4 September 2006, Monday Whistler

4 September 2006, Monday Whistler

Sleep in till 9.00am, Janet and Evan still sleeping. I find Evan sleeping on the couch, seems the fold down bed is too noisy.

Have a very late breakfast. Janet cooks us chicken and mushroom omelette with the left over KFC with toast.

Don't go out until after 12 midday. Check out the gondola rides, before starting our Lost Lake Loops Trail walk.

Takes us 2 hours to walk all the way around. Lots of hikers and bikers and lots of little trails and nature trails.

When we get to the Lost Lake Beach, there are a lot of swimmers and picnickers. There is also a section for nude bathers. The lake has several floating platforms for swimmers to swim out to and sun themselves on.

Lost Lake Trail - A very popular adventure destination close to Whistler Village accessible by cross country skiers, mountain bikers, hikers, joggers, roller bladders and sun worshippers. The popularity of the trail is understandable since the trail system is so well maintained and is really easy to access.

The area of Lost Lake draws allot of attention in the winter seasons, mainly as a cross country skiing trail system created for all levels of ability. The 30 Km (18.4 mi.) Lost lake Loop Trail explores around the lake and is one of the easier routes. Some of the other cross country ski trails include Les' Leap, Vimy Ridge, Tin Pants, Hydro Hill and Poler's Road.

In the summer the trail takes on a different personality and is better known for the large sandy beach, picnic areas, grass fields and the doggie beach. In the summer the paved and gravel trail in Lost Lake Park is heavily used by hikers, mountain bikers, joggers, roller bladders and dog walkers.

On the north side of the Lost Lake are the main swimming and picnicking areas with a beach and a doggie park. The sandy beach and grass fields are usually busy on a sunny day spotted with frisbees, sunbathers and umbrellas. The beachfront is sectioned off for swimming with a dock floating not far from shore.

The hiking and biking trails are spotted, here and there, with interpretive signs about the local flora and fauna. The trail system is often used as a transportation link for walkers, skiers and bikers because it connects to the Valley Trail . Which is the main trail in Whistler connecting one end of the community to the other.

Lost Lake Park has washrooms, picnic shelter, picnic tables and an automated concession stand.
Evan buys a hot dog which we split amongst the three of us. We head back, but then Evan wants to walk some more, so Janet heads back to the village on her own, while Evan and I take the Upper Panorama trail and do some serious hiking up rocky paths till we get to the scenic lookout. Cross the Tin Pants bike trail a couple of times. Come across a few joggers, and a few hardy cross country bikers.  Even have to ask one where the trail he just came up would lead us, his reply, to the bottom of the mountain, derr.

When we get back to the village we stop and look at the mountain bikers coming down the slopes, doing their jumps. Also view the ziptrek line people going through the loops before they head off up the mountain.

Get back to the resort to find Janet cooking. She had gone to the grocery store across from the resort. She also managed to see a mountie in full uniform, but had no camera to record the moment.

 Have dinner at 6.30pm.

 Try out the hot tub on the roof.

3 September 2006, Sunday Vancouver to Whistler

3 September 2006, Sunday

7.00am Wake up, Evan and Janet still sleeping. Try to log on to net, but no luck.

8.00am Janet wakes up, followed by Evan, they get ready and at 8.15am we head down to have breakast. Scrambled eggs and sausages again with orange juice and tea.

8.30am head on back up to room, Janet stays with bags, while Evan and I walk to Hertz rental car, we go through Yaletown, which is pretty big, but looks more like a night area, very dead in the morning, but most things are, it doesn't come to life until about 10am.

9.00am Get to Hertz, and have to wait in queue, only one man, Rubin, serving and then when he gets to us we have to wait another 5 mins for them to clean the car. Find out we have rented a bright red Toyota Corolla hatch, small car compared to our first one, hope we can fit the luggage in it.

9.30am back at Hotel. Park the car just outside the hotel. Parking meter is 25 cents for 7 mins, so we put in 50 cents and we have 15 mins. Get Janet who checks out and we load up the car.

We go shopping at a chinese supermarket in Keefer/Abbott St which we spied the other day. Stock up on vegies and some chinese food while Evan waits by the car watching ladies line up for a warehouse sale across the road.

We drive to Stanley Park, where we buy a 1 hour ticket for $2-00 so we can stop and take photos. First stop is the totems, but we don't take photos, next stop is the lighthouse, then we stop a bit closer to the Lions Gate Bridge, then we stop at Prospect Point and then we do a big loop around in order for us to get onto the Lions Gate Brige to head north. By this time it's about 11.30am

We drive pass the Capilano Suspension Bridge and get to the Grouse Mountain, again we need to pay for parking, so Evan pays for 2hours minimum. We head straight for the queue to get onto the gondolo which is $31.75 for adults incl tax.

12.30pm, we head up the mountain.

 It's like a theme park, with a Lumber Jack Show, which we miss, a Bird Show, which we don't get to see, and a Bear enclosure which houses 2 orphaned bear cubs, Grinder and Coola. We see one of them cooling off in the water. It's such a hot day I don't blame him. Close to 30 degrees. We take lots of photos with huge wooden sculptures before it's time to head back down. When we get down we walk to the timber wolves enclosure, Evan says they look just like dogs.

It's just past 2.30pm when we get onto highway 99 and make our way to Whistler. It's a curvey road with twists and it hugs the coastline. They are currently in the midst of improving it and widening it, so most of the lookout points are cordoned off with heavy machinery. It's a 3 laned road and they are added passing lanes. Suppose to be completed by the end of 2009 in time for the Winter Olympics in 2010.

We pass Shannon Falls and don't realise that it is so close to the road, in fact if you turn off the road you can see the falls, oh well, maybe we'll stop there another day.

Pass through Squamish. Stop off at Tantalus Lookout, but can't see much, very hazy and finally get to Whistler at 4pm.

Have problems looking for the Whisky Jack Checkin, we have to do a second loop before we see it. By this time our blood sugar level is low, we are dehydrated and nerves are frayed. Janet checks us in, and grabs the keys and we're told we need to follow a map to our unit at the Fitzsimmons. Find the back door and have to wait for another couple who are unloading. When we unload, they have problems finding the unit, we've been given the number F26D, seems, 26 doesn't mean a thing, the unit number is D. Takes a while for them work it out. In the mean time, Evan has to lug our suitcases up 2 flights of stairs. Our unit is just next door to the laundry. Having unloaded all our bags and shopping Evan and I go in search of our parking which is underground, but you need to go to the Sundial Hotel parking to get to it. They have a staircase that leads back up into The Fitzsimmons. We check out the Hot Tub, and the water is hot, but it's also dirty, need to put the bubbles on and then it looks alright.

In the meantime, Janet is busy smsing Lily. We prepare to go out for a wander when we look out into the Village Square, oh that's right, our windows look right out into the square, seems we're right on top a cafe/restaurant. A street performer is just about to start his act, so we stay up and look at him through the window. He juggles and banters and also has a fire stick which he twirls, nothing too exciting, but it takes at least 30 mins to perform.

After which we take a walk back to the checkin, so Janet can hand in the inventory form, and then we take a wander. Seems they are building a new library. We walk over a bridge and into Upper Whistler. Lots of shops and cafes and restaurants. Eventually come to their marketplace which has an IGA, so we pop in and buy some food for the week. Evan is getting hungry and so are Janet and I, so we buy some KFC (7 pieces with fries and gravy for $18.01) and head back to our unit.

7.50pm and we have dinner, so much for waiters waiting on us hand and foot, no fine cuisine, we're back to reality, dining on KFC. At least Evan doesn't have to dress up, in fact, he's dressed down, no shirt at all and using fingers instead of knife and fork. We miss the waiters, there's no one to clean up after us and no dessert menu offered.  Hopefully we can loose some weight this week, since we're all complaining about double chins and spare tyres.

After dinner, Evan and Janet watch TV, while I try and get a net connection, not much luck. End up trying to catch up with my blogs. Go to bed a little after 12 midnight.

2 September 2006, Saturday Disembarkation in Vancouver.

2 September 2006, Saturday Disembarkation in Vancouver.

7.00am I'm up and out on the deck watching the sunrise and wandering where Evan is. Seems he is still sleeping. We've pulled into Vancouver harbour and the ship is docking.

Head back down and find that they are now both awake. Pack up everything to take with us and head up to deck 9 for breakfast.

8.00am We're having breakfast for the last time in the Lido Deck. Evan says since it's our last breakfast we should have everything, but we just have our usual, Janet and Evan start with cereal, while I have my fried eggs with toast and hash browns. I pop down to deck 3 to purchase our formal dinner 2 photo. After eating we sit and wait for our ticket colour and number to be called, brown 1.

At 8.40am, we get our announcement so we head on down to deck 2 midship and say goodbye for the last time. We have to line up for Canadian Customs where they check the declaration form and our passports. Then our forms are collected and we're shown to baggage claim. All bags are lined up by ticket group and colour. We collect our bags and head on out to the taxi queue. Since we have a voucher, the dispatcher arranges a yellow cab for us, and then it's off to the hotel. The taxi driver is not familiar with the hotel, but lucky for us, we remember the street and can tell him where.

9.20am we get to the hotel to check in. Apparently they don't have any rooms ready for us, so we leave our bags in storage while we go for a walk. Evan and I still have our back packs which are heavy but we shoulder them and walk to Chinatown where we finally find the Sun Yat Sen Gardens. Wander in to the free section and take lots of pics. Then we walk up the streets where all food is displayed on sidewalk, like any typical chinatown, this is the place to shop.

Walk back to the Chinatown/Stadium skytrain station where we buy an all day pass for $8.00, hop on and head out to King George, where it terminates. So we get off and head down the stairs, before hopping back on to the next skytrain, Evan and I buy a booster juice to wake us up.
Hop back on to the skytrain and then change on to the Millenium line, passing scenery is like any city, find ourselves nodding off, so decide to get off at Chinatown and head back to the hotel to see if they have our rooms ready. They do, so Janet and I stay back for a nap, while Evan heads out again to Gastown where they have a vintage cars display on, he takes lots of pics of the cars and also finds the Steam clock.

At 3.00pm Evan's back and we head out again. Decide to go to Science World by skytrain. Get off and discover they are holding dragonboat races over the weekend for a Taiwanese Cultural Festival. We are at the starting line and apparently the loading and festival is at the Place of Nations, which is in front of our hotel. Anyway, we talk to the 2 starters and find out that it's a 2 day event with 500m races using 2 different types of boats. The taiwanese boats have high seats, looks very hard to row in them.

4.00pm comes around and having watched a few races and gotten some tips from the race starter of where to go and what to do in Whistler, we head off to catch a ferry. Get the Aquabus, which is different to the False Creek Ferry, Pay $9.00 for a return trip to Granville Island from Science World. The aquabus takes us to Granville island with a few stops in between.

At Granville Island, it's time for an early dinner, not having had any lunch, so we head to Tony's Fish and Oyster Cafe for some steamed mussels, steamed clams, clam chowder,tiger prawns in garlic butter and a bowl of chips, hmm very yummy and filling. Also very expensive, $65, plus tax and tips.

After walking the bits of Granville Island which we hadn't the previous time, we catch the aquabus back to Science World. From there we walk over to the Place of Nations, but find that they've fenced the area off for the Taiwanese Festival. Seems you need to pay to get in, so we head on back to the hotel. It's been a long day, time for a shower and an early night.

1 September 2006 Friday Day 7 Cruising the Inside Passage

1 September 2006 Friday Day 7 Cruising the Inside Passage

We get to sleep in today. wake up and have breakfast at 9am before we head on down to the Vista Lounge for the Disembarkation talk and crew farewell at 10.30am.

11.30am, back to cabin to download photos and recharge battery, while I'm doing that, Janet and Evan take a nap.

12.00pm Back on the Lido Deck for the Great Alaskan BBQ, lots of boiled crab and mussels, looks good, but could have done with some flavour.

2.00pm we leave Janet to go see the ice carving. She is off to view the Cruise Chronicle DVD. Evan and I go to the Lido deck midship to view 2 chefs perform the ice carving. They chip and chisel two blocks of ice into a fish and and parrot. Lots of people viewing and you need to jostle for a good viewing position.

After the ice carving we head on up to the open decks as we'll be heading into the Johnstone Strait where orcas can be sighted.

Evan and I position ourselves on two deck chairs and snooze a while, until an announcement comes over the ship that orcas, and humpback whales have been sighted. Also past a point where bald eagles nest. Can only manage to see them through the binoculars.

We finally pass a school of orcas playing in the water next to some kayakers and sailing boats. At last we see some wildlife.

Then it's time to go get ready for dinner because at 5pm the finals of the Zuiderdam Supterstar is on and after than will be dinner time. The 3 finalists are fantastic, but Jack is the ultimate winner singing American Trilogy. The guy who sings like Elvis is also good. We manage to hear all 3 sing before we have to pop out to go to dinner.

For the last dinner, the chefs and waiters sing a farewell song, while all the diners wave their napkins in the air. Lots of photos taken and we thank our waiters Dian and Andri for looking after us.

Say our farewells to our dinner companions, the kiwis and Neil and Maree and we head on down to the Front Office to pay our bills and settle the account. They charge us for a mini bar item which we never had. Janet manages to get them to waiver it the next day.

The sun is setting as we head to the Vista Lounge for the Farewell Variety Showtime. Evan decides to head on up deck to take photos, while Janet and I head to the lounge, I stick around outside for a while.

In the Variety showtime, the magician, James Cielen performs, then they have a comedian, Jeff Burhart and he's followed by the singer, Alfreda Gerald.

Then it's back to the stateroom to pack. How to fit all our stuff back into our bags and still manage to close them. Have to have them outside our rooms by 1am, we manage to get them out the door by 12 midnight.