OnSno.com

Day 8 was a lazy day – another and final of our non-skiing days. We woke at closer to 9:30am, which was a considerable sleep-in compared to other days recently. Ed and Kerrie were awake a little earlier, but everyone had a relaxing start to the day. We had a slow breakfast, with much internet surfing and Degrassi High going on at the same time.

We left the room to hit the shops at about 10:30am, and made good progress working our way through the shopping list we had both been provided with, and also generated for ourselves. We ducked in and out of shops to avoid the continual snowfall that was blanketing the village with a healthy coat of white, yet again, and had swept away the pain of the rain seen in previous days. Pip was the first to make a purchase, and did so on a cool (very retro) pair of Adidas shoes from the Glacier Shop. She also spotted the hoodie she had eyed off in Solomon the other day, but decided to leave this for when Ben could lend a hand with 25% off – a perk of being a staff member on the mountain.

From here we headed towards the marketplace, where Kerrie found a jacket she thought Nicole would like – we took a photo, and would later use this to help Nicole shop for clothes over the internet, via Kerrie. We didn’t find a whole lot more down this end of the town, except for a few small items – and a good deal of lip-licking in the ‘glass elevator candy shop’. After our dash at the marketplace, we headed back for the main village, stopping at most of the shops along the way.

Although we hadn’t exactly been doing a whole lot of exercise today, compared to other days, everyone seemed to get hungry quickly. By 12:30pm, we had given up on the shopping goals and turned now to finding food – the hunt for a ham and pineapple pizza was on. Although Avalanche Pizza was a definite option, this limited choice for everyone else – and meant we would have to take it back to the room to sit and eat. After searching basically the entire village, and considering making the bus trip to the Blackcomb base, we found Blacks Bistro.

Pip had her ham and pineapple pizza, while the rest of us had focaccias/rolls/sandwiches of some sort. It was relatively cold in the restaurant, and although it had great views over both the mountains, we weren’t feeling quite so inspired to walk around in the snow when we left. Kerrie soon decided to head back and put on some more clothes, while Ed, Pip and I headed for the Whistler/Blackcomb Shop to try and find some Vancouver 2010 merchandise that Pip had seen in Vancouver a week or so earlier.

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While we had no luck finding the exact top she had seen, we did find some other cool clothing during our brief shopping visit there. A quick dash through the falling snow and we were back on the main street of the village, and heading back through shops we had omitted on the way to find some lunch. We made a few more purchases along the way, and slowly made the journey back to the hotel room.

Upon returning to the room, we spent a small amount of time warming up and drying out before putting yet more clothes on, and heading back out with the intention of going snow tubing. The hotel shuttle took us to the base of the mountains, as always, and we jumped on the Blackcomb Gondola to take us to Base II. From here, we made the short walk to Tube Town – although the usual scenic path to the entrance, which ran through the trees, was closed due to heavy ice – so instead we used the ski run that was beside this access path.

We arrived at Tube Town just after 4pm, and purchased tickets for an hour’s worth of tubing. Kerrie decided to give this sport a miss, and spectated from the sidelines – unfortunately, well out in the open and getting constantly covered by the still heavily falling snow. Ed, Pip and I made the walk from the ticket booth to the base of the magic carpet, which was to be our mode of transport to the top of the tubing hill.

Unfortunately, being Saturday, and being after ski hours, it was relatively busy about the park, and there were some considerable lines at the top of the hill. Our initial run took us down one of the easy slopes, leaving us a little disenchanted with the experience, and had us reminiscing of better times at Silver Star. We made the trip back to the top of the slope, and teamed up with Ed to try one of the harder runs.

As a group of three, the run went much faster, and considerably more fun was had by all. Although the falling snow and spraying ice/water made the whole event a lot less fun, it was still a great thing to do and everyone had a blast. We stayed until just after 5pm, when all of us were too sore/tired to continue doing it. Once we had met up with Kerrie, we made the trek back down to the gondola – although this time, we decided to use the path that we had avoided on the way up. We soon discovered why the sign suggested we take another route.

The path was incredibly icy – causing near disaster at every step. While everyone had some minor slips, it was Kerrie who was the real victim here – while on the phone to Ben. She took the biggest slip of us all, and probably was more sore than any of those who had been tubing. We continued down the path, laughing the whole way, and enjoyed the experience – as silly as it was.

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After another slip or two while crossing the ski run, we were back on the gondola and heading for the village. From the base, we walked back to the hotel where we were to meet Ben shortly after. Once Ben arrived, we headed out to do some shopping first, followed by dinner. Pip and I purchased some ornaments for our house, and then Pip returned to the Glacier Shop to purchase the hoodie she had seen earlier in the day – with a nice 25% staff discount provided by Ben.

Dinner was at the Brewhouse, once again, and enjoyable for all. Everyone had a pizza of some sort, except Pip – who had had one for lunch – who dived into a serve of Spaghetti Bolognese. Unfortunately for the waitress, she missed out on a generous tip and the conclusion of the meal – she added on an automatic ‘service charge’ to the bill, which was a 17% (or similar) gratuity. The menu had clearly stated that this would occur for groups over 6, and we only had 5. This meant that Ed wasn’t particularly impressed with her sly tactics, and resulted in us having the charge removed, and her ending up with a tip of approximately 70 cents.

After the Brewhouse, we quickly walked past the supermarket to pick up supplies – and we were lucky it was open, at 9:30pm – before heading back to the room to put up our feet and relax properly. We spent some time talking to Joe, who had decided not to wear any clothes, and then Nicole. While everyone was considerably tired, it was 11pm before anyone made a move to head to bed.

While today was supposed to be a ‘rest day’, it ended up being a lot of hard work. Most of us were more tired now, than before we had started today, but it was a nice change nonetheless. Tomorrow we hit the slopes again, after approximately 15cm of new snow today. Hopefully it will fine up a little, and we will get to experience some scenic views over the valley while skiing the slopes.

Be sure to have a guess at some of the ‘guess what it is’ photos (found here) – something that we started yesterday – and stay in touch by posting a comment! All the best to everyone back home; less than a week to go now, so we’ll try and experience as much as we can in the next few days.

Speak to you all soon!