Beer, Beef Dip… Battlestar Galactica

Okay, okay. This blog post has nothing to do with Battlestar Galactica but I did drink some beer and I did eat a beef dip this past weekend in Whistler while visiting for Whistler Craft Beer Month. How could I pass on the opportunity to take those two items and tie in an Office quote?

Last weekend Mrs. Explorer and I hopped in the car and took the beautiful drive up the Sea To Sky highway to take in as many of the Craft Beer Month festivities as we could. Here’s a little run down on the epic adventure we had…..

Free Bread? I’m in!!

Our first day started a little late as we couldn’t leave the house til about 3 o’clock on Friday. It was also downpouring with rain so we went slower than normal up the Sea to Sky. Not a big deal though, we had the soothing sounds of Hall & Oates and beautiful views along the way to keep us entertained.

We actually ended up getting in to Whistler a little earlier than we anticipated as we didn’t stop in Squamish for fried chicken at Sunny Chibas. I know, blasphemy! Sorry, Sonny, we snacked on Doritos and saved our appetite for all the free bread we planned on eating later. With a little bit of time to kill we decided to pull in to Whistler Brewing for a couple pints and some live music with Pierre Eady. We walked in as he was tuning up for some Ring of Fire so we ordered some Chestnut Ale (a seasonal classic), grabbed a table and enjoyed the Man In Black cover tunes.

Next up was hotel check-in, which is always quick and easy at my preferred hotel in Whistler. A huge shout out has to go to Tourism Whistler and the Delta Whistler Village Suites for bringing this weekend together. Their hospitality was unrivaled!

After circling the underground parking lot at the Delta 3 times looking for a spot to plug in my car (yes, I’m an EV guy) I finally found an outlet and realized I had driven past it twice already. There were actually quite a few spots to plug in electric vehicles in the Delta parking lot, I guess I just need glasses.

The room was spectacular as always. Great views of the village, separate bedroom, tv room with a pullout couch, kitchen with a full sized fridge and, my favorite, a king sized bed! We also had a little welcome package ready for us with some cozy socks to put on and chill by the fireplace.

With our feet cozy in our new socks, we put on our stretchy pants and took the 5 minute walk (everything is 5-10 minutes from The Delta) over to The Keg for some of that free bread I keep mentioning. Actually we were there for a full meal, the Beef Dip and Barley Sips special to be precise, but anyone that’s been to The Keg knows about those warm, airy loaves they bring to your table before your meal. The real Keg aficionados know to order the three cheese spread with their bread (#KegHack).

Side Note: speaking of Keg aficionados, does anyone else get nostalgic at the Keg reminiscing of filling up on breadsticks from the salad bar and falling asleep in your chair in that low lighting? Damn, I miss that salad bar…I think.

We rationed our bread this time because we had our eyes on some of the classic appies we love from The Keg; bacon wrapped scallops and baked garlic shrimp. These were coupled with a pint of Backcountry Brewing‘s Widowmaker IPA, one of my fav staple beer from any BC brewery. For the main course I went for the beef dip and Mrs. Explorer went all in with the prime rib and garlic mashed potatoes. As I mentioned earlier, we wore stretchy pants. This wasn’t our first food rodeo at the Keg.

It was raining outside but that didn’t matter, most of the main village in Whistler has covered walkways, plus we needed some of that rain on our faces to wake up from the food coma. We took a look in the Rocks & Gems store, Rocky Mountain Chocolate (yes, even with our full bellies) and then trekked back to the hotel to freshen up before our last stop of the night, The Firerock Lounge.

Located inside the Westin Resort & Spa, the Firerock lounge is one of the hidden gems for late night cocktails in Whistler. It’s typically a must visit for me if I’m in the mood for some low lit, chalet vibes at the end of the night. Friday night was no exception. Mrs. Explorer and I melted in to our seats and both enjoyed a warm Velvet Leprechaun. <– That’s a drink, not an experimental drug or some kinky sexual reference, ya weirdos.

My Arms Are Sore

Parents with young kids can relate to this but sleeping in past 6:30am on a Saturday is worth a vacation all on it’s own. Thank you Delta Whistler Village for letting us catch up on sleep!

I leisurely rolled out of bed and went to grab coffee for the Mrs and I from Pure Bread. I wasn’t intending on grabbing any food, as we had a brunch lined up already, but if you’ve ever been to Pure Bread then you know that’s impossible. We finished our coffees and got out of our hotel robes then headed out to our breakfast spot, “The Living Room” at the Pangea Pod Hotel.

What better choice for a meal after a night of beer and cocktails than the “Hair of the Dog” breakfast which included coffee and mimosas? Mrs. Explorer, who has a background and schooling in cooking, said the eggs in the bennies were perfectly cooked. That doesn’t sound like the biggest compliment but it really is hard to find a restaurant that cooks their eggs properly for a bennie. The bacon had a smoky flavour to it that was delicious and made me want to order another couple sides of it.

The decor of The Living Room is really nice too. Great lighting and clean aesthetic but with cool art on the walls. You also get great views of the village walkway from their windows which makes for some entertaining people watching. I sipped on my mimosa and observed a kid hitting her mom at breakfast as the mom tried swatting her hand away while holding a convo with her friends. Aaahhh, parenting.

For the next adventure we had to get back to the hotel to put on our workout clothes and and do some stretching because we were headed to The Core for indoor rock climbing. I’ll admit, I was a little worried about this one. My arms aren’t really strong enough to support the spare tire I’ve been lugging around and I may have been skipping out on my core workouts for the last 1 or 20 years. For Mrs. Explorer she has a bit of a fear of heights, so this one was a little out of her comfort zone as well.

When we arrived, Robin, our instructor, geared us up in some climbing shoes and harnesses and we walked out to the gym. It was a little intimidating at first but Robin calmed our nerves and assured us he was there to take the weight if we dropped off the wall. We started on a couple easier walls which turned out to be a breeze for me. I flew up them! To Mrs. Explorer’s surprise, the height didn’t factor in for her at all, she was killing it too. Then Robin moved us over to some harder climbs. They have everything marked and colour coded on their walls according to the universal climbing scales. The first two climbs we did were in the 5.1-5.2 range, then we gradually started to go up in levels, vertical angles and traversing. This is where we really started to feel it in our arms and fingers. The holds started to get flatter and smaller and definitely took more technique to not fall off in the 5.4 to 5.6 range. Mrs. Explorer and I both completed our 4th climbs and came down for a breather. We were panting and our arms were tired but we were so full of adrenaline, we wanted to keep going. Who knew rock climbing was this much fun?

Robin brought us to the 5.8 wall for our next climb. Harder holds, some overhangs and a lot of traversing. This is where Mrs. Explorer schooled me at climbing! There was one point on the wall that went through a small overhang and a long stretch to get to the next hold. I was so tired and weak at that point, I just couldn’t hang on. I fell off three times before I had to call it quits. Mrs. Explorer? She made it first try and rang the bell at the top to establish her dominance over me. After swallowing my pride, I gave her a high five and then we went to try some bouldering.

Bouldering is totally different from rock climbing. No ropes, you start from a sitting position, you don’t go as high but the actual climbing is way more technical (don’t @ me, rock climbers). I could hardly make it to the third hold! I was extremely tired by that point but I think even with full energy I wouldn’t have made it much past that third hold. Mrs. Explorer did a bit better than me but she was struggling as well. Bouldering is no joke! As we were sitting their huffing and puffing, dead tired, we heard some grunting from the bouldering wall beside us and saw a woman who must’ve been a relative of Spiderman scaling up the wall. It really made me second guess skipping my core workouts for the last forever years.

A huge thanks to Robin and the crew at The Core for making this experience so much fun and also making us realize how much physical and mental strength goes in to climbing! I need a beer.

As part of the Whistler Craft Beer Month activities, “Boulder and a Beer” also offered us a pint at Tapley’s, right across the walkway from The Core. We grabbed ourselves a table, ordered a Deep Cove POG Sour and struggled to lift our glasses to take sips. Damn you, Robin. That’s my drinking arm!

I was excited for the next activity. It’s something I do when I’m camping and I felt I would be pretty good at it. I mean, I had to be, right? Mrs. Explorer dominated me at rock climbing, I had to be better at something. Bring on axe throwing at the Racket Club!

Only one problem though, our arms were still shaking from rock climbing. Maybe the Axewood Crew could give us some tips on proper throwing techniques to use some different muscles. Or better yet, maybe we could mix in some mead from Humblebee Meadery to relax our muscles and minds! Both terrific ideas.

Jack, our axe throwing instructor, was hucking awesome. Not only was he helpful but he can seriously huck some axes. He had all the trick shots and he even taught me a few things. Check out the Instagram Reel for some of my highlights (and low lights). The set up for the axe throwing at the Racket Club was great too! Covered tents to keep us dry, comfy outdoor couches to chill and and sip our mead, a stereo for some tunes and a fire to keep us warm. I would definitely do this again with a group of friends. Speaking of which, they also told me about the giant snowballs fights (Avalaunch) they have in the winter in the racket club’s tennis court. When Jack isn’t throwing sharp objects, he’s making thousands of snowballs an hour for people that want to hurl snowballs at each other. Who wants to do it with me this winter? Shirts versus skins!

After all the physical exertion it was time to finally hit that hot tub at the Delta. We grabbed a few drinks from the local liquor store, put on our robes and got ready to chill or heat or both? I dunno, we were going to the hot tub.

The Delta has three hot tubs (2 outdoor and 1 indoor) and a heated outdoor pool which they keep at a comfy 30 degrees. The most epic part about the pool (besides being heated) is the indoor-to-outdoor swim out. If I was a better instagrammer I’d have a slow-mo video of me swimming through the entrance, rising out of the water and shaking the water out of my hair….. my chest hair, not the hair on my head. No time for that though, we wanted to get in the tub.

That warm dip was much needed and it got our appetites going again so we headed over to Black’s Pub for a pizza and a pint. The pizza was great and we must’ve been extra hungry because we scarfed a large pizza between the two of us in no time. We also had some entertainment a couple tables away from us with some drunk twenty-somethings loudly talking about their personal lives and their plans for the rest of the night. Most of which I probably shouldn’t repeat here. Oh to be young and not feel hangovers again.

We ended the night strolling through the village and doing a little shopping then went back to the hotel for some Netflix and chill. I contemplated hitting up Garfinkel’s downstairs to get nostalgic but we were so tired and sore that I would’ve needed to be peeled off that couch to get up.

Brunch, Beer and Bye Byes

Sunday morning was spent sleeping in (again) and then packing up our bags before brunch. Check-out took about 30 seconds (thanks for making it easy, Delta) and then we drove over to Stonesedge Kitchen to fill up before our drive home.

We had brunch at Stonesedge last year during our craft beer month visit and it was outstanding, so doing it again this year was openly welcomed. We started off with some much needed coffee (which was delicious, by the way) and ordered the Blueberry Liege Waffles and the Beer-Infused Breakfast Poutine to share. A little bit of sweet and a little bit of salty, the perfect breakfast spread.

The food was great, as usual, and the service was top notch. Stonesedge is definitely one of my fav food spots in Whistler. It’s also right next to The Core, so you could do some climbing and then carb load on waffles afterwards.

The plan was to drive straight home after brunch but we couldn’t resist stopping at Whistler Brewing again for a farewell brew. I think we just couldn’t bring ourselves to leave and go back to reality. The good news is, Whistler is only a 2 hour drive from home! If we ever get the hankering for some chestnut ale or perfect eggs bennie or rock climbing, great coffee, hot tub dips, axe throwing, free bread (with cheese dip), beer drinking or a plethora of over fun activities, we know what to enter in to Google Maps…..

….”Whistler”, just in case you didn’t get it.