Ok, so we just returned from one of the best ski vacations I’ve been on. We spent 5 nights at Big White Resort in Kelowna, BC – an extremely family friendly place. We had Zach and Nate in daycare and Zach received private ski lessons. I got to ski all day for 4 straight days and Steph…well, she did her thing. Skiing from 3 to 4 hours followed by bar hopping. Except for the last day where she watched our sick kids.
So, from the beginning, we left Seattle at 7am on Thursday for the 7 hour drive. All was good except our navi took us the long way…we ended up putting on an extra hour in the end. Anyway, the kids were awesome and the drive was beautiful, except for some extremely dense fog (the likes of which I’ve never seen) on Pennask Pass. We arrived at our condo just before 4pm. We stayed at Stonebridge which was literally a 3 to 4 minute walk (on snow) to the village center. Very cool. The condo was a 2 bedroom (one master suite and the other with 2 queens) with a kitchen and 2 baths – excellent place. Oh, and a hot tub on the deck. For the first night, we had dinner at one of the restaurants and went tubing afterwards. We also met another family with 3 kids who we ended up skiing and tubing with for the next 4 days.
On the first day, we got the kids checked into daycare and off we went. The weather was cloudy and foggy…traditional Big White (Out). We cruised around some of the mountain for a few hours before taking a break. I was thrilled that my running was paying off in the skiing department as well. For the remainder of the day we skiid with Gary and Denise (friends we met the night before). They are veterans to Big White – so they showed us around. Steph stopped just before noon but I made it from 9 to 2:30 before finally finishing up (this would be my shortest day). That night we had pizza and enjoyed the Olympics…LIVE! Yes, it was cool…we didn’t have to depend on that shitty NBC network like in the states.
The second day started off similar to the first day…a few hours of skiing then we met up with our friends. Steph made it past noon on this day. I ended up skiing until past 4pm. Probably the longest day I’ve done since college. But the sun came out and I couldn’t just stop at that point. As for our kids, Zach’s lesson’s were not going well so we decided Steph would go with him the next day.
The weather was perfect on the third day. I started off on some double black diamond runs and cruised around a good portion of the mountain before meeting up with Steph. With the sun out, it was a perfect day for picking up bumps and things. Definitely a great day to be on the mountain. I stopped at 1pm and then attended a 2 hour lesson with Zach and an instructor. Zach does well at skiing straight but he doesn’t know how to slow down or stop. Anyway, we had fun and I was very tired. That night we went tubing again and the runs were ICY! We were flying down the runs…much quicker than Friday night. The runs were actually too fast…they ultimately closed our favorite run on Monday night since it was too fast and because a young woman broke a few bones on Sunday night on the run.
Now for the vomit part. Sometime during the night I awoke to a door shutting. I found Zach in the bathroom looking a little dazed. After some investigation in his room, I quickly realized he had blown chucks all over his pillow, the floor and Nate’s comforter. Yuck. Steph and I spent the next half hour cleaning and getting him settled on the couch – where he vomitted again into Steph’s hands. Fortunately that was the end of Zach’s sickness…mostly. He did have some issues out the other end at daycare the next day.
As for skiing on Monday – fabulous. Sunny to partly cloudy, warm, and excellent conditions. I spent the day skiing with Gary and Denise. We cruised over the whole mountain and I even took the t-bar (yes, I have minor phobia over t-bars). We finished the night with another 90 minutes of tubing. Zach ended the evening by going down by himself (rather than connecting his tube to mine)…that was a big step for him.
This morning we got an early start out…we pulled away from Big White at 7:30. At around 8am as we were pulling into Kelowna, Nate was getting real fussy. After a few minutes of begging him to be quiet, he threw up in his lap. This is now becoming the vomit trip. We pulled into a Starbucks and got him cleaned up. Steph gave me a bag of dirty rags and I hucked into a garbage can outside of Starbucks. I went in and picked up some coffeed and donuts. Nate was begging for a donut believe it or not. About a half mile down the road, I asked Steph what was in the bag – his clothes and blanket! Screeeech! His blanket I asked? U-turn. We drive back to Starbucks and I proceed to fish this bag of vomit covered clothes out of the garbage in front of about 10 people enjoying their morning coffee outside. At this point, Steph and I proceed to get into an argument since she couldn’t figure out how to unlock the car door. To make a long story short, I threatened to leave her in Kelowna.
After that the drive was relatively quick (now that I followed the better route) and uneventful. The kids were definitely pushing buttons but we made it home. Now Nate is definitely sick as he’s tossed his cookies about 5 times but is now sleeping.
As for Big White, I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars. It missed on the dinner accommodations for families. It lacks variety in family restaurants – it is definitely better for non-kid crowds. Otherwise, an excellent place and I’m sure we will be heading back.
