Whistler

I haven't been to Whistler since last summer. I don't go to Whistler very often, especially in the winter to participate in the winter activities.  

My friends and I planned to go to Whistler from Saturday to Monday. We rented a apartment with a loft with a kitchenette. We knew we had a kitchenette so we did some Costco shopping. We bought enough food for all of us and then some! Between all of us, we had shepherd's pie, lasagna, pizza, 2 flavours of chicken wings, a BIG box of Oreo's, chips, bagels and cream cheese, pop, salad, gummie bears, red wine, chocolate milk and ice cream (I might have missed something) for the 3 days we were there. What a feast!





We arrived on Saturday afternoon. The roads were clear so our drive was pretty easy. We settled into our apartment and relaxed for a bit. We had dinner then walked around the village for a bit.

Sunday was an activity filled day for me. My friends went snowboarding and skiing. I don't know how to do either and I didn't want to take lesson that weekend. The week before I went to Grouse Mountain and I went sno-limo'ing and snowshoeing. This weekend in Whistler I wanted to do something different. I decided to go sno tubing and then snomobiling.

My friend told me about sno tubing a few day priors to me heading to Whistler. It sounded easy and something I can do without taking lessons. I had to take the Excalibur gondola up to the first level then walk thru what seemed a like forest. It was a paved path with stairs and was about 500 feet. Then I arrived at the Coca Cola Tubing Park. There was the pay booth. You had to come up to the booth and let them know how much time you are planning to spend there. There was a choice of an hour or two hours. Of course it's a bit cheaper going for two hours. Eventhough it was cheaper, I felt an hour was sufficient. After the pay booth, you walk over to pick up your tube. It is a like big inflatable tire. There is a string attached to the tube which you have to put around your wrist. You pull the tube towards the Magic Carpet and up towards the top. At the start of  the Magic Carpet, there is a person that scans your pass. The Magic Carpet is a really long people mover (like the on in Superstore but not as wide). At the top there are two levels you can go down; Blue (medium run) and Black Diamond (fast fun). There are three rows of blue and 2 rows of black. I started with a blue run. I didn't know how fast it would go. I went down and it wasn't so bad. I did the blue run three times before I headed to do the black run. I did the black run twice before I was finished.

 

After defrosting a bit and fueling up, I was ready for the highlight of my trip. I signed in at the snomobile office. There are about 4 companies that provide snomobile tours and the names are fairly similar. I booked it from the Whistler / Blackcomb website. Their office is right beside the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. The tour company also does ziplining. In the office, there was three of us that checked in for snomobiling and four people checked in for ziplining. Once everyone checked in, we were whisked away in a shuttle. The shuttle drove us about 10 minutes away to their location. Once we got there, there were tour guides picking up the zipliners and then our tour guide picking up the snomobilers. We went into a small building. They outfitted us with whatever we needed: gloves, helmet, googles and boots. We then walked over to the snomobiles. Our guide taught us the basics about the snomobile; how to start the engine, how to steer, and how to stop. Because it was a small group, it was easy to learn and understand. We were ready to go for our snomobile ride. We started off a bit slow to get the hang of things. The trail we went on seemed like a deserted area. There wasn't anything close by. All I see was snow and trees. We went thru the forested area and what seemed like a side of a cliff. I was just focusing on not going too fast because we had to stay a safe distance behind the snomobiler in front of us. For a portion of the trail, it seemed like we were riding along the cliff. It was quite scary for me. I had to be careful steering. If I steered it the wrong way, I could've fallen off the cliff. You were supposed to push the throttle with your thumb. After about 30mins-45 mins, my thumb was getting numb. I kept on having to stop and rest my thumb for a few seconds before starting again. By the time I got into the groove of steering my snomobile, the tour was over. I paid for a 2 hour tour. Twenty minutes was driving back and forth to the location. It was about 10-15 mins for the short lesson.The actual riding time was only about 1.5 hours.

 

After an activity filled day, I was ready to go back to the apartment to defrost. We made and ate some dinner. There was the Fire and Ice show in the village. The show was only on Sunday nights. It was some snowboarders and skiiers having a friendly competition. Before they did their competition, there were some fire dancers (hence the 'Fire' in the title). The competitions consists of jumps and spins. The show was about an hour long and was entertaining. We went back to the apartment and  rested and watched some TV.




Monday morning we walked the village to sightsee in the snow. Some of us went to the washroom and a few of us that didn't go to the washroom decided to make a snowman. It was fun watching them make the snowman. It was nice to see 30something years olds feeling like they were young again. I saw a nice untouched patch of snow where I wanted to make a snow angel. While walking around to the area, I slipped and fell and hit my head. It hurts. I still feel the effects of the trauma to my head. I am glad I fell at the end of my trip.

Grouse Mountain

I haven't been to Grouse Mountain in a few years. The last time was when I did the Grouse Grind a few years ago. I climbed the Grouse Grind and then took the gondola down. This time is for more of an adventure.

The first activity was sno limoing, We originally wanted to go sno mobiling in Whistler. But my friend decided he didn't want to go so far. He had a dinner to attend that night and going so far would be an inefficient use of time. I don't know how to ski or snowboard. I was looking for activities for us to do. I found sno-limo. It looked interesting. It kinda looked like a cruise ride in the snow with someone pushing you. It was a bit pricey but it was worth a try. We booked an one hour tour. The tour started at 11am. We were the only ones on the tour. They took away our bags and stored it away. It would've gotten in the way during our ride. We sat down on the limo and they put a few layers of blankets on us. I was happy that I would be warm on this ride with so many layers of blankets. The sno limo is me sitting on the limo with a tour guide pushing me. We then proceeded to start our tour. They were pushing us down a small hill when my friend said that it was like a roller coaster ride. Little did we know. They took us on the ski lift. I have never been on one before. I thought I would freak out cause I'm kinda scared of heights. The guide lifts the limo up a bit and it fits on the ski lift. Another advantage to going sno limoing is that you bypass the lineup for the skilift. It kinda seemed like we butted in line but the boarders and skiers let us merge in line. Our tour guides took us down ski hills. They took us down a few blue runs and a few green runs. Now I get a sense of what skiing is like. It's very dangerous. One disadvantage of going sno limoing is that you don't have control of it. It's the tour guides that pushes the limo. Since you are so high in elevation, it's cloudy, misty and hazey. When we were going down the runs, it seemed like I was fighting with the mist going towards my face. It was so cloudy that it was hard to see the runs. I felt like I was on the Space Mountain ride in Disneyland; you can't see what's ahead of you. I did scream on the first run because I didn't know what to expect. I felt I shouldn't scare away the skiers and boarders with my screams. After the second run, I wasn't scared anymore. My the time I got used to the ride, it was over.

After the sno limo ride, we needed to defrost for a bit. We had a small lunch on the mountain. We shared some pulled pork poutine. I know it's fattening but it's so delicious.

With a filled belly of poutine, we were really to tackle our next activity; snoshoeing. It is walking in the snow. It isn't a strenuous activity. On this tour it was just my friend and I. It was good because then the tour guide can go at our pace. We were going quite slow. It was because we weren't used to walking in snoshoes. I liked our tour guide. He was prepared for worst case scenarios. He had a first aid kit, a shovel and a whistle. I'm sure he had other items too but I am not sure what they are. As we walked in the forest, he explained to us about the nature surroundings. There were also special attractions in the forest. One is this carving in this tree. It was so interesting to see that they can carve something so beautiful while the tree is still standing. The other interesting attraction is the yurt. The traditional yurts are made from mud and dirt. This is a modern one with electricity and insulation. This was used as the Coca Cola headquarters during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Since then it has been used for anything.

This was a fun filled day in the snow. It was exciting to try a new activity (sno limo). Our tour guides made our experiences filled with fun facts.

Day 5: Oak Alley Plantation / Swamp Tour / Sugar Bowl

This is the only day we rented a car. Our original plan was to go to Oak Alley Plantation, the swamp tour and then go outlet shopping. We rented the car because the places we wanted to go was far away.

The first attraction we were heading to was the Oak Alley Plantation. There were a few plantations to choose from. We picked this one because it was a larger and more beautiful one. It was an hour drive away from the French Quarter, where we were staying.

It was so beautiful. We arrived at the side of the house. We walked to the front and we saw the Kodak moment. This was what we saw in the marketing brochures for this plantation. It was the house with a long walkway and lined with oak trees, hence the name Oak Alley. Each side is lined with 14 oak trees for a total of 28 oak trees. There was a tour every half an hour. We were greeted with tour guides dressed in period costumes. Inside the house were items reflecting the time period. Outside the house they had a small concession stand. We shared a Mint Julep (two parts bourbon (whiskey) blended with one part homemade mint syrup). It was something different. It was quite good. Being the cheap drunk that I am, I got a tiny buzz from it. The land the house was on was quite large. Behind the house, they had a small civil war tent set up.  It was quite neat to see it.There was also a small video monitor with civil war videos playing. We watched it for a few minutes. On the other side of the grounds was a small cemetery of the last owners of the house. It was kinda creepy but neat. After walking around the grounds and soaking in life of the 1800's, it was time for lunch. We went to the Oak Alley Plantation Restaurant. It was a hop and skip away from the house.


For me it was the best restaurant experience in New Orleans. The restaurant wasn't a fancy restaurant. It was a very plain jane type of restaurant, very basic. It wasn't very busy. There was a table of three beside us and they had their laptop on and watching a funny show on it. It was a bit disturbing at times. We were all relaxed to enjoy our meal. After our food arrives we all pull out our cameras to take pictures of the food. We tried our best to order local food, like fried catfish, crawfish stew over fried catfish. and duck fingers (breaded duck breast tenderloin fried and served with a raspberry - habanero dipping sauce). The food was delicious. The service was ok.

Our second stop was the swamp tour. It was about 30 minutes away from the plantation. The tour was supposed to start at 2:15pm. It was the last tour of the day. We had to make it! From the plantation to the swamp, the GPS took us for a ride. We took a few detours and took longer than we anticipated to get to the swamp tour. We thought we were going to be 10  mins late. We called them to let them know we were on our way. We got there right when the tour started. The swamp tour was


riding in a boat through the swamp. It was something different. I was eager to see the alligators in the swamp. Once we started the ride, the tour guide said he hasn't seen alligators in the last few rides on the swamp. It was no Disneyland ride. There were no mechanical animals to scare us. If we were lucky we would see real alligators. No luck today! The tour guide has a baby alligator as a pet. He brought it on the boat to show us. This is me and the baby alligator. We headed to the Sugar Bowl right after the swamp tour.

 We were excited to see the Sugar Bowl. It was the biggest thing happening that day. It was a college football game. It was Michigan versus Virginia Tech. Around town we saw many people wearing Michigan or Virginia Tech clothing. We totally scored by getting cheap tickets the night before. Thank you guy on the streetcar for telling me where I can get cheap tickets! We didn't realized how busy it was going to be. The plan was to pick up the tickets at around 5pm and then do whatever then head to the game closer to 7:30pm. When we got to downtown to pick up the tickets, it was a zoo. It seems like everyone was there for the game already. I have never seen so many people come to the game that early. The were actually heading to the fan zone first. The fan zone reminded us of the Olympics. There was so many people. There was a concert stage. There were booths selling alcohol and food. It was a huge party outside before the game. It was time to head into the Superdome. We were standing in line. The guy in front of us told us we can by pass the huge ass line by lining up in the woman's line.

We were a bit confused by what he was saying.When we saw the sign, we understood what he said. The male line was HUGE. The female line only had a few people. This was the first time we saw something like this. We went thru the line in a jiffy. After we went thru the line, we realized why it was separated. The male line had male security to search them. The female line had the female security to search them. We had pretty good seats. It was lower bowl seats. We got to our seats to watch the game. Before the game started, there was the marching band performing to pump everyone everyone up. In the stadium, if you were sitting on the left side your seat had a yellow pom pom to cheer for Michigan (their colors are navy and yellow). If you were sitting on the right side, you would've gotten a burgundy pom pom to cheer for Virginia Tech (their colors are burgundy and yellow). The four of us didn't know much about football and didn't know what was going on with the game. We stayed until the half time show. It was really cool to watch the two teams marching bands and the cheerleading teams. The marching band had about 300 people. It was huge! We left after the half time show. It was enough football for us.

After the football game we wanted to eat dinner. The other day we met this lady at Starbucks and she gave us some restaurant recommendations. We had a GPS with us. We went thru the list to see which restaurants were close by and open. The restaurant on the list which was closest to us was Luke's. Luke's is a Chef John Besh Restaurant. We got there just in time. We got there about 9ish and it closes at 11pm.  The picture is of jumbo shrimp and grits. We also had a dish of smoked pork shank, Mangalitsa belly and bratwurst. It was very German not very 'local' to us but it was something different. We also had parmesan crusted skate wing with some root vegetables. We ate a great meal there.

Day 4: street car / magazine st / ghost tour

I had a good start to my day. My friend managed to fix my camera. I didnt have to buy a new camera.

We had some coupons for Cafe Beinets. We had a drink and a beinet for breakfast. We didn't have too much planned. Our day started at 11am. The major thing we wanted to do was go on the street car. We decided to go on the St Charles St line. It goes on St Charles St in a 'c' shape line. We knew there were some shops and restaurants on Magazine St that sounded pretty interesting from the ads in tourism books and recommendation from friends. Magazine St is parallel to St Charles St and they are about 6 blocks apart. I found a dessert place name Sucre on Magazine st. The plan was to find Sucre and walk around Magazine St. We found Sucre. It was so nice and pretty. Pastel colors decorated the place. It sold gelato, sundaes, cakes , macaroons and chocolates. For the four of us, we ordered a sundae, a chocolate cake and a cupcake. We didnt finish the whole thing because it wasnt very good. Sucre reminded me of Thierry on Alberni st but has a more casual atmosphere.

There was a Starbucks on Magazine st. We like to use wifi when available to us. Connie wanted to make a phone call and was wanting to find a payphone. Pay phones seem to be extinct. I suggested using Skype to make the phone call. While connie was trying to make her call, I sat at a table with a lady for a few minutes. Then i asked her about restaurant recommendations and other areas we should check out. One of the places she suggested was Oak st. Oak st was easy to get to from the streetcar line. We managed to find Oak St. What the lady didnt know was that 98% of the stores on Oak St were closed because of the holiday. We were hungry and found a bbq restaurant which was opened. It was a great meal. We shared ribs, hickory smoked chicken, hush puppies and chicken wings.

After dinner, we had to head back to the French Quarter to go to the ghost tour. We were at the streetcar stop when we saw a group of guys. One guy started talking to us. He sat by us on the streetcar. We were chatting with him the whole way back. Him and his friends are in New Orleans to watch the Sugar Bowl. I asked him the price of the tickets. I told him people we talked to said that the tickets are about $200 each. That would be too much for our blood. He told me the site to go on for cheap tickets. We managed to get some tickets to tomorrow's Sugar bowl.

Day 3: cemetary tour / French Market / more eating

After a late night last night, we started our day early. The cemetery / voodoo tour started at 10:30am. It was quite interesting. We went to a roman catholic cemetery. I mention roman catholic because it was initially only for roman catholics and is maintained by the roman catholic organization. There is so much history in regards to the tombstones and how people were buried. The tour only touched on voodooism.

The tour ended at the Good Friends pub. We tried the Separator (coffee, ice cream, baileys (?) with whipped cream). While we were there, we got this guy to help us take a picture of us drinking the Separator. While he was moving back to make sure he can see all of us in the picture, he tripped on the step and fell and had my camera in his hand. My camera fell out of his hand and landed on the cement ground. It looked scratched but it screwed up my lens. Its broken. We are trying to fix it. I dont know if it is fixable and will likely have to buy a new camera. Hence, there will be no pictures in today's blog.

After the camera ordeal, we headed to Bubba Gump Shrimp co. It was really neat in there. Almost everything had a Forrest Gump reference. We ordered a few entrees and of course had shrimp in them.

We were walking distance to the French Market. We walked by the French Market the other day but all the shops were closed. This time we actually got a chance to see inside the stores. The actual market reminded me of Seattle's Pike Place Market. It was long and narrow. There was a vendor who sold alligator jerky and sausage. We tried some. I didnt really like it. The jerky was too tough and the sausage was too fatty and tasteless.

We were on our way back to the hotel when we stumbled upon Antoine's Restaurant. In the tourist books, it had an expensive price range. We were still kinda full but we wanted to try the oysters rockafellar ( what this restaurant is known for). I didnt like it too much. But the restaurant itself is pretty amazing. It looks like a small restaurant when we first walked in. One of the waiters told us that there are 9 dining rooms on the main flr and 5 on the upper floor. It was hard to comprehend that the restaurant was that huge. We walked around to check out the other dining rooms. The walls were filled with autographed pictures of stars and newspaper clippings from many years ago, evening dating back from the 1950's.

Our last meal of the night was at Clover Grill. It looked busy and there was a line up outside. It is a really small 24 hour restaurant. There was only on group of 4 ppl ahead of us. There was only one server and he was running off his feet. He was a super flaming gay guy and that was what made him amusing to us. We ordered four dishes: one hamburger and 3 breakfast dishes. It was so comforting to eat the warm food after walking in the cold.

Day 2: Day of eating adventure / more bourbon st

What happens jn New Orleans stays in New Orleans! Haha.. Jk

We started our day eating at Eat New Orleans. It was a walking distance from our hotel. (everything in the French Quarter is walking distance from us) There is free wifi in our hotel room. We checked out the menu online before we went there. We waited for about 20 mins to get seated. We shared 4 dishes: crawfish pie, eggs cochon ( kinda like an eggs benedict but with pullled pork), catfish dauphine (kinda like eggs benedict but with catfish) and breakfast trio ( grillades, shrimp and grits, eggs and biscuit).
I like the crawfish pie the best. It was warm and comforting. It reminded me of lasagna: melting cheese on the top and a warm stewy filling. There were three tables that got sat after us and ordered after us. They got their food before us. We waited 45 minutes for our food to arrive. We were hungry and pissed off. Dont go there. Service sucks.

After breakfast, we went to our first tourist attraction: Spring Fiesta House. It is a house from the 1800's. It was really neat to see how people celebrated christmas in the 1800's.

We finally took public transportation. We took the streetcar down to the Riverwalk ( a pier with shops and restaurants). It was really neat to see the shops.

After walking around for a few hours, we went to eat at Mothers. it was a recommendation from a few friends. It was like a take out restaurant. You order at the counter and they bring the food out to you. The best item i ate there was the bread pudding. It was nice and warm.

It was back to the hotel for some rest and relaxation before we went to celebrated the new year. We went to the Riverwalk again. This time to watch the fireworks. It was on 15 mins. We then walked on Bourbon St to get back to our hotel. It was more of a zoo then the other days.

Time to call it a night. Have to start our day early tomorrow.

Day 1: travelling to new orleans / bourbon st

We started the day early. Our first flight was at 825am. We met at the airport at 630am. Our first flight was to DFW ( dallas / forth worth), texas. There was a few hours in the layover. We finally arrived in new orleans at 630ish. By the time we arrived at our hotel, it was 730ish. Our hotel is in the French Quarter. Its a very quint hotel with a lot of character.

We had dinner at the Red Fish Grill. It was recommended by two friends. There is 4 of us. we shared two entrees and a gumbo. One entree was pan seared scallops with asparagus. It was so delicious. The pan seared jumbo scallops with corn macque chouz, roasted asparagus, jalapeno oil and crispy andouille.

The second entree was the hickory grilled redfish with tasso and wild msuhroom pontalba potatoes, sauteed louisiana jumbo lump crabmeat with lemon butter sauce. The fish was the best fish i've ever had. It was crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. It wasnt dry and overcooked like most fish i've had.

The gumbo was alligator sausage and seafood gumbo with rich dark roux, onion, bell peppers, celery and fresh herbs. It was a tad too spicy for me. The alligator was a sausage so it was hard to taste the actual alligator meat.

After dinner, we walked on Bourbon st. This is like walking on the Vegas strip times that by ten. There is more drinking and more drunken antics than vegas. There are buildings with balconies and people on the balconies throw down beads. Sometimes they just throw down the beads for random people. Sometimes they throw the beads to people who show some boobs or butt.

One place we wanted to try was Cafe Du Monde. It is known for its beignets and cafe au lait. Beignets are like a puff donut engulfed with icing sugar. I am not a coffee but the cafe au lait was good with a bit of sugar. It stayed really hot for a really long time. It was walking distance to the French Market. Eventhough the stores were closed, we just did some window shopping. We will make it there again to go in the shops. There are so many shops with artsy and crafty things to see.

We finally walked back to our hotel. It is really nice to relax and rest my legs after 3 hours of walking.