It had started snowing heavily a half hour before Cheryln and I arrived at the ski lodge. We had been planning this getaway for over 2 months and we didn't want anything to thwart our plans.
Cheryln had found out about this place from a friend of hers, who had told her how fabulous it was. She called me about it and after I checked it out on the 'net, I agreed to go with her. So far it lived up to it's description.
Set amongst a backdrop of pines and other coniferous trees on the hillside, the chalet looked very inviting. Smoke was curling from the many chimneys and there were lots of skis sitting in the ski rack just off to the side. Smaller versions of the chalet were nestled along the tree line. It looked even better than the pictures in the brochure.
A small lake with ice fishing huts scattered across it could be seen in the background and snowmobiles lined the driveway leading up to the lodge. We could just make out a few skiers making their way down the slopes and a few were straggling in from the x-country trails.
"Well, I guess we might as well get this thing parked and check in." I said to Cheryln.
"Yup, might as well. The place looks really busy. I wonder which cabin is ours. I hope it's one closest to the lift!!" Cheryln replied back.
We got the car parked and managed to gather up all the luggage between the two of us, and headed to the main lodge to check in. Our skis we left locked on the roof rack. It was starting to snow even harder now and we wanted to get settled in as soon as possible. In fact we couldn't even see the ski hill anymore.
"I think this is great. Just think we're here for four days!! I wonder if there will be any cute guys here? Maybe even one with a broken leg that I could tend to!" Cheryln laughed as we walked in the main foyer of the lodge.
"Guys!!! You and your one track mind!!" I quipped back, "I thought we were coming here to ski? Although that guy right over there by the books isn't half bad."
Cheryln looked over to see who I was talking about. "Hmm, not bad, but I think he is a little too old for me!!"
I laughed at that. "Well, now there you see the difference between you and me. I prefer the "older" man, the mature man, the more experienced man....."
"Owwwww," I said as she punched me in the shoulder. "What was that for?"
"Karin, I sometimes wonder about you." Cheryln giggled.
Finally it was our turn to check in. The girl gave us our keys and told us which cabin we were in and told us to make ourselves comfortable.
**********
After getting our stuff put away in our cabin, which didn't happen to be the one closest to the lifts but the one next to it, we got changed and headed back to the main lodge for dinner. Seeing as it was Friday evening they usually had a bit of a gathering after dinner where everyone could introduce themselves to each other.
Walking through the main area we got a good glimpse of our surroundings. Everything was done in a soft pine. Multi-color print valances hung on the windows and decorated the tables that were scattered throughout the lobby. It all looked so cosy and homey.
Walking into the lounge area we could see matching couches and chairs in small groupings. The fireplace was the central focal point. It was set in the center of the far wall with a hand carved mantelpiece and metal hooks embedded into the stonework that flanked the fire area. Large picture windows on either side, completed the picture.
"Wow, look at the way it's snowing now! I'm glad we got here when we did." I said to Cheryln as I pointed to the beautiful sight of the large fluffy flakes falling outside the window.
"Yeah, no kidding. Look at this place! It's fantastic. I think this is going to be worth every penny we spent."
"Well let's go and get dinner. I'm a little hungry after that long drive. Besides we'll get to scope out the rest of the guests while we're eating." I said. "It was a good thing we left when we did or we would have never made it."
We made our way into the dining room and it too had it's own fireplace, but not as large as the one in the lounge.
"Not that many people here yet" Cheryln observed.
"Good, that means that we'll be able to watch as they come in." I said as we got ourselves a table close to the fireplace.
"Hah, and you talked about me and my "guys" earlier. You're just as bad as I am if not worse."
"Me?? worse than you? NOT!!"
"Hey, isn't that Peta Wilson? and who is that guy she's with?" Cherlyn cried out.
"Where??" I gasped as I looked around to see where Cheryln was pointing. "OH MY GAWD! It is her. Wow. That must be Damian her boyfriend. I wonder what she is doing up here. They must have a break from the show."
"Wouldn't it just be wonderful if Roy was here too! Just imagine, us here with Roy!!!" Cherlyn sighed.
"Yeah, wouldn't it though. But I doubt very much if he would even come to a place like this with having his farmhouse and all........ OHHHHHHH, don't look now but he IS here!!" I shrieked.
"Where, where???"
"Right over there at that table on the other side of the room by the corner."
"He was here this whole time and we didn't notice??? We are slipping." she sighed. "Okay, we need to keep calm here."
"I can't believe this. Your friend is definitely going to get a very special gift from me when we get back. If we ever get back. Look outside now!! I can't believe how hard it's snowing. You can barely see the trees that are there."
"So, who cares!! If we can't go anywhere, then neither can they. Right?" Cheryln asked.
"Hmmmm, you're right. I wonder if they'll be at the welcome party tonight? I sure hope so. I would love to get introduced to him. I just hope I don't make a fool out of myself and faint at his feet."
"I don't know if I can eat anything now! This is too exciting. Although I guess we had better." she said. "I wouldn't want to faint from hunger!! And if I drink anything stronger than hot chocolate tonight I'll end up making a fool of myself."
"Yup, we better. I think I'll have a caesar salad and the roast partridge. What are you going to have?"
"Hmm, not sure. I think I'll have the caesar too, but I'll stick with a nice steak, baked potato and veggies." Cheryln answered. "I'm not very adventurous when trying out new foods."
"I'll let you have a taste of mine when I get it. I love trying out different foods, although I have had partridge before."
After dinner was over they headed back to their cabin to get ready for the evenings activities. Glancing over to the table that Roy had been sitting at they noticed that he had left.
*******
"I'm so excited Cheryln. I sure hope they will be there. I can't believe that they are actually here at the same time we are."
"I'm beginning to wonder about who is the older one here Karin. I can't ever remember seeing you like this before."
"Well, so sue me. I have watched that show and anything I can get my hands on to do with Roy. I saw him in a tv movie long before he started on La Femme Nikita and thought he was fantastic then. You know, the one about the quintuplets. Remember the episode with Andrea, that butch looking broad? well she played his wife in that movie too, although she looked a lot different then."
"Yeah I saw that movie. That was a sad story."
"Yes, it was. Anyway, enough with the chit chat!! How do I look?" Karin asked as she turned around slowly.
"You look great. What about me?" Cheryln did the same.
"Great. Now let's get out of here while we can still see where the lodge is." Karin replied.
"Okay, let's go knock 'em dead."
After struggling with their outerwear, they finally managed to get ready and head to the lodge. When they arrived there they noticed that Peta and Damian were already settled into one of the love seats. Roy was nowhere to be seen. But to their surprise Matthew was sitting in one of the chairs closest to the fire.
"Wow, this must be a popular place for the cast." Cheryln observed.
"Must be."
Just then one of the employees stepped up to the temporary stage set up in the one corner.
"If I may have everyone's attention please, I have an announcement to make." he said.
The guests all stopped what they were doing and a hush fell over the room. Their full attention was now on the stage.
"Thank you. I want to introduce myself. Hi Everyone. I'm Scott and I'll be your host for this evening." he said and there was a chorus of "hi Scott" from the guests.
"First off, I want to welcome you all to the Pinehaven Lodge. I'm sure you'll enjoy your visit with us. Secondly, we have a pleasant surprise for all of our guests. I'm sure some of you have noticed that we have some "celebrity" guests among us. Due to the unfortunate weather conditions, but fortunate for us, the cast and crew of the show La Femme Nikita have been snowbound with us for the weekend. They were filming a segment of the show for an upcoming episode at this location and were suppose to head back to Toronto tomorrow afternoon, but it looks as though they will be here for the duration."
A round of applause went up from the guests before Scott had a chance to continue. People who hadn't been at dinner turned their head to take a look around to see which of the cast were in the room.
"I see some of you looking around. At present, we have Peta Wilson aka Nikita here as well as Matthew Ferguson which you all know as Birkoff. The rest of the cast as well as some of the crew members will arrive shortly."
Peta and Matthew both stood up when they were introduced.
"They have graciously agreed to join us this evening and chat with our guests. You'll have noticed that when we send out our registration packages that there is a questionnaire that you all filled out. There is a reason for that. A lot of times we have special guests come for a weekend or an evening. What we do with those questionnaires is try and get people with the same interests here at the same time and have a special guest that matches those interests." Scott paused and took a sip of water from the glass that was sitting on the table next to him.
"I wondered about that thing they had us fill out." I said to Cheryln. "Now I can understand why they charge what they do."
"Nice surprise! And here I thought that we just got lucky with them being here."
"Now," Scott continued, "it looks as though they will be with us the whole weekend and as such, I would like to take this opportunity to ask, that unless we have a "formal" Q&A period, that we respect their privacy. I know that some of you," he glanced at me and Cheryln, "are excited about them being here." We just grinned and looked back at him.
"Ahh, we have a few more of our special guests arriving." Scott said as his glance went toward the entrance to the lounge. "Here we have Don Francks, Eugene Glazer, Alberta Watson and Roy Dupuis. I almost said their character names," he chuckled, "but then I'm sure you would still have known who I meant."
"Hi everyone." Don said as he made himself comfortable in a chair that was placed on the stage. "We're glad we were able to be here for you tonight. I guess you could say that I will be the "unofficial" moderator for tonight."
"Yes, Don will sort of help things along tonight." Scott said. "I will be in and out during the evening but I still have some things that need to be attended to before the evening is over. I hope you all enjoy yourselves. See you later."
With that the evening progressed smoothly and quickly. Don took over getting everyone from the cast up on the stage and once that was done he directed the evenings questions. All too soon the evening had ended.
"Well folks, I think we are going to call this a night. We'll be back here tomorrow night, same night, same channel." Walter joked.
After that the room slowly cleared as people headed to their rooms. There were just a handful of guests left.
"Well, what do you think Karin," Cheryln asked, "Do you want to have a nightcap before we head out?"
"Sounds good to me." I replied.
The fire was dying down a bit and the flames were throwing shadows throughout the room. It was very nice to sit and contemplate the evening that had just passed.
"Hello ladies. Mind if we join you?" a voice beside us asked.
We looked up to see Eugene and Roy standing there.
"No, not at all." we both said, once we had found our voices.
"This is really nice of you all to take time out to answer all of our questions." Cheryln commented.
"We enjoy it actually. Sometimes we wish we could do it more often but with our schedules it is hard to fiind the time." Roy said before he took a sip of his hot chocolate.
"Well, we appreciate any time that you are able to give to the fans." I said. "It must be so strange though to have all these fans clamouring for your attention though. You don't have very much privacy do you?"
"It comes with the job." Eugene answered. "You learn to live with it and of course you know it comes with the territory when you choose this kind of profession. It's very flattering actually."
"Oui, I agree." Roy piped in. "It is very flattering for us."
"I wonder how long this storm is suppose to last." Cheryln said. "When do you have to be back in Toronto?"
"We were suppose to be back tomorrow, but our schedule is ahead, so it won't matter if we don't get back till Monday." 'Gene said. "In fact I think if we had to be snowed in anywhere, this is the place to be."
"Yes, I may even get in some skiing tomorrow, if the weather clears a bit." Roy said. "It's been a while since I have had the pleasure. My farmhouse keeps me so busy that I have not had much time for the simple fun."
"It must be a lot of work to renovate an older house." Karin commented. "Although it must give you a lot of pleasure too, to see the finished product."
"Yes, I enjoy working with my hands. It is very pleasurable to see the final result."
"Well, people, I can barely keep my eyes open any longer." Cheryln said as she smothered a yawn with her hand. "I'm sorry, but this has been a real long day. Thank you for joining us."
"Yes, it is getting a bit late." Eugene agreed. "I'm sure we'll see you girls tomorrow on the slopes. Have a good night."
"We'll be there." I said as I rose to gather my things together. "Good night."
"Good Night." Roy said as he too stood up. "Have pleasant dreams. Au Revoir."
With that we all left and went to our lodgings for the night with the thoughts of having an enjoyable weekend.
