Getting to Vancouver was hell. I missed my flight with the perfect seat setup. I ended up on another one that way flying to Hong Kong. It was huge 777  the 3-4-3 seat configuration. I had a middle seat. It sucked, but thank god I was so damn tired that I slept the whole way. I was totally off my vacation vibe and was a super stress ball. That disappeared when I saw Denise and her car at the airport. Denise is the wife of my one of my best friends from childhood, Andrew. Denise is awesome. She arranged a surprise reunion with Andrew and I on my last trip out west to hit up Whistler. Facebook is how she tracked me down. I posted about being on the west coast and the rest was history. It was great to reconnect as we hadn’t spoken in a several years.

The weather in Vancouver was a trip. It was like Toronto, cold and snowy. I was astonished and sad. Where was my 12 degrees dammit! I heeded the warnings and decided to pack like it was Toronto. After lunch, my first order of business was to watch Andrew play soccer with his team. Soccer is Andrew’s game and I’ve seen him play many times. Andrew has coached teams I played on in high school. Yes, I was going to watch Andrew play in the cold and snow. I didn’t know who to feel sorry for me or Andrew at first. It was cold and horrible. After the game started I knew that my sympathy needed to goto the players. The pitch and ball were slippery. It was a messy, sloppy game of football. Despite that Andrew’s team won and he scored the winning goal. It was a great welcoming moment watching Andrew do the airplane celebration down the field.

Denise prepared a wonderful home cooked meal and my plans to hit the Tiki Bar at the Waldorf Hotel disappeared. The crazy snowstorm didn’t help the situation either. Seriously, it was like Toronto and depressing. Sunday was another day of failed plans with friends of the family. I was just tired from the commute the day before. I planned to do more in Vancouver but I promptly got very lazy on arrival and didn’t get everything I wanted to.  I did keep one commitment on Sunday. I attended an Oscar party at the Opus Bar.  The next day I paid a visit to Orb Clothing and got a peek at the new fall collection.  I went to bed early to catch the 5am bus to Whistler Tuesday morning.

See all my Whistler Photos on flickr.com and Videos on vimeo.com