Whistler

Our second day took us on an adventure up to Whistler, B.C. Our hope was to see big mountains and take a gondola ride, but the weather decided not to cooperate. Surprise! Surprise! It was rainy and cloudy. That did not deter us from having a great day.

On the drive to Whistler, we made a couple of stops and took a couple of hikes to see some beautiful waterfalls. Our first stop took us to Sharon Falls.

We were very impressed by the height of the falls, even though it was foggy.

I can't remember the name of these falls, but they were still beautiful. The trail took us up to a overlook that stuck out over a cliff near the falls. Needless to say that Dawny was not too excited to be out there.

The Village of Whistler

The people wouldn't move out of the picture. Oh well.

All of the skiing events for the 2010 Winter Olympics took place in Whistler. The village was very cute. I had never been to a ski village before.

As we were driving around Whistler, we saw bear #1 at the tube park. Make note: bear #1.

As we were driving around the country side, we came across a mama bear and her cubs. Note: bears # 2, 3, & 4.

Since we couldn't take a gondola ride in Whistler, we decided to drive around just to see what we could see. We happen to come across the Olympic Park where all of the ski events took place. We were amazed that they let anyone walk around to see all the event sites. During the heavy snow season, they even have the park open for people to use. That means just a few weeks ago, there were people there cross country skiing. Yup. Just a few weeks ago, there was even more snow there.

Meet Ilanaaq.
We called him Stonehenge. In the area, these are called inuksuk, which are used for
reference marks or navigation. This was the logo for the Olympics.

The ski jump area. Those are HIGH! I was completely amazed by how high they were.

The cross country skiing trails used also for the biathlon.

A lot of snow!

A whole lotta snow!!!!

The shooting range which was part of the biathlon.

The start/finish line for the cross country skiing.

Remember Sharon Falls at the beginning of the post. Well, as we were driving back to Vancouver, the clouds started clearing, and as we were passing by the falls again we noticed something...it is a whole lot bigger than what we first saw! What we saw the first trip was just above the electrical line. Look at how much further up it goes?! Completely amazing!!

Dawn's picture

Nathan's picture
You can tell the difference in our styles.

And yes, another bear. We saw seven bears total that day, but it didn't compare to the number of Starbucks we saw in downtown Seattle. ;-P

Vancouver

What a wonderful trip Nathan and I had. It went by in such a blur, yet it felt like we had been away from Emma forever. We flew into Seattle Saturday evening and drove a little over half way to Vancouver. On Sunday morning, we finished the drive up and spent the day in Vancouver. It was such a beautiful day!

Our day started in Stanley Park. The park is 1000 acres just across the bay from downtown Vancouver and has an aquarium, beaches, totem poles and tons more!

A nice jogger took our picture.

We saw lots of sea planes.

There is a section in the park dedicated to totem poles of the original aboriginal people of the area. Some of the poles were built around the late 1880s. Some have been refurbished while others have been added over time.

Brockton Point Lighthouse

Some big driftwood and my cute boy!

A view of downtown

Rogers Arena where the Vancouver Canuks play. We missed the last playoff game, which was probably a good thing since there were riots after.

Olympic Village where the athletes stayed during the Winter Olympics last year.

After walking around downtown, we drove around for a while just to take it all in. It was a great start to our trip!
More pictures to come...there are A LOT!!!