Apparently Whistler broke a record this month: Snowiest Month Ever. Sounded promising!
The slopes where open and we were definitely ready for the start of the season. I couldn’t wait to try my new board.

We had an amazing time (and that means all three of us)! Kris and I went snowboarding and a dog walking company took Grizzly and Harvey out for a day hike.
Pretty amazing. They went back country hiking with 4 other dogs. So they were exhausted when they came back.

Anyway, I don’t feel like writing a lot so enjoy the pictures (click the picture if you want to see them completely):

One more thing: Thanks Bob, Jill and Harvey for a lovely weekend!

Having said the previous thing I can start with the actual post!

We did the Whistler Mountain bike thing and it was amazing! It was really intense and a very good exercise for pretty much all your muscles. We got to ride down a mountain:) A fairly big one even!!!:)
No, definitely worth the energy and it’s a good deal, not too expensive!

We started of getting some basic instructions about stances, braking, steering,…

After that we did some trails, downhill. I have to admit that I didn’t really expect it to be that intense, because up until now I only did some mountain biking in “de Ardennen” and I have to say it’s quite different:). Downhill was new to me (since we don’t really have hills in Belgium). We got into a chairlift with our bikes and that took us all the way up the mountain. And I wouldn’t be Ine if I didn’t hate the chairlift part. Not because I’m afraid of heights, not at all, it’s acutally the part where you have to get your bike on one of those things. Kudos to my sweet husband who offered me the easiest spot to get that bike on the rack!

The video below, made with a helmet camera, is from someone that did the same trail (a little bit earlier in the season): B-Line

Anyway there’s not too much going on right now. Summer is almost over, work is slowing down a little bit so there’s time to enjoy some spare time.

So like I said, it’s less busy, our last visitors have left (at least for a while) and we are really looking forward to tomorrow when we head to Vegas! We’re going to stay in Treasure Island.

Treasure Island 2006

We’ve been there before and I absolutely love it! The pool is amazing (you can drink alcohol in it:)) and they have a DJ playing all afternoon! What’s not to love about that?

I’m pretty sure we’ll do some shopping, clubbing and tourist stuff besides drinking beers and cocktails:) We’re going to meet Koen and Tanja in Vegas so it promises to be a very exciting trip!

Mister puppy is going back to the breeder for a while and mister Freggels is getting his own babysitter (thanks Sabine, we owe you big time!).

We hope everyone has a good time and we won’t be able to update our blog until we get back so, again, you’ll have to wait for a while.

My mother in Vancouver

We also did a short day trip to Whistler where we visited the Olympic skijump and biathlon area. At the Biathlon shooting range you could try out a biathlon rifle and shoot at the targets. Ine beat me with a perfect 5/5 score against my less perfect 4/5. I had a bad bullet… On our way we saw 2 bears (see previous post for picture). We ended the day with a very nice dinner at the Rimrock Cafe.

Ine at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Biathlon Shooting Range

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Skijump

Below are two more shots from the previous weeks, I still have a huge backlog to process and I’ll try to post some more soon.

Bald Eagle on the rocks in the Georgia Strait

Grizzly smiling for the camera in Golden Ears Provincial Park

I have been preparing the Christmas event last week so I really didn’t have the time to write something.

On Thursday it was the night of the event. I have to say that we did a wonderful job and that we received some nice compliments. We offered people a glass of wine and some appetizers. Unbelievable to see how people respond on the word “free”. People become animals (well maybe that’s just a little bit exaggerated, but still…).

Like I said, we offered people one glass of wine (because we were working with a really low budget, and this was mentioned on the invitation). A few people came back to ask if they could have another one, so I explained them why not, and most of them understood. But there were a few that asked me for something else to drink, and when I turned my back to get them what they wanted, they just ran of with a glass of wine… They actually stole it… How rude is that…

But well, we had 200 people coming in, so I think we can be happy that most of them enjoyed it:)

Anyway, besides that we also went to Whistler. It started snowing a lot so we decided to go up there and enjoy ourselves with some hiking. The roads were OK to drive on (we didn’t have to use our chains) and during the trip we saw three bald eagles which was awesome.

Once we arrived in Whistler we soon changed our plans. It was -11 degrees, and the chilly arctic wind made it feel even colder, so no hiking was recommended. So instead of staying outside in the cold, we went the an Irish pub together with some friends. I even discovered perogies. I have no idea how to explain what it is, so feel free to click on this link for some explanation.

And not only did I have an amazing time in the snow, I also received a gift: The Vancouver 2010 Mascot Story Book. It’s an illustrated book about the life of the mascots. I borrowed the one from Bob and Jill, and I absolutely loved it, so they decided to get me one. Now I have some bedtime reading (besides my bear books).

Ooh and btw talking about bears, there is a store in Whistler which has a skeleton of a grizzly bear (he is realllllyyy huge).

And now a small quiz: What does the text, shown in these three pictures, have in common? (Bob you are not eligible for this) The first one with the correct answer gets a little Canadian surprise.

One more picture: The Peak 2 Peak gondola which opened on December 12th. Maybe next week we’ll try to line up for a ride.

On Wednesday evening we are going to the Canucks. It’s a special night because it’s the Trevor Linden Ceremony. The night is dedicated to the former team captain and it will be highlighted by a pre-game ceremony in which Linden’s No. 16 will be retired.

So our first hockey game is going to be a special one. After the ceremony, the Canucks play against the Edmonton Oilers, so this is exciting.

On Friday evening the Holiday Train is coming to Port Moody. The train visits over 50 Canadian cities in its quest to raise money and donations for local food banks all across the country. It is illuminated by thousands of festive lights and the event also features country music. Kris will be as happy as Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer when Santa told him he could guide his sleigh…

This is going to be an interesting week!