Tremblant 05'

Day One: Sunday December 18th 2005
Departure Time: 6:30am
Actual departure time: 8:30 am.
What happened-
This was the plan, Mo picks up Benj, and they go to the airport to get the rental car. This was to take place before 6:00am. Then Benj and Mo drive to the BF's. Then they come to me. By 6:30.
In reality, Benj and Mo didn't get to the rental place till 6:15 ish. Then by the time they got to me it was like 7 ish, then we had to pack the cars. This was an adventure.
After we went to get Farrah. On the way there, we realized we left the EZ-Pass for the rental car in my house. So we went back to get it. Now it is 8:30. We were supposed to pick someone up on the way up at 7:15 I think. So we are running late. Not to mention that everyone makes a bathroom stop at my house.
Now we are finally on the way, and David, the last guy is waiting at a Friendly's upstate for us. Already a great start.
We get to the Friendly's and make the switch, its all very very cool.
We make about a million stops on the way.

The Scenery from the road....

The requisite bathroom stops, and then gas stops and another special stop at a random mall.
After getting lost less than a mile away from the hotel, we finally made it there. Checked in and then went food shopping.
We BBQ'd on the balcony and then I had to go to sleep because I was tired, but some of them went out and checked out the town. They said they had fun...

Did I mention that there was a strike on the mountain? More on that when I do tomorrow...

Anyway, sleeping was another hurdle. The living room had a couch that folded out to a bed, then there was a room with a queen size bed. Upstairs (yes we had an upstairs) had another queen size bed with a couch that turned into a bed, and one of the guys brought a blow up bed. So The girls took the downstairs room and Benj and the BF had upstairs and Dave and Mo had downstairs.

The room:

Farrah snores. Big time. And it sounded like she was drinking all night. So weird. So I left and tried to sleep on two chairs in the kitchen. Turns out Mo also snores... Dave, had earplugs. So I went Upstairs, yes not only does Benj snore, but the BF too ! (Glad I found out now) So I slept on the stairs for a bit, then went back to the room and generally moved around a lot. Lets just say not so much sleeping happened.

Day Two: Monday December 19th 2005
Wake up was 6:30. We wanted to rent skis and find out what the deal was with the strike. We should have learned from the trip up, that timing is not our strong suit. I ended up first getting on the gondola (that's a fancy lift to the top of the mountain) at 11:15 am. I was not happy.

The stirkers from our window:

How did this happen?
Well first of all not everyone was so into being woken up at 6:30. So we didn't really make it out till 9 ish. Then we had to wait to rent, and that was a whole ordeal. We ended up splitting up. I didn't want those with skis of their own to miss out on some slope time. Besides, because of the strike the line was huge.
Yes, the strike. Turns out 1500 workers were on strike because they weren't getting paid enough. So 200 managers took over for them. Although everyone was super nice and really accommodating, still 200 people doing the work of 1500 doesn't do it.
So Me, Farrah and Mo did the rental thing and Dave, Benj and BF skied.
Lets say, I wish to never relieve that part of the day. It was very trying and annoying.
So we skied for a bit, went back to the room for lunch and ended up not going back on the slopes. Already I am not happy.

That night we decided to all go out and see what was going on in the town. Went to one of the bars, Farrah tried to pick up the Bar tender and Dave tried to get foreigners with a French saying written on his hand. [the night before he had gotten two numbers with out the saying] It was fun. Then four of us [me and the guys, Benj stayed with Farrah] went to another club to play fooseball (sp?) it fun, I am almost as good at that as I am at pool. So now we know my weak spots.
After we went back to the hotel, because frankly it was freezing and we didn't have coats, because you have to check your coat for $1 at the bars and we didn't want to.

Day Three: Tuesday December 20th 2005
Strike is still going strong.
We got a much earlier start today. I think we were on the slopes by 9 ish. Which isn't bad. The first gondola is 8:30 so we were happy. We skied. At some point Farrah got scared and couldn't do it anymore. BF and I got stuck holding her hand a little, so that run took forever. We went back to the room for lunch. She stayed behind (she had a massage appointment anyway) and the BF stayed in too, he was in pain. I went back with the rest of the guys and we did blues, which was awesome! I fell once, but thank g-d I didn't go to the clinic or need x-rays or anything.

Actually I fell because I was an idiot. We found this beautiful run that was all tree lined with very few people on it. And I was admiring the views, which were Stunning!, and skied into a pile of powder, got the skis caught and fell. Not bad.

The plan was to go to Montreal this evening and go to the Casino and hang out till we had to take Dave to the airport in the a.m. Turns out I got sick and so did Farrah, so the girls stayed in and the guys went out. We rented Elizabethtown the movie, thank g-d it was in English, but it still sucked. And the guys had a fun night, met some locals, and made it back safely around 6:30 am.

Day Four: Wednesday December 21st 2005
So I woke up at 7:30, and everyone was asleep. I went downstairs to breakfast, which was included in our room, along with a snack from 4-5. And had coffee and read the paper. Came back around 8:30. Took a nap and checked on Farrah at 9:30 to see if she wanted to come down to breakfast before it ended, she was alseep. Hung with the BF who was half asleep and finally woke Benj at 10:30 to go skiing. By noon we were on the slopes. In between I managed to snag Farrah one day off the ski rental and two days of the lift ticket, and the BF got two days off the lift ticket as well. Everyone else skied for 3 days for the price of 2. Not bad negotiating skills.
So we didn't have a real lunch since we started late. The plan was to ski till the slopes closed and then go tubing.
Turns out tubing was closed.
So we came back and had din. Then we all went out to celebrate Benj's b-day (not really) and have mudlsides. It was a fun last night together.

Our Mudslides: Day Five: Thursday December 22nd 2005
We were planning on going snowmobiling at 7:30. So we woke up early. Turns out you needed to reserve that time, because the office really doesn't open till 8:30. So that was out. Mo wanted to shop and do other stuff. We wanted to leave by 10. We left closer to 11:00. Farrah, BF and I went to breakfast and read the paper. Then we went upstairs and began the ordeal of packing everything up. This took forever!
Eventually we made it out alive.
The drive also took forever. And by this time I think we were all sick of each other. But I have to say there were no random French farmhouse stops, and I did not go hungry on the drive back, so it was all good. I scored some good Channel makeup at duty free for a great price and that's all the matters no?

On the way Home:

I got home around 11:00pm. That's a long day. Showered, unpacked and of course spoke to the BF on the phone. We were exhausted and I think I went to bed around 2:00am. It's so different to sleep in your own bed after so many days away...

I kinda miss the snoring and night terrors... NOT!
It was a great vacation. Thank for organizing it Studly!