Oh Canada

 

In July I had the chance to go to Canada with my cousin and friends of his here from England.  Cousin's wife was unable to go so I rounded out the 4.   I had been asked earlier in the month if I wanted to go.  If you know me at all you know I love to travel.  I'd go just about anywhere.  

We planned on the day/time and all the details.  On the morning of our departure, I grabbed my passport and realized it was expired.  UH OH.  I called Cousin and he said just come up and we'll figure it out.  So I did.  Off we went. 

On the way we joked about hiding me in the trunk and all the funny ideas.  None of it was necessary.  I handed my passport and driver's license and they didn't even bat an eye at me. We all sighed with relief.  I said, Well Canada doesn't mind, but coming back through, the USA might.  We went up to Whistler/Blackcomb.  

It is so beautiful there.  I never dreamt at how busy it would be in the summer.   I was shocked! So many people.  I have since heard that it is probably just as busy if not more than in the Winter.  Who knew!  There is hikers and mountain bikers and all kinds of kid camps and such.  We rode the gondola to the top on the Blackcomb side.  Then we rode the Peak to Peak one.  We were going to go down on the Whistler side but it had a huge line wo we rode back to the other side and went down the way we came up.  While we were headed down there were hikers and people on bikes all over the place.  In the middle of it all was a bear.  He was beautiful.  No one cared!  I was glad to be on the Gondola! I didn't take pictures of him.  They wouldn't have been good so I just watched and enjoyed him. We had drinks at the top of the mountain.  It really was just so beautiful.  

Cousin and friend

Peak to Peak

From the Olympics.  

Fast and freezing cold. 

Mr. and Mrs. Visitor and Cousin and I.  This was a joke on Cousin's wife.  She told us the ice-cream in Canada was icky and we wouldn't like it. We did!

We went to several places in Vancouver. It has some beautiful places to see. It reminds a bit of Seattle.  We went to Stanley Park and walked all over.  It has beautiful gardens and a totem pole section.  There is a fancy tea room Cousin wanted to take us to.  It was closed for a private party.  That was disappointing.  Nice for the group that reserved it though, eh? We tried to get to Granville Public Market.  NOT A CHANCE.  We could barely drive to get out of there when there was NO place to park.  So instead we went to Gastown.  We saw the steam clock and had a lovely lunch.  Our waiter has the same name as one of our guys.  It's not common so it caught me off guard.  

It was a really fast beautiful trip.  I was so thankful I was invited to go.  I will go back.  There is things to see in Vancouver and I will always want to go to the mountains.  

Peace