Summer at Panorama

Having a BBQ - our house is the building in the back right

The beautiful road to Panorama

We've been back at Panorama for almost 2 months now and barely recognise the place. It is amazing how the place transforms from a winter wonderland to a gorgeous, green, vibrant landscape full of wildlife! We have seen crazy mama deers and their babies, black bears, moose, elk, coyote, squirrels and Aaron has seen a grizzly too!

Hiking up Mile One

I started work at Wildfire two weeks ago and it has been pretty quiet. I hope it picks up because its super boring and your shift really drags out. I have picked up a new job down in Invermere and love it. It is at Blue Dog Cafe and I started there at the end of May. We make all kinds of things! Salad dressings, brownies, nanaimo bars (Canadian thing which I am SOO bringing to Australia!), falafels, lentil burgers, soups you name it! I have started opening shop a few days a week by myself so I get to cook the soup and get the special of the day ready. Last week I started getting trained as the cook too which is so fun! I am super slow and not very good at managing my orders yet but I am cooking tomorrow for the third time so hopefully I get it sooner rather than later :) As much as I love it, it is a bit exhausting as I am full time at both places and have been working double shifts most days. I have my days off with Aaron so thats all that counts :)

At the beach in Invermere

Aaron's enjoying the warmer weather. He suffered nerve damage in his toes from the cold winter but he's got his feeling back now which is a relief! He's job in the Summer is pretty much landscaping so mowing, mulching, upkeeping garden beds, keeping the resort clean and so on.. So he is getting quite the tan while I am still looking like a winter bunny..

In Invermere at 10:30pm (my work is the yellow building on the right)

We have moved into the Horsethief accomodation for the Summer which is a studio. It is now because we are by ourselves now. We recently had to move from our first Horsethief studio because Aaron blew the stove up and nearly bloody killed himself! The main breaker blew up so we had no power and no stove. So now we are in a new place... Its ok but I miss my little friend Gerry the Gopher.. He lived outside our old place and would come up and say hello all the time. :(

Aaron and I enjoying the twilight views in Invermere

There's a few activities on the to do list for the Summer at Panorama. There's white water rafting, horse riding and down hill mountain bike riding. I am a little nervous about the biking. It reminds me of home though seeing all the guys with their bmx gear on and having mud all over them except where their goggles were. Aaron and I are going to give it a go maybe once or twice as it is a bit expensive to hire out the bike and the protective gear (which I plan on having from head to toe!)
We have tried to squeeze in for some white water rafting and horse riding but they have been fully booked so we will keep trying..
It's definitely busier in town in the Summer because all the rich people come to their holiday homes with their boats, bikes, etc and bike up and down the mountain, go hiking and water skiing. We are always slammed at Blue Dog Cafe but Panorama is much quieter.
I went for a hike up the mountain a couple weeks ago with Hannah. It took us 35 mins just to get up the Mile One, which is the first run. It only took us about 4-6 mins to snowboard down that run in the winter!

Resting on the chair after hiking up the Mile One

Travelling USA

So its been a long journey! Tash & Paul flew over and met us at our resort and we drove to Vancouver and then made our way down the west coast of America stopping in Portland, Oregon for my birthday where we went to Urban Farmer for dinner. It was amazing! I have been wanting to go there for several months as they serve grass fed meats and organic veggies, etc.
We then continued to San Francisco, California where we did a tour of the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Japanese Tea Garden and a lot of driving around the city checking out the highest point of the town and learning about San Fran's history. We accidentally strolled into Civic Centre which is where all the druggies and prostitutes hang out. It was a little scary and we felt a bit unsafe but made it out ok. President Obama was in town too so we were having a hard time getting around as all the roads were closed off and patrolled by lots of security. Unfortunately we didnt get to tour Alcatrez Prison because all the tours were sold out. At least we have an excuse to come back!

 Las Vegas, Nevada was our next adventure where we caught up with Bee, Jamie and Keith from Panorama and when out to celebrate Aaron's birthday. We quickly discovered that I am a terrible gambler... Tash left us at this point as she had to be back in Australia for ANZAC day. We went to a Bodies and Titanic exhibition which was very interesting. The Bodies exhibit used real bodies! They had their skins chemically removed and were exposing muscles, veins, bones and all sorts. Kind of gross but very educational.
We went to Los Angeles, California where we spent some time with Janet and Greg. We spent a day in both Disneyland and Universal Studios where we went and lots of different rides and simulation rides.

Aaron and I went to Santa Monica Beach and did a workout at the popular Muscle Beach. We also went for a bike ride along the beach in a tandem bike with Janet and Greg which was an experience. We checked out Ripley's Believe It or Not, Wax Museum and Guiness World Records Museum in Hollywood with Paul too.

The parents all left at the end of April back to Australia. Aaron and I made our way to Phoenix, Arizona where we caught up with Ashlee and her new boyfriend Candy. He plays AFL in USA which I couldn't get over! He was a bulldogs supporter but we got passed that eventually =) We also hiked up Camelback Mountain in Scottsdale which was super hard! Took 2hrs to get up then back down.
We are now in Flagstaff which is 2.5 hrs north of Phoenix. We just completed and received our CrossFit Level 1 Certificates at CrossFit Flagstaff.  We are waiting for our car to finish being serviced then we are heading to San Diego for our Olympic Lifting Certificate Course starting on Saturday.
The car has been going ok but it has cost us more in service/fixes then we spent buying the car. Im pretty pissed about this but shit happens. We are still getting where we need to be. We have had the power steering fluid replaced, had a flat so we had to get three new tyres as the spare was the wrong size and one was worn as the wheels werent aligned, some wheel bearing needed to be replaced, now the brakes are getting looked at. FML..

Another Banff adventure and moving house

In Banff out the front of Whyte Museum

We have less than a month to go until the season finishes here at Panorama. Aaron and I moved into some private accommodation (Toby Creek Lodge) in the lower village on March 1st. We are living with two other girls, Cat and Harlee, but its a lot better than 8 people in our previous accomodation. We also have a lounge room now and our own bathroom so thats good.

Its heading into Spring now so all the ice/snow is melting and falling off rooms (sometimes hitting people in the head which is scary. Everyones ok though) The sun is out all the time and its nice and warm, ranging from -4 to 5 degrees during the day. The layers are starting to come off and they say it is nearly 'Tshirt weather' for snowboarding.

Eagle view of Banff

Aaron and I went to Lake Louise Ski Resort on Wednesday and snowboarded there for the day. It was fun but wasnt the best day. It was snowing so the sun wasnt out and you couldnt see anything up the top of the mountain because it was like a blizzard up there. So we just stayed in the lower parts of the mountain and had a good time.

We stayed in Baff overnight and spent Thursday doing touristy things like catching the Banff Gondola ($29.95 each.. ouch) it was fun and I took lots of photos to make up for the price! It was an 8min ride and it took you to the top of Sulphur Mountain where you could buy souvenirs, have lunch and walk around the mountain.I have put some photos up of the gorgeous views.

The views from the top

We came back only to celebrate St Pattys Day! Which was a great night. Everyone was very merry having started drinking at 10am. They even had green beer at the Tbar!

Our stay in America has changed as we would have been overstaying our 90 day visa. So we are now coming back to Panorama to work for the Summer which I am really excited about. I really wanted to see the place transform. Our managers are both more than happy to have us back in the Summer. We are hoping to rent a place down in Invermere this time round so it will be a different experience. I am also looking at getting a job in Invermere waitressing as Wildfire is only open at night times during the Summer. We will keep you posted..

Other than that not much else has been going on besides the countdown for our roadtrip.. Talk soon!

Aaron and I with our green beer

What's going on at Pano?!

Well its been a while! Not much has been happening here besides everyday Pano life. Work, snowboard, work, snowboard, snowboard, work, relax..

Our snowboarding skills are getting better finally! We can link turns without falling over and are trying to get better at boarding in powder, on moguls (bumps) and through trees (not quite my favourite thing yet) I have a video of Aaron and I boarding on some blue runs down the bottom of this post.

Toby Theatre


Aaron and I checked out the cinema in Invermere not too long ago and it is so old school. It is a tiny screen compared to back home and has intermissions!! We saw Little Fockers on Wednesday... it only took 3 months to reach us! Still havent seen the latest Harry Potter =( I think we missed that one..

We are getting pretty excited about leaving here and heading into our road trip through America. Aaron has also found a 10-day CrossFit tour for us to do in Iceland in August! So we are going to tour around America until then and then fly from New York to Reykjavik. It sounds like we are going to be hiking a bit and doing lots of workouts. Looking forward to that!


We made it to the top!

 It's Valentine's Day today and Aaron and I are going out for dinner at my restaurant, Wildfire. We were going to go to Earl Grey restaurant until we found out it is just over $100 each to eat there!! We are on a budget here!! I am excited though. We are having a special of lamb rack and pink risotto so I might get that! And we get 20% off for being staff so definitely a winner.

Next week is 'Alberta Family Week' and our occupancy level is supposed to get to 90% so I have five split shifts! I am going to be SO tired but it will be good to get some hours. I worked 28hrs this week which is more than usual. I picked up an extra shift because one of the girls was sick. Bonus! An extra 6.5hrs and tips! I am loving the tips. Have been making about $100 every night I work. So that is funding Aaron and my 'date nights' and our groceries so we can hopefully save our wages for bigger and better things.

Tummy flus, Broomball and more adventures with Tori

The last couple of weeks have been really slow on the mountain. I have been getting very minimal hours and got a whopping pay cheque of $49 for this past fortnight! Woohoo! (That is after my rent gets taken out) Lucky Aaron gets 40hours every week as there is always snow and ice to get rid of! It sucks at the same time though as I have all this time off and we could be spending it together but here I am writing on my blog :) I have asked work to give me Wednesday's and Thursday's off though as this is Aaron's weekend so we actually have some time together.



Lake Louise



Our snowboarding is improving (FINALLY!) we have gone up the Champagne chair lift which is the next one after Mile One Quad (the first one). I did the Rollercoaster run which is a blue run with some girls from work and I think Aaron did the same when he went up with Dane a couple days before. On Aaron's next weekend we will definitely be heading to the top of the mountain! Eeek! There is a hut up the top (Summit Hut) and we will have a hot chocolate or something to reward ourselves :)

A tummy bug has been drifting through the staff here, we are calling it Pano belly. All our roomates have had it except one.. his time will come and we hope it hits him hard because he keeps going on about how strong and awesome he is for not getting it.. Anyway I had it two weeks ago - vomiting and some unwelcomed movements from the other end.. stayed curled up in bed for about 3 days and had a couple of carrots and thats about it.. Aaron got Pano belly last week and was only vomiting. Poor bugger. He still hasnt got his appettite back and feels queezy after eating but its staying down so thats good.


Food & Bev team. Aaron took this photo to highlight how
short I am. Thanks Aaron


There is a staff game that has just commenced up at Pano and it is called Broomball. It has the same rules as ice hockey but you are in shoes not ice skates. I had my first game on Monday - Food & Beverage verse Housekeeping. We lost 3-2 and my Swedish roomies scored all their goals and did I hear the end of it!! It was really fun and was great to get out and be active and play a team sport again. Very similiar to hockey. It reminded Aaron and I of home because he was cheering just like he does when I play hockey hehe. Except it was snowing and friggin cold! Poor Aaron had numb hands and face but I was hot from running around and just had a shirt on! I am trying to convince Aaron to play withhis Maintenance team.... maybe next week...

We went on another adventure with Tori on Aaron's weekend. This time we went a little further - Banff and Lake Louise. About a 2hour drive. Lake Louise was beautiful. I would love to see it in the Summer when there is just so much more colour to it. They had big ice sculptures around the lake from a competition that must have recently been held as they had first place ribbons and things hanging off them.


Aaron & I poking our heads through the windows of the First Place ice sculpture at Lake Louise

We then drove to Banff, Aaron drove the whole way and the roads were much better as it has been really warm lately and all the snow is melting off the roads. We had to drive through Kootenay and Banff National Park which cost us $19.60 to get a permit or something so we could drive through and not get a fine.. weird..



Aaron and I at Lake Louise



We got into Banff and did some looking around and dropped Morgan (Aaron's workmate that tagged along for a ride) off at the Pano bus that was there on a day trip. Aaron and I then went to find our bed and breakfast - At Wit's End - with Barbara and Vic and their little dog Pipper. It was a 2min drive out of town and was such a nice old fashioned place. It was cheaper than staying in the backpackers and we got breakfast made for us!



Beautiful views from Banff Ave

 We drove to Canmore and did a workout at CrossFit Canmore which was pretty exciting and reminded us of our home gym. We bought CrossFit Canmore shirts and CrossFit Canmore workout books which are awesome! Canmore was about a 20min drive from Banff and I was driving which was super scary! We got stuck at the B&B as the driveway was all ice so Aaron had to shovel some dirty snow from the side of the road and make tracks for our tyres then we got out about 10mins later and with a bit of a push from Aaron and Vic. The drive home was the scariest as there are no lights on the highway and I didnt feel comfortable going 110km/h when I couldnt bloody see anything! Not only could I not see anything but there are mountain goats walking all over the road!!! AAH! AND there are big water puddles from the melted snow so Aaron was freaking out coz I always drift too close to the gutter and we hit the water... hehe! I was getting better at avoiding them by the end of the trip and only managed to do 90km/h so everyone was flying around me. They all speed over here!!
So Banff was a beautiful place. We had dinner at Saltlik steakhouse to celebrate Australia Day and we had lunch the next day at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Until our next adventure!

Taken Tori for a drive to Cranbrook!



Behind the snow plougher!



Our first road trip! 1.5hours away from Invermere so 2 hours from Panorama - destination Cranbrook! Others from the mountain refer to it as 'Cran-hole'... charming...

The drive to Cranbrook was lovely, so scenic and mountainy. If you ask Aaron on the other hand he might tell you it was a slow drive with snowy, unploughed roads and you couldn't see shit.. I am glad I was the passenger =)

 Oh and we got stuck behind a snow plougher! That was fun! We nearly ran up its butt! Then we saw its lights flashing. We also learnt that you need to put your hazard lights on when you are behind one so people can see you as you disappear in the snow.. fun!



The signs you could barely read..



We got into Cranbrook and made our first stop the famous Walmart! They had EVERYTHING! Even a McDonalds inside?!?! Random... And I thought it was funny that they had the guns, knives, hunting apparell right next to the kids toys section. Whoever designed the floor layout was not a clever cookie..



Aaron bought a mini acoustic guitar and we tried an apple pie McFlurry from McDonalds. Weird mix but it was like eating apple pie and ice cream! Yum! I still prefer the real thing though..

We then went back out onto the main street the goes through the centre of town and went to Boston Pizza for lunch which had everything you could think of on the menu. Aaron had a chicken pesto pasta and I had a salmon dish. And we shared goat cheese and spinach dip to start.



The beautiful view



Our main aim whilst in Cranbrook was to see a movie as we are feeling deprived of cinema time considering we used to go at least once a week back home. Turns out they only show evening sessions in Cranbrook unless its a weekend.. Damn it! So we went to Dollarama and bought some candy and had our own movie night in the common room back at home.. Even though we watched a documentary on the CrossFit Games it was still movie time =)

 And that is pretty much all there was to do in Cran-hole... I mean Cranbrook..

The day before our trip we got our dear old car, Tori, serviced. She had no rear brakes left so the pads and rotors got relpaced. And her indicator wasn't working so that got fixed. And she got topped up with some fluids.. All up $400 and we still need to get a spare tyre as we dont have one!!


Dear old Tori



The new addition to the family, Toboganing & Snowboard lessons!

We bought the car! 1998 Ford Taurus station wagon. Its burgundy and is so nice and roomy. Everything is automatic - windows, central locking, cruise control, seat adjusting, you name it! Its an automatic and has a column shift (the gear stick at the steering wheel) so I will have to get used to that not being my indicator! Aaron has been the driver so far and it was a slow ride up the mountain as it was his first time driving in town, and off the mountain and to add to the stress of it all its been snowing hard for the past 3 days and we are driving on the wrong side of the road!!!! We made it though so good work Aaron :)

Getting the car insured was a pain in the butt. We didnt bring our passports with us when we caught the businto town, which were required for the paperwork so Dave (the seller) drove us up the mountain to collect everything then back down which is about an hour round trip. We bought him lunch at Ray Rays. So we got the car for $1800 and insurance and registration cost us just under $600 which is for 6 months. Ouch!

This took up Aaron's weekend so we didnt get out snowboarding. But we went toboganing last night down the Magic Carpet with Dane and Gina which was pretty fun. No epic crashes but I did get one of Aaron's on video.. hehehehehe!!

Aaron was back at work today enjoying the last few days of snow (which is still coming down hard by the way) I on the other hand, woke up early and went for a snowboarding lesson!! I was supposed to be tagging along with another girl but she ended up going on a ski lesson so lucky me got a one on one! John, my instructor, took me down Magic Carpet three times to see where I was at (a very beginner trail) then we caught the Mile One chair lift and went down Horseshoe twice, Show Off once then Horseshoe to finish off. My knees are nice and bruised as I am always falling onto them on my toe turn. John said I need to stick my hips out to avoid face planting which I am a professional at mind you! :) My neck is a little sore from my tumbles but overall I am not falling down as much and my confidence is slowly creeping up. So I will be heading out next week again depending on what my shifts look like. And Aaron and I will definitely get out on his weekend this time!!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Well it has been a very busy week at Panorama with the occupancy level nearing 100%. I have had A LOT more shifts this week. I have done 40hours in the last 4 days with most of them being split shifts although I didnt get to go home on Friday and did a 12.5hr day! My feet were so sore! I have a serving shift tonight so hopefully I make some tips! I had my second serving shift on Wednesday and made $150 in tips!! Its pretty fun. It is like opening a present because you dont know what you will get. I have had one regular, Darren with his two sons come in and ask for me to serve them. He tips WAY too much but thats ok with me =) He leaves today and all up he tipped me close to $300 while he was here. What a nice guy! Aaron and I are using my tips to buy our groceries and then trying to save what we earn. Not that that is much as I only got $90 last pay but that is because I worked little hours. This pay should be better =)

Most the guests will be leaving today so I only have three shifts next week. Two are serving shifts though so hopefully the tips make up for the hours I wont be working..

Aaron and I both worked on Christmas and New Years so we didn't really see much of each other. We celebrated on our day off and went to Carricks for dinner which is the restaurant and Greywolf Golf Course on the mountain. It was so good. It is an Italian restaurant and we had mussels to start and Aaron finally got a chicken parmy while I had some salmon. Yummo!



My first Christmas turkey!

 We have been looking into buying a car so that we can see a bit more of Canada on our days off. We have looked at one car, a Honda CR-V, however it was registered in Ontario so it was a painful process to get it registered in BC so we decided to avoid that road and try find a BC registered vehicle. A guy I work with is selling his Ford Taurus so Aaron and I are going to check it out on Tuesday when we have a day off together. Fingers crossed its good! Aaron and I want to go check out a nearby town, Cranbrook. The bus only runs on Monday and Friday there and Aaron doesnt have those days off so we will never get there without a car. We are also getting the car to use after our Canada adventure to head into our American adventure! Very excited!

We haven't had a chance to go snowboarding again but next week when everything is more quiet we are going to go have a lesson. Most likely on Wednesday as we both have that day off.

Will let you know how it goes!!

The photo I have put up is while I was on the bridge heading to Adventure Centre Carpark. Toby Creek is frozen over now! Oh and it is getting cold again! It was around -4C for a couple weeks but we have just started to plunge into the -20C. It is only supposed to hang around for a week so I hope the week goes fast!

The other picture is of me cutting up my AMAZING turkey that I made for a girly Christmas dinner that we had. It was a massive feast with lots of yummy foods. We went overboard with decorations and we had bon bons too! Yay!