Rock Star Parking

This week has been relatively quiet on the news front as our Photo Editor has unfortunately been very busy at his 'day job' having a system implementation meant that he worked about a 60 hour week whilst Rachael still managed to go to the ski hill to practice for 2010 Winter Olympics.
It was also Shaun's birthday this week which we celebrated with friends and folks from work at a local bar then moving on to a lovely restaurant called The Library at one of the hotels here in town called the Hume Hotel. They had a jazz duo playing Double Bass and Guitar which was quite groovy, they even played Happy Birthday for him!

The Hume Hotel comes with quite a local history which I have taken from their website:

"On March 17, 1898, the Hume Hotel opened with a grand celebration the likes of which had seldom been seen in Nelson. The fan-fair that accompanied the occasion underscored the sense of pride felt not only by J. Fred and Lydia Hume, original owners and one of Nelson's pioneer families, but also the local community in general. No consideration was left unchecked and the opening was a celebration of the skill, determination, and hard work that went in to the hotel's construction. It also heralded a new era for Nelson, which had been incorporated the year before, and provided a sense of hope and optimism for residents of the new city as they forged ahead into the 20th century.

Work on the Hume Hotel began on Saturday, June 12, 1897. At that time Nelson's landscape was considerably different from today. A deep ravine, created by Ward Creek, essentially divided the city in two, with the dirt roads of Vernon and Baker Streets passable only by way of wood frame bridges. The Hume Hotel, which sat on the corner of Ward and Vernon, was an impressive figure within this scene.

Following the revolutionary architectural standards of Frank Lloyd Wright, in May 1929 a massive interior and exterior renovation was completed. The Hume Hotel was so different in appearance that it was, as described in the Daily News, "hardly recognizable." He installed a telephone exchange and phone in every room, a dumb waiter, a French steel range, steam tables and electric dishwasher in the kitchen, and an icemaker capable of producing 600 pounds of ice daily. The level of service, sophistication, and general hospitality excellence, which were hallmarks of the Hume era.

"In this hotel Nelson possesses at once a structure of architectural beauty and imposing appearance, and a public Inn …which is equaled by few of the cities of British Columbia and certainly not in the interior."

-The Tribune, March 12, 1898

The hotel underwent a full renovation in the 1980s after falling into disrepair during the 1970s and almost being demolished having stood empty for a number of years".

The hotel today includes a restaurant, public bar, health spa, liquor store, the library lounge and spiritbar.

We managed to get out skiing on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Although there was no new snow we still have 254cm at the top of the Summit lift and the forecast for this week is 60% chance of flurries on Friday.

Some of the experienced local skiers like to enjoy the backcountry skiing at this time of year. This is all off piste and tends to be where there is untouched snow. One of the guys we know parks his truck half way up the ski hill approach road so he can ski backcountry back to his truck on the way home. As we were driving up the hill on Saturday we spotted him thumbing a lift up to the lodge. As we were approaching the back of the parking lot he radioed his ski buddy who was already on the lift to check if there was any 'Rock Star Parking'.
Well we didn't know what on earth he was talking about but he suggested that we headed to the very front of the parking lot where there it was, a space right on the front row! This is what the locals call Rock Star Parking as you are only a few steps away from the lift! Here is Clive our SUV proving that we actually 'ski to car'.

We have also been out to check out the DVD sales in one of our local stores. We have brought all our English DVDs with us but unfortunately we now don't have a multi-region DVD player so many of our discs we can't play unless it is through the computer.
As we were looking at the titles on sale we came across two excellent films for our new collection A Fish Called Wanda and also The Italian Job. So when Rachael is missing George the mini she can have a fix of mini adventures. Rachael's Dad has adopted George and has renovated him over the winter.

Here are a couple of shots in town this morning at about 8.30am when I was walking home after dropping Clive off at the Ford garage for his service. You will notice that all the snow has gone and the City of Nelson road crews were out hosing down the footpaths and roads to clean away the grit and salt.

You may notice that town look pretty quiet on these pictures - well at 8.30am we figure that folks are either still in bed (Kootenay time - early mornings are about a 10am start) or they are already heading up to the ski hill!

Finally we are looking forward to hosting our first visitors to Nelson, welcome to BC to The Tooths!

Love Rachael, Shaun, Phantom & Harley

xx