OnSno.com

Our last morning at Whistler started late – with a well deserved sleep-in. We woke to see the sun beaming down once again on the two peaks that were Whistler Blackcomb. It was only the 4th day of sun we had seen for 2009, and so it was very much welcomed. It also meant that the temperature was bound to be much warmer – about 7C as it turned out.

Once we had finally packed up the rooms, and weighed each bag with Ed’s now broken travel scales, checking that they were underweight – albeit just in some cases – we moved towards the lobby, just after 11am.

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We checked out, and paid the $6 hotel bill – most of that being free calls to the hotel tech support to fix our Internet connection – then hit the village for one last look around. From the hotel, we walked to the base of the slopes to look up the mountains one last time for this visit, then headed back into the heart of the village to continue looking around – not that we hadn’t seen everything before, a few times in some cases. We ended up back at Esquires Coffee House – the same venue that we had dined at when we first arrived at Whistler, many days ago now. While the food choices were very similar to that occasion, in fact, precisely the same – sausage rolls and a breakfast bagel – everyone enjoyed the meal as a change from the usual hot dogs/pizza/etc and fries.

Before too long, we decided to double-check the departure time – just to make sure we weren’t 30 minutes or even an hour off what we thought we were – but luckily, all was fine and we had just enough time to get back to the hotel and organise the bags for the pick-up. We did this, but not before Pip won an Olympic Gold medal, and Ed the Silver – unfortunately the Bronze medal contestant was snapped (up) by the paparazzi. Upon arriving back at the hotel, I remembered that I may have left a power-plug converter in the room, as the final pieces of my luggage were packed in somewhat of a rush. Just to be sure, we went back up to check, but had no luck finding it. It turned out soon after that this was already packed in Ed’s bag.

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The Vancouver Airport shuttle picked us up right on time – and this time the bus was even smaller than the last! Only 10 passengers (max) in this one – and in reality, only one passenger other than us. The driver was a local Whistler guy, who had an incredible knowledge of the area and lots of great stories to boot. As we left the village, we gazed back at the picturesque day that had unfolded over the mountains and said our final goodbyes. The journey was relatively painless, with everything being customised to our liking – stops, commentary, the works. As an interesting side note, while most people mountain bike at Whistler in summer, he chooses a cheaper activity to keep himself busy – Disc Golf. This game works on similar rules to ordinary golf, but takes place in the middle of the forest, with players throwing different sized Frisbees towards a post/basket situated some distance away through the trees. Sounds like fun, and is something a little different to just dodging the bears while walking.

As we passed through Squamish the driver explained to us how while it was perfectly sunny here at a slightly higher altitude, Vancouver was deep in fog – and had been all day. He told us the precise point at which this fog would start, and he was pretty good on the mark in reality. Before the fog set in, however, and once we had approached the sea on the Sea-to-Sky highway, we stopped at a small lookout known as Porteau Cove. The driver refused to let us miss out on these views – and it didn’t take us long to work out why. The photos probably don’t do justice to this sight, but at this point, where the highway edged right on the sea, the fog was just rolling in over the water – really, really picturesque.

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After enjoying the view for a few minutes, we jumped back on to the bus and headed further into the fog – the weather which would stay with us for the remainder of the journey, and which the driver had perfectly predicted. Unfortunately, as we got closer and closer to Vancouver, the traffic got worse and worse. As we approached the Lions’ Gate Bridge, reports and signs suggested that 15 minute delays could be expected via this route, so the driver opted for a slightly more indirect one, one that would take us around the city rather than through it.

This slight detour didn’t matter much to us, as we arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. It was unfortunate that our last views of Vancouver had been typical of the region – grey, wet and cool, but not cold – but we had seen it all before on the way in anyhow. At this point in the journey, Pip had still not found the major shopping item she had been looking for – a squirrel puppet – but hope was not lost, and we searched through every open shop at both the international and domestic terminals. We had no success, however, and had exhausted all available options at this point in time. While we were looking around, we did learn that recently a flight had made an emergency landing in the Hudson River – something that was very soothing and calming to see on all the TVs around the airport…

While we were slightly early at this point, we decided to leave Canada and checked through US customs and immigration – but not before checking with a check-in assistant whether there was food and other services open and available through the security point. Although she was reluctant to help, and even more so once she discovered we weren’t flying her airline, we had the information we needed and decided to proceed through.

Security and immigration was no problems – except for the ski bag which was selected for a ‘random’ inspection. The security officer asked Ed whether this bag contained any batteries, and of course, being a ski bag, it didn’t. Unfortunately, when she started rifling through it, she discovered a whole bag of batteries – along with all of our radios and transmitting equipment. While this was not a problem, it would have made life easier if this had been remembered before the check was conducted. This didn’t hold us back too long, and we were soon officially in the USA – although we technically hadn’t gone anywhere.

We checked the few remaining stores inside the US territory, but still had no luck finding Pip’s purchase. Looking at the stores, we soon discovered that there was more variety inside this area – both in terms of food and shopping – contrary to what we were told by the check-in assistant moments before entering. Once we had seen all there was to see, we settled down with some asian food for dinner. We hadn’t really eaten any asian food the entire time we’d been away, and while this wasn’t the pinnacle of asian dining, it was a nice change.

After dinner we found a spot to sit – by a power point for the laptop users – and made a quick Skype call back home before we boarded the aircraft. The flight left Vancouver slightly early, and similarly arrived in San Fransisco just before schedule – which was lucky, as our connecting flight left less than 30 minutes later. While we didn’t have a chance to stop and take a photo, a sign at the counter of Burger King highlighted all the legal issues that were running hot in the State of California. This sign read:

Food and beverages served at this restaurant contain chemicals, known to the State of California, to cause cancer and/or birth defects.

Mmm… yum! We had eaten here on our way to Canada, and decided that if there was anything harmful, we’d already done many years of damage prior. Signs like this, however, were not uncommon in San Francisco airport – similar signs could be seen when boarding planes, for example… I guess it comes with the territory. We kept moving and walked to our next departure gate – and luckily didn’t have to recheck through security at any stage here.

We stopped for a quick break and refresh, and then boarded this next flight – a flight that was completely full. Luckily we had scored similar seats to the flight on the way over, and so had no reason to contemplate changing. We boarded the flight on time, and were pleased to be informed that the predicted flight time was significantly less than what it was scheduled to be – a lucky thing, as the flight in this direction is generally always longer than the one going the other way.

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We left US soil soon after, and enjoyed a relatively uneventful flight. Pip managed to sleep a grand total of about 10 hours – taking the prize for ability to sleep on flights hands down. Ed had previously warned us that he struggled to sleep on long flights, and so of course it was just our luck that the one occasion we saw him sleep was also the occasion that both Pip and I had to get up, past him, to use the bathroom. Although we had missed out on the ‘Direct from the Flight Deck’ service that United generally offers on the way over – a channel on the audio system that lets you listen in to communications between the pilots and air traffic controllers – in this direction we were more fortunate, and enjoyed struggling to keep up with the fast-paced action that is air traffic control.

We arrived in Sydney 13.5 hours later, still significantly early at just before 8am. After the bags took a little while to come, we cleared customs and immigration with no problems and headed from the arrivals hall, upstairs, to the departures hall. While we were flying domestically to Adelaide soon after, the flight was a scheduled international flight, and so we had to go through the procedures that other international passengers did. We had had a generally peaceful journey, right from the word go up until now, but this is where the peace ended. When trying to check in for our flight with Qantas, we were informed that we were some large manner of kgs over the weight limit – although we had managed to get all of our bags from Vancouver without any problems.

While the Qantas lady had troubles understanding that we were flying to Adelaide, and this was the end of our trip, and that we had come from Vancouver – 12,500km or thereabouts – a rage began from Ed regarding the terms and conditions we had printed that allowed us to have these bags. It later turned out that all she needed was more explanation about where we had come from and where we were going, but the rage continued even when the problem was fixed. After threats of leaving Ed there with 6 bags to deal with on his own, tempers soon simmered down a little, but this gave the end of the journey a slightly negative flair.

Soon after we checked through immigration as a domestic passenger, and left Australia for one last time. We spent a short amount of time in what can only be described as ‘no man’s land’ in this case, almost the very place we had spent a number of hours waiting a few weeks prior on our way out. While it was tempting to jump onto the return flight, heading back to San Fransisco, home was feeling rather close at this point, and so we continued forward. We had a small amount of trouble trying to get food and drinks within this area, with nearly every food operator owned by the Santos food group, but we eventually found something and waiting for the final leg of the journey.

The Sydney-Adelaide leg was uneventful, and we arrived slightly early – back to a warm, but not scorchingly hot Adelaide summer’s day. It was a stark contrast from the near-zero temperatures we had experienced only a day (or two, as it was because of the time difference) earlier, and it was sad not to see everything covered in a thick layer of white, fluffy powder. We checked back into Australia, and cleared customs, immigration, and all the other rubbish associated with domestic-international travel to find our chauffeur party awaiting our arrival. Although we had spoken to everyone on Skype on many occasions, it was great to be home after completing another OnSno.com ski adventure – but this time around leaving some of our members at home.

We had had many great experiences, plenty of good laughs, amazing sights and a little fun at times, and while we hadn’t had much of a holday - as such – it had been good to get away from the rush and bustle of the real world back here in Australia. It’s a scary thought to think that the next time we’ll see snow is a good 6 months away, while all those people in Canada continue to be surrounded by the stuff – but that’s the way life is! No doubt if we had it everywhere, all the time, we’d probably get sick of it… well, maybe not!

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