Larry and I got off to an early start so we could rent our bikes and go riding before our trip to Whistler. Trish was off to her daily exercise class- it’s an exercise class with a bar as in ballet. She had mentioned it on her Facebook one time (bar class) and I thought she was taking a class to become a bartender, which I was thinking would have been a first for our family.
I haven’t been on a bike for a long time—maybe thirty years if you can believe that. I used to love bike riding. We went quite a long piece—all on a safe path with no cars—even the pedestrians have their own walking areas. It’s all paved or brick and very wide. I have never seen such a progressive city for biking and walking as Vancouver—it goes on for miles. We pedaled to Stanley Park and then had to head back—but that would be great ride around the park for another day. Two raccoons ambled by in the park. We biked for an hour and a half. I felt like I owned Vancouver. You can smell the fishiness and seaweed all along the coast and the air is soft like Cape Breton. Larry commented that he wonders why everyone in Canada doesn’t live in Vancouver.
Around noon we started off for Squamish and Whistler. Trish and Dan had just come back from a mountaineering course in the mountains of Squamish and they were able to point out where they had been. The park and waterfall (Shannon Falls) are beautiful. Then on to Whistler where Patricia and Dan ski all winter. Because they have a season pass they got a good discount for us for on the gondola.
First point—Patricia insists we are pronouncing it wrong. Larry and I both say gon-DO-la, and Trish said we really should be saying GON-do- la. I looked it up and it has both pronunciations. But we are trying to remember to pronounce it the way Trish said we should.
The gondola was quite a lengthy ride and we changed to different sized ones at four or five different stops. It was really a wonderful experience. I pretty much have gotten past the fear factor and now am just more like “relatively uncomfortable”, kind of like when I fly. I’m really glad I went.
Something that we were surprised to learn- the “Phil Bridgman” type take their mountain bikes up on the ski lifts and then they zoom down rocky dirt paths. (Dr. Dan reports that this particular group of people take up a significant part of his day in the hospital emergency room.) We could watch them bumping along from our gondala. (GON-do-la.) We noticed that one biker was stopped so we leaned over to check it out. The biker was just a few yards from an enormous black bear! The bear was ignoring him—at least for the minute—we continued to pass by overhead and have no idea how it all played out in the end!
We ate supper on a nice patio and stopped at some great lookouts on the way home. Trish and Dan know the name of every mountain and are intimately acquainted with some of the highest ones—covering the gamut from mountaineering and hiking to skiing. Trish gets all this love of adventure from me. (haha!) The Sea to Sky road is beautiful and had been totally improved for the Olympics. It was a wonderful day.