land and head to our hotel in Vancouver in the style befitting our group, a stretch limo....

Had a nice feed of spaghetti for dinner after a wander down Robson Street looking in the usual shops (shoes, sunglasses, clothes, drug stores etc.). Having a sleepin in the morning before heading off to the markets and a trip to some big ski shops on West 4th Ave.

Later....

Bye bye Vancouver, hello Whistler...

2008-02-09T07:32:00.000-08:00

2nd Mar, 2008

It is Monday morning here in Whistler, I'm connected, the snow is falling and the village is blanketed in snow, it's a very pretty sight.

Vancouver was not too bad.

Just a couple of quick pics....

Some big glass office blocks dominate some of the Vancouver skyline and reflect the other buildings around them. Its a good effect....

We walked from our hotel in the city down to the Granville Street Markets at the waterfront and hopped on a water taxi which takes you to the markets. The first thing we saw was a street performer, Byron from England. He was a comic and juggler/escape artist. but mainly a comic, very funny....

and finally a couple of shots of the city from the Markets....

We headed back to the city via an area renowned for ski/snow shops. It was very disappointing as far as selection goes. I think we have just missed the end of season sales by a few weeks.

A bit more shopping in the city, where I bought 2 more pairs of shoes bringing my trip tally to 5, we had a quick dinner and had an early night in preparation for our drive to Whistler.

We headed out of Vancouver after a bit of a struggle fitting all the luggage into the hire car, a Chevrolet Trailblazer with 620kms on the clock when we picked it up. Very nice and new.

Stopped at Squamish for groceries on the way up, arriving at Whistler around 3'ish. Our unit is nice (I'll video it later). Clive and I headed out to pick up 4 sets of skis and return the car to Avis. After a nice dinner we bunked down for the night as the snow started to fall and it hasn't stopped falling since.

The forecast is a bit ordinary for today, but it's supposed to clear for a really nice and clear rest of the midweek, so the girls will stay in and explore the village, which is massive and shops, shops, shops.

That's all for now, Clive has just awoken, breakfast beckons and the mountain is calling.

Lots tomorrow....

This place is huge!!!!!!

2008-02-08T08:01:00.000-08:00

3rd Mar, 2008

First impressions of Whistler are "Wow, how big is this place"

Clive and I skied all day in driving snow, variable visibility and chopped up snow. Just about every run was a mogul run, even the greens!! It was bloody hard work and when we came in at 4 we were knackered. We went up the Wizard Express from our unit in Blackcomb and skied straight over to Whistler. We searched around on Whistler Mountain for the morning, riding about 4 or 5 different lifts and skiing a run or 2 off each. We skied to the bottom of Whistler and caught the Blackcomb Gondola to Blackcomb Mountain where we had lunch near the top of the mountain at Glacier Creek Lodge. We skied the afternoon at Blackcomb exploring as much as we could considering the conditions.

The snow has stopped now and the next 3 days are forecast to be clear and sunny. Hopefully after some grooming and a bit of packing down, the runs will remain OK.

I didn't take the camera out on the mountain, it has been playing up a bit probably due to the cold, but with the snowy, cold and foggy conditions photo opportunities would have been minimal. I'll take it out tomorrow for shots on the hill.

Here are some pics of the view from our unit window....

Later....

Comments on the comments:
Happy Birthday for last week Peter!!! The Birthday videos are only for kids, or those who act like kids, so you'll have to settle for a drink when we get home.

Kiters, thx for the Whistler wishes and glad to see you're enjoying the blog.

Casey, who won the athletics carnival??

Karmen, look after that cold.

Brenda, mini Mars Bars are your friend in this day and age.

Best...day's...skiing...EVER !!!

2008-02-06T21:29:00.000-08:00

4th Mar, 2008

Big statement, but today was awesome. Bluebird day on beautifully groomed slopes had me thinking it was the best day I have ever spent on skis. Whistler rocks !!!

Lorraine wasn't well, so both girls decided to give it a miss.

Clive and I headed out around 9am, straight down to the Wizard Express for the trip up the mountain. The next time we saw the Wizard was at 4:30pm when we descended from the heights at the end of the day. We skied Blackcomb Mountain all day and only did 3 or 4 runs twice.

Half way up the Wizard the Gondola crosses over the top of the lift....

From the Wizard, a short ski down and across the mountain to pick up the Excelerator Chair. From the top of the Excelerator a short ski down to the Crystal Chair, where these pics were taken. Three long lift rides so far and still only 3/4 of the way up the mountain....

This run wasn't groomed and it showed us just what sort of crap we skied on yesterday in the fog....

...and a look at the Glacier Creek Chair which takes you almost to the top of the mountain where you take a T-Bar to the very top.

From the top of the Crystal Chair I took this shot of the village....

Also from the Crystal Chair I got good views of the Jersey Cream area....

....and later we rode that very lift, Jersey Cream Express and skied the 3 main blue runs which lead off that chair. Note the big bowl in the second pic to the left of the Jersey Cream area. The wind is blowing snow off the top and just to the right of centre on the horizon the snowline dips, leading to a cliff face. That is the entrance to a world famous double black diamond run, the 'Couloir Extreme'....

We headed up the Horstman T-Bar which runs straight up the centre of the Horstman Glacier....

There is a sign at the load point of the T-Bar advising 'Expert Riders only'. This is one steep T-Bar, especially the final 30-40 metres and has a real tricky unload. When you unload you have less than 5 metres to turn as straight ahead of you is a cliff and a man made tunnel....

The tunnel is there so skiers crossing from right to left to ski the glacier can get across safely without getting smacked on the head by a T-Bar as it is let go by riders unloading.

If you unload to the right of the Horstman T-Bar it brings you to the top of the 7th Heaven area, a hugely popular area of Blackcomb Mountain with nice undulating but not extremely difficult blues. It faces South so is bathed in sunshine all day long and also affords magnificent views looking straight across the valley to Whistler Mountain....

...I did mention it is a popular area....

We have not long come in from a nice meal in Whistler Village and silly me, forgot the camera. It is a very pretty village at night so I will get some pics when we go for dinner on Thursday night.

Lorraine and Diane are definately skiing tomorrow. After the conditions today, they do not want to miss out. The plan is a very early start heading over to Whistler Mountain for some corduroy.

Later....

Comments on the comments:

Maybe the excitement levels are back up again, lol. Truth is, it's been a long trip and the first day at Whistler was tough going and barely enjoyable.

Casey, well done on winning the swimming carnival.

Sue, the pictures are in colour, but cold, snowy, foggy days look like that!!

Another perfect bluebird day...

2008-02-05T07:32:00.000-08:00

5th Mar, 2008

We awoke to another perfect morning and straight after breakfast the 4 of us headed out. A short ski down from our unit to the Wizard Express where the girls bought their day tickets and we were off.

From the top of the Wizard we had to pick our way back down Blackcomb and head towards Whistler Mountain. This part of the trip was particularly icey and the girls were less than impressed. In truth it was very similar to many of my runs at Charlottes first thing in the morning, very crisp and very fast. Eventually we made our way back down to Whistler Village and boarded the Gondola for the long ride up Whistler Mountain.

The difference in snow quality high up the mountain was enormous and the snow was great. The rest of the morning was spent doing laps of Ego Bowl and Upper and Lower Whiskey Jack runs. Nice wide winding green runs which all bring you back to the Emerald Express Chair. The girls were really starting to find their legs so I took this video of them skiing the bottom 1/3 of Ego Bowl. They took off together, but Lorraine had gained inspiration from watching the World Cup skiing on TV and took off down the run, you need to keep an eye on her jacket as she gets further and further out of camera shot....

I then took some pictures of Blackcomb and the 7th Heaven area from the top of the Emerald Express. These pics were looking over towards the area at Blackcomb from where I took the pics of Whistler yesterday....

....note the small hut at the top of the 7th Heaven Chair in the last photo. That is the Horstman Hut where Clive and I had lunch yesterday. The Horstman and Blackcomb Glaciers are on the other side of the ridge in that photo.

We headed in for lunch at 12:30. After lunch we split up, the girls did a few more runs until mid afternoon before downloading on the Gondola and having a hot chocolate in the village. They caught the bus back to the unit and awaited our return.

Clive and I headed towards the huge bowls on the north side of Whistler Mountain, a very long lift ride on the Harmony Chair takes you to the top of the Harmony Bowl....

These 2 areas are huge !!! The Symphony Chair was only built for last season and accesses the Flute Bowl, an area that was previously only accessable by hiking. The Flute Bowl has a real interesting bottom 1/3rd. A big sign indicates that the area is a summer habitat for bear and deer, so rather than cut down layers of trees to make a run, they have just taken a tree here and a tree there (5% according to the sign) and made gladed runs between the trees. There is a number of different entries to the Glades and you can cut across from one run to another. Real fun, safe tree skiing.

This is the top of the Symphony Chair....

....and some random views from the top and down in the bowls....

We caught the last lift on the Symphony Chair, so skied a great blue run, Harmony Ridge, back down to the Harmony Chair. As the name would suggest, this run follows the ridge line between the 2 bowls before descending steeply down the mountain to the bottom of the Harmony Chair. We caught the Harmony Chair back up and were advised that it was also last lift ride. A scoot down a nice little trail bought us back to where we had lunch.

We skied down a nice blue run until we hit the bottom of the Big Red Express which was still open. We hadn't finished yet so back up we went and came down a different run. When we reached the bottom the clock ticked over from 3:59 to 4:00. We just made it back on the lift for last ride on our 3rd lift in a row.

We headed back down a different way again and found the road that would lead us back to the village. Halfway down the road we noticed a few of the instructors and better skiers heading off down a different direction on a run call Crabapple. We guessed they couldn't be going anywhere else but the village so we took off behind them. What a decision!! Just about the best run of the day, the snow was lovely and the run fantastic. The run changed names a couple of times as we peeled off in different directions following the instructors, but we finally arrived at the village after a spectacular journey down. It will be our preferred way down the mountain on our remaining 3 days. A short Gondola ride to Base Lodge 2 and a short ski back to our unit saw us end a fantastic day and a very full on afternoon.

The 4 of us headed to the spa, but it was very crowded so we jumped in the heated pool. Very nice. Finally the spa emptied out so we jumped from the pool into the spa until about 6pm when we retired to the unit for dinner and drinks. We had a nice dinner and a bottle of icewine, a Canadian desert wine. At $60 for a 375ml bottle it worked out at $15 a glass (which was only half-full). Sorry, but it is overpriced, I've had equally nice 'stickies' in Australia for a 1/4 of the price.

That's all for now, enjoy....

Another nice day on Whistler Mountain...

2008-02-04T22:28:00.000-08:00

6th Mar, 2008

Clive and I went out around 9'ish for a boy's only day, the girls deciding to take in the Whistler shopping experience.

We decided to head to Whistler Mountain again to explore the areas we failed to see on Wednesday. After a warm up run or 2, we decided to ski Franz's Run because the 2 previous times we skied it was late in the day and it was a chopped up mess. Franz's Run is where they will hold the Womens Downhill races at the Olympics here in 2010. What a difference it makes to ski it on a nice groomed surface.

Back up the mountain we decided it was time to head to the Peak. We skied The Saddle, a popular run which starts in a shute 10 metres wide but opens up to a wide run straight down the face of the bowl, the entrance to the run is in the top left of this pic....

Another trip up the very steep Peak Chair....

....saw Clive and I at the very top of Whistler Mountain. After I took a photo of a happy couple in front of the 'Inukshuk', they reciprocated by taking a shot of Clive and I....

The inukshuk is the official emblem of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. It's origins come from the Canadian Arctic dwellers in the far frozen north of Canada who placed stones/rocks in the form of humans to act as markers/signposts in the vast frozen landscape.

From the Peak I was able to take these photos of the surrounding mountains and scenery....

We then headed down one of Whistler's signature runs, the Peak to Creek, which runs from the top of The Peak down to the Whistler Creekside base station. It is 5.5 kms long and pretty much straight down. It is split into 2 parts, Upper Peak to Creek which is more or less above the treeline and offers amazing views of the rugged mountainside whilst Lower Peak to Creek is carved thru trees. Signs at the top warned that Upper was groomed but Lower was not. There is a getout run from the start of Lower which takes you back across to Whistle proper if you decide you don't want to tackle the steep Lower section. Clive and I reached the junction halfway down but decided to push on down the ungroomed Lower Peak to Creek thinking that even ungroomed it couldn't be worse than some of the runs we have safely negotiated over the past fortnight.

In truth, it wasn't too bad, very very steep, but not particularly moguled at all. these photos show the lower section and the steepness....

Safely and fairly easily negotiated, we headed back up the Creekside Gondola and right back up to the Peak again, 3 lifts and 25 minutes later we reached the top, did another speedy run down The Saddle, headed up the Peak Chair again and decided to traverse over to the 'Symphony Amphitheatre' which contains the 2 bowls which we had so much fun in on Wednesday, the Harmony and Flute bowls.

After a few runs down both bowls, including fun runs thru the specially gladed area at the bottom of Symphony, we decided it being 2pm, we better head back for some lunch. We had lunch at a little cafe at the base of the Big Red Express before heading back out. At this stage the light had become a little worse, but there was still a few runs we wanted to try in the area. We more or less stayed in this area, sking runs off the Big Red Express and the Garbanzo Express for the rest of the afternoon. We took our last lift ride up the Big Red at 4:18pm. Not bad considering the lift closes at 4pm!!!!

Back down to Crabapple, snow not quite as good as yesterday but still a fun way home to the base, before loading the Blackcomb Gondola back up to ski back to the unit.

Dinner was in the village at The Spaghetti Factory, where we took the walk down the run outside our lodgings to Blackcomb Base and walked to Whistler Village, all up about 10-15 minutes.

Later....

Blackcomb Glacier - Trophy Run completed !!!

2008-02-03T20:07:00.000-08:00

7th Mar, 2008

Boy's only day again today and a slightly later start than normal.

We decided to ski Blackcomb today and go to some runs we haven't skied yet and hopefully get a chance to ski the jewel in the crown, Blackcomb Glacier, weather depending.

After a few warmup runs we headed further up the mountain thru cloud. Breaking through the cloud near the top we skied a few runs down Horstman Glacier before deciding it's now or never time to ski the big one.

A T-Bar trip to the top took us over to the sign which announces Blackcomb Glacier, complete with appropriate warnings....

Click off the skis, throw them over your shoulder and start the 30-40 metre walk to the first landing....

Stop for a chance to catch your breath before the scary part. A dozen steps up to a ledge just a few feet wide, barely enough room to put your boots side by side and a shuffle of about 20 metres to the other side with a severe dropoff to your left....

If you fell you wouldn't die, but you'd slide a hell of a long way and still have the problem of making your way out of this 'run'. People actually ski it, it's a double black diamond called 'The Blowhole', a half pipe type run formed by the snow against the rocks on one side and the edge of the glacier on the other side....

After safely negotiating the cliff walk, we walked another 30 metres where we clicked into our skis for the 10.5km journey down to the next lift. At this point, it is too late to change your mind!! The first part involves long traverses back and across the glacier which at the top is at least 400/500 metres wide. The experts and a few instructors which were up the top just launch straight down at this point, but 95% of people were going the traversing route like us until it becomes slightly less intimidating and you can then start the long descent....

The first few kms were slow, tough going, but frequent stops to rest the legs (under the guise of photo opportunities) saw us progress at a steady rate. We were just getting comfortable when we noted that the cloud was starting roll in further down the mountain....

This made for interesting times ahead. Stuck 3km down an unfamiliar 10.5km run, described in a guidebook as 'undoubtedly the hardest blue run in the world' in thick cloud where visibility was down to a few metres. We held our breath and continued on. We weren't alone, the run was fairly busy and most of the people were just feeling their way down like us, following the run markers which were the only indication of where you needed to be and where the run went.

The Glacier run finally converged into a wide track until you came to a rest area and a few signs which told you you were just past 1/2 way....

A steady stream of people were appearing out of the mist arriving at the rest point, named 'Swamp Thing' and resting with lively tales of their journey thru the clouds....

The last '4.8kms' is on a cattrack which winds thru trees and is quite a pretty setting, although it is a long slide just standing on your skis. We finally arrived back at the Excellerator Chair and decided it was time for lunch.

Lunch was at The Crystal Hut where we had freshly made waffles with strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream, maple syrup and choc chips......Mmmmmmmm, thx for the recommendation Kiters.

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing laps of the Excellerator and Crystal Chairs on runs like Ridge Runner, Rock'n'roll and Trapline, some great cruising blue runs which had great snow cover and little traffic, good for some high speed carving runs. These pics were taken towards the end of the day down Trapline....

The final run down Cruiser, a double blue diamond, was in sloppy spring like snow. It had obviously been a warm day in the village and the snow had turned to slush and it made for the worst run of the day, but we made it back to the unit in one piece and retired fulfilled. A couple of pics from our final run on Blackcomb Mountain....

Here's a shock, the girls had spent the afternoon out shopping!!! They only just beat us home. A nice rack of lamb was prepared by the girls, a few drinks consumed and we were all ready for an early night. Clive and I did the washing up....

....and it was an early lights out at Woodrun 403.

Last day tomorrow, before we head to LA on Sunday for our final leg. I'm ready to come home....

Joshua Baker - Happy Birthday...

2008-02-03T17:05:00.000-08:00

8th Mar, 2008

Happy Birthday for Sunday Joshua. Have a good party on Saturday and I hope you get lots of presents. Say hello to Mum and Dad and give Lilly a big hug and kiss for us.

See you when we get back.

Grandpa Bob and Diane.

Last day on snow...

2008-02-02T22:19:00.000-08:00

8th Mar, 2008

It was close to 10:30 before Clive and I dragged ourselves to the snow for the very last time for this trip. I have been suffering from a cold, keeping Diane up all night with my coughing and I guess it's caught up with me. We needed to have an early finish to pick up the hire car before 5pm so today was always going to be an easy end of trip ski.

We headed to Whistler and skied the runs off Franz's Chair, a chair which only opens on weekends and busy periods so hasn't been open since we arrived. We skied a few blues and a very friendly black run before giving the area away because the chair was very slow. A few pics from Franz's Meadows area....

We then headed to the dual T-Bars which run up Glacier Bowl, the area where The Saddle run comes down. Again, the T-Bars are only operational at peak times so it was our first trip on them. We skied down the T-Bar run and headed to the Peak Chair for the last time. A few pics of the T-Bar, with The Saddle in the background and some pics of the Peak Chair taken from Franz's Chair....

From the Peak Chair we headed to the Symphony Amphitheatre to ride the Harmony and Symphony Chairs. We skied a few runs we hadn't skied before and a few of our favourites that we had, but the lift lines were pretty ridiculous. Being a Saturday they were long, but we had not encountered any lines all week and none at Big White in our 10 days there, so our patience was tested having to encounter long lines and waits on our last afternoons skiing. I took some final shots of this great wide area before starting to head homewards. Note the long lift in the first shot. That is Harmony Chair and it is about a quarter of the way into the ride, after you ascend the first major hill. Mind you, it is not the longest lift, some have over 200 chairs on each lift, but it is the only lift that gives you an uninterrupted view over it's length....

We started to head back down the mountain where we passed 2 chairs with big, big lines. We skied further down the hill towards the Gondola mid-station where the beginners area is and looked to the left and saw the Garbanzo Express was empty!! We went over and skied straight onto the lift. Off the top we headed left down one of the easier black runs, Raven. Halfway down the run a fence stopped us going further as they were conducting gate training for the 2010 Olympic hopefuls!!! We had to branch off down another run and pick our way back to the bottom of the Garbanzo.

We did another few runs off the lift when we decided that we needed to wrap it up and return for the last time. Off down our favourite home run, Crabapple, returning to the Village in terrible sugary spring snow, yuk. Up the Blackcomb Gondola to mid station and slid back to the unit for the final time.....it was over.

We then went to Avis to pick up the car and were told we had a free upgrade to a Dodge Darango. It was a huge SUV and we managed to fit our luggage all in the back without Diane and Lorraine having to nurse any bags, as on the trip up. Dinner was at the Teppon Village in the Hilton at Whistler for some Japanese Tepenyaki. Very nice and very expensive.

I'll make one more entry from LA on Tuesday morning, so when you wake up on Wednesday you'll have the last blog.

Later....

The Final Leg - LA

2008-02-01T00:48:00.000-08:00

10th Mar, 2008

Arrived safe and sound in LA yesterday afternoon. The hotel is lovely, the Intercontinental at Century City on the outskirts of Beverley Hills....

Today we headed out at 10am for breakfast. Of course, we were only going to have breakfast at the best of addresses....

We then had our nicest breakfast of the whole trip and as it turned out, our cheapest. We were about halfway thru our meal when we were approached by the manager and another chap, who turned out to be a builder, to inform us that there had been work carried out on the air conditioning and they were concerned that when they started it up shortly that traces of builders dust may come down. We all told him not to worry and had a bit of a laugh about it. He recognised our accent and asked us if we were Aussies. We told him we were and not to worry about things.

Whether they were relieved that they weren't dealing with the usual Rodeo Drive prima donnas I don't know, but the builder turned to the manager and said "Put their bill on my tab, breakfast is on me" A bloody beauty we said, breakfast at Rodeo Drive and all paid for.

We then walked around and had a look at a few shops, you may recognise the names, Clive and I didn't....

We then went to the Beverly Hills Centre where Clive and I were enthralled by the Macy's shoe section....

We then hopped a cab to Downtown for more shopping before heading to the Ice Hockey for the evening at the Staples Centre....

The local team, the LA Kings were playing the Vancouver Canucks. As LA are running last in the comp and Vancouver are in the running for the finals, we decided to follow the local side and cheer for the upset. The game is a fantastic spectacle and after watching the baseball on my previous 2 trips to the US and thinking I'd probably be divorced if I lived here because I'd want to spend 4 nights a week at the baseball during summer, then 3 nights a week during winter watching the Ice Hockey would clinch the deal, no doubt.

It is fast and at times furious....

Scores were level 0-0 as they went into the third and final 20 minute period. Vancouver had the better of play, but the LA goalie was having a good night and came up with some great saves. Finally a goal, to LA....

....and the local crowd is going wild. Only 11 minutes 29 seconds to go and the underdogs hit the front....

LA Kings are hanging on, then disaster strikes in the form of an equaliser with 2 minutes 41 seconds left....

The clock counts down to zero and we have a 1-1 draw. But no draws in the NHL, so we have a 5 minute sudden death extra time. If scores are level after that they have a shootout where a player goes one on one with the goalie. It's overtime....

Unfortunately for us and the Kings, it was a very short overtime, just 36 seconds long when the Canucks slotted a second and winning goal....

Overall a really enjoyable night. The game went for about 2 and a half hours all up, even though actual playing time is 1 hour. Every stoppage of play is greeted with some sort of crowd involvement event with the MC orchestrating random lookalikes and other fun things.

We caught a taxi back to Beverly Hills for a very late dinner and we arrived back at the hotel well after midnight.

Well, tomorrow we pack and come home, albeit not till very late at 11:45pm.

This will be the last entry. Thank you to everybody who has taken the time to respond and leave a comment on the blog. I've enjoyed delivering the news to you each day and all 4 of us have enjoyed the feedback from all those who have responded.

See you soon....