Whistler 2011
Posted by joeabbott on October 21, 2011
When last I wrote about going to Whistler, Suzy and I had invited my mother along and we enjoyed a wonderful trip. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit doggy: lots of clouds, a bit of rain, and a lot of chill.
This year we invited Suzy’s brother, Steve, and his family to join us and we not only had wonderful company but the weather couldn’t have been better! Most days we had blue skies and provided great vistas! A couple of times the morning fog hung around a bit but on days that it was clear the temps dropped … so a few evening/morning clouds were welcome!
About the only hiccup was an errant GPS unit that was set for “best time”, as opposed to “shortest distance” and by “best time” it seemed to mean “least direct route”! The unit was hell-bent to avoid freeways! As a result, it was taking us all over the place avoiding the a clean route to wherever we wanted to go!
The only real unfortunate part of the GPS is that we’d lent it to Steve, Julie, and David for their trip north; and they weren’t aware of this setting so they ended up following the GPS instructions that took them all over the city on the way to our condo! Yup, they entered Canada through the Sumas crossing (just south of Abbotsford) and ended up going through the Vancouver “International District”, downtown, through Stanley Park, and across the Lion’s Gate Bridge on the way to Whistler. Wow! What a lot of messing around. Sorry, guys!
Anyhow, we met them at the condo late on Friday where we all just settled in, got our Xboxes setup (yup, vacation time means game-playing time!), and all claimed our rooms. On Saturday we headed into The Village where we snapped pictures, wandered through shops, and picked up some groceries for our meals. Suzy and I threw together a quick dinner of burritos and chips … yum!
On Sunday we headed out for a bit of hiking. We started by exploring the Wedgemount Lake area, then wandered up the road a bit to the Nairn Falls overlook … always enjoyable for a short walk. By the time we were done tramping about and got home, we rested up a bit before Steve and Julie prepared us some grilled steaks! Yowza they were delicious! There was more game playing and general associating before we all went down for the night.
On Monday we all piled into one car for a trip south to Vancouver! On the way to the city there wasn’t a rest stop or view point that I didn’t take advantage of but we eventually made it.
En route, the problems with the GPS were discovered. For a few hairy minutes of driving, I ranted about the unit before we fixed it and were on our way to MEC, Lee Valley, and Chocolate Works. After those stops, and a long ride home, we enjoyed left-overs for dinner before calling it a day. And, you guessed it, a bit more game playing.
While I was enjoying Rage and You Don’t Know Jack, David and Steve had Dead Island and Gears of War 3 going strong on their system. Both David and I brought a lot of games but we mostly stuck to a few and played them a lot. I ended up loaning them GoW3 to take home and David reciprocated by loaning me Saint’s Row 2.
But, by Tuesday the fun was coming to an end. Steve, Julie, and David headed back south to Seattle and that was about it for the vacation. Suzy and I both rested and tidied up before heading home ourselves. Overall, it was very enjoyable showing someone our favorite haunts and a fun place to relax.
Thanks, guys, for making the time to enjoy a bit of time with us!
