Stanley Park and Whistler

As we set out on our own for Stanley Park we were determined to walk the circumference of the seawall surrounding the island.  Stanley Park is an island adjacent to downtown Vancouver that you drive through to get to West Vancouver on the other side of the harbor.  As you leave the world of high rise buildings, hustle bustle of people and ridiculous traffic, you are suddenly whisked away to one of the most beautiful, serene and diverse part of the city.  Stanley Park is in itself a destination, with hiking, biking and walking trails, beautiful rose and rhododendron gardens, a heated ocean pool overlooking the harbour, a kids water playground, an aquarium, beaches, teahouses and ice cream stands galore.  There are many way to get around the park besides walking;  trolleys, buses and horse drawn carriage give tours of the island.   http://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/stanley-park.aspx .

 

 

Of course, we walked and walked and walked.  Not only did we walk the circumference of the island, but we walked along the harbor seawall past Canada Place, the Cruise ship terminal and down to Gas Town and back; a total of 11 miles that day as we took in the beautiful sights of Vancouver.  As we made our way around the island, we saw some wildlife, an otter eating a fish, cormorants swimming and diving for food, sea gulls, Canada geese and some swans. 

As we did a little reconnaissance for the luggage drop off on cruise day, we walked into historic Gastown, http://www.gastown.org/ just as the clock stuck 3 and saw the tail end of the famous Gastown Steam Clock blowing its stack of gas and playing a melody.  Our timing couldn’t have been more perfect.  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/09/24/bc-steamclock-gastown.html .  When researching for this blog, I found that the clock is actually a recent addition and is only 35 years old.  They did a great job fooling me into thinking it was an antique.  There are lots of lovely shops and eating places in Gastown and I would have loved to browse through the shops.  However, the task master informed me there was no time, the parking meter was expiring in 90 minutes and we had to get back to the car which was 3-4 miles away, so we had to keep walking-and FAST!  We did arrive with 5 minutes to spare as we wound up our perfect day in the park.



Olympic Torch at Canada Place

Even though Kathleen has an expansive view from her deck, try as I might, we couldn’t see any US fireworks on the 4^th.  Last year we spent the 4^th with the Haakons and Spadafores, other Cancun friends.  Missing that event this year, we were wishing them a happy 4^th of July and Happy Birthday to the twins!, Joseph and Nickolas.

 

Route 99 on the way to Whistler

On the 5^th we took a trip up to Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, the site of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games-skiing venues.  This is our 3^rd trip there and it just seems to getting better all the time.  We took the chair lift from the base of Blackcomb to the tippy top, 7^th Heaven.  The view from there was incredible with lots of snow topped peaks, some with active glaciers.  Once at the top, hidden from view on the other side of the mountain was a skiing and snow board training camp as well as general skiing.  We watched athletes training and learning how to perform tricks on skis and snowboards.  It was amazing and very entertaining.

 

It’s so hard back east to have enough snow to ski in the winter, much less around the 4^th of July!  Blackcomb is 7,992 feet high and its sister peak, Whistler is 7,156 feet.  The town of Whistler was named after the sound that the marmots make, a whistle.  We had the good fortune of seeing a marmot that was greeting our bus along the road to an intermediary chairlift.  He seemed very anxious to follow the bus, looking for a handout no doubt.

Whistler-Blackcomb also features the Peak 2 Peak Gondola for moving people between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains at the top; Peak 2 Peak holds records for the highest and longest unsupported cable car span in the world. Whistler Blackcomb is also often the most-visited ski resort, with over 2 million visitors a year.  Two cable cars offer a view of the valley beneath with a glass bottom.  The most popular cars, if you don’t want a long wait for those cars, take the peak to peak mid day.  Every single leg of the trip offered incredible views and I LOVE the fact that I didn’t have to walk up to get there!!!!!! 

 

 

Taking the Peak 2 peak we ended up on Whistler Mountain where they were having a great cookout on the deck.  Even though Tony had already had a ham sandwich that we had packed for the hike, he indulged in the best burger he ever had at 7,000 feet, oh and a beer another best too.  We made our way up to the tippy top of Whistler to be greeted by the huge Inuksuk, the mascot iconic symbol that came out of the 2010 Olympics.  An Insuksuk is a stone landmark or cairn that marks a destination or the path of a trail.  No problem missing the trail with these, they are huge! 




We found a nice trail from the top of Whistler back down to the chairlift and decided to walk down with a few other travelers.  The views again were incredible and 100 Insuksuks later we made it to our ride down to the bottom.  We had hoped to see a bear or two along the way down in the chairlift.  The first time we took the ride we saw a mother and cub, however we were not so lucky.

 

Kathleen had evening plans so we were in no hurry to return to Vancouver.  We spent a nice evening walking through the Olympic park, listening to live music and had a nice dinner.  The days are so long here and it doesn’t even get dark until 10 PM, you lose track of how late it really is.  As we made our way back to Vancouver we could see the sun finally dipping behind the mountains along the coast range and blue glow of twilight lit up the sky.  Upon arriving at Kathleen’s, we discovered that she hadn’t gone out and as it was 10:30 PM, she was very worried about us.  There had been a bear attack in the Whistler area that day and she was worried a bear had gotten us too!  After she had written us off as goners, her biggest concern was not what she would tell Christina or my mom, but what would she do with all our clothes if we didn’t come back!  Practical Kathleen;  Don’t they have Goodwill in Canada???  Luckily we came back to hike another day.

View from top of Whistler Mountain looking at Black Tusk in the background.