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Published: August 3rd 2013
August 1st, 2013
The weather has broken a little and we had cloud cover for a fair bit of today. Plenty of sun though but on a couple of occasions we actually felt the need of the sweater we’d brought with us. The mountains towards Whistler were still visible though so that’s where we headed.
The last time we came to Vancouver in the summer, the road to Whistler was actually closed due to a landslide by Horseshoe Bay so we were determined to go there this time. The boys have seen the village in winter but we wanted to show them Whistler in summer.
The sea to sky highway that runs from Vancouver to Whistler is just the most incredible stretch of road. You travel up Highway 99 with Sunshine Coast and various islands dotted about on the far left side, the mountains of the mainland on the right and ahead and the lovely blue and green hues of Howe Sound on your immediate left.
As usual we stopped off at Shannon Falls just before Squamish. The falls are still very impressive at this time of the year and provide a nice little break
on the hour and a half drive up to Whistler (a good proportion of which is spent just getting out of downtown Vancouver!).
Squamish itself provides a stopping off point for travelling to Whistler with plenty of restaurants and stores to choose from.
We stock up on food in Save-on-Foods and take a picnic to Alice Lake where we watch a group of students learn to kayak while huddling together to eat our food. The sun has retreated behind some persistent clouds and a chilly wind has blown up. This is more like the kind of weather we’re used to here!
Onto Whistler where we stay just a few hours for it would seem that the main aim of Whistler during the summer months is to extract as much money as is humanly possible from the tourists. To get to the top of the mountain in summer is going to cost us just shy of $50 each. Suddenly I miss the snow and the one (albeit expensive) lift pass that gives you a day of unlimited skiing.
We’ve already paid enough to park so instead of costly lift tickets we use a proportion of the money
The Spin Cycle
Not if you've just eaten...instead to buy a ride on the Luge for one son and a ride on the “Spin Cycle” for the other. It’s part of the “Adventure Zone” for families and over priced as well but the boys are thrilled. They’ve been spoilt with skiing in Canada so the lift rides would not have provided any novelty by themselves and Seymour and Cypress mountains have given us all the alpine meadows and panoramic views we could possibly ask for - and they were free.
Expensive it may be but Whistler is a lovely village and the journey up to it will always be one of our all time favourites.
Rainy Vancouver - August 2, 2013 Friday sees the rain finally arrive in Vancouver and instantly the city is how we remember it! The mountains are nowhere to be seen and we have to dig out our rain coats for the first time since we arrived. This is the city we know and love!
The forecast is looking good long term though so to spend a day milling around the condo, returning to the Mongolian BBQ for lunch and doing a bit of shopping is just fine with us. The boys get stuck into a bit of work, I catch up on some reading, emails and blog and we get in a bit of exercise in the condo’s gym downstairs. We’re off to Quadra Island tomorrow so an easier day today is probably a good idea. We have some packing to do!
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