Monday and Tuesday for me were spent at work on study days. Tuesday while at work Cam joined Sarah for a few drinks in town at a Cafe above the Vancouver Art Gallery. What better to do than to spend a beautiful afternoon drinking. I finished my study day early today so headed into town to join them. It was nice sitting out in the sun, listening to music, drinking and talking amongst friends. Sarah's friend joined us toward the end and then the 2 of them headed off for dinner. Cam and I headed off for dinner also, I had been craving Wendy's since I saw it in the first week of arriving in Vancouver, so we decided to have this. We have actually been really good since arriving, we hardly ever have take aways so this was a bit of a treat.
Now Wednesday was an exciting day. Sarah was staying with a friend in North Vancouver who happened to let us borrow her car for the day while she was at work. We took this perfect opportunity to head to Whistler for the day.
It just so happened that the weather was perfect, it was beautiful, sunny and extremely hot. So we headed off early in the morning to get the most out of the day, as it takes about an hour and a half to get there. We headed a little past Whistler to Pemberton as Sarah had heard that this was beautiful place to visit. It was a quite, little town in the countryside, surrounded by mountains and the view was beautiful. It reminded me of the movies. There were some beautiful houses in this area. We stopped at a little petrol station/town store/McDonald's and had lunch, its amazing McDonald's is everywhere. Who would of thought you could get a picture in front of McDonald's with huge mountains in the background.
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We continued on our journey back towards Whistler and stopped at Nairn Falls. There was a 1.5km walk along the river to the falls. Over 150 million years ago the area was near the shore of a vast ocean. Gradually the earths crust moved upwards and crushed nearby volcanic islands against the shoreline. Further upheavals and other movements of the earth's crust changed this area from a seashore to a mountainous area. The falls were huge and very powerful, it was very beautiful.
Next stop was Whistler, it seems that even on a weekday in the middle of summer there are plenty of people that want to visit Whistler. Still not packed though is was quite nice, we didn't have to wait for anything. We stood around for a little while watching the mountains bikers on their jumps and turns. Now if you were a mountain biker I think this would be an awesome place for you, not really my kind of thing looked pretty exciting but dangerous. So we headed up the gondola towards the summit, the gondola takes you almost to the top but not all the way, you have to get off walk down a small distance and then catch the chair lift to the top. This chair lift is quite steep and in summer all you are looking down at (well mostly), is really sharp rocks. Now the view from up here was very panoramic and beautiful. It was a really nice day but a bit hazy unfortunately as it always seems to be. They have a big monument at the summit called an Inunnguaq commonly mistaken as the Inukshuk. It is a stacked rock in human form which models the Inukshuk as created by the inuit (native) people of Canada's Artic. It was used as a guidepost that provided direction across the vast horizons of the North. Over time it has become a symbol of hope and friendship across Canada. The Olympics 2010 emblem is an interpretation of this. This spot also seemed very popular for taking photos, with a peak called
black tusk in the background.
We had our first sighting, this time it was a chipmunk not that I would have recognised this by looking at it. They are very small and cute.
We fooled around up here taking random photos, and repaying favours by taking photos for others, before we headed down the chairlift to go across the peak to peak gondola. The peak to peak gondola connects the incredibly high mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb. It is 4.4 kms long and 436 metres above the valley floor. This breaks 3 world records of the longest unsupported span of 3.024 kms, highest lift of its kind at 436 m above and it completes the longest continuous life system on the globe. I thought this was going to be really scary looking at it from the bottom, turns out it wasn't that scary. We were lucky as there were only 5 of us in our gondola and it takes up to 28 people. Some of them have glass bottoms but the wait for them was much longer and we would be stuffed in like sardines with others, so decided to go for extra room instead, turns out you couldn't even stand on the glass. We walked around the top of Blackcomb for a little while and then headed back down the chair lift on this side to the bottom. We had a short walk around the Whistler village before heading on our way home as it was getting a little late. After a petrol stop and dinner time we headed back along the sea to sky highway towards Vancouver.
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Along the way we had several stops taking photos of the beautiful scenery as the sun had just gone behind the mountains. It was great to be able to get pictures in the start of the day and then complement these with dusk photos. The lakes and ocean around this area was very stunning. All in all a very long tiring day, but soooo worth it, we had a blast. Thanks Sarah for driving (and thanks to your friend for the car).
The next day was another nice day, we were a bit tired from the previous day so decided to have a relaxing afternoon sitting at Charlson Park,
listening to music and admiring the view, before heading home to make mince pies. Turns out you can follow a recipe from good old Edmond's but pies just don't turn out the same. There was something missing but I can't quite put my finger on it, needed just a little more flavour, this is just one small thing I was missing from NZ after 7 weeks of no pies. Guess it'll be good for us in the end haha. Tonight was Sarah's last night in Vancouver and she was staying with us, however I missed her, turns out starting 12 hour shifts can be quite tiring and I had to head to bed before she made it back to ours. That's alright got to wake her bright and early the next morning and say goodbye as I was heading out the door to work.
Saturday we were heading out for the evening to David Lam park for a picnic and outdoor movie. Unfortunately we arrived off the bus with our picnic rug, chairs, chiller bags and backpacks ready for several hours out, and there were hardly any people there. This was a little concerning. Anyway one thing we looked at said the Saturday however these details we set up wrong and the actual day was Sunday. So we ended up having a really nice picnic, in comfort, overlooking false creek watching the cyclists, people and dogs going by while the sun was going down. Turned out great anyway. So as it was a Saturday night and there was now no movie we decided to head out to Cactus club cafe in town for dessert and a drink.
I had a really nice peanut butter crunch fudge thingy and Cam had a slice of cheesecake. Normally I don't like cheesecake at restaurants however it seems they know how to make them in Vancouver. To top it off we had a frozen cappuccino martini with vodka, coffee liqueur, creme de cacao and cream whip, which tasted like coffee and alcoholic goodness, it was awesome. Tonight was also another movie/film spotting at the
Marine building (a beautiful old building in the centre of Vancouver, which was once one of the tallest buildings in Vancouver). Unfortunately we didn't get any glimpses of stars, this time they actually had the area sealed off, so maybe there were more famous people involved, oh well one day!!
Sunday was another hot sunny day. This called for a swim and laze around at kits beach. I'm actually starting to get a little bit tanned now (even on my legs, thought this would never happen),
I guess that's what happens when you go from one summer to another and when the country you move to actually has an ozone layer. Its great to only need sunscreen on once in the day. The water today was actually warm, of course you get the initial cold but once you were under it was really nice. I would say it was about 19 or 20 degrees this day which beats the 16 or 17 it has been. We lay in the sun for a while, listened to music and had a drink before heading home. A nice relaxing day.
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