Who would have thought?

Ski School

Bandaged up, straight off the mountain

Piper in the Hospital

Well what a day!

Jaylen decided she didnt want to ski and was just going to hit the village.

The rest of us got up at the crack of dawn to go and get on the slopes.  Cause we didnt know the runs and its so extreme here, we all decided to do lessons.  Rieley went to youth school, Adam did a boarding group and I did the ski school.

We all said are goodbyes and we'd meet back at 3.30 at the Gondola.  The days are so short here.  You only get from 8.30 when the lifts open till, 3 when they shut.  This is because it starts getting dark here after 4ish and if your still only half way up the hill at 3 it can take you that long to get back down.

They take all your details at check in, in case theres any problems on the mountain and away you go.  Hopefully you dont get any phone calls and you meet up again at the bottom of the mountain.

All was going well.  Adam was loving his group.  They usually do 7 in a  group and Adam ended up with only three people.  He was happy with his instructor as he was a local and had been on the slopes for years.  He was learning allot.

 My group was busier, as the skiers seem to out number the boarders here by stacks.  Which is fine by me.  As all skiers know that boarders are so annoying!  For you girls who I went skiing with in Hotham youll be proud to know that I was doing well in my class.  The instructor may have even been heard to say 'Go Lisa, look everyone, see how fast shes going', and yes Im being serious.  Mel and Dana I know you wont believe it.

Well, so were up on the Mountain, its the most beautiful thing Ive ever seen, the sun is shining and its creation at its most perfect.  It one of those places if you only see it once in your life, your a lucky, lucky person THEN THE PHONE RINGS.  Every mothers worse nightmare 'please get in touch with this number, Rieley has been injured and we need you to contact us immediately'.

Panic sets in.  Im at the very top of Whistler mountain.  I speak to my instructor who gets me in a Gondola to go straight down but it still takes 20 min.  Frantically trying to get in touch with someone.  Thankfully Jay was back at the room and headed straight down to the hospital to meet Rieley.  Adam and I soon follow.

Pipers all strapped up from the ski patrol who looked after her on the mountain.  The doctor comes in, takes x-rays and says 'I think its broken, to be on the safe side we'll plaster it up'.  So there we are spending a few hours in the emergency room of the Whislter hopsital on New years eve.

Like I said, what a day!

Heading off to Whistler

A travelling day today.

Adam got up early and shopped (of course!)

Then at about 11.30 we headed to the Greyhound bus depo for our trip up to Whistler.  This was the part of the trip I was dreading.  I thought there would be so much waiting around, queues and then a horrendous trip up on a grotty bus.

Well we had pre-booked our tickets so we scooted straight through.  Hardly any waiting and the bus even left 20 minutes early!  What efficiency.

The trip up was actually beautiful.  I was so worried it was going to be laborious cause we usually fly everywhere but I must say bus-ing it is quite a good way to go.

So we got up to Whistler about 2.30.  We put the pack on and walked up the village to our hotel.  Its the first time we'd had to get the straps out on the packs.  As soon as Rieley took a couple of steps she went over backwards weighed down by the back pack.  In only a style Piper could.  For those of you who know her well you know what I mean. . .

Found our hotel, checked in and went to get kitted up with ski/board gear.  So were in the rental place and suddenly all the lights go out.  What the?  Theres water pouring through the roof.  Apparently the hotel above has its hot tub on top of the store and the pipes burst or something.  Total flooding through onto all the equipment and clothing, etc.

So got all our gear and we were ready to go for the next morning.  Up early to ski/board the slopes of Whistler.

Vancouver Island

finally back at home 9pm doing our blog for our avid readers.

A pub in Victoria

driving through Vancouver Island, pretty in places.

This pic was from a "view stop" that you pull over into off the road,please
be aware that a "view stop" is not a "rest stop" ( no toilets ) Important to know
when traveling with 3 women.

An old Timber mill Town.

"A House"

Ferry line up bays, very exciting place!

So, today was a big day!

We decided to hire a car and drive to Vancouver Island.  This meant getting up at 6.30am to catch the 9am ferry.

I must say Adam does very well driving on the wrong side of the road.  It was about an hour trip from Vancouver to the ferry.  We had a GPS with the car but like always, things can go wrong, usually user error, as in this case.  I directed Adam to go on a slightly incorrect route and we ended up at the Canadian border control, heading towards Seattle USA.  Even the supposedly hard core border protection guards are nice in Canada.  We filed through in the car and he just laughed at us.  'Lost, are we?' he asked.  Anyway we were travelling without our passports, which is a big no no in this part of the world.  I assured him they were back at the hotel, locked up in the safe.  Anyway after taking some details he sent us on our way, with details of how to get to the ferry.

As we were about to get on the ferry it started to snow.  So exciting, first flurry of the trip.

So we did the ferry over to the island, 1 and 1/2 hours.  Big commitment to a day trip as we travelled 2 1/2 hours before even hitting the island. We visited Victoria, and then travelled up the island stopping at places along the way till we reached the other end.  Basically a day of driving.  But road trips are always fun as it gives you time to catch up together.

So we pulled into the ferry at 3.20pm to buy a ticket for the 5pm crossing.  The lady tells us 'overbooking, you may get on the 5pm but if not your definitely on the 7pm.'  I think she thought I didnt understand English because I had to get her to explain it to me.  Apparently everyone pre books their tickets so as to get a definite position.  We had a chance to get on the 5pm but not for sure.  So I asked her 'What do you do if you cant get on the 5pm, do you just sit in your car all that time?'  Yep, she said and that was it.

You see as you buy your ticket the cars then form several long lines and that is where you stay until your boarded on the ferry.  So doing a quick calculation it meant if we didnt get on the 5pm we would have to sit in our car for nearly 4 hours with nothing to do.  For all of you who know me well, how do you think I reacted to spending 4 hours unproductively sitting around?

Anyhow can you believe they loaded the 5pm and we made it in by ten cars!  I have never been so happy.  It was another hour and 1/2 on ferry and then about a half hour drive back to the hotel.

So if you think this post has been rather long, thats how our day felt too!!!

Vancouver

View of Bay

Stanley Park

Stanley Park

1 hour to ride around Stanley Park by bike

Arie and Sandra, English Bay Congo

Hoping to find a hall. . . and what do you know

First full day in Vancouver today.  All that kept coming out my mouth was 'it's so pretty'.  

Very modern city.  All glass and high-risers.  Were staying one street back from Robson street which is the central place to be.  Right by the water, with snow capped mountains in the background.  

We hired bikes this morning and rode around Stanley Park.  Jaylen was not impressed.  She doesn't like bike riding especially when Adam ends the sojourn with a ride on a four lane freeway!  We did make it back in one piece, JUST.

We then did a spot of shopping down Robson Street.  It gets dark here about 4.30pm which takes some getting used to.

We found a Kingdom Hall on the way home and we had the choice between a meeting tonight or tomorrow night.  We chose tonight and it happened  to be the English Bay congregation. Or as they call it Ebay Congo for short.  Gotta love that.  We met some friends of Annette Hicks, as seen in the above photo.  It was such a lovely congregation.  Really jovial and well humoured.  It was oral review (joked to the kids last week, 'at least we'll miss that')

Were hiring a car tomorrow and were off to Vancouver Island.

We finally got there . . .

So for all of you who were wondering.  We did eventually make it to Vancouver.  We had a five hour delay before we could leave SFC.  By the time we got to Vancouver it was dark and raining but anyway we made it . . .

One of Those Days

So today has just seemed to be one of those days where nothing can go right. We woke up at 6:30 am after a night of minimal sleep to ride a taxi across the Golden Gate Bridge and back, but from the car window all we could see was fog. The plan was then to catch a Cable Car back up to our hotel, but because of unknown reasons the Cable Cars weren't operating and we had to wait around for a free shuttle bus that never actually turned up. This all would have been fine despite the fact we needed to be at the airport in 2 hours to fly to Vancouver! 

After another taxi ride back to the hotel, we went to have our complimentary breakfast at the hotel but the buffet was closed. After eating we then returned to our room, packed our bags and left for the airport. When we were waiting in line to check in we found out that our flight had been delayed by 2 hours. 

So we are all currently sitting in San Francisco Airport, Terminal 3, Gate 68, waiting around for another 3 hours until our plane boards. Great.

Boxing Day Sales

So we started off today with complimentary breakfast at our hotel and as always the customer service was brilliant. Straight from breakfast we left for Macy's to begin our day of shopping. Dad was loving it because they have a separate 4 story department store specifically for men! As always he came back with bags and bags of shirts, jackets and suits, but us girls didn't quite make as many purchases, with just a few jackets and gloves. We all met up for lunch and went for Mexican at a place started by Rick Bayless, I loved my Steak Taco however the rest of the family wasn't very impressed. The highlight of the day for me was that after lunch I was allowed to walk the streets of San Francisco by myself! After slighty more shopping I headed back to the hotel and met up with Mum and Rieley ... however Dad was still missing in action (for those of you who know him well, you understand.)

Off to Vancouver tomorrow ... hopefully for some Michael Buble spotting!

First Stop: San Francisco!

 

Even though this blog was my idea (Lisa) and I was laughed at for suggesting it, somehow Jaylen has become the master of it.  So my input will probably be quite limited.  Anyway for this post you have me!

Landed in SFC about 8.30am xmas morning, which meant it was a public holiday and basically nothing was open.  However the lovely JW Marriot let us check in straight away.  We were so grateful, as after about 16 hours of plane travel the need for a shower became a necessity.

We went out walking the streets to try and keep awake as it was really about 4am at home.  We headed out for lunch and there were limited options.  We found a diner open which was the last place we ate when we were in SFC last time.  When in the US, you have to do the burger option for lunch, with pickle, it's just one of those things!

It wasnt too cold but a storm blew in just as we hit the cable cars and the rain came in like you wouldn't believe.  So we were on the cable cars with the wind and rain blowing in thinking "the things you do as a tourist".  You dont want to waste one second of being somewhere so whereas at home you would be curled up in front of the fire reading a book all cozy, whilst travelling you're out, Bear Grylls style battling the elements.  The ride went past Lombard street, ending at Fishermas Wharf.  We had a quick walk around and admitted defeat and headed back to the hotel.

We managed to stay awake, grabbed some dinner and settled back into the hotel.  We didn't last much past 8.30pm though and we were asleep.  You see we had something extra special to look forward to the next day . . . . . BOXING DAY SALES!

As the Boredom sets in ...

After the first hour on a plane it all becomes pretty routine - the hostesses offer you food and drink, the kids behind you wont stop kicking your chair and your sister refuses to stop singing and dancing in her seat. As a result you need to find something to do keep you from going crazy, and our solution was the web cam in mums laptop! I could see the people behind us giving strange looks, but oh well, they were just jealous of our awesomeness.

At the Airport

When our family has to kill endless hours waiting around to board planes, what do we do? We take photos. This is Mum and Dad in Adelaide Airport waiting to get on the flight that will take us to Melbourne!

Away we go!

So..... This is the look for this trip.  Now the girls are old enough, weve all got packs.  Only thing is you cant take much with you.  A few essentials have been left behind, so apologies now if we seem to constantly be wearing the same clothes!

We had to say good bye to the dogs today, very sad.  Theyre with a sitter for a month.

Its an early start tomorrow, 6am taxi call, which isnt too bad really.  Last time Jay and I went to Melbourne we were up at 4am.  So its off to bed early tonight and fingers crossed well be on the other side of the world this time tomorrow.