Where do I start?Vancouver, Day 1: Off the plane, kinda dazed. Go out for sushi at this crazy busy sushi place with Donna, Jesse, Josh, Rumi, Mom and Bry. My bedroom is right on Pacific St. which is tres busy and so I did not sleep great that night, not to mention the 3 hour time difference, which I know isn't anything, but I could feel it. I packed that night, again, to get ready for out trip up to Whistler for a few days. Sunday morn, Donna, Jesse, Mom and Bry and I pile into the mini van (ha, bryan, mini van) and head up into the hills...
Whistler, Days 2 through 4:
Arrive in Whistler. Donna and Jesse rush around trying to find all the family which is scattered throughout Whistler. We stayed in The Fairmont, which is SWANKY!!! But unfortunately, seeing as how Bryan had to make another trip back into the city, he couldn't get an upgrade and I had to sleep on a shitty pull out couch with just a wooden divider between Bryan and my mom's room and mine, and he snores and was being a dick face. So THAT whole part of the trip sucked, althought we had a corner room so we could see all the mountains and my room had a little ledge that I could sit at and watch the mountains. That night we headed up to Val's condo and met all the fam. Lot's of whom I did not know. So, as you can imagine, that was a wee bit awkward at first. I was already sorta upset because of Bryan, and missing my dad and then I accidentally spilled red wine on my mom, and I got really upset. After being introduced to everyone, I felt somewhat at home. The Hudson's are a huggy bunch, which I did not expect! Everyone welcomed me with open arms and so I did I them. I had known a few of the fam, such as: Donna (obvi), Jesse(obvi), Bry (d'er), Val, Rob, Carol and her son Hunter (who didn't remember me). The whole reason for this trip was for Brenton's (Val's third son) wedding. He works/lives in Whistler. Brenton is the manager of two restaurants and a club called Maxx Fish. That's where the wedding reception was to be held, but it looked so freakin' dank!
Let me tell you about some of our fucked family history: Bryan Hudson is my "step-father" (for lack of a better word) and his sister was married to my Uncle Stephen, who is my dad's brother.
Donna introduced Bryan to my mom and I think you know where it went from there. So pretty much the whole trip in Whistler with the fam consisted of me reciting this fascinating tid-bit of information. Many people hadn't seen my mom since she had been involved with my dad, which I think left a few folks a little dumb founded. So, where was I with this scenario? Ok, so the next day in Whistler (aug. 17th) consisted of me waking up at 7 am, sitting in my window listening to music until grump-ass and my mom woke up. Then I got in shit for not leaving the hotel room and disrupting Bryan's sleep (which was bull). So, to get out of Big Bry's hair, (haha, if you know him, you know that's a funny joke I just laid out there!) my mom and I sauntered down to the Upper Village. We were headed...well, I don't know where we were headed, but we ran into Auntie Donna, which was pretty funny considering her condo was 20mins away. I decided to hang out with her and Jesse instead of being a supposed nuisance to my mother and Bryan. At
this point I needed to get food into my system
because I think everyone has a pretty good idea about my fainting spells...my family certainly does. Jesse and I (Jesse is a diabetic, so he understood my qualms) went hunting for sustenance. Then Hunter called and we spent 20mins trying to give him directions to our location. Then we hung out with Hunter and Carol and went into expensive Whistler stores. Everybody was famished, so Donna and Jesse and I went to the Mongolian Grill and Carol and Hunter went to...well, I forget. the Mongolian Grill was/is SO good. You basically make your own dinner and watch it being cooked. Then we headed to Maxx Fish to help set up the the wedding. Brenton handed us champagne flutes and told us to get to work drying. Jesse and I were the first to arrive, then more people filtered in and beers were cracked open. The club was downstairs and it had no windows, so it was very dark and looked very small, and to tell the truth, I was really dreading being in that club with a lot of sweaty, drunk people. After that, Donna, Jesse and I headed up to their condo and I finally saw Rob and his partner Jerry. Chris called up and had been abandoned by everybody at the club, so he came and joined us and we had a game of cards, which I completely sucked at and I was so fucking tired. I hadn't seen my mom all day, no calls or anything, so I called down to the Hotel about 5 times before someone picked up. Then the dinner fiasco occurred. Carol called and invited all of us for a BBQ at her condo, which was next to my Hotel (everyone, except for us, had rented huge condos) and so we had plans to go and eat there, THEN Tyler, Chris' son called and told us that "everyone" was gathering for sushi in the lower village and so we were faced with a dilemma, cancel on Carol or go and miss "everybody". And everybody it was, I swear there were about 40 people crammed into this squishy table at the back of this sushi restaurant. Also, once we arrived, they had just finished. So we left and made our way to Carol's for a BBQ. Now, that night was a ball. We played the family game of Wizard
and drank and had a good time. There were many laughs and such good times to talk about. I came in second in the game of Wizard with a lot of help from Uncle Rob, and when I say a lot, I mean he basically played the game for me. That was a good night.
My Last Full Day in Whistler:
"Good Morning!" is the typical greeting in the...morning. Not today. Once again, everybody was grumpy and really not in the mood for talking to each other, but in some form of communication, we reached the decision to go on the "Peak-to-Peak". "What the hell is Peak-to-Peak?" you may ask. Well, I will tell you. It's beauty at it's fullest, it's breath taking and awe-inspiring. It's usually a once in a lifetime experience. "What is this awe-inspiring, once in a lifetime experience you keep droning on about?" Well, it doesn't sound like much, but let me tell you, it's amazing. Peak-to-Peak is a gondola ride which goes between Whistler and Blackcomb. Those are mountains, fucking huge mountains. 4000ft I think they are? That morning I was very excited, but exciting soon turned to nervousness. Lining up for the ride, I looked up and took a short breath and kinda swayed. The air was crisp, but the sun was warm. We got our ski-lift tickets and prepared to board. I decided not to go up with my mom, who was really showing her nerves, which I was trying not to do. I went up between Hunter and his dad, Brock. The ride up was amazing, sitting in an open ski-lift is such an exhilarating feeling. Seeing your feet dangle underneath you, above the ground 20ft under you. We had to take 2 different ski-lifts to even get to the top, almost 20mins each, so it was a long ride up. But beautiful. At the summit of Whistler, it wasn't even close to being the top, we did the old tourist thing and had pictures taken etc. Then we got on the Gondola. The ride was 16mins and you travel across this gorge type thing between the mountains. You are SO high up. I did really well with the height factor, and the fact that I was in a little glass box...claustrophobic. Half way across, Hunter: "Hey, you know, this would be a terrible time for the gondola come off the tracks and have us tumble to our death..." THANKS FOR THAT HUNTER! Other than that little comment (which I may have embellished for effect) I was completely fine and was standing up, walking around, leaning on the glass, you name it. Blackcomb was more touristy than Whistler side, I got a shirt. Only $10, Bry paid, I like discounts. Hunter and Brock missed the next gondola, but it was funny because I macro zoomed on the gondola behind us and took a picture of Hunter. Ha. To me, the ride down the ski-lift was the best part because you got the view of all the mountains and the town below and the wind and the smells...it was amazing. Oh yeah! I forgot, Hunter was able to get a cell phone signal 4000ft up in the sky! I laughed. And the ski-lift went right by Val's condo, so Hunter called over and got people out on the deck and we waved. I'm lame, so I enjoyed that! Now was the getting ready for the wedding. I had taken my chic little SoHo outfit Danielle had bought me, but I decided to not get as dressed up for just the wedding and save the dress for the reception at Maxx Fish. The wedding was beautiful, no dry eye in sight. When Brenton stated to tear up, there went the whole audience. He looked so handsome, and she looked so gorgeous. I am not one to fall in love with wedding attire, but her dress was so gorgeous. The way he looked at her coming down the aisle was one of the most loving looks I'd ever seen anyone give to someone. I melted. All I could imagine was the thought of someone looking at me like that, one day. I also couldn't stop day-dreaming about being a bridesmaid. Not so much getting married, but being there for a friend. After the wedding, people just took pictures and visited outside this cultural center where the wedding had been held. It was a very nice location, with the mountains right outside the window. Bryan and my mom were in a big tiff and we were trying everything we could to avoid him, he was being a cranky baby-jerk. We had a few hours to kill until the reception at Maxx Fish, so we went to Donna's condo to get her stuff and then went to our hotel room to get ready. Lo and Behold, Bryan was there and all mad about how we'd wrapped the gift, which I thought looked nicer than any shit Bryan would have picked out. So there started another fight of sorts, I tried to stay out of it because I was focusing on having a really good night! We arrived at Maxx Fish and it looked SO good! All white and vlevety and candle-y. The appetizers were so good, and it's funny because I think the servers thought we were part of the wedding party and kept bringing the food to us, whereas everybody else had to get up and go to the buffet. Losers! The speeches were well done but people had no idea the main course was being served and a lot of people, me sort of included, missed the food. My mom was pretty mad about that. Many people just made trips to a pizza shop right outside. Hunter and I walked back to his condo just to get his wallet and when we got back, the ONLY people dancing were my mom, Aunt Donna and Uncle Rob. I laughed to myself. I ran out to the dance floor to show them what dancing was! I actually danced non-stop for about 4hrs! It was SO fun. Seeing as how this was a club, there was a professional DJ and so all the music just blended together with no pauses. As the night went on, the music got louder and louder. At one point I was so dazed that I wasn't even aware I was moving, I was just so into the beat and my foot just kept moving. That was SO incredibly fun! Saying bye at the end of the night (well, it wasn't for other people) was so hard because I just wanted to stay and dance! We had to ride home with Rob's partner Jerry who was really drunk and like checking out boys my age and telling them they were sexy, it was so gross and that really pissed me off. I don't mind drunk people as long as thy're high functioning and just more loving, not falling over and looking like a fucking zombie. That's probably when I lost all respect for Jerry and we didn't see him after that. Poor Rob, he deserves SO much better than that, but he puts up with it because he's too nice to say anything. Getting to sleep that night was tough because my ears were ringing so much it hurt and Bryan was being a complete ass hole. The next morning I called Aunt Donna, she was at Val's condo, so I walked up to the condo. That walk was crazy hard, because I am not in shape and so walking up a ski hill was not my idea of fun. When I got in, every body was so hung over, it was sort of funny. I mean, I hadn't really drunk much, but I still felt like shit. Everyone just sort of crawled around. They had been at the club until about 2am, but were up later at the condo. Bryan and my mom came to get me at the condo and I said my goodbyes, which were hard to say.
To Be Cont...
