Sunshine Village adventures

Hello everyone,

There is a lot to report on over the last couple of weeks and I have finally managed to find 10 minutes to sit down and tell you all about it. So here goes… On Tuesday the 5th of Feb Anna and I fell upon a couple of free tickets to a NHL hockey game, Calgary vs. Phoenix. We jumped in a bus and drove the hour into Calgary where we strapped ourselves into the Saddledome and witnessed the best game of hockey ever. It had everything; a fight in the first period, I think someone made a ‘your mama’ joke, the other guy told him to puck off and it was all on. The referee actually had to move the goal posts to allow them to continue, brilliant! Calgary were down 3-0 with 20 minutes to go, they then scored two goals and with 7 seconds left scored an equalizer. Oh my god, Cliffy, Anna and I yelled, screamed, hugged, laughed and high fived as if the All Blacks had won the world cup (which is possibly the closest we will come to such an emotion). The game then went into a riveting extra time and finished with Calgary winning in a shoot out. It was an amazing night and it was free! Aside from the $10 burgers and $7 beers.

On the afternoon of Sunday the 10th of Feb seven of us hired a van and crammed snowboards, skis, jackets, pants, goggles, gloves and our bodies into it before driving 4 hours to a wee town and ski village called Revelstoke. It is in very early developmental stages with only a gondola and two lifts but they have plans to make Revelstoke bigger than Whistler Blackomb! The terrain was incredible, it takes a good 20 minutes to ski from the top to bottom. They boast the largest vertical descent in Canada and you know all about it in your legs! Unless you’re an athlete like me. We headed home on Tuesday evening after a days skiing and boarding and as we drove away it was dumping snow. It took us 5 hrs to drive about 150 kms through Rogers Pass in what can only be described as a blizzard. Cars and trucks were strewn all over the road. It reminded me of the dodgems at Fantasy Land, only with snow, really big trucks and no Dad to watch out for.

It was Anna’s birthday yesterday and we celebrated enthusiastically. Hence the large cup of coffee I have on my desk. Today we are taking the afternoon off to have high tea at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel proceeded by some ice skating. Very civilized, I know.

Photos will follow, promise.

Take care all

John and Anna