Skiing at Whistler Blackcomb

TRAVELING!!!

One of the things that I enjoy the most about unschooling is the flexibility we have to travel. In November, we were very generously offered the chance to stay at our friend's condo in Whistler for FREE!! Eli, Avery and Emily have been skiing quite a bit for the past 5 years and I taught Dante and Sophia to ski about 2 years ago. Nicole is still learning and wrestling with the ski boots, which are often uncomfortable, though she did manage to fit into Dante's and ski two days!).

Whistler is a very desirable (and nearby for us Washingtonians) destination. Eli (13) went to Whistler when he was 12 with his grandparents (just AFTER the Olympics), and he loved it! After this trip, he says he wants to live there (at least during the ski season).

So for Thanksgiving this year, we spent a week just steps from the Creekside Gondola at Whistler in British Colombia, Canada! It was totally awesome. Something for which we were all very thankful!

So much learning is always involved in traveling: Do we need passports? (adults yes, kids under 16 no) Where are we going? (north, south, another country?) How far away is it? How long is it going to take? (where do we stop for lunch - Vancouver Chinatown) What's the weather going to be like? (good snow coverage, raining, icy?) Do we need Canadian money or can we pay with US dollars? (oh cool - Canadian money is so much prettier!) How much does this gallon of organic milk cost in US dollars? (OMG - $9!!)

You get the picture.

LOTS of natural learning happens before, during, and after a trip like this - which is what I love about living this unschooling life. Obviously, anybody (including people who attend school) have such opportunities and also learn a lot about life through travel, but I do notice that their trips are relegated to weekends and holidays, whereas we have more flexibility (only limited by my work commitments at our cafe) to make traveling (near and far) a regular part of our lives (and we do).

An extra bonus for this trip was that Eli and Avery got to meet up with a Canadian family of unschoolers and ski with them for a day. (The day of the blizzard - which was fun and exciting!!) Eli met Gemma at Not Back to School Camp this past summer, and it turns out that her family is big into skiing as well, and had plans to ski at Whistler while we were there! Unfortunately, I missed meeting them as I didn't ski that day, but we look forward to skiing with them again sometime and have made a nice connection with another unschooling family.

I put together a slideshow of some of the pics from our trip. Maybe it will inspire you to want to go skiing at Whistler. If you do, let us know. Maybe we'll meet you there! We all definitely want to return!! (It's an easy day of travel for us here in Washington.)