Putting my vacation to bed

Aahhh, it's good to be back in the land of consistent daily morning London Fogs.

I'm such a city girl, I guess. Aside from that tiny detail lacking -- and my family did make attempts to ensure that a supply of good quality coffee was on offer daily -- my vacation was lovely. Well, if you ignore the 5-day migraine that decided to rear its ugly head. That was good times as well. But at least it only curbed my skiing one day of the whole trip.

We started out in Fernie. Miraculously, that first day in Fernie, we were able to ski. It was my first time skiing in Fernie, as every other time I've tried to ski there, it's rained. So this time it at least waited until about lunch time to start precipitating. It got uncomfortable enough that my mom decided to sit out the rest of the afternoon, sodden in the lodge. I went for one more run before admitting that I was wet enough to call it quits for the day. At least it further motivated my mom to look for a new coat that had better waterproofing (see previous entry to read about my coat envy).

The second day dawned bright and promising. Curry bowl opened up just as we got up to the top and we skied in mounds of fresh, heavy, untouched powder. While beautiful, it was difficult for us Ontario skiers who are used to using our edges on the icy slopes. It took us some time to get the hang of it. It was a bit ridiculous though: we're talking about 5 feet of powder or something. Hence, I lost my ski (see previous post for that panic attack).

That night, we discovered that the next day's temperatures promised to rise and the threat of another sodden day on the slopes prompted us to move on early to Canmore. Beautiful hotel room with a hottub, pool with slide, and exercise room. The next day was when I stayed home with a migraine and just walked around the town. It was mom's first day with her new jacket. Day two in Canmore and I woke up with a migraine and was so pissed off, I decided to ski anyway. I took my migraine medication, got some attention from my sister (a physiotherapist), and actually indulged in my London Fog habit. By the time we got to the hill, I was feeling OK!

Sunshine usually means some zip zappin' and vip vappin' (jumps and bumps and tricky bits) and we had some great conditions.

The next day was a day off to drive to Golden where we checked into our favourite welfare motel. The day after was Saturday, our first day at Kicking Horse. And it was busy! BC and Alberta also have family day and there were a few schools with PD days on the Thurs/Fri, so the hill was packed! On top of that, the gondola was acting up. Combined, it meant over 1/2 an hour in line each time. Thankfully it takes over a half hour to get DOWN the hill, too. So it was a fun day, but with too many line ups for our liking. Great conditions, but annoying when you can't enjoy them. Plus, Matt hurt himself, so we decided to not ski on Sunday.

Instead, we went to Banff to rent crampons and winter hike in Johnston's Canyon, which was BEAUTIFUL!

All in all a great day! Just not as much skiing as I would have liked.

It was sad to say goodbye to my sister, but it was nice to have had such a nice family vacation.