Christmas 2009

I spent this Christmas at Apex ski resort near Penticton with 7/8s of my immediate family (Rebecca couldn't make it because she had to work). We did the same thing 3 years ago and it was lots of fun. Since we had a seat free in the jam packed van we were also driving my grandpa to my aunts for Christmas.

We picked him up at the Tsawwassen ferry first. His boat was kind of late. We were playing a game we call Travel bingo where you have to see things from the car. We lost a cube a long time ago and so my dad had made one to replace it but it was just made of paper. Unfortunately when I got out of the van at the ferry that paper block must have blown away in the wind. Oh well, an easier game for me.

Next we drove non-stop to Abbotsford where we got some cheap gas. Then it was on towards Penticton. When I got bored of the travel game I did a couple hours of work on my laptop for the hospital.

We arrived in Penticton around 4pm and checked into this motel on the shore of Okanagan lake. My parents went out to do some grocery shopping, get dinner, and drop my grandpa off with my aunt while Natalie, Emily, Ben and I played some RoboRally. It's a new game I just bought the day before that involves programming robots using cards like "Move 3", "Rotate Left" and "U-Turn". You try and reach flags on the board while pushing and shooting other people's robots. It was lots of fun and we ended up playing 4 times during the trip.

Then the parents returned and Dad had pizza! We devoured it pretty quickly with Natalie somehow eating 6 pieces. The next morning we packed everything back in the van and drove up to Apex.

It turned out we couldn't check into our condo until 4pm, so we rented some skates and went over to the ice loop through the forest.

I suck at skating but if you're skating (and not playing hockey),
this loop is much better than a boring rectangular rink. They even had a Zamboni that went around it.

Finally we got to check into our condo and the place was pretty awesome. They had upgraded us although it mostly gave us things we didn't need like an extra living room and kitchen downstairs. It was on three floors and since I slept on the bottom floor and the living room we used was at the top there was a lot of stair climbing.

It also had a hot tub on the porch with a view of the mountain. The hot tub was crazy steamy I guess because of the cold mountain air and low ceiling of the porch. Sometime it was not easy to see the person sitting across from you because of the steam. At the same time we couldn't turn it to any temperature other than 100.

The next morning we woke up early and all 7 of us strapped on our skis and took to the slopes. It was a decent weather day and the mountain was pretty empty. There weren't really any lines for the chair lifts.
I always seem to be surprised by the great views from the top of ski hills. I also hate how I can't seem to capture the distance you can see with my camera. I mean the mountain is no Whistler but you can still see for miles.

The mountain is pretty small as ski hills go, with just 2 chairlifts and a t-bar but I still had a blast and not having to drive up to the mountain in the morning was great.

We got a group shot at the top of the hill but we were looking right into the sun so that's the reason for my expression. I should have left my goggles on.

I'll post sometime later about the second half of the trip.