Hey all!
That night Jakes parents had reserved us spots on a walking wine tasting tour through the village. It was absolutely incredible and such a beautiful snowy night. We met with our tour guide and about 10 other people at an art gallery that housed all local artists' work. The pieces were absolutely beautiful and will be "our future cabin" decor, a theme that keep coming up during this vacation! Anyway, from the gallery we went to Bearfoot Bistro to learn about champagne sabering and have a few appetizers. We were led down to the most amazing wine cellar I have ever seen, complete with swords from Napolean. We learned that he and his soldiers were too impatient to wait for the servants to come around to their table to open their champagne, so they took out their swords and popped the tops off themselves. The host showed us the "sabering" rules and let a few of the people on the tour "saber" the bottles with a large knife. Apparently, this guy set a world record by sabering 21 bottles in under a minute at their bar. See the video here: http://www.bearfootbistro.com/index.php?scene=3. 
After touring the room for awhile and looking at bottles that cost thousands of dollars, we were led up to the Belvedere Ice Room. More on that later.
Friday was Christmas Eve so we decided to spend the day in the village to shop for souveneirs and take in the sites one last time. We took pictures by the Olympic rings and found some great ornaments for our tradition of getting an ornament on every vacation. Jake's mom bought us an engagement heart ornament that is absolutely beautiful. It was very sweet of her! That night, we went to the best restaurant in town, as we were told, for a 5 course Christmas dinner. Some courses were better than others, but we all had enough wine to have a great time.
I've been MIA once again, but definitely did not want to miss posting about our holiday activities this year. Its been a wonderful time for Jake and I, being that we got engaged this year and were excited to "blend" our families a little more than we had during previous holiday seasons.
The week before Christmas Jake and his parents flew off to Whistler, Canada while I finished up my responsibities at work for the week and celebrated with my parents over the weekend. I spent Saturday with my mom and she cooked us a mini feast for an early lunch. That night I headed over to the annual Modoc Christmas party at Mudd, Cairney, Vidals house and then went to my dads to cook pasta and exchange gifts on Sunday. My brother was missed on both nights, and I felt kind of like an only child of a divorced family. We made the most of it though and knew my brother would be home just after Christmas.
Early Tuesday morning in the pouring rain, I headed to Vancouver, where Jake picked me up and drove us up the mountain to Whistler. The drive in was absolutely beautiful. The mountain literally meets the sea and all the way up we saw waterfalls amid the snowy trees. Truly a great sight for the Christmas season!
Once I got to the cabin, Jake wanted to show me the village so we went to the brewery to kind of catch up, just him and I. (Jake had been in New York for 7 days a few days before he left, so we felt like we needed some more time to ourselves.) We had a great time sitting by the fire and hearing all about what the other had done the past few days. That night we headed to a German restaurant, with a snooty French waiter (odd) with Jakes mom. His dad was too tired to join us. We had a fun dinner. I really loved the International feel of the village and all of the restaurants there. We ran into many Australians, which Jake and I loved since we spent some time there last November.
The next morning we took the shuttle to the mountain to snowboard for the day. It snowed the whole day and was absolutely freezing at the top of the mountain, but we had a lot of fun. I got a little frustrated because we hit a lot of flats and I had to unstrap my board a bunch of times, but in the end, I was glad I went. Later we laughed about our conversation on the mountain that day: Jake: "Berrey, just take off your board and come down here." Me: "No because if I do, I will hit you over the head with it!" haha
That night Jakes parents had reserved us spots on a walking wine tasting tour through the village. It was absolutely incredible and such a beautiful snowy night. We met with our tour guide and about 10 other people at an art gallery that housed all local artists' work. The pieces were absolutely beautiful and will be "our future cabin" decor, a theme that keep coming up during this vacation! Anyway, from the gallery we went to Bearfoot Bistro to learn about champagne sabering and have a few appetizers. We were led down to the most amazing wine cellar I have ever seen, complete with swords from Napolean. We learned that he and his soldiers were too impatient to wait for the servants to come around to their table to open their champagne, so they took out their swords and popped the tops off themselves. The host showed us the "sabering" rules and let a few of the people on the tour "saber" the bottles with a large knife. Apparently, this guy set a world record by sabering 21 bottles in under a minute at their bar. See the video here: http://www.bearfootbistro.com/index.php?scene=3. After touring the room for awhile and looking at bottles that cost thousands of dollars, we were led up to the Belvedere Ice Room. More on that later.We stopped for another tasting at a somewhat forgetable restaurant and then to an Italian restaurant with the best homemade pasta I have ever had paired with a delicious salmon. Since the mountain is on the sea, their seafood is really, really good. This surprised me becaused you don't normally associate seafood with a mountain town. We stopped for dessert at a chocolate shop and had a taste of Ice Wine, which is famous in Whistler, but not so much with the Frank family (myself included). It tasted awful. Such a fun night for the four of us.
The next day (Thursday), Jake and I went snowboarding all day again and took the Peak-to-Peak gondola. It was really awesome to see all of the mountain from both peaks (Whistler and Blackcomb mountains). That night we went for appetizers and drinks at the Bearfoot Bistro again where we just had to go checkout the champagne bar and Belvedere Ice Room we had seen the night before. I will absolutely install this magical champagne bar in a future home someday because it was incredible. I didn't get a picture, but the champagne glasses did not have bottom, just a stem. It sat in this illuminated ice bar to keep it extra chilly. Pure amazingness. Then we had a vodka tasting with the sommelier in the ice room with our huge jackets on. So fun! Afterwards we went on a sleigh ride on the most beautiful night. It was snowing and we were pulled by clydesdale horses. The pictures do not do it justice on how pretty the ride was. The snow lit everything up! Jake's mom and I starting singing "sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'" because our sleigh had bells on it! Jake and his dad were embarrassed that we were singing, but oh well. They served us hot chocolate to keep us warm too!
Friday was Christmas Eve so we decided to spend the day in the village to shop for souveneirs and take in the sites one last time. We took pictures by the Olympic rings and found some great ornaments for our tradition of getting an ornament on every vacation. Jake's mom bought us an engagement heart ornament that is absolutely beautiful. It was very sweet of her! That night, we went to the best restaurant in town, as we were told, for a 5 course Christmas dinner. Some courses were better than others, but we all had enough wine to have a great time.The next morning was Christmas and we packed up and headed for the airport. After some terrible Chinese food and a plane ride later, we were back at LAX and dealing with a flat tire. It was such a fun trip and I feel like I got a lot closer to Jake's parents, which was really important to me. Looking back, I wasn't nervous and felt 100% comfortable the whole time. Absolutely a great holiday.
Jake and I found ourselves missing the beautiful snow once we were back and in LA. It was a truly memorable trip.
Hope you all had a nice New Year as well! We spent the evening in downtown at Roys, the JW and then eventually a lounge that was an old converted bank vault. We spent New Years Day with my mom and then Jake's parents for some great food and fun.
2011 here we come!
