We woke up in Whistler on a brisk morning to sound of a bubbling stream that ran right behind our campsite. Not a bad way to start the day! We had made reservations to do a zipline tour at Ziptrek Ecotours - after a slight wardrobe malfunction (the zipper on my pants broke!), for which I ran back to our car to change pants, we got started, flying through the air on five separate lines that gave us a birds-eye view of the streams and forests of Whistler mountain, not to mention a good dose of adrenaline!
Here's a travel journal entry about Whistler:
"In spite of the cold overnights, I’m so happy we added Whistler to the itinerary - what a fun city. Like Disney World for adults! We ziplined, hiked, road some crazy-high gondolas, explored some fun bars and cooked an awesome meal at the campfire. Our campfire meal included lots of fresh summer squash and zucchini straight from the farm, purchased a day earlier at the Penticton Farmer’s Market."
DAY 6:
We spent our next morning hiking around the top of Whistler Mountain, scoping out future winter Olympics sites, then taking the new, world's longest gondola over to Blackcombe Mountain before hitting the road for Vancouver.The drive, of course, was spectacular as we made our way from mountains to coast driving south along the Pacific Ocean on the Sea to Sky Highway. After checking into our hotels in downtown, we walked around the oh-so-swanky neighborhood of Yaletown and stopped for an al fresco dinner at a fabulous restaurant, Simply Thai.
DAY 7:
(From my journal, still in Vancouver)
"Woke up still feeling pretty groggy, but trooped on anyway, exploring all of downtown on foot. We started at Canada Place, a huge convention center made to look like a ship with sails, built over the water. From there, we wandered into historic Gastown, a really neat old part of the city, and then into Chinatown - the walk was not without some cheap thrills. Without realizing it, we took the dodgy, druggie street as a through-way to get from Gastown to Chinatown. In broad daylight - literally a few feet from me - two derelict men were exchanging money for a syringe of god knows what. Eek! We quickly walked along that street and luckily Chinatown was a much friendlier environment.
Wandered around a bit before settling on a dim-sum restaurant, something Alicia loved and wanted us to experience. Not knowing how dim-sum worked, Ben and I ordered tons of food at the beginning, instead of in stages like you’re supposed to! There was lots of deep-fried goodness; Chinese comfort-food, if you will, and we thoroughly enjoyed it: Steamed veggie wraps, shrimp-stuffed eggplant, pork-stickers for the carnivores, salt and pepper fried squid (I actually liked this!!), shrimp eggrolls and fried tofu. I’ve definitely had my fill of Asian food now, but glad I tried it here, where it’s some of the best!
We continued to walk along the harbor for quite a ways until we reached the West End, Vancouver’s hip gay district. Loved this area! It was charming and bustling with young people, pastry shops, flower shops, produce markets, and all right along the harbor with views down the street of water. We ended up grabbing a table at a British-style pub and I’m pretty sure we had the best view in the city, watching the sun set on the water over several pitchers of beer from a local micro-brewery."DAY 8:
For our second day in Vancouver, we rented bikes and rode the 5.5-mile trail through Stanley Park, a gorgeous urban park that affords not only stunning skyline views, but also breathtaking vistas of the Pacific Ocean, small beaches and the many bays surrounding the city. After getting our exercise, we caught a water taxi to the famous Granville Island, a funky little island that's been transformed from an industrial district to an artsy haven of craft shops, bookstores and restaurants. A local had told us the best place for fish & chips was a small shack on the far side of the island, Go Fish.
Tracking the place down was hard work, and it proved to be a great success but also our downfall! The tiny establishment is on the harbor and brings fish in fresh from the boats each day. We waited patiently in a line full of locals, and watched hungrily as people chowed down on baskets piled with battered halibut and cod with crisp fries. We were hungry - and I mean hungry - so each ordered the largest size available, and, to our eventual detriment, ate pretty much all of it! It was one of our best meals of the trip, and highly anticipated, but the rest of the day was spent bemoaning the fact that we could barely move we were so full! Nonetheless, Ben and I made it out much later that night to get sushi with a friend of his who lives in Vancouver. Ah well, only on vacation can you justify eating so much!From my journal, some final impressions of Vancouver:
"Am loving the laid-back, west-coast vibe of Vancouver. Feels more natural to me than Calgary. It’s just a really nice city - aside from the dodgy street, seems to be very clean with friendly people - I don’t have the sense that locals are putting on airs, or trying to show off what they have, as can be the case sometimes in Calgary. Quite the opposite, actually - everybody wants to be easy-going!"
See more pics on facebook; just click below:
Road Trip Photos Part 2
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