Vancouver to Seattle in 8 hours

Well, the weather turned cold these past few days in the pacific northwest (or I suppose if you're in Canada - pacific southwest).  As a result my drive home from Vancouver to Seattle took over 8 hours.  The border line was fine, and getting to the border from Vancouver was not a big problem, but the road conditions kept me under 35mph for most of the ride, and when I got to Shoreline I was stuck in a 2 or 3 hour wait due to a bus which had slid sideways on I-5 and was not able to move.

Today most people could not make it in to work with the conditions proving too slippery.  Many people abandoned their vehicles on the side of the road, and many bus drivers abandoned their busses leaving some folks looking for a hotel to stay in.  Amazing.  Here are a couple of news articles to check out (Komo 4,  Kiro 7).

On a positive note I can now drink tap water. Vancouver had a boil water advisory out for the entire week I was there afecting 1 or 2 million people.  It was just lifted though, so it looks like even Cheryl can drink the water now.

Here's a view of Vancouver in the snow:

Here's a view of the snow from the Whistler Peak chair line:

And finally, here are some more photos from the week. 

Looks like it's time to go grab some food...  Have fun!

Whistler's opening week

I've been on vacation since last Friday.  This has been the first week long Vacation I've had in a long time where I haven't planned anything.  I looked into some last minute flights to a bunch of places, but they were all fairly expensive, so I opted to stay in Vancouver, and ski Whistler during its opening week. 

As it turns out that wasn't a bad option at all.

Whistler has had its biggest November snowfall on record with over 10 feet of snow having already hit the ground.  Jen/Cheryl/Glade and I went up for opening day, and with the exception of a few rocks the conditions were outstanding.  I could not have asked for more...  But when I went back to Whistler on Wednesday I got more.

Wednesday saw the ski trifecta emerge: Great Visibility, Great Snow, and No Lift Lines.  It's very rare to hit all three of these anywhere - let alone at Whistler.  The conditions were good enough for me to convince Glade to skip school and come boarding. 

He was glad he did. 

We spent almost all of the day skiing closed terrain up in the Harmony Bowl area.  Requiring only a 10 minute hike it was far enough away that it kept out most people.  Even at the end of the day we could see some of our tracks from the first few runs standing alone in the distance on otherwise untouched slopes.

I put a few photos up on my Flickr account.  Here's a good one.

Given we were in the backcountry we both brought our avalanche tranceivers, shovels, and probes.  I lost my shovel handle after a barrel-roll wipeout at some point in the afternoon, but otherwise there were no close calls, or injuries to report, so the day was very successful. 

The amount of untouched terrain at the end of the day was hard to imagine.  We sat down at the top, ate an energy bar, and rested after another 10 minute hike and just stared out at it.  In that time we didn't see anyone at all, and even on the last run we burned down through a sea of snow as we had throughout the day.  Simply amazing.

Anyhow, we went all day, then came back to the North Shore to grab dinner.  We both had steak and beer discussing how hard it would be to top a day like this.  The biking season is over, it's time to ski.

Vancouver wine and good food

This past weekend I went up to Vancouver again.  The forecast was for rain and more rain, so I didn't even bring my bike.  It was still a great weekend :)

I left work a bit early Friday so I could make it to The Undercover wine tasting event at the Vancouver Rowing Club in Stanley Park.  This charity event was organized for the Shooting Stars Foundation, and it was a combination of 100 locally available wines under $14.99 which were covered to keep the blind taste test real.  I of course did not manage to taste all 100, but I did taste 33 of them, and found a few that I really did like.  The taste scale went from a 1-20, my top rated wine was a 17, my lowest was a -2.  I'd definitely go to this event again.

Saturday Cheryl and I went swimming at the Vancouver Aquatic Center.  I forgot how fun diving is, and although I only had time to get a few dives in I had a great time.  Later on we watched Borat...  It's certainly not a movie for everyone, but I'd watch it again.  Maybe even buy the DVD :)

Anyhow, Sunday we went over to the north shore to visit our good friends.  Unfortunately we learned their bike was recently stolen.  It was an worth somewhere between $3000-5000 depending on the components they had on it at the time.   The thief took a bolt cutter to the lock on their shed, and then managed to take the bike apart which was itself locked to a reinforced steel chain.  They had other bikes in the shed, but they were locked through the main part of the frame, so although they were able to steal the one bike the rest of them were in tact.  Luckily they had insurance on it.  Problem is that now they need to buy an alarm system, and reinforce the shed some more.

Sunday night Andrea cooked Cheryl and I a sweet pork roast...  Mmm...  Then I headed back to Seattle in the pouring rain.  Enough water collected on the road to cause my car to hydroplane a lot.  The ride wasn't really that fun, but I made good time.

Anyhow, here's hoping the snow comes fast, so we can minimize this shoulder season and get the ski season started.