You’ll never get me on a cruise. Unless it’s to ALASKA! Recap and New PTR Link! 2/1

[eandesmom]

Now, before I forget, I thought I’d share our border crossing pics. I tried to upload them to facebook and then lost my connection the minute we crossed (or lost it without roaming charges lol) and just realized I hadn’t moved my pictures over when I did the first Whistler update.





Exciting huh.

Unbeknownst to me, the weekend of my Whistler event, was also the biggest weekend Whistler has for events. All year.

Outside of the Olympics.

Crankworx, a huge mountain bike event, was the same weekend we were there. It had been mentioned to me at the Friday evening function but frankly I didn't think too much of it. It's Whistler, there is always something going on. I needed to be at the event at 7:45 am. Needless to say, no one was up while I was getting ready but I managed to figure out the coffee pot and drive myself to the hotel on time. The morning went well and finished at noon. The gang had gone down to explore the village so met me back at the hotel and we drove back to the condo together so we could grab lunch and I could change.

We had no real plans for the afternoon. I had an evening function but didn't need to get there until 8 or so. Our plan was to putz around the village, come back, hit the pool, make dinner and then they'd watch a movie while I did my gig. We had a nice lunch, changed and headed out. Our condo is in the Blackcomb base area and the walk to Whistler, takes about 10 minutes
They had seen some of the bike stuff and mentioned it but I have to admit, it was far more than I'd expected. I have never, ever, seen Whistler that crowded. Walking alone, we saw some interesting stuff. At the creek, young adults were rock hopping at a competition. I forget what it’s called but they have these special rock hopper bikes that don’t have seats, that they literally hop from rock to rock on an obstacle course over the and across the creek. Crazy stuff! We ended up chatting with a guy who’s 20 year old son was down there hopping away. And apparently doing rather well, it was the “expert” pool. Making our way through the crowds and past the huge expo in the parking lot we came ot the Whistler base, the hub of the bike activity and the base for the bike park. It is a week long event and the place was packed with muddy dirty bikers. And the occasionally snowboarder. There was still snow at the top, not even heli skiing I think!
This is the event (if anyone is curious

http://www.crankworx.com/index.php/s...kworx/schedule

And this is what we walked into.



Looks pretty empty right?

Not so much







This booth intrigued us (as did a marquee showing the weekends events)


So we went over to check it out

A booth about Cheeserolling. In fact, it was the Canadian Cheeserolling Festival!

What is Cheeserolling you ask?

Cheese Rolling is deceptively simple: an 11-pound wheel of cheese is rolled down a hill and everyone chases it, slipping, tripping and tumbling on the way down.

At the Canadian Cheeserolling Festival the lucky winner gets to keep the cheese, and gets two ski season passes to Whistler Blackcomb.

Sounds cool, right?

At the booth they had a mini hill. The boys each rolled a cheese down a tiny Astroturf hill. Evan won. And got a hat. Say…CHEESEROLLING!

Eric got a hat too.

Though I didn’t capture the actual rolling, they did do a great imitation of what can happen.





And you can see the hats in the picture. Saturday would be the actual festival, we discussed that it might be fun to check out. It was not all that warm out but we forged on, grabbing free drinks for the kids and playing with statues



I hadn’t brought my camera with me so these are all from my phone. Our “first” Olympic shot



Glad I took this one, I have more with the real camera but couldn’t get it without people.

Rings seen we headed back to the condo for a swim, a little salmon for dinner and then I took off to my event. Saturday brought SUN! Same drill in the morning but a much much nicer afternoon. After doing our drill of lunch and changing clothes we headed back out.

Where to?

Cheeserolling of course! http://www.canadiancheeserolling.ca/
At Whistler, in the summer, there are a ton of things to do on the mountain. You have the bike park, you have hiking, you have actual skiing and snowboarding. Generally speaking you’ll need a ticket of some sort to go up and while the peak to peak sounded fun it was also pricey. Peak to peak means you can ride any lift on either mountain, including the one that goes from the top of one, to the top of the other (Whistler to Blackcomb). The peak to peak is new to us. For the 4 of us, it would have run about $140 and we just weren’t feeling it at that price. However to get to cheeserolling, they were offering free rides on one of the smaller chairs, all you had to do was say “cheeserolling” to get on for free.

So we did.





Checking out one of the bike ramps as we go up



If you do the ziplining in Whistler, you’ll go over this



More bike park



And…where we got off. The upper part of the lift was closed



We could see the crowds



They even had a map!



This cracked me up





Rollers getting ready





Crazy master of ceremonies



Who decided, between races to do games and things. All of a sudden we hear him say “It’s time for cheesy human tricks. Any volunteers?”


Continued in next post

[eandesmom]

Guess who volunteered



“What’s your cheesy trick”

“I can flip my eyelids inside out”





Ah, but he can walk on his knees



And she’s a cheesy dancer





Apparently a roller too by the number tag on her shirt

Though it was close, Evan lost to the kid who could walk on his knees in a nail biting crowd cheering tie breaker. He got some cheese picks as a consolation prize (which he used to pass notes to us on the drive home, pretty funny).

And now…it’s time to roll!







See they guys in the striped shirts at the bottom? They have body pads to block runaway people and stop them (and cheese too I guess).

A straggler



More cheesy slogans



And beautiful mountains



With that, we headed back down. Not before tasting quite a bit of cheese. YUM! Some seriously delicious cheese.



We decided a treat might be in order. We checked out bike rental pricing for Sunday, confirmed that peak to peak was more than we wanted to spend on this trip and went in search of ice cream. We ended up at.

Cows.

Eric had to milk it





Good ice cream and some of the funniest themed merchandise I’ve seen in a while. Evan really wanted an “Angry Herds” T shirt, but we held off.

http://www.cows.ca/

Strolling on we saw the bobsled accident memorial





And attempted a few more ring pictures





You can see it’s crowded and this was much less so than the main village








We almost bungee jumped (the kids) they were going to let Evan do it in a cast (a Sprite jump thing was set up) but he wasn't 13 so we had to abort that mission.

As with the day before we headed back for pool time. This time I got a little bit wet but not a full swim. It was far nicer than the day before to be sure but enough of a wind that I wasn’t into getting completely wet. I had a dinner to go to and then would be “done” with work for the weekend, having packed up everything around lunch time. Sunday would be our full whistler day (with no work) and the weather looked to be nice. A valley bike ride was on the agenda. Question was, would they rent a bike to a kid in a cast? Could we find a tagalong bike for Eric (who still can’t ride)?

[jeremysdisneymom]

Wow, Whistler sounds so amazing and is so beautiful.

Love the cheeserolling! Too funny.

[mom3sonstt]

Originally Posted by eandesmom

Oh how fun, you will love it! Bummer about the who wants to be a Millionaire, I remember seeing that in )4, it was fun. How far did you go?

I don't remember how far I got, but I won a cap, a lanyard and a few pins. I went out because I didn't know the birth country of Catherine zeta jones. The gal who followed me won the whole thing. That was pretty cool to watch!

[KatMark]

What a great time. I love the cheeserolling pictures.

What happened to Evan's arm (I must have missed that somewhere along the way)?

Your pictures are beautiful.

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by jeremysdisneymom

Wow, Whistler sounds so amazing and is so beautiful.

Love the cheeserolling! Too funny.

It is beautiful. I have some prettier pictures of it the next day but really did a lousy job of capturing it. The cheeserolling was hysterical!

Originally Posted by mom3sonstt

I don't remember how far I got, but I won a cap, a lanyard and a few pins. I went out because I didn't know the birth country of Catherine zeta jones. The gal who followed me won the whole thing. That was pretty cool to watch!

Hey, a hat, lanyard and pins are pretty cool! How fun to see someone win the whole thing. I'd be horrible at it I think.

Originally Posted by KatMark

What a great time. I love the cheeserolling pictures.

Thanks, we had a really nice afternoon!

Originally Posted by KatMark

What happened to Evan's arm (I must have missed that somewhere along the way)?

Boy breaks boards, boards break boy.

He fractured his hand during the power break session of his 2nd degree international black belt test. He did get the boards broken but at a price. Part of it was technique (and he should know better) and part was Evan biting of more than he could break...I think he had 7 boards (and he should know better).

He's not the first one to break a hand but maybe the youngest.

Originally Posted by KatMark

Your pictures are beautiful.

Thanks!

[MRYPPNS]

Those Canadians have it all! Cheeserolling and Curling!

It was fun to look at your pictures because I worked at a ski area for 10+ years

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by MRYPPNS

Those Canadians have it all! Cheeserolling and Curling!

It was fun to look at your pictures because I worked at a ski area for 10+ years

10 years, wow! Do you still ski (or did you then, one would assume so but I guess you never know)?. Will you get your kids on ski's early? I didn't even learn until my 20's and actually learned at Whistler. Which should have been traumatic but maybe it's why it has a soft spot in my heart.

I went up with a bunch of college friends, all skiers. Growing up here, everyone ski's but I never learned for a variety of reasons. I honestly think they didn't believe me that I didn't know how. We went up to the top of Blackcomb and....they left me there.

Stupid pride meant there was NO way I was riding that gondola back down.
I got down. But it wasn't pretty.

[DisMomAmy]

Looks like a really fun weekend. They did Cheeserolling once on the Amazing Race! It looks so funny!!

Alex still doesn't ride a bike... He's too afraid to even try...

[Happydog]

Originally Posted by eandesmom

Welcome Jennifer! Honestly the fact that your DH likes it so much puts my mind at ease as they seem similar in some ways. What are you doing in LAX? DL? Is that now or something else???

I'm not sure the kids quite get the FE, I think they will love it! I am doing pillowcases as well, which they don't know about.

Hey ya! No, we are in Oregon! AND then heading to Santa Fe! I posted on my TR b/c we were going to be taking a hiatus from TR posting!!! I am excited to share my Vero and Fort Wilderness fun, but alas, I am still on our cruise day 3!!!

The FE will get really excited and the boys will like participating as soon as the gift start showing up on your door.... Cute on the pillow cases! Yes, I am sure he will like Palos... really gives you that touch of class on the Disney cruise, THAT and the Outlook bar, 2nd level, you can walk right out on deck, see the sunset from the glass windows, so head there when the kids are on their own in the club, etc... The Wonder is the ship we were on two years ago, and that whole set up, the Outlook cafe/bar is better on that boat than on the Dream... AMAZING cocktail menu... nice place to relax and read, etc... BIG points from my DH...


So on to this Whistler trip, so fun! COOL! You know I love ski places when it isn't ski season!! There are fun aspects to visiting a place like that (as you have shared!) There is a town in WA state, I can't remember the name, it is a little swiss chalet style town... we went a long time ago, stayed near there, BEST red skinned mashed potatoes at some bed and breakfast restaurant... That is all I can remember!! Also Snoqualmie falls/lodge?? We discussed this like a year ago I think...you and I... that and the Wild Ginger!!! Do you know I am bringing back a suitcase of pancake mix??!! I KID you NOT!!!! Looks like you guys had quite an adventure!!

[MRYPPNS]

Originally Posted by eandesmom

10 years, wow! Do you still ski (or did you then, one would assume so but I guess you never know)?. Will you get your kids on ski's early? I didn't even learn until my 20's and actually learned at Whistler. Which should have been traumatic but maybe it's why it has a soft spot in my heart.

I went up with a bunch of college friends, all skiers. Growing up here, everyone ski's but I never learned for a variety of reasons. I honestly think they didn't believe me that I didn't know how. We went up to the top of Blackcomb and....they left me there.

Stupid pride meant there was NO way I was riding that gondola back down.
I got down. But it wasn't pretty.

I haven't skied since I was pregnant with Liam Unfortunately it doesn't fit with our lifestyle or fitness level right now. I learned in high school but never got very good at it. I didn't have an on snow job (accounting office) so I didn't ski much...although it was nice to have a bar under my office for after work!

Why do people do that to non-skiers on their first time? I've heard horror stories. Bothers me to no end.....if you enjoy a sport why would you make it un-enjoyable (and possibly dangerous for your friend?

Next time you go to WDW do the Richard Petty Driving Experience so l can tell you about my 10+ years working at a NASCAR track.

[englishrose47]

Great Pix !!I love those whacky type Festivals !!They are so much fun !!

[Mndisneygirl]

CHEESE ROLLING!!???

That sounds like something they'd do in Wisconsin.

[Native NYer]

Whistler is beautiful!
Cheese rolling sounds like fun to watch. Tasting the cheese would be my favorite part of the whole thing.

[MAGICFOR2]

OMG! Cheeserolling! All I can say is

Looks like you had such a fun time! We had ice cream at a similar place In Bakersfield - The Moo Creamery - yummy and fun!

Your cruise is so close - have you started packing yet?