traveling pansies: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO VAL, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO VAL...

Do you know how to drive a 14 year old boy crazy. You first tell him that you are going to take him on an all day trip with six very grown adults in one van, then you tell him that 6 hours of that all day trip is totally in the car, then you tell him you have a device that will give him 40 full length shows in his hands, but you are only kidding, then you give the machine to a friend after he gets discouraged and falls asleep, okay, okay, okay, I couldn't handle his whining so I finally gave the machine to him, he was happy for the rest of the day.

WHISTLER HERE WE COME
First we stopped at the nearest bakery (I believe this is 5th bakery, but I lost count a few back) to have a quick pastry. Then off for a four hour drive to Whistler. Lucky for us it really is a two hour drive, with several stops on the way. The drive was absolutely gorgeous. It flows along the coast and so the mountains and the ocean are a beautiful combination.

FIRST STOP – SHANNON FALLS
You can't see these falls very well from the highway, but as soon as you take this quick walk you find yourself at the base of beautiful waterfalls. It gave us some walking time and just strolling along the river. They were beautiful.

SECOND STOP – BRANDYWINE FALLS
Very deceiving. You start off on a hike along the trees thinking these falls are just up ahead and will look like the Shannon Falls. I immediately noticed chain link along the right side of the trail. I thought how tacky for them to use this chain link on such a beautiful walk. We came to train tracks which I thought was even more odd. Crossed them and continued along our path. Here in front of us was an overhang lookout point and below was a sheer cliff overlooking a river that dropped into waterfalls. It was gorgeous. That tacky thing may have saved some one's life in not getting into the river that would soon fall to their death.

WHISTLER
Whistler the venue for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Whistler doesn't really seem too big. It situated right on the highway, where I thought it would be situated more off the highway and up through the mountains. You can see a lot of building going on and several large chateaus and condo units have been built. It is a beautiful setting.

We first sat down for a nice homegrown picnic that Val made for us.

We noticed a massive amount of bikers coming off the hill and getting back onto the gondola and chairs. I asked if there was a competition going on, the host said no that this what it is like from Friday through Sunday with bikers coming to the largest bike terrain in North America. That in itself was amazing.

Bobby and John voted to go on the zipline. I thought it was odd for Bobby to do this when he complained about him being scared of heights at the Capaliano Suspension Bridge. As long as he is having fun, that's what counts. Val wanted to take pictures of the boys while they were on their ride, I think she was apprehensive in allowing her boys to go when she found out they were being bused to where the ride was and she couldn't go. Momma bear looking over her cubs.
The rest of us took the safer route and wanted the gondola ride. The pass was around $42.00 CD. The gondola ride consisted of one long gondola up the Whistler slope to almost the top. There was another gondola or ski chair up to the very top, but it had been closed until the next Sunday so we didn't get to do that one. Then the next gondola was from Whistler Peak to Blackcomb's Peak. Then you could either come back the way you went or you could take two ski chairs down the Blackcomb's slope to the parking lot. The peak to peak gondola looked like a two man gondola from the parking lot that is how far up you were. All of us were a little apprehensive in taking that one. So off we went.

Wonda was quite scared of heights but once inside the gondola she was okay and felt comfortable until the guys started scaring her.

Once to the top of Whistler's slope there was a large restaurant and bar, so we took our time to relax and have a beer, take a few pictures of birds and things and then off to the peak-to-peak gondola.

Wonda was extremely scared, but all the gondolas seemed so sturdy. Until I got home and found out that the December before the tower broke on the first gondola, not the peak-to-peak and everyone had to be evacuated off. I can't even imagine being evacuated from something a few feet off of the ground little alone being in the middle of that thing.

Anyone reading this blog, be assured we totally enjoyed ourselves it just wasn't our time to go down.

Instead of going back the way we went, we took the Blackcomb chairs down. It was very cold and I had no socks, but lucky for us I always made it on a chair that had a shield cover. The trip was totally enjoyable.

On our way home, we noticed glaciers that we hadn't noticed going up and realized the back of the mountain was towards us and we didn't see them. It was absolutely gorgeous.

After a lot of back and forth, Val finally made a decision of where we could eat on our way back to Vancouver, "Trolls."

Trolls is a seafood house at the ferry docks. Even though we had a ton of food through the week everyone wanted fish and chips. It was really good and I think Val had a good birthday.