Fairmont BC with Friends (Reposted from October 2012)

For the weekend of Thanksgiving this year, my friend Dale invited our volleyball team to join him and his wife in Fairmont, BC. His parents offered us their condo timeshare and we gladly accepted. For three nights, we filled two condos with food, friends and laughter.

On our first day, there were only 5 of us available for supper as we waited for the rest of our group to show up so we headed to Kimberly in search of a German restaurant. I didn't realize it before but Kimberly has a large population of Germans and many great restaurants to from which to choose. After a quick, chilly walk around a relatively deserted street, we decided to try one place that was just opening for the evening, Gasthaus. A friendly, warm Bavarian atmosphere, Gasthaus offered us great food and beer. Unfortunately, they ran out of the Dunkel beer my friend I had ordered so we shared one between us.

Bryan and I decided to share the escargots appetizer. It was quite tasty but not too heavy on the cream and oils that some places use.

Soon after our appetizer, our waitress (who had the patience and good humor to answer all our silly questions and fulfill our constant requests) brought out a table-side salad bar and provided us with our options. My salad was basic greens - just the way I like it - with a raspberry vinaigrette. I found it tasty but too much dressing was used.

Bryan tried out the intriguing wasabi dressing and, being the gracious boyfriend he is, allowed me to taste. While not my favorite, the dressing was slightly spicy yet very tasty.
I have never tried German food purposely before so I was right ready to go all in. My meal was Mushroom Veal Schnitzel with Spaetzle. I don't eat a lot of veal, normally, but I did enjoy the Spaetzle and mushroom sauce. The veal was fine but I did leave half of it behind. Overall, I was quite impressed.
The weekend in Fairmont consisted of a lot of eating and drinking, with some time to sleep. We didn't do a lot for activities but Friday night we pulled out my game of Twister and had a battle between everyone. I'm not sure who won but we sure did have a blast playing and watching!
Saturday was golf for most of the group but a friend and I stayed behind to cook a roast chicken dinner for everyone. We were enjoying our quiet afternoon when we decided to walk to the grocery store. We were about halfway up the hill when people pulled up in their van to tell us there were bears in the trees ahead. We thanked them and turned around. As we were walking back, though, right beside where we just had been, we saw a bear in a yard. We crossed the street, not sure what to do, when the neighbors came out a scared the beta right towards us! Luckily it just ran into the bush but we got back to the condo and didn't leave again!
Our last night there our friend, Dave, began to turn blotchy and red while drinking his wine, so, of course, the other guys thought it would be fun to see what else he could handle and gave Dave a bunch of shots. We think it was the root beer schnapps but something made him turn bright red all over and have trouble breathing. We put him to bed and were very happy to see him alive and back to his normal color in the morning. Next time he decides to be the guinea pig for an experiment, though, we will make sure he's near a hospital!

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