When I moved to the west coast, I realized how much outdoor living had been missing from my early life. Sure I did a little hiking, sleigh riding, and learned how to ski on the east coast, but spending time outside was not a vacation. Vacation was Disney World or Wildwood, where there were rides and lots of stuff to eat. The beach was good, but not very active. Now that I live on the west coast, have married a man who grew up in Park City, Utah, and met the majority of my friends through running, the outdoors are our playground. Case in point, our yearly Whistler trip.

28 of us piled into 4 different places, shared meals and enjoyed skiing together.

Condo we rented for the weekend

While the weather wasn’t great on Friday and Saturday, and we decided not to ski on Sunday, we still had a fantastic time. I can get apprehensive and cranky about skiing at times (see last year) but this year I was feeling better and more willing to take some risks.

snowy view

Visibility was a bit of an issue on Friday when the top of the mountain was closed; what was open near the top was very windy. That I didn’t love. However, my complaints were only about the pouring rain. Two fine hours of skiing, cruising the greens and a couple of blues and we were done. The reason we decided to call it early, besides being soaking wet, was because we had heard that if we weren’t happy, we could get a pass for another day from guest relations.

They were happy to give us new tickets to come back on Saturday or any other day until the end of ski season 2014! Very good customer service in my opinion. We knew that Saturday was also not looking good, so I figured our passes would be saved for next years trip.

After trudging back to the house, stripping off the cold wet stuff and throwing on a bathing suit, we found ourselves ordering pizza and drinking wine in the hot tub. The comforts of vacationing with my friends are plentiful. A long nap followed, and I woke up to being told that more friends were over and that dinner was almost ready. Mexican food was being dished out as I sleepy ascended to the dining room.

It was a mellow night with lots of good conversation and good food. While John hasn’t been feeling well, he somehow got talked into skiing on Saturday with what we call the A+ team. The guys (and gals) who do the back country skiing and find the powder anyway they can. John is very good skier so I often feel bad holding him back  (even though he always tells me he wants to ski with me). I was happy that he chose to go with the other rock star skiers.

With the weather still being rainy, I decided to find the other non-skiers on Saturday. Liz and Julie were emailing about a run, so I jumped in and tagged along.

still so rainy

It wasn’t too cold once we were running. 6.5 miles was perfect for me and Liz, while Julie went a bit longer (she’s training for a 100 miler. Go Julie!) When I got home John was there and ready to hit the grocery store, it was our night to help prepare dinner. We were in charge of the salad. I love an easy task. Tobey and Whitney were making homemade Pad Thai, which meant we just had to pick a complimentary dressing. Easy peasy.

After finishing the salad, I helped chop vegetables and while doing so may have drank a couple large glasses of wine that had me feeling buzzed and happy by time dinner was ready. I cut myself off there, but I feel like I was in the minority that evening, as my husband and some friends continued into the night. At some point I ran over to the other house and told them to come over to our place. That’s when things got boisterous. While we were having fun sitting around chatting, the other house had taken to feats of strength and talent. That’s how this ended up happening.

handstand push-up competition in the living room.

Once 4 kegs had been kicked, it was about time to call it a night. Some people planned on skiing in the morning, and the weather that was predicted was right on. A blue bird day. The photos I’ve seen from other friends who enjoyed the mountain on Sunday are beautiful, but seeing the long lift lines and knowing that John’s hangover wasn’t going away quickly, we were okay sitting it out and walking around Whistler Village.

We ended the weekend like we always like to, a stop in Vancouver to visit Mel. We went to a favorite pub, ate some good food and were happy to break up the ride. Border crossing was easy and we got home right before 10pm.

While skiing was not really in the cards for me, the weekend confirmed the reasons I’m happy to be living in Seattle again. It was really great to spend time with the friends I haven’t been seeing very often and to also have time to relax with my husband. This annual vacation looks to be growing, rather than slowing down as friends start having kids. It’s a nice tradition that I hope continues as all of our families and friendships grow.

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