The Whistler vac-away; brought to you by Kokanee and Snowbus

(The only better start to a day, would be a full bottle of Lagavulin... Okay, okay. A lot of other
full bottles of whiskey would suffice as well.)

This past Saturday, I was fortunate to score two tickets to a Kokanee apres-series party at Whistler. The package included free transport to and from the event, lift tickets, discount cards for various restaurants in the village, and access to a VIP party. The interesting part, was of course the party.

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Don't get me wrong though. We had an awesome morning in and around Whistler, and though we didn't put our lift tickets to much use - we left our snowboards at home, opting for a less active vacaway - we did take full advantage of discounted food in the village. We started at Longhorn, where we ingested some breakfast; but more importantly, we ordered our drinks. The waitress suggested a Bailey's Coffee and a Mimosa. While the girlfriend went with the Mimosa, I bravely (or not so bravely) opted for an Irish Coffee. Our drinks arrived, and while the Irish Coffee was more or less what you'd expect, I was pleasantly surprised to see my girlfriend's Mimosa come as a small bottle of Henkell Trocken and a side of OJ. Nice!

(Even an anti-smile spirits obsessor such as myself could not keep from smiling if I were in this same position.)

After browsing the various shops of Whistler village, and stopping into Starbucks, we continued on the theme of drinking the finest of what Whistler had to offer on this fine Saturday morni--- oh, wait, at this point it was afternoon.

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Anyway, we made our way to Brewhouse where the lady ordered a Lifty Lager, while I went for something seasonal; a fortified ale served in a large snifter. The lager tasted a bit wheaty, and reminiscent of Whistler Brewery's Powder Mountain Lager, while the fortified ale was quite sweet, and boilermaker like. I like both the Powder lager and boilermakers, so both of these beers hit a note with me. We played pool while we drank, and discussed moving on to Crystal Lounge, where we had drank several times on our last trip to Whistler, and liked one of the waitresses, so thought we'd pop our head's in to say hello.

(This is basically what the entire party looked like.)

The waitress wasn't there when we arrived, but her shift started shortly after. In the mean time, my better half ordered a caesar - having not had one since we first started dating two years ago - and I stuck with the beer theme, ordering a personal favorite and special of the day at Crystal Lounge: the maple cream ale. We played Jenga while sipping on our drinks, and discussing the party to come. We were surprised to see the waitress from our last Whistler trip arrive, and give us a few eye glances that said "I know you", but when she awkwardly approached our table her look turned into a "I think I know you, but I don't know if I know you" glance. We laughed about it afterward, but finished up at the Crystal Lounge so that we could ascend the mountain for the party that awaited.

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The ride up the gondola was what you'd expect from a gondola ride. It was beautiful. On top of the mountain, we entered the roundhouse and took our seats in the Kokanee party. We got plenty of free beer, and listened to a local band play a bunch of oldies. It was fun, and some rowdier party-goers were dancing. I can't really say much more than that. A Kokanee party is more or less what you would expect it to be. A Kokanee party! The biggest upside to the party was that I won a free lift ticket in the random grand prize draw, which I'm fairly sure was the best prize that you could win in the draw. It felt like justice from all of the non-wins of Tim Hortin's Roll Up the Rim contest.

(A lonesome bottle of Kokanee.)

After the party, we took the gondola back down and got on the bus to return home. The bus ride was terrible as there were about four random party goers who were feeling rowdy - in the most annoying way possible. The lady working for the bus had to talk to them several times. I felt embarrassed for them, as it reminded me of when I used to take school bus rides on field trips while growing up. I felt even more embarrassed for them when I heard them ranting about how they were from Surrey. It somehow irks me to have stereotypes such as the Surrey Boys fall exactly where they are, but there you have it; another unfair stereotype with some grain of truth.

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Luckily, looking back on it a few days later, the event as a whole was awesome, and in hindsight palm-faced Surrey Boys leave me with a somewhat comical story. Their chants of "Party! Party! Party!" and "Deaner! Deaner! Deaner!" (one of the "crew's" nickname) reminded me of larger than life teen and frat party movies. Of course, the reality is that they're a few drunk kids on a bus ride with a bunch of sleeping adults. Nevertheless! It's one of those things that I've already laughed over with my girlfriend, and suspect many "Remember the time when..." stories to follow.