Day 28: Whistler and a Birthday

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Today was Whistler Day for Tom, Jeff and I while Graeme was going to the Vancouver Aquarium for a mix of business and fun.
We had originally decided on getting the bus to Whistler but decided we may as well hire a car and have discretion around when we left and returned. To make the morning more "efficient" we booked the hire car online from the Richmond airport which was only a few kilometers away. In the morning we caught a cab to the airport and tried to pick up our car. After sometime the guy at the service counter worked out that we had booked a car from Richmond - in Virginia, USA and not Richmond Airport in Vancouver. The other complicating factor was they had no cars available for us. Oh dear, nothing like a bit of drama to start the day. We worked our way along the line of Hire Car companies at the airport and eventually got a small SUV from Alamo Car Hire. We were paying double the amount we thought we'd have to, but at this late stage we just needed to get a car and start driving to Whistler.
The weather forecast had predicted rain and unfortunately it was right. It took us just over 2 hours to get to Whistler and it rained the whole way. We started by getting some lunch and then looking around the village.
Whistler is an amazing place. There are 3 main villages that are done extremely well. The Olympic Games were partially held here in 2010 and the villages got a make over at the time. The original design of the villages didn't allow for cars on the streets. All cars were parked in carparks on the village periphery. The rain made it difficult to do much more than look through the shops but it didn't stop the mountain bikers getting the chairlift up the mountain and riding down the dirt bike tracks. We had wanted to do the Gondola ride but it disappeared into cloud less than half way up the mountain cancelling out any possible views. So while we went to Whistler I don't really feel like I've seen it.
We left for Vancouver shortly after 4pm expecting to get back around 6:30pm but a nasty accident involving a truck and a concrete barrier put paid to that delaying us by an hour. It's Graeme's birthday next Tuesday so we took him out for dinner to celebrate tonight as well as it being our last night in Canada. We've been all "reflective" over dinner recounting stories and what stood out for us individually. Each day has been an adventure and thrown up the unexpected, I guess in one sense, that in itself has been a highlight.

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