the best feeling in the world

I guess I've been pretty busy lately. Being a car owner is pretty tough work. It is sort of like having a pet. I have to feed it, wash it, and spend time with it. I feel obligated to take it for trips, you know, so it can spin it's wheels a little bit. First it was only demanding that I take it around the streets of Edmonton, but lately it has been getting a wee bit restless and wants to go for longer drives. Last weekend it wanted to go to Airdrie. I fear that it will never be satisfied and it will just want to keep going farther and farther. It told me it wants to go to Tofino next. I just hope I have time to satisfy the honda's needs. I would hate to think what would happen if I denied it's requests.

So last weekend. For lack of a bigger vocabulary I will just say this...wow. The trip inaugurated promptly after I got home from working a 12 - hour night shift at the hospital. Not wanting to waste a moment of the weekend, I neglected to nap and instead hopped into the honda and aimed myself south. I realize now that it was a silly decision to not sleep before I started driving; sleeping while driving isn't nearly as comfortable. Also, the last half an hour of the trip I had to keep waking myself up as I was paranoid I would miss my exit. I arrived in Airdrie noonish and met up with my lovely sister-in-law Leah. We had a few hours to kill in the afternoon before Kevan got home from work so we decided to go have drinks at Bogey's Pub & Grill, an establishment right down the street from Leah's condo. The sign on the outside had a gigantic golf ball on it after the word "Bogey's" and advertised, what I thought would be, a good time. Inside, the decor left something to be desired...strangely it had absolutely nothing to do with golf. In fact, our server was dressed up as a cowgirl. I didn't see a pro-golfer anywhere. Not to mention the highly priced/watered down drinks and the uncomfortable chairs. Our cowgirl server (who I assumed was done her shift) left with leather chaps in her arms. We figured her horse must have been tied up outback behind the parking lot.

Ben arrived at Kevan and Leah's condo after dinner and we all piled into his car to drive to Elkford. We spent Saturday in Fernie enjoying incredible spring skiing conditions. It is a strange sensation riding in hot weather. I even saw one guy skiing in shorts and a t-shirt. I just loved the feeling of the warm sun beating down on my face while I weaved in and out of the trees through the soft snow. When we went down at noon to eat lunch there was a band playing outside of the lodge and a crowd of people eating at the picnic tables. Two girls in white skin tight sleeveless one-piece suits with big furry boots were walking around handing out prizes or something. I think they were supposed to be kokanee girls (there was some sort of kokanee promotion going on that day). I thought their outfits were ugly but a lot of people in the crowd seemed to like them. Also, they were kind of annoying and, in my opinion, out of place on the ski hill (I mean, if they fell on the slopes in those suits they wouldn't be able to stop themselves...). The band was good though. They made us all want to break out into an irish jig. Ben actually did.

Anyway, it was a gorgeous day and Kevan ended up getting some pretty good shots with his camera. I was tired by the end of the day (happy tired though). I slept the whole way back to Airdrie.

The next morning at 6am (5am technically because of the time change) Ben and I woke up to drive to Lake Louise for another day of boarding. Due to a lack of sleep I was pretty grouchy when I woke up (I tried my best to internalize it for Ben's sake), but once I got on the hill I forgot that I was mad. The sun hadn't quite warmed up the snow so it was still a little bit icy for the the first couple of runs, but once it came out and everything softened up a bit it was fantastic. After lunch when the sun was blazing high in the sky Ben and I decided we were going to hike above one of the top chairs to the peak of the mountain. With a backpack of water bottles, a thick layer of sunscreen, a couple chocolate bars, and our boards in hand we headed up the steep snow path. The steps obviously weren't designed for short girl legs. I had to practically jump to get to each step. In a little over an hour we were standing on the top of the world looking down into banff. Having never peaked a mountain in the winter before I was pretty darn amazed at the snow-covered valleys that were spread out before us. The air was crystal clear and you could see for miles. I made a snow angel. Initially we were going to go down the front side of the mountain (somehow avoiding the massive cliffs), walk the rest of the way to the highway, and hitchhike back to the resort. Plan 'A' seemed a bit dodgy though (seeing as we didn't know how to get down without dying) so instead we sailed down one of the ridges on our boards and dropped down the backside of the mountain into a bowl of untracked, fresh powder. It was unlike anything I had ever done before. There was nothing holding us back. The snow was smooth and deep and with every turn my board showered the slope with a huge wave of snow. Ben was laughing (out of pure joy) the whole way down. I felt like I was in a warren miller film. We sat in the car on the drive home with big, goofy smiles on our sun-burnt faces.

Not a bad way to leave winter behind. Stay tuned for next season's heli-skiing adventures...

Jenna