The West Coast Seaport of Vancouver and the pretty as a postcard village of Whistler
Monday 13 May
Well, we made that flight but what a shocker of a flight it was, a Boeing 737 on a 6-hour flight, all squashed in and no space, it was like a domestic flight in New Zealand. I literally had to straddle Geoff to get out to the bathroom, I asked the stewardess what would happen if you weren’t travelling with the person next to you and you had to get over to the aisle and she said “well you get to know them pretty well”! I suppose we should be grateful that the door didn’t blow out at least, given it was a Boeing 737 Max! We pretty much had no sleep at all with the coughing in the cabin and most people with their window shades up – couldn’t wait to get off! Thanks Air Canada! So, gritty-eyed and very fuzzy, we dumped all our luggage in the left luggage in the terminal and got an Uber into the city where we had a very nice walk around Canada Place in the crisp cool air, plenty of seaplanes taking off for the islands and a couple of cruise ships in the bay.
We picked up our rental car and headed out to Delta in South Vancouver, not far from the US border where we had a lovely lunch with Geoff’s niece and met her delightful little daughter after she finished kindergarten. Rather than stay overnight in Vancouver where we had both visited previously, we headed off to Whistler where Geoff has skied, but I had never been. What a great scenic drive we had on the Sea to Sky Highway, no traffic, a fantastic wide road with lots of beautiful trees on one side – the Whistler hybrid spruce that is unique to Whistler due to its geographical position, not quite coastal and not quite interior, and the Rocky Mountain Junipers - and on the other, the water.
The Whistler Valley is located around the pass between the headwaters of the Green River and the upper-middle reaches of the Cheakamus Lake and is flanked by glaciated mountains on both sides - the Garibaldi ranges on the side that contains the ski mountains and the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, about 125kms north of Vancouver. It has a resident population of around 14,000 and a large number of seasonal workers plus over two million visitors who arrive in the skiing season. It has been voted among the top destinations in North America by major ski magazines and hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics as well as many Nordic, luge, skeleton and bobsled events. Nancy Greene, one of the best-known names in Canadian skiing and her husband Al Raine, the Canadian National ski team programme director, were largely responsible for the planning and building of Whistler village and the expansion of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains in the early 1980’s and built the first hotel, Nancy Greene Olympic Lodge, in Whistler in 1985.
Whistler village was pretty empty but all the shops and restaurants were open, the ski season has almost finished and the summer season with all the bike trails opens in two days. We checked in to our hotel and had a lovely meander around the village centre, beautiful stone buildings, plenty of cafes, bars and restaurants and appropriate boutique shops for the area. Cocktail time beckoned and we found ourselves a nice spot outside the Raven Bar in the Pan Pacific Hotel, snowy peaks in the background and a nice fire – just perfect. A lovely dinner in Il Caminetto followed before we called it a night and headed off for some much-needed sleep!
Tuesday 14 May
Up early this morning to get in a brisk walk before we leave to drive back to Vancouver – it was cool, but beautifully sunny, so coffee in hand we walked up one of the ski runs and got in some good steps for the day.
Back in the car now for our next big adventure……our cruise to Alaska! Checking in on the Viking Orion at 1pm!
