From Sea to Sky: A Road Trip of Awesome . . .

I thought it would be nice to do some exploring outside of Vancouver and see somewhere I hadn't seen before. Whistler seemed like a rather logical answer, seeing as it's just up the recently redone Sea to Sky Highway. Laura hadn't been there yet either, so that seemed like a bonus. Then, a friend I'd worked with a few years ago, "Prenko", happened to also be traveling out this way, so we arranged for her to come along with us. This morning, Laura and I picked up snacks and drinks and gormet cupcakes and selected some good CDs - all of the essentials for our road trip of awesome. After some fiascos with picking up the car itself, we picked up Prenko and were off out of the city.

The pretty started almost as soon as we left the city (and the city itself is already really pretty!). Throughout the entire day, our conversation would be interrupted with "Ooh, that's pretty", as we'd pass yet another pretty spot. I loved it!

We took our time going along the highway. Pretty much every time we saw a sign for "Scenic Viewpoint", I'd pull over the car and we'd climb out to admire and take pictures. Though we had a few specific stops that we knew were necessary. The first was Shannon Falls. Laura had heard of these falls a lot. She said that it seemed like every friend she had out here had a photo of themselves in front of these falls. So she had to get her own photo. We stopped at Shannon Falls, took the short walk (far far far less of a hike than what we'd read about - seriously some people overplay things to such extremes!) and got our photos. The falls were lovely.

As we drove along, I'd joked at a couple of little villages we'd passed through that the only thing that would make it more quintessentially Canadian would be a Tim Hortons tucked away somewhere. We found our Tim Hortons in Squamish and made a stop to indulge me. When I spend months on end away from home, I can never get enough of this home comfort when I return!

I think my favourite scenic viewpoint was the Tantalus viewpoint. We looked out over towering evergreens to mountains with glaciers at their peaks. It was awesome.

Our second falls stop was Brandywine Falls. We had no expectations for this stop. We hadn't heard anything about these falls; I'd only read that they exisited. We walked along the path through the forest until we could hear water flowing. We turned a corner and then there they were. And they were gorgeous! They fell through the trees and poured down an escarpment into a clear pool below. The views of the mountains and trees and the small river cutting through the landscape was gorgeous. Farther on down the path was another good lookout over the valley and to the mountains beyond. I also just loved walking through the forest. Something about the colouring felt mystical and I could just picture fantastical creatures there.

Around mid-afternoon we reached Whistler. We drove through the town to Whistler Village, the resort town. We parked the car and explored on foot. It seemed pretty small, it didn't take long to cover much of the village. We found ourselves a nice patio and sat down to enjoy some food and drinks. It was so lovely. Then Laura allowed Prenko and I to indulge in playing tourist as we went in and out of shops, looking for the perfect souvenirs. Of course every shop is overflowing with Olympic merchandise and that was mainly what we purchased. Eventually we found the official Olympic store which was pretty exciting. We were pretty crazy about the mascots and got lots of pictures of them and oohed and ahhed over all the different things we found with them on. The mascots - and especially their sidekick and the fact that it is continually pointed out that he is only a sidekick - became quite a running joke from then on.

Then we made the journey back, only stopping twice at two more lookout spots. We made it back to Vancouver just shortly before sunset which I was grateful for. I'm not sure I'd want to tackle that twisting highway in the dark yet! Seeing as we had the car and Prenko had only been in the city for one day, we decided to take advantage and go around the city some more. Laura did a driving tour for us as we cruised through the city. We went to Stanley Park and drove around to the different lookout spots. We reached Prospect Point just as the sun was going down and it was really gorgeous out there. We also pulled up alongside the Hallow Tree, a somewhat famous landmark in the park that I had only seen the other day as the trolley passed by. You can walk right through it's trunk. It's under construction so I couldn't really see much as I passed it the other day. So tonight we pulled up beside and could actually read the sign to figure out what it's all about. It looks like it would be pretty cool to see once it's finished being repaired.

For our last stop we went to Granville Island (becoming a regular spot for me to go!). We found a patio with a lovely view of the city and heat (why do we need heat in August?!?!) where we had some fancy drinks. Great wind down to a lovely day.

I'm so happy we decided to do this "road trip of awesome". It was so gorgeous throughout the whole day. And I had such great friends to enjoy it with. Definitely a great highlight for this trip.

Tons of photos yet again!

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