You know the feeling: you’ve been off for a few days and upon your return your desk is full of stuff to work on. So I was shocked when I opened my office door this morning and saw these piles:
Today was the first normal “workday” of the Breadbasket family: kids had to go to school and parents had to go skiing. Tough life for some. Little Molly was full of eager anticipation, Max summed his feelings up as “I’m looking forward to school, just not the lessons.”
So, our little ones met a lot of other kids returning from the Xmas break at Columbia Park Elementary – the school they have been assigned to by the school board in British Columbia. Molly was particularly lucky: two kids from the ski club are in her class, which is grade 1/2 (both years are in one class). When she returned in the afternoon she was excited about having received her first invitation to a birthday party – well done, Molly! Max is in grade 5 and started working on the integer factorisation, which surprised at least me a little bit. Ain’t holidays for everyone, it seems.
Worthwhile mentioning is the school’s principal, Ms. Ariel McDowell: she took the time on New Year’s Eve afternoon to introduce Max and Molly to the school and meet us. I somehow don’t see that happening at a German public school (British chums: that’s the opposite of a British public school). Ariel gave us a tour of the school with classrooms, gym, library and computer room – I have to say that the brand new iMacs connected to ceiling mounted projectors via Apple TV were quite a change compared to the PC’s at Munich’s Gertrud Bäumer elementary school with Windows 2000. And, folks, just compare the pictures on the two home pages: Mount Begbie of Revelstoke vs. Gertrud Bäumer architecture? Tough choice.
Beer connoisseurs of Cologne – forget what I’ve ever said about Kölsch! I am a convert. High Country Kölsch – that’s the business: it’s being served in pints (Cologners: that’s a big glass of
beer) at our local Big Eddy Pub or, as illustrated in the picture, in handy cans of 0,355 liter. Bigger than the original and good stuff!
I should add that the whole “Kölsch” business started in Vancouver already, where we tried our first Canadian Kölsch at a little microbrewery just off the gaslight district. Also very nice.
Who of us skiing men did not have the predicament of somehow balancing gloves, helmet while trying to find the deserved and long awaited relieve? It either meant holding the items in one hand whilst trying to aim with the other or putting them down somewhere where you’d rather not put them down. In Revelstoke Mountain Resort I found the perfect solution:
Heck, this is already the 13th day of skiing in Revelstoke – time is flying! When we arrived we met Revelstoke as we expected it: lots of snow – uh, not snow, the lightest, fluffiest powder you can imagine. In the last few days we met a Revelstoke, that we had not expected: nice and sunny, albeit not warm. Rather cold. But beautiful:
The picture was taken exactly at the European New Year – Happy 2016! The pictures below of mother and daughter illustrate the potential that we see in little Molly. And while Mama drops her arms, Molly has them up just like she should.
It makes you wonder – at least, we did not have to sign a bear acknowledgement waver:
It is hard to believe, but we booked our apartment in Revelstoke during our vacation in Italy in June 2015. Initially we were looking at resorts in Colorado, but had to give up on that rather quickly: the cheapest offer we got for an apartment for three months was $52,000 – not an option. So eventually we found this place on Airbnb – at a small fraction of the cost in Colorado:
Unfortunately we don’t live in the whole house, but in the basement part. The flat is big enough for all of us, and, most notably, our equipment, too:
Here’s a little gem: in Munich we ordered a boring taxi van to get our baggage and ourselves to the airport. Not so in Vancouver, upon our arrival: we travelled in a stretch limo into town – that was the only type of car big enough to carry both us and our luggage:
How do you get around in Canada on a family ski trip: no doubt, it has to be a pickup truck. And there we go:
And a good choice it has been so far: while we felt a bit red-neckish in Vancouver it turned out to be the blend-in automobile in the more rural areas. Revelstoke, our home for the next 3 months – is certainly rural. Since we like our badass truck so much, here’s another one:
The drive to Revelstoke gave us a good impression of British Columbia. From Vancouver we drove North East to Kamloops and then East to Revelstoke. And having experienced no winter at all in Munich this year so far, images like that warmed our heart:
It took us over 8 hours to drive the 565 km, but with relieve stops, lunch break at a classic diner in the village of Hope (which I would lose if I lived there) and some more relieve stops it takes time. The travel day ended nicely with a pint and some burgers in the BigEddy Pub just around the corner from where we live. Found our local on day one – good going!
Who's been here? 