Jan and Angela return to Big White, British Columbia, for the first time in 5 years. We went there for a number of years in February when the kids all had the same mid-winter break. A group of families from the same school all came up the same week as well, so our kids had lots of kids to play and ski with.
This year our friend, Valerie, organized a reunion of some of the parents to celebrate the 60th birthday of her husband, Brent. We decide to join in the fun.
Instead of making the long drive to Big White from Seattle, this time we take a short flight to Kelowna. We meet up there with Helen, one of the parents heading to Big White, and we wait with her for the shuttle that will take us to the ski area. We check back into the Sundance Resort, which hasn’t changed at all since the last time we were here.
We walk to the small village for dinner at The Woods, then rent skis and buy some groceries at the little market.
There was a tiny bit of snow overnight, but the snow conditions are just okay as we head out for our first day of skiing. It’s still fun to rediscover familiar ski runs. We meet up with some of the 20 people who have come to celebrate Brent’s birthday and ski with them.
At lunchtime, Brent takes us to the Four Aces tavern that overlooks the run called Perfection. We hadn’t tried this pub before because we’d always had kids with us. Over lunch we chat with Brent’s sister, Marlee, who worked at Microsoft in the early days when Jan was there. Angela orders a small half order of the ribs — but when it comes, it’s enormous. She shares with everyone and it’s still plenty of food.
For dinner we shuttle over to the village’s Mexican restaurant. It takes a while for our table to be ready, and then a long time for drinks to come. Angela’s not feeling great, so ducks out before we get our dinner orders in.
Over dinner, Marlee gives her brother Brent a ridiculous outfit to wear on the slopes the next day: a cape that says “Captain Brent” with a big number “60”, and a helmet cover adorned with soft, multi-colored spikes.
We have a good morning skiing with a group, but as we’re heading down a run called Powder Gulch, near the bottom we hit an area that a light dusting of snow over scraped-up ice. Angela slips and lands hard; it takes a while for her to get back up again, and she can tell she’s injured her right knee.
She’s able to ski back to the lodge, and in the afternoon visits the resort’s first aid clinic. A doctor tells her she’s sprained her MCL (medial collateral ligament). It should heal on its own, but she’ll have to take care of it; no skiing for at least three weeks.
In the evening, the group of 20 people here for Brent’s birthday congregate at the room of Wendy and Richard, two parents of a boy in Evan’s grade at his K-8 school. We haven’t seen them since Evan graduated from that school, so it’s fun to reunite with them. (Another couple from that same era, Julie and Robin, had planned to come for this weekend, but had to cancel at the last minute.)
For dinner, our large group makes it way over to the Six Degrees restaurant in the Stonebridge lodge. This turns out to be a very nice restaurant that we’d never eaten at. Valerie and Marlee have arranged for a course menu that’s quite good. We sit at a table with Wendy and Richard and catch each other up on how everything’s going.
While we’re at Big White, we’re usually so tired that we go to bed early, but tonight’s meal stretches into a rather long affair. Brent stands up, then goes around the room to introduce everyone and say some kind words about them. Valerie and Marlee produce a “How well do you know Brent?” quiz. Just when we think the meal is over, Marlee makes a speech and gives Brent a gift from all of us. By the time we’re leaving the restaurant, it’s after 11:00 pm.
It snows a ton overnight, so Jan, at least, has a great day skiing. He does some runs on the Bullet chairlift while waiting for other people to come out, but everyone else stayed up even later than he did. He ends up stopping for coffee in the village’s main lodge, then meets up with John and Paul. They go up to the T-bar at the top of the mountain, where there’s powder everywhere.
They eventually meet up with Brent and others. Brent’s again wearing his ridiculous helmet cover — which is great because, in the low visibility of clouds and light snow, it’s easy to keep him in sight as everyone makes their way down a run. The group heads to the Gem Lake side of the ski area and has lunch in the little lodge there.
Angela spends the day in our lodge, hanging out with a number of other people who aren’t skiing. One of them holds a book discussion.
Jan finishes the day skiing with Mark on the Black Forest runs, including our favorite run through tree glades and a very mogul-y run under the ski lift. Jan and Mark are both exhausted by the time they make it to the bottom of the run. They head back to the hold and Jan meets up with Angela.
We bring our rental skis back to the village to return them, then stop at the market to pick out something to make for tonight’s potluck dinner. We end up getting a kit for a caesar salad. Back at the room, we discover there’s no bowl in the unit that’s big enough to hold the salad, so we prepare it in a soup pot. At the potluck, we see that another couple has brought their salad in a big roasting pan.
We enjoy talking with everyone over dinner, then say our goodbyes. Some people are staying longer, but we’re leaving in the morning.
Happy Lunar New Year! Our kids have enjoyed the Chinese New Year tradition of receiving red envelopes containing cash. The standard protocol is for the child to ask for such an envelope with the phrase 請給我紅包, Qǐng gěi wǒ hóngbāo: “Please give me a red envelope”.
Today Jan teaches Bree a new phrase, 請給我樂高, Qǐng gěi wǒ lègāo: “Please give me Lego.” She dutifully repeats this and receives one of this year’s Lego kits for Chinese New Year. Since it’s the year of the dragon, the kit makes a model of a dragon. The kit comes with a small bonus kit of a tiny dragon, which Bree and Jan quickly assemble.
Liya is having fun with her field studies program in Costa Rica. Today she and her cohort enjoy a class in tree climbing.
Liya says her group of 28 students is a good one. She says that, when the students are paired up or grouped up for various activities, there is no student that she really minds being grouped with.
Happy Birthday, Angela! Jan takes Angela out to celebrate over a nice course menu at The Art of the Table in Wallingford.
We notice a few brightly-colored balls in our backyard. Jan eventually goes out to collect them, and keeps finding more. He eventually gathers 14 balls. The balls are coming over a fence from a neighboring property, but it’s unclear which one. Jan wonders what kid, after losing 10 of their balls over a fence, would think, “This if fine, I’ll just keep doing this.”
Liya sees many quetzal birds when her group visits a forest. The professor guiding the group is more interested in some black bird that looks like lots of other black birds, but Liya likes the cute Resplendent Quetzal for its brilliant green color and fuzzy head.
Bree attends her third Emerald City ComicCon. For the first evening, Jan accompanies her as she wears her Legend of Zelda: The Tears of the Kingdom cosplay of Link. Instead of Link’s usual hair, Bree has constructed the elaborate, ridiculous Cici Hat that is the object of one of the game’s side quests. Many people cosplay Link, but almost no one has recreated the Cici Hat — so Bree receives many, many complements on the hat along with requests for photographs.