Weekend in Whistler

Kris and I just got back from a fantastic long weekend in Whistler, B.C.! We had been up there for his friend's wedding back in March and he had a few pre-paid days on the mountain left over, so we decided to go check out Whistler's mountain bike park! Kris loves mountain biking, but I had never tried it before, so it was quite the adventure for both of us.

We drove up on Friday afternoon and settled into our rented condo and then wandered around Whistler Village searching for some poutine (my fav!) and a delicious brew. It turns out that Whistler is hosting free concerts on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the summer, and Kris and I caught the tail end of Friday's free show. Even though we only got in on a couple of songs, we really enjoyed it! It was a clear and beautiful night, which made it even more enjoyable to see a show at an open-air venue.  After that, we hit up the hot tub in the condo complex for some relaxing before our big day.

We woke up nice and early on Saturday and gathered all of our gear for our first day. While Kris was tearing up the mountain in the morning, I took a lesson for first-time riders. I learned a lot and actually picked it up quite quickly. By the end of the two-hour lesson, I wanted to go faster and try more trails! I got all cleaned up afterwards, made lunch, and met back up with Kris in the early afternoon. The rest of the day was spent exploring Whistler Village and the surrounding areas and enjoying the sights and sounds of summer. There were so many people from all over the world in the Village! We had a fun time people watching. We ended the night with a delicious pasta dinner and more hot tub time before a much-needed full-night's sleep.

We saw a bear! And we were only about 10 feet away.

I was excited to give mountain biking another go, so I decided to do a half-day bike/gear rental and join Kris on the trails. He was so great about mentoring me and keeping an eye on me, but he kept commenting me on how well I was doing for Day 2! Wahoo! If the only sports I'm good at are skiing and mountain biking, I will be totally happy. Winter and Summer are covered! Haha. We went on 5 runs, including a couple of slightly-gnarly intermediate trails with jumps. I purposefully avoided all of the jumps and the trails were intimidating anyway, but it was great to challenge myself. We were both completely exhausted after even just a half day of riding.

After returning the rental gear and making some lunch, we took the gondola to the top of Whistler Mountain for some hiking. We started by taking the Peak-to-Peak gondola over to the Blackcomb side and then explored there for a while before getting ferried back to the Whistler side. There, we spent a couple of hours exploring the terrain near the summit area and sticking our feet in a frigid alpine lake. It was super icy, but very refreshing after a long and active day. We headed back to the condo for another delicious dinner and more hot tubbing before another great and refreshing sleep before the long drive back to Seattle.

Such a fantastic weekend! We both have a short week this week, and then it's off to San Fran for another long weekend (and a French visa)!!