VanCougar 2010

Day 1:

And we’re off. Finally in the air on our very first trip flying with Alaska air. This time, Kell and I made our flight (a big PHEW!!! Last time we were not so successful when we missed our Hawaii flight- can we say disaster?!) thanks to a few people. Carrie covered my class so I could leave school early. I sped home to meet Kell who was at my house. It was a pretty frantic scene as I parked and did a slow jog to my front door.

The cab driver would be there in 11 minutes and I hadn’t changed, finished my last minute packing or said goodbye to the puppy.

Kell ran around and packed my things as I changed and debated on bringing my teddy bear- who I don’t leave home with out. AG stayed home to keep Brett company while he takes his 3rd CPA test on Friday.

Well, I wasn’t sure we would make it to the airport- the cab ride started out well interesting. The cab man put kell's huge bag into the trunk first (because I was still packing). While I was changing Kell took my finally packed bag to the cab man and his direct quote was “I didn’t think the 2nd one would be bigger.” I guess kell and I packed lightly…. On another note, let me just use this quote to describe our drive in the cab mans car “pump the breaks.” (name that movie) I didn’t think I could hold in my carsickness the whole way to the airport. Good thing I did because it was only 12 minutes away- door to door and Mr. cab man would not have been happy.

Next stop, airport security. Do kell and I make it through with no trouble. Absolutely not.

While getting passports checked kell is the lucky winner chosen out of hundreds to gets hand swiped- of course because she looks like a terrorist in her Juicy hoodie and very large diamond stud earrings. What a surprise- she is clean… on to the bag scans.

My bag’s go through the scanner and turns out, my Stenwood water bottle has a mere sip of iced tea left from school today – hardly enough to quench an ant’s thirst let alone be some destructive acidic formula to cause an airplane explosion – so I am forced to exit the security area, dump the sip of backwashed ice tea, walk to the back of the line, and start again.

We made it through. Our flights were pretty non-eventful. The highlight had to have been the Cougar Mountain Snikerdoodle cookies we got compliments of Alaska air. We do love cougars, especially VanCougars!!

We finally arrive in good ‘ol Canada. Breeze through customs and get our bags. Almost had a bag mix-up…who would have thought that someone else would be traveling to the Olympics with a HUGE, hot pink Diane Von Furstenberg bag?

We finally meet up with Pete and Joe after realizing we ended up at two different arriving terminals, track down our cab in Spot 29, load our huge bags into the van and we’re off!

This cab driver is definitely different than the one in DC! Imagine a stereotypical hippie/stoner/snowboard Canadian type, eh. He fills us in on all we need to know- starting with the good bars to go to, beers to drink (Alexander Keiths or Kokanee) the music scene at the Olympics (and how Damian Jr. Marley’s performance was one to match any 4-20 celebration), where to find the best fresh “pow” to “shread, eh?”, etc.

Two and a half hours up to Whistler from Vancouver- going on our 12th hour of traveling. We finally arrive in the posh Upper Village of Whistler. We unload our bags, and it is freezing!! We meet Dad and Rosemary in the front lobby – at this time it is 2:30am here (5:30am east coast time). Total travel time: 14 hours, 23 minutes, 17 seconds. We drag ourselves to the elevators and up to our room. My dad puts the room key in the slot…and nothing. Maybe they somehow got demagnetized? Replacement keys in the slot…nothing. Dad goes back down and gets the desk manager…his master key finally opens the door and we pass out. “The first one up buys lunch.”