British Columbia, yah

Our stay in Vancouver was very brief and it started with a Canucks ice hockey match at General Motors stadium. It was a whole lot of fun, even sitting as far back as you can possibly go. We drank overpriced beer and crappy fast food and then went back to the hotel. Our hotel was the best yet, a little boutique place in downtown Vancouver. The day was spent just walking around and shopping for snowboarding gear for Troy.

It is such a nice, clean city and the people are so friendly compared to NYC. Surrounded by water and mountains the views are unbeatable and the city is pumped for the upcoming Winter Olympics. But man, there are so many homeless people and beggars in Vancouver. We were only there for two nights and one full day and we came across so many. It is really weird because it isn't exactly a grimy, dingy place. I think where we stayed was easy walking distance from the 'bad' side of town so we may have been in the worst of it I don't know.

We then caught the bus to Whistler where we have been for the past few days. It is such a cool snow town and we are having a ball.

Troy is a pretty experienced snow boarder, I am not. So I took a lesson on our first day here and boy did I get banged up. I woke up the next day sore as hell and not in a good 'I did a huge workout' way. It was more lik an 'ouch my coccyx hurts when I sneeze' way. I smacked my head so bad I gave myself a dose of whiplash, all I can say is lucky I was wearing a helmet.

But I blame all my stacks on our Japanese instructor, I couldn't understand her very bad English so I was just having a crack rather than learning technique. So yesterday I hired a hot snowboard instructor called Troy (eh eh eh) to help me master the toe side of my board. And I picked it up very quickly with only a few minor stacks (mind you, even a soft fall hurts my poor coccyx bone in a major way). So I am feeling pretty good about that and having a day off so Troy can do his thing. I will get back to it tomorrow and hopefully some of my sore spots will have healed...

Bye for now, loving the snow but I have to say I am looking forward to some nice hot beach weather.

x
 

Hotel room view

Troy waiting to hit the slopes.

My hot snowboard instructor! Just a random photo I like of Troy.

Me getting ready to fall on my head... I mean, snowboard.

Helmet is not attractive but very necessary in my case.

What, no, I didn't just crash into that barrier....