I’ve finally uploaded an online gallery of trip photos.

Charles’s photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/calrockx/WestCoastRoadTrip

Kelvin’s photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kelvind

And thanks to kelvin for creating this video. Great work!

The drive home and weekend was so exhausting, I’m just getting to writing this post on Monday.

After the Lakers game, the sad sad Lakers game, we hit the road at about 9:30PM headed straight to San Francisco.  It’s about a 9 hour drive and we planned on rotating drivers in 3-hour shifts.  I must say, the time does fly by when engaged in interesting conversation.  First, a rousing game of 20 questions.  One person chooses an individual and the other two have to ask yes/no questions to guess the person in mind.  Selections included Hillary Clinton, Socrates and Neil Armstrong.  On my second round of play I chose someone that really stumped the guys.  The questions far exceeded the loose limit of 20 and they eventually gave up.  Who was it? Weird Al.  Thank you, Mr. Yankovic, for your musical/cinematic/road-trip-game entertainment. The topics changed around and ended up philosophical.  That’s a sure bet with Anthony along for the ride, but I enjoyed it and it’s those kinds of conversations that really make you think.

The only stop I wanted to make along the way, besides food/gas, was a photo-op with the Welcome to California sign.  That occurred during Anthony’s shift and we got a few pics, although the night and reflections made for crappy shots.  I took the wheel around…I don’t know here, but I do know it was around 4:30AM.  At 6:30 it was time to eat breakfast.  Oh, how it was time to eat.  After all these days on the road, we finally succumbed to fast food.  But hey, McDonald’s breakfasts get the job done.  Maybe that job includes the possibility of ravaging your digestive system, but that’s a chance I was willing to take. About 45 minutes later, I was parking on Bush Street.  Yes.  Home.

I unloaded my gear and was surprisingly up at that point.  The guys knocked out for a short nap.  I put a couple things away and finally settled down for nap.  They woke me up around 12 to let me know they were headed home to LA.  I saw them off and napped the rest of the afternoon. It’s Tuesday night now and I’ve certainly recovered from the trip, but am still probably a bit short on sleep after having a busy weekend/start to the work week.

Welcome to California

What a trip! I pretty much feel settled in at home now, back in my routine, but I still eagerly flip through photos and videos of the experience.

Speaking of videos, this week there was an earthquake in Eureka and here’s a video of the Arcata Co-Op being al shook up: http://www.weather.com/multimedia/videoplayer.html?clip=16242, We were in there just days earlier picking up some breakfast.

My favorite new city of the Los Angeles -> Whistler road trip was Vancouver.  It’s much larger than i expected and really has a “city” feel. Before visiting, I had something of an attraction to Vancouver.  I just felt like I would like it, almost as if I could move there without even seeing the place.  Now that I have seen it I stand by that notion.  Of course I would thoroughly vet any city I’m considering making a home, but Vancouver did impress with it’s abundance of outdoor activities, relatively mild weather, urban sophistication and culture.

My second favorite city was Portland.  I’ll liken it to a small-town, outdoorsier San Francisco.  That’s probably a stretch, but I’ll stick with that for now.  Downtown was cool and I loved Powell’s Books. Walking around was easy and people seemed friendly enough.  I like the abundance and organization of food trucks there, even if I didn’t get to try any on this visit. One thing I couldn’t deal as a resident, however, is the weather.  I can deal with bouts of rain and dreary skies, but I like sunny days too much to forsake them for Portland.

I’m kinda “meh” on Seattle.  I don’t know if that’s due to road weariness or what.  The Space Needle was cool, and something every Seattle tourist should do once, and I liked the REI Store, but I guess I didn’t know much else to visit there.  Everyone said the Pike’s Market, and I’d be down for that on another visit, but it just seemed like another version of SF’s Fisherman’s Wharf.

I wasn’t too impressed with Eureka.  It had more a suburban-sprawl feel than a small-coastal-town feel.  It wasn’t terrible, but I’m not rushing to get back up there. I actually liked Crescent City more; that place had some charm and some good food as well.

Eugene was blah suburbs and nothing to write home about.  I’m not being fair to that city as I only saw a small portion of it, and at night.  But that’s my first impression.

Traveling with Kelvin and Anthony was great.  A few squabbles here and there, but I think we got along swimmingly for being stuck together for nearly two weeks on the road. We each took a fair share in contributing to the trips preparation and success.  Of course, being three guys, we had plenty of jokes along the way.  A few of the inside ones include “Don’t doubt me”, gas station girl, Bear Claw and “human shiiiit!”. Good times.

I bemoan the hasty, somewhat disorganized writing structure of this trip’s blog posts, but accept that such is the way of writing on the road with little time for syntactical finesse. Oh well. I get the point across.  My boss at work asked how I had time to even write all this on a vacation.  I explained to him that I wrote these posts late at night or first thing in the morning when the other guys were still asleep. It was a small burden to devote time to maintaining a blog, but I’m glad I did it.  I look  back on the blog for my Europe 2007 trip and am thankful I have that to help me remember details I’d otherwise forget.  That’s what this blog is for and I look forward to writing on my next adventure.

Yesterday was an epically long day.

We stayed the night at Kelvin’s friend’s Mike’s house in Lake Oswego and after calling it a night around 2AM we woke up around 9AM.  The plan yesterday was pretty light…just get some breakfast, hit the Nike store and the Laker game. Oh, and then right after drive straight to San Francisco.

We had a nice breakfast in nearby Beaverton at the Pancake House.  That restaurant had a small town feel to it and I really liked the Hazelnut pancakes.  After that it was off to the Nike Employee store.  Mike has the connections to get us guest passes to this place he was happy to show us around.  One huge Nike-only store, limited admittance, and 50% off with no sales tax. I’m not huge on Nike, especially with their child labor problems of years past, but I think they’ve worked to clean up their act. I wasn’t out to buy half the earth, but thought I might pick up a couple things.  Nike is venturing into snowboard gear, but I wasn’t digging their merch and thought it looked kinda silly actually. I only picked up a pair of compression shorts and a couple workout shirts.

Then we returned to the house to rest up a bit before the game and the night ahead.  We packed up our gear, secured the boards to the top and drove into the city to the Rose Garden arena.

The lakers hadn’t won their past 8 or so games there vs the Trailblazers and we were hoping that streak would end with this game.  It took a little while to find parking, but at last we did a few blocks away and walked in the light rain to the court.  We did see a few fellow Lakers fans inside, but there wasn’t a strong camaraderie connection. Our seats weren’t exactly close…top section, few rows back.  No big deal, we could still see the floor just fine and distinguish players.  We showed up that night, but unfortunately it seemed like the Lakers did not.  The combination of the some poor playing that night, missing Pau Gasol, and maybe even the Rose Garden’s curse led to a  Trailblazers victory.  With one minute left in the game, we bolted.  We didn’t need to hear Portland gloating nor get caught up in traffic. As Kelvin pointed out..”Keep your win, Portland.  We hang championship banners in our court, not bunk ass division ones.”

I’m way tired now after a long couple of days and little sleep.  I’ll finish up my posts on this trip tomorrow.

I’m now back in the United States.  Oregon state, to be specific.

After a lazy morning of sleeping in until 9AM and grabbing a breakfast downtown, we started the drive back down south.  The border crossing took about 20 minutes and the agent asked pretty much the same questions as last time.  “Anthony, quick…shave your beard!” I joked right before we reached the border.  But no, we didn’t look shady or suspicious, so we breezed through and stopped at the first gas station to use the washroom (Canada has influenced my vocabulary as you can see) and exchange Canadian dollars back to American.  I only had a few small coins, so I was content in holding on to those as souvenirs I suppose. Anthony pulled out a handful of $1/$2/etc coins and just handed them to the attendant saying something to the effect of “here, just give me whatever this is…getting rid of the monopoly money.” He was joking, but the friendly attendant joked right back “oh I bet they loved you in Canada.”

The drive from Vancouver to Portland is about five hours and around Olympia, Washington we decided it was time for some food. I quickly researched a decent place to eat on my Blackberry Yelp app.  Sandwiches sounded good and Yelp pointed me to the nearby Meconi’s Italian Subs.  We passed right by the Washington State capitol on the way to this place.  The sub was great.  Their lack of a bathroom was inconvenient but led us to another shop.

Anthony and I needed to go so we walked across the street to Subway…nope, no luck there.  So  I walked a couple doors down and found Wagner’s Bakery.  I walked in, asked the shop girl where the bathroom was (even tho I saw it I didn’t want to just barge in and walk straight to it, I’d feel like I’m using the shop.  Even tho I was, I’ll do it in a polite way).  Oh, what a nice one it was.  Ample size, nice and clean, good soap.  If you only visit one bathroom near that sub sandwich place, let it be this one.  Anyway, I walked out of it and Anthony passed by me on his way in.  Now I was in a bakery and thought I might as well browse the merchandise, after all, they were nice enough to let me use their facilities.  Naturally my eyes went right to the cookies and once I found a good looking chocolate chip cookie, I was sold.  The girl told me she saw a guy that looked just like me enter the bathroom right after me.  I joked around with her before acknowledging that’s my friend.   I made my purchase and Anthony returned to also see what this place had to offer. He spotted the brownies.

Anthony: I’ll have one of those Gourmet Brownies.
Bakery girl: *reached for one in the display case* Just to let you know, they have nuts in them.
Anthony: …okay.
Bakery girl: In case you’re a allergic to them, I wanted to let you know.
Anthony: No, I’m okay there, thanks for letting me know.  They don’t have dander in them, do they?
Bakery girl: *makes a face* Ew..that’s gross.  No, no dander.
Bakery janitor guy: What’s dander?
Anthony: it’s comes from dogs and cats, the hair from ‘em.
Bakery janitor guy: ooohhh *smiles*
Anthony: If I ate any dander, my head would explode.
Bakery girl: haha, well we just had a couple EMT guys on here.  Though, one of em wasn’t too bright.
Anthony: What do you mean?
Bakery girl: Well he was just sort of ‘duhhh’.
Anthony: Ahh. What are you gonna say about us when we leave?
Bakery girl: Haha, well you guys aren’t ‘duhhh’.

Oh boy, what an exchange. After the girl, out of nowhere, told us one of the EMT guys wasn’t too bright, Anthony held back on replying “oh he didn’t know what dander is either?” ZING! We returned to the sub shop with desserts in hand to finish our subs.  We told Kelvin what happened and he was then interested in picking up something, a brownie even.  We convinced him to go in there and follow the same conversation, assuming the girl would once again inform the customer of the nuts contained in the brownie.  Kelvin wasn’t sure he’d make it though without laughing, but sure enough he did.  Once he ordered a “gourmet brownie” and she told him about the nuts, he asked “Is there any dander?” Haha, so good.  He said the look on her face was priceless…”two guys were just in here and asked the same thing!”  Good times in Olympia.

After that we made it to where we stayed last night and where I sit right now — the house of Kelvin’s friend Mike.  Those two used to work together back in LA and now he lives just outside Portland in Lake Oswego.  This place is niiiiice.  It’s a huge house with a view of the lake.  Apparently consulting work pays well.  He’s a sneakerhead (I just learned that term too, it means he collects sneakers) and has connections at Nike, so we’re gonna check out the Nike Employee store today.  What does that mean? That means it’s a Nike store where is everything is 50% off and no sales tax. Thanks Oregon.  Tonight we’re hitting the Lakers game at the Portland Trailblazers’ Rose Garden Arena.  The guys are big basketball fans.  I don’t dislike basketball, I just never got super into it.  However, I’m looking forward to the game anyway.  It’ll actually be my first NBA game.

Then after that, we’re gonna be young and stupid and attempt to drive straight back to San Francisco. Okay, it’s not quite as crazy as it sounds.  The plan is to switch off driving and it’s “only” about a nine hour drive.  On second thought, this is gonna be a loooong day.  If we’re absolutely too tired, we can crash here again tonight, but we all kinda want to get home already after the game.  I think we can handle it.  The weather is looking a-okay and we’ve slept in well enough today.  We’ll see what happens. As for right now though, looking forward to some breakfast and another day in Portland.

Downtown Vancouver sunrise

I spent the day being a tourist in Vancouver yesterday.  I really like Canada so far.

After getting to sleep in a bit, we made it to one of the 47 (or so it seemed) Blenz Coffee shops downtown for a quick breakfast.  I’m gonna continue on that thought actually…Kelvin and I have joked that downtown Vancouver is a repeat zone.  You can go two blocks and see the same shop. There are so many 7-Elevens, Blenz Coffees, and Waves Coffees, to name a few, in Vancouver.  Not that other cities are without their chains or multiple store locations, but I suppose it’s been especially outstanding here.  Anyway, back to breakfast…well, not much else to say on that.  After eating we headed straight for Lynn Canyon.

One of the major tourist attractions in Vancouver is Capilano Suspension Bridge.  It’s a primitive suspension bridge high above a creek on the outskirts of town.  It’s also not free and likely crowded.  On a Yelp talk thread a local directed me to another suspension bridge, one that also impressive but without the crowds or fare.  Nice deal.  The Lynn Canyon suspension bridge is pretty cool; you get a nice view, some fun photo-ops, and the surrounding hikes are fun. After crossing the bridge we took the trail to the right for a short hike to Twin Falls.  The falls were pretty, but not particularly striking.  What I liked more was the bank of Lynn Creek just a short side trail away.  It gave us a chance to get down to the water, play around on the rocks, with the rocks (who can hit that orange rock on the other side? / stone skipping) and take some cool photos. Anthony preferred this nature hike to the one in northern California; I’m betting the significant lack of mud here played a role in that.  After an hour and a half or so at Lynn Canyon, we drove  back to the city for lunch.

Lunch took us to one of our must-sees in Vancouver — Japadog, the downtown sidewalk cart serving, that’s right, Japanese-style hot dogs. Just as when we had past this earlier, there was a queue (look at me, so international) for their famous fare.  How famous?  Well besides having their own Facebook fan page, 4.5 stars on Yelp, rave reviews on the internet, they have a celebrities-who-have-eaten-here stand by their cart featuring Steven Seagal as a repeat customer.  Did I really just mention Steven Seagal on my blog? So long to my very own repeat readers. I wanted to stick to a basic here so I ordered the Terimayo, a beef hot dog.  I loved it.  The teriyaki sauce, the bits of seaweed, everything.  I look forward to trying other varieties here.

After lunch we checked out a couple Olympic venues for the 2010 winter games next month.  The Olympic Village wasn’t easy to reach as it was fenced off.  We parked at Science World at the end of False Creek to get a better look at the village.  It is a little over a month before the opening ceremony, the the presence of construction workers at the site wasn’t too surprising.  The accommodations set up for the athletes look modern are are conveniently located near downtown, but also come with a seemingly lackluster immediate vicinity.  We drove by the Olympic Centre at Queen Elizabeth park.  The area was mostly residential and the arena was smaller than expected.  Signage around the area indicated this was to be a site of Olympic activity; Curling will be held here.  The venue of the opening and closing ceremonies, amongst other events, is the BC Place. This mammoth stadium can been easily from a distance thanks to its distinctive white top.  I was surprised to see little visual communication to its importance to coming month, but perhaps that is yet to come.  I now feel like when I watch the games from home in California I will be able to recognize a few locations and proudly claim “I was there!”.

After all that sightseeing we returned to the hotel room to take a break and figure out where to grab dinner.  We knew we’d go for some Asian cuisine for both a change of pace and to sample a Vancouver specialty.  I really wanted to take the bus down there.  I think taking a city’s metro is a great way to not only get to know a city that much better but also feel like a local.  Yes I am a tourist, but I don’t have to stand out as one the entire time.  The other guys weren’t as gung-ho as I about the bus idea but obliged.  They boarded the bus but were turned away due to attempting to pay with a bill when only coins were accepted.  That’s kinda weak, Vancouver metro system.  But I should have caught that on the translink.ca website.  That setback sent us walking the three blocks back to the truck.  I’m disappointed I didn’t get to see that slice of Vancouver life and have the experience, but it may have worked in our favor.  Our destination, the Pink Pearl, was closed.  Had he bussed it, we’d have been forced to try another restaurant in the area which could have gone either way.  Instead, we drove to another Yelp favorite, Sun Sui Wah.  This restaurant appeared upscale at first impression, but prices were reasonable…and the food was great.

Outside Los Angeles and San Francisco, Vancouver is my new favorite west coast city.  The BC Place website asserts it is “one of the most beautiful, pristine, and active cities in the world” and I can see the reasoning.  The Vancouver metropolitan area is much larger than I had anticipated, but getting around isn’t much a challenge.  Besides numerous highways and bridge, the metro bus system seems pretty extensive and features a fleet of newer buses (with SF MUNI’s infamous budget shortfall, I don’t see such buses coming to my city anytime soon).  There’s a wide mix of people here, with some “crazies” around downtown at night (nothing more or worse than, say, Hollywood).  The weather is relatively mild for a city so far north.  A good mix of layered clothing will keep you warm and comfortable.  There’s a strong sense of identity and upkeep in the people here I haven’t seen since San Francisco (Portland and Seattle aren’t full of slobs, but the city-sense wasn’t quite as strong there). I had an inexplicable attraction to Vancouver before my trip, it’s as if I knew I’d like it even before really knowing much about it at all.  Now, after a brief, but productive, visit here I can say I really do like this city and will jump at the chance for a return visit…there is plenty left to see.  I came across this tourist guide website that may come in handy for my next visit: http://www.pacificspirit.com/VancouverGuide.html.

This morning we’re going to get squeeze in a look at Stanley Park before heading back to the United States.  Wording it like that sounds so dramatic when really it’s just driving back less than an hour to cross the border.  It’s about a five hour drive to Portland today.  We’ll be staying with a friend of Kelvin, so hooray for no more hotels.

20 stories above Lynn Canyon creek

Lynn Canyon Park

Japadog

False Creek behind, Science World to the right, Olympic Village off to the left

Yesterday was a good day to ride.  No storms, light crowds, partly sunny weather, big mountain.  We woke up early, had a quick breakfast, checked out of the Blackcomb Lodge, and walked over to the Whistler gondola.  The entire morning was devoted to the park.  We kept to the smaller stuff so we all had fun just messing around.  I hit the jumps and a few boxes. We had lunch at the Roundhouse Lodge, located near the top of the Whistler gondola.  While lunch wasn’t inexpensive, it was satisfying.  After that I was set, despite the other guys hesitation, to go back to the top of the mountain.  It looked clear up there, so I pushed for that.  Well, it was clear…but also effin’ windy.  D’oh! Oh well, we were only up there a few minutes.  We rode back down to the park (by the way, when I saw that, it wasn’t just a quick jaunt down the mountain, this is Whistler so that means even going halfway down can be a serious ride) and hit that one more time.  At this point the mountain was near closing and the guys were ready to call it a day.  I was not.  They downloaded on the gondola, but I wanted one more run.  I’d have started from the top, but that was closed already.  I asked the Whistler staff guy near the trail map a fun way down and he recommend the following run: Upper Whiskey Jack -> Lower Whiskey Jack -> Ptarmigan -> go past Garbanzo Express -> Crabapple.  And you know what? He was right.  I had a fun with that last run, just straight carving down the mountain.  It was long enough so that by the end my legs were starting to feel the burn a bit, but I’d have happily gone back for more.  I admit tho, after so much park and riding yesterday, I was tired. I was happy to have some daylight left for the Sea-to-Sky drive back to Vancouver.   I may have caught a few winks at the onset of the drive, but then some beautiful vistas quickly had me refreshed.  We stopped at one that overlooks Horseshoe bay and got some cool shots. After only about 90 minutes were we arrived to Vancouver to meet some downtown traffic. After unloading the truck the only thing on our minds was food.  I quickly researched on Yelp a good place to eat and found The Templeton a few blocks away.  Vancouver is apparently known for its Asian/seafood, especially dim sum, but we’re saving that for later today.  The little diner I found was pretty good.  On the walk around downtown before and after the meal the guys felt Vancouver was a mix of “fake” or “stuck in the 80s”.  I’m still not quite sure yet what to make of this city, but so far I’m liking it. There are sky wires to power the public transit buses and that reminds me of home.  There’s hockey EVERYWHERE; in each bar/hotel I passed I saw TVs tuned to hockey.  Even the temporary traffic alert signs on the streets read “Go Canada Go”.

We have a lot in store for today, we’re in full-on tourist mode.  The plan is to check out the Olympic village, Lynn Canyon suspension bridge, Grouse Mountain and some good eats.

Weee

Hoseshoe Bay with a 30 second exposure + flash

Sorry Canada, USA won the 2010 World Junior Hockey championship

I got paid to snowmobile today.  And I’ll be paid to snowboard tomorrow.  Ahh, I’m enjoying the benefits of a full-time job with a paid vacation for the first time.

It’s my second full day up here at Whistler and the plan today was simply snowmobiling.  Our plan is working well…snowboarding yesterday, snowmobiling today, snowboading tomorrow.  That gives us ample rest time, keeps expenses reasonable and allows us to get a good mix of snow activities.

We walked down to the Carleton lodge to take care of a bit of paperwork and were soon after picked up for the tour.  We also had a New Zealand family of four along with us for the tour. Our tour guide was friendly and oh-so Canadian…his accent was noticeable and he spoke of all the outdoors fun he enjoys in British Columbia.

The instructions on how to operate the snowmobiles were pretty succint, then again there really isn’t much to it.   There’s no need to shift gears or read gauges.  Careful use of the gas and steering is really what you need to know, the rest is details.  This particular tour, the “Wilderness Run”  took us through the backcountry of the Callaghan Valley through thickly forested trails and had a few areas open areas to mess around with some freestyle tricks.  The Kiwi family kept to the back of the pack, understandably they wanted to keep things on the safe side with kids.  The climax of the trip was a stop at the top of the trail when the tour guide, Hazzard (yes, that’s his name), showed us an amazing vista and explained some tricks for determining recent snowfall amounts.  It was fun playing around in the deep powder up there, falling in it was fun.  Anthony, Kelvin and I pushed each other down in the snow.  Unfortunately, in the excitement we lost Kelvin’s camera.  He tossed it to me, I didn’t even know that happened, and a while later we discovered neither of us had the camera.  We all spent a few minutes searching for the Olympus, but that thing was lost in the snow.  Bummer.  Fortunately, however, we had dumped the photos each day on to the computer, so the only photos lost were the ones from that morning.

I took to snowmobiling quite easily.  I wasn’t doing backflips, but I was comfortable enough to fly down a forest trail at 100KPH/62MPH, catch a bit of air on some small jumps and try riding the snowmobile from one side. I definitely want to ride again and look forward to trying some more challenging terrain next time.

We got back to the village around 3PM and it was unquestionably time to eat.  I already knew what was on our menu…poutine.  My friend Analisa strongly recommended the French-Canadian dish based on her Whistler trip. Zogs Dogs is a little food stand in the village and they serve a variety of poutine.  I had the classic, Anthony the Western and Kelvin the Zogs special.  Mine was a simple mix of french fries, cheese curds and gravy and I was happy with it.  It’s no light meal, and the portion was enough to keep me feel for a while.  The Western poutine is pretty much chili fries and I liked the Zogs option, it tasted like pizza fries.

Tonight we’re resting in the room, watching random TV.  We’re cooking in again tonight, but may venture out around the village tonight for some gift-shopping and maybe even a beer again, back at the Brewhouse.

This is our last night at the Blackcomb lodge.  It’s a nice hotel and I’d stay here again, but may want to try another place next time for variety.  Tomorrow we snowboard again and then drive straight to Vancouver. Time for me to get off the computer.

Taking a break on the snowmobiling tour

Poutine, eh? Not bad.

I love this place.  The village, the mountains, the people.  Shoot, even the beer.

Yesterday morning we arose early, 6:30AM early, to make breakfast and get ready in order to be at the chair lifts by 8:30AM.  The breakfast of champions? Honey nut cheerios, bran muffin and orange juice.  We purchased 2-day lift tickets (good for 2 days of riding in a 3-day span) and were all set to go.  We took the gondola from the village up Blackcomb mountain and that right there was enough to make Anthony declare “This is my new favorite mountain”.

After that first gondola we took the Excelerator lift and so began our first runs of the day.  We weren’t even at the top of Blackcomb and the runs were giving Mammoth some heavy competition (obviously this place blows away my local favorite, Mountain High). The conditions were great yesterday morning — dry, not too cold, and only partly cloudy.  We soon rode the Peak 2 Peak gondola from Blackcomb Mountain to Whistler Mountain.  That gondola ride is both impressive and a bit freaky.  It seemingly has too few support towers and rises so high above the ground the trees below look like toys…certainly a height above the “survivable zone”.  Certainly a height in which a catastrophic fall would lead to a passenger “soup”.

Whistler, the larger of the two mountains, was a bit more crowded yesterday.  Overall, the crowds were not bad at all, and will only be lighter today and tomorrow.  One nice feature is that many chair lifts have a sign in front indicating the wait time of that lift and also ones nearby.  Additionally, many of the large trail maps throughout the mountain alert the visitor to the open/closed/standby status of nearby lifts.  What a guest-centric, considerate ski resort.

We rode until around 11:30 which is when we made the short trip back to our room for an early lunch.  After some chili and sandwiches, we had a few hours to ride more until the 3PM mountain closing time.  Kelvin loved the terrain park and I had fun with the less advanced terrain garden.  The snow all throughout the mountain was great…groomed corduroy in the morning, pockets of powder abounded, not wet/sticky, and only a few icy patches around the end of the day.   It slowed us down a little not really knowing the trail map, but we still covered a lot of ground, and now when we ride again on Tuesday we have a better idea of where certain features are located and how to get around.  The last run of the day was from the Whistler Peak 2 Peak drop-off and was a fantastic note to end on…one long, long run to bomb down and enjoy the scenery.

After a couple hours of resting at the room we decided on the Whistler Brewhouse for dinner.  Good call, us.  Their BBQ Chicken pizza was delicious and I enjoyed the Red Truck Ale.  Then we strolled around the village, booking snowmobiling for today and checking out the food stand Beaver Tails.  The guys had a Beaver Tail, which is pretty much a flat churro, and I had a hot cocoa.  I’ll be back there today for a Canadian dish I just have to try, poutine.

It’s 9:30AM now and in a couple hours we’ll be snowmobiling.  It’ll be my first time but I”ve already been assured it’ll be “bad-ass”.  Of course it will.  Time for some breakfast, hellloooo Cheerios.

Me at the top of Whistler Mountain

Aboard the Peak 2 Peak gondola

Anthony and me on a lift

Dinner at Whistler Brewhouse

After tonight I’ll have spent each of the past eight nights in a different bed, different city.  Ahh, life on the road.

What a busy day.  The day started off in Seattle.  We got an early start on the day, grabbed a quick breakfast from downstairs in the hotel then walked over to the Space Needle.  It’s an impressive sight and this history behind it is interesting (built for the 1962 World’s Fair).  So after the round of touristy photos, we walked back to the hotel to hit the road.  But first, one stop…the flagshop REI store.  The company has roots in Seattle and this location is their largest store.  Besides being somewhat of an outdoors geek, I wanted to check out the store to pick up some snowboard goggles.  I found some I liked.  Okay, now it was time to wave goodbye to the rainy city.

Once again, our drive today was through the rain, right into Whistler.  The border crossing into Canada went pretty smooth, only about a 10 minute wait before reaching the border attendants.  We handed the agent our passports for inspection and he asked us a few questions, ranging from the purpose/duration of our visit down to our occupations.  The questions may seem intrusive, but the man was just doing his job to scrutinize for security.

Everything seemed different.  That’s not true at all. Aside from signs employing the metric system and the Canadian accent, things aren’t too different, as expected.  The drive from Vancouver to Whistler, the Sea to Sky highway, looked beautiful even in the wet, overcast evening.  I hope visibility conditions improve for the return trip, that’d offer some great photo ops. We stopped in Squamish for a late lunch, a little town about an hour short of Whistler.  We found a nice little spot, Zephyr Cafe, where I had a delicious chicken sandwich.  We figured we might save some bucks by preparing our own meals while in town, so we did a bit of grocery shopping.  And to be honest, eating out every night was starting to get old.  Next stop: Whistler.

We made it.  After days of driving, here we were: Whistler, British Columbia to enjoy the largest ski resort in North America.

After checking with some front desk attendants who won’t win the friendly-customer-service-of-the-year awards anytime soon, we climbed the flight of stairs to our room.  This is a nice room.  We’re certainly paying for it, but still.  Three beds, TV/DVD, balcony, refrigerator/freezer, oven, stove, microwave, dishwasher and a good size bathroom.  We’re right in the heart of the Whistler village and our balcony overlooks a few of its shops. We took a quick stroll around and the variety and number of shops and services here is impressive.  I already have the gears spinning in my head considering a return trip.

Dinner tonight was a nice helping of spinach and cheese ravioli with tomato and basil sauce. Kelvin handled cooking duties this evening, what a chef.  We’re calling it a night early tonight so we can have a nice breakfast and be ready to ride by 8:30AM tomorrow morning.

Looking toward downtown atop the Seattle Space Needle

The Canadian border

Cooking lessons

Breakfast yesterday morning at The Original in downtown Portland was good, it was a welcome change of pace to get something light and healthy.  We were driving to Seattle by around 12:30 today and the story of the drive was rain.  Moderate to heavy the entire time.  Kelvin has a uncle on Bainbridge Island, just went of Seattle and that was our first stop.

The island was pretty cool.  His uncle lives in a fairly secluded spot with few neighbors visible and trees all around.  We visited there for an hour and it’s the ride into Seattle that was the most intersting part.  We rode the ferry into the downtown Seattle port.  The ferry reminded me of the Catalina Express and is maybe a bit smaller than the Staten Island Ferry in New York.  We drove on board then went upstairs for the ride.  There was a small snack shop which offered my drink of choice that night, a hot cocoa.  I stepped outside for a few minutes and while the conditions where windy, cold and wet, it was exciting to stand near the bow of the fairly swift vessel. Boarding to disembarking the ferry took about 40 minutes.

Immediately to the right after driving onto the Seattle mainland is Ivars, a seafood restaurant recommended to us by Kelvin’s family.  This area of Seattle reminds me so much of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s wharf.  A lot of fish business and tourists made up the scene.  The restaurant is right on the waterfront and isn’t the cheapest meal in town.  I was sold by the menu description of the Washington salmon;  it offered locally-grown vegetables.  How environmentally sustainable…and it turned out, tasty.

I’m now in the  less-than-ideal Holiday Inn Express downtown and we’re fixing to get an early start on the day.  We didn’t do that underground Seattle tour yesterday, but will be touristy today briefly by hitting the Space Needle’s observation deck. Then it’s the final leg of our drive and we’ll arrive to our destination.  Whistler!

Approaching Seattle aboard the Bainbridge ferry