Cypress Night Skiing

Yesterday, Mike and I went skiing at Cypress.

This was actually Mike's first time ever skiing anywhere here in Vancouver. I've been to Whistler and Cypress quite a few times, but he hasn't been skiing in 20 years!

We decided to go yesterday and were planning on going for the day pass, but we puttered around so long that when we got there it was almost 4:00, so night skiing it was.

This was my first time to Cypress this year and they've redone the facilities.

The snowboarding will be at Cypress for the Olympics so the changes were likely due to that.



Mike rented skis and the place for that used to be this kind of big plastic dome, but now there is this huge lodge and the rentals are in there. They also have redone the bathrooms and the cafeteria and pub and added a nice store of course.

The pub was kind of this crowded little old school pub that had a bit of an Irish feel to it and it had all these old black and white photos of skiers.

It's still there but it was closed, so I don't know if it will ever open as the same thing again. Now there is this huge new bar about 4 times the size with big TVs everywhere. I like the comfort better, but I kind of miss that little pub.
So Mike got his rentals (we'll have to get him some second-hand skis, for the cost of the rental it is worth it) and we got our lift tickets and were off.

We did the green beginner runs and true to form, Mike did great and was skiing as if he had been doing so every year since he was a kid.

This time was an epiphany for me. I finally started to get carving and was carving almost the whole way down this run by the last couple of times we went. I think that my other times, I'd been on runs for intermediates and because of the difficulty, I just wasn't able to get enough practice in. If I go two more times like this, I'll be carving like a pro. I only fell a couple of times and it was controlled. Sort of falling before I knew I was going to wipe out. I also did perfectly with gliding one foot in off the chair lift rather than basically wiping out getting of the lift as beginners are prone to do. Yah! We'll have to go a few more times before the season is over.

Today (Sunday) we took the bike out for a ride and walked around Stanley park. Other than that everything is going well. I finally logged into the Olympic tickets site and found that we have tickets for the Mens' Qualification playoff. This is the next step after the preliminaries and before the quarter finals so it's pretty good and we have a chance at seeing Canada play so I'm stoked.

We'd put in the lotto to purchase about 6 hockey tickets, some snowboarding and some speed skating (about $3,500 worth) and this is all we got, but we were lucky. I know tons of people who put in the lotto to buy tons of tickets and got nothing and others who got everything they put in for and are now looking into selling some of some of their winnings as it is too much.

I think they must be able to figure out a better way to do this, but who cares, I'm happy. I'm going to see the Olympics! Yeah! Besides that there was a great seat sale last week for places in Canada and US and we got tickets to go to San Francisco for the Easter long weekend. We've been wanting to visit San Fran for a while as I've never been and people say it is a great city similar to Van in many ways. Can't wait. I've decided to try and start booking vacation as soon as I get back from the last one. I've actually accumulated quite a bit and life is too short, you have to get out there and enjoy yourself, otherwise, why do I work so hard? Well have a great week everyone :)