Gay Ski Week(end) - Whistler, B.C.

This winter the ScenicBoys - along with friends Jon, Sean, Jordan and Erik - made it up to Whistler, B.C. for Gay Ski Week. What an Awesome Adventure! We got off work a bit early Friday and planned to leave Seattle by 5:00pm. As per usual GST (Gay Standard Time) we didn’t shove off till 6:30pm. Oy! The trip north was remarkably entertaining, considering there were 4 of us, plus gear, crammed in Erik’s little VW Jetta. A couple hours on the road, we were getting hungry and Mt. Vernon seemed as good a place as any to stop off for some scrumptious Taco Bell. Imagine it… 4 giggling gay boys in designer jeans come bouncing into a Taco Bell in the middle of PoDunk Nowhere. We certainly turned a few heads, but not necessarily in the way we would have wanted. Note to all you northerly traveling fags… the Mt. Vernon Taco Bell is NOT fast food. 20 minutes for SHITTY burritos!  Back on the road, we made it to the border in under an hour. We stopped off at Duty Free to pick up a few bottles of booze (way cheap!) and made it across the border in no time at all. From there, it’s another couple hours to Whistler. The rest of the drive was very dark, very windy, snowing VERY hard and none of us (in our car at least) really knew where we were going. FUN!

We finally rolled into Whistler around midnight. Our cabin wasn’t in the Village, but  just down the road a few miles. Everyone settled into their rooms, freshened up, threw back a few cocktails and we were off to a house party. The details get a little sketchy for the rest of that night, but judging by how late everyone slept in the following morning, it was a woefully exciting event.

Dusty and I were up much earlier than the rest of the boys Saturday morning. We made breakfast but nobody seemed too interested in eating. Oh well. By mid-afternoon we piled in the cars and headed to the main Village. I was Blown Away! It’s SO Beautiful!! We got coffee, walked around for a while, and gawked at all the hot snowboarders. :) Then we rode a gondola up to the tubing hill. The boys all wanted to go sledding after that so we headed back to the cabin to change. I wasn’t really feeling like playing in the snow (the hot tub sounded so much better!) and Dusty didn’t have warm enough clothes to go sledding so he and I ended up staying behind. At least we got a good nap in before the evening’s debauchery.

A couple hours later we met up with the rest of our group. I stopped in a liquor store and was amazed to find a bottle of Absinthe! I’ve always wanted to try it, but knew you couldn’t get it in the
U.S., so of course I had to buy it.  We had dinner and drinks at the Longhorn and then headed back to the cabin so everyone could change and get ready to Go Out.

Back at our cabin, I immediately cracked open the Absinthe and took a swig. FEWWWWW!!!!!! That shit’s STRONG! :) but oh-so-good…

It was still early so we had cocktails and played games to kill some time. I’d consumed about half the Absinthe by the time we were ready to hit the clubs. I wouldn’t say I was hallucinating but it was definitely a very different feeling than any other alcohol. We decided the main event going on that night – a $95 party called SnowBall – didn’t seem worth the cost. There aren’t any Gay clubs in the Village, but we were hoping the other bars would be over-run with so many Gays it wouldn’t matter. We were seriously wrong. The Savage Beagle (which we would later refer to at the Slutty Beagle) had terrible music and the weakest drinks.  Even a double was dreadfully watered down. Nobody seemed to be enjoying themselves too much. Idea: Let’s go back to the cabin for and play games in our underwear instead! Now We’re Talkin… :)

Sunday morning Dusty and I were up before everyone again.  It was snowing HUGE snowflakes! We had the place mostly picked up by the time the boys woke up. One last trip back to the Village to drop the keys off and grab some games for the car ride home.

The drive south was very beautiful, we didn’t get to see any of it on the way up on account of how late it was.  At last we made it to the border. We pull up and are waiting next in line. Erik asks what we have in the car. BIG MISTAKE! Sean says we still have the Absinthe, which was packed up in such a hurry that nobody realized it was in the car. We pull ahead and the Border Guard immediately asks if we have any alcohol in the car. Erik says there’s a little bit left in the trunk. The Guard asks to take a look. First thing he pulls out is the Absinthe. SHIT! He comes back to the front of the car with the bottle and says, “Did you know Absinthe is illegal in the United States?” I thought we were going to be arrested! He tells us we have to go to the customs office. While at first I was quite worried, I quickly surmised how ridiculous the whole situation was. Ultimately they gave us a stern warning about the negative health effects of wormwood, reiterated it was illegal to transport it into the U.S. and made me dump it down the bathroom drain. What a waste…

And so, border calamity behind us, we headed home – sans yummy Absinthe. Seattle was a welcome sight for weary traveler’s eyes by the time we finally made it home. All-and-all a Fantastic trip though. We’ll definitely be going back to Whistler the next chance we get. Till then, I can’t wait for the weather to warm up, camping season to be underway, and another summer full of Adventures to begin. Check Back With Us Soon!!!