A Place Called Mission, BC

Friday, February 12th, 2010!!!!

For the sake of keeping you updated on the Olympic games, I am going to summarize our last few days!

Banff was one of the most beautiful towns we visited on our entire journey, in fact it was hard enough getting Dennis to leave. We were worried the fun-loving staff at Quiksilver were going to offer him a job and then we'd be down one member for the last leg of our trip!

After spending an hour or so taking pictures and hanging out with the Quiksilver Banff Team we finally got back on the road and embraced ourselves for our epic encounter with the Rocky Mountains.

It's hard to describe the feeling that consumes you when traveling through the mountains, but I gave it a shot as we drove on... here's what I came up with:

'Everyone in the car was silent and it felt as though everything was in slow motion. The fresh snowfall lightly blanketed the millions of pine trees and a large heard of elk could be seen standing stiffly, silently on a frozen pond. The sheer size of the mountains was incomprehensible without a firsthand account. If there was ever a time in my life I felt so small and insignificant, than this was it.'

It's times like these that I wish I could write as well as my favorite author, John Steinbeck, or others alike. If you haven't had the opportunity to see the Rocky Mountains, then all of us would recommend visiting them at some point in your lives.

After what felt like a short drive in comparison to the seemingly endless highways we had trekked along our journey, we finally arrived in the peaceful and tranquil mountaintop community at Big White Ski Resort. Now I'm sure it's not always so quiet, but showing up on a Tuesday night probably had something to do with that. Anyway, we pulled into the driveway of a very nice condo/apartment and we happy to see our friend Megan. She introduced us to her hilarious and awesome Australian roommates who lived downstairs and we sat around talking until late in the night.

The next morning we woke up early as we had planned to hit the slopes. Megan hooked us up and we got to ride the hill for free- which was absolutely unreal!!!! We spent the better half of the day shredding and we took a lot of pictures- hopefully Dennis will post them soon!

In the late afternoon we packed up the car and continued west to Mission, BC.

Earlier in the day Dennis and I tore the windshield wipers off the car as they were pretty much garbage. Ironically, we were lucky enough to not need them until we tore them off...

After passing through Kelowna we saw a sign that read, 'High Mountain Pass, Sudden Weather Changes- Be Prepared.' It had been nice all day and we thought it impossible for the weather to take a sudden turn as the sign had cautioned us. Almost instantaneously our opinions changed as a mixture of rain and snow clashed against our windshield, needless to say it was a slow drive the rest of the way. After contemplating pulling over and staying put for the night, a slow moving vehicle in front of us managed to guide us to our destination like a guardian angel.

We finally reached Mission, British Columbia, our base camp for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Everyday has felt like Christmas morning and I am so so soooo thankful to share this experience with some of my best friends!