"It is not the mountain that we conquer
but ourselves."
-Edmund Hillary
TRIP #7: WHISTLER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
Trip number seven on the 10 FOR 10 came about amid the drama and devastation of this past spring. As much as SC loves spending time with her grandparents, she felt left out from not getting to travel overseas with us on the past two trips. AC also needed a break, because as much as I was gone, he traveled to the UK for work at other times as well. We needed time to engage as a family, and to recover from the losses we had been dealing with.
It was decided that we would travel to Whistler, where SC would get to have her first ski lessons, because we were able to get some great deals on post-spring-break late-season skiing. Whistler is actually where AC and I took our honeymoon, so it was fitting that one of our 10 FOR 10 trips was to travel back there. We loved it that time, and were very impressed by how global the community there was. That was the first time I had ever been out of the USA! We went back when SC was an infant, though all she was able to do was sit in the snow and eat Zog's fries.
After attempts to learn both skiing and snowboarding, I am not into snow sports (though my friend L suggested I would be great on a snowmobile). So for me, this trip was low-key, relaxing and full of books, making tea, and taking walks in the woods. We signed SC up for two individual days of ski lessons, and after that allowed her to decide if she wanted a third day, which she did. AC skied in the way he likes best, out in the morning late after a leisurely breakfast and coffee, and then back early for a late lunch and a beer at the foot of the mountain, watching everyone come in for the day. It was nice for us to be together, but each have time apart.
She was a little nervous on day one, but was very happy when we picked her up, and told us she had a great time. She moved up from level one to two after just the first day, and after the third day of lessons was ready to start on level three, which takes the kids on blue runs. We got lucky and the third day of lessons was a Saturday, so they had professional photographers take pictures of all the kids and their classes. We have never bought these type of photos before, because they have never been better than something we could reproduce on our own, but these really showed just how much she enjoyed skiing.
On the last day SC and AC went out together, and he was impressed with how much she was able to do, though she made it clear that he was not her teacher, so she was not going to listen to any advice he had for her. Being so late in the ski season, the snow was very thin and wet, which made things a bit more difficult, but all in all, they had a great time. In fact, the only down of the trip was when we were driving back to the airport, a two hour winding trip down from the mountains into Vancouver, and SC got car sick. Luckily nothing happened in the car, but we now have in our memories what will forever be know as "The Vancouver Airport Incident."
The next ski trip we take will hopefully also be to Whistler, because we were so impressed with their kids' ski lessons. SC had three different teachers, and we could tell every single one of them understood the age group they were teaching, and genuinely enjoyed getting to pass on their knowledge of skiing. Next time we want her to be able to take a five day class, with the same kids and teacher the whole time, but that will require more planning than this quick trip did. Also, AC gets altitude sickness, and the peak of Whistler Mountain is only about 7,000 feet, which is lower than the bases of almost every mountain in Colorado. Whistler is just the place for us!
In case you missed the first post ...
WHAT IS THE 10 FOR 10?
In July 2015, AC and I will celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary, and as such have been discussing what sort of big trip to take. However, it occurred to me that we typically take some pretty big trips every year, sometimes as a tag-along when AC works, and sometimes just using all the points and miles he has amassed from his work travels. I couldn't help but wonder if another trip would really be that special and different. So, I came up with the idea that instead of just one more trip, we should take ten trips to celebrate our years together. I told AC, and told him that it didn't have to be just him and me (because SC is also part of our lives, obviously), but that I wanted to take ten purposeful trips, that are focused on celebrating us (and our family) as much as we can. I told him that they didn't all have to be long or complicated trips, though we had already talked about a few places that will be, and we can start now (in our tenth year) and run through the end of 2015 so that we didn't take too much time away from work. So, hopefully, these ten trips will make this a celebratory year, one that will stand out for us as we look back (in another ten years).
No comments:
Post a Comment