Enjoying the West Coast!

Last Friday, we left the islands and headed for the mainland taking our last ferry from Salt Spring to Tsawasssen in Vancouver. After driving for another couple of hours, we arrived at Alice Lake Provincial Park, about 40 minutes south of Whistler. The park itself was very beautiful with campsites nestled among tall pines and four lakes backing on to snow-capped mountain peaks. It was so pretty that the boys decided it would be another great spot to pitch the tent and campout, and Shawn and I were able to enjoy another night with the trailer all to ourselves!

On Saturday morning, we headed into Whistler Village where we enjoyed some time hanging out before preparing for our afternoon activities. Shawn and Riley were very excited to have a guide all to themselves for a 4-hour rock climbing session in the valley and had the opportunity to climb four top-roped sections and to repel down. Shawn even got to self-repel and was pleased to find that his shoulder held strong and did not seem to limit him at all. Riley, as expected, demonstrates his monkey skills and climbed with confidence up everything that the instructor threw at him. After looking at all the options, Braedon and I decided that while rock climbing sounded like fun, the opportunity for an ice hike up a glacier was something we could not pass up, and so we donned our helmets, harnesses and boots, grabbed our ice axes and headed out for a 3-hour tour. Our guide, Ryan Angus from Whistler Alpine was really great taking the time to demonstrate the skills we needed to use our axes to stop us in the event of a fall and to ascend the steep pitch, but also explaining a lot about the mountain and sharing some great stories. We had a great time challenging ourselves and totally enjoyed slipping and sliding our way back down.

On Sunday, we returned to the village for a ride on the Peak 2 Peak gondola. As skiers and snowboarders, we have certainly ridden our share of gondolas this season, but since this is the largest and highest unsupported span and offered a view of both Whistler and Blackcomb, we certainly enjoyed the ride. Afterward, the boys had a fun checking out the adventure zone at the base of Balckcomb Mountain. They were able to tackle a rock climbing wall, swing on a trapeze, find themselves in a maze, bounce in a castle, zip through the village, and spend some time in the batting cage. At Braedon's suggestion, I somehow find myself agreeing to spin in a Spaceball with him. While it didn't make me sick and was a neat experience, I have to say the first 60 seconds were much better than the last and I was happy to be right side up when the ride was over!

Monday morning, we left Whistler and travelled to Port Moody, a subburb of Vancouver and the home of Shawn's cousin Jana and her husband Joe, who invited us to stay with them. It has been a lovely week! We have enjoyed getting to know everyone better and the kids have had a ball hanging out with Reid and Carter, who are nine and six. In addition to some great family time, and a lovely dinner at Shawn's Aunt Marg's condo on Tuesday night, we have taken time to explore the parks and bike trails in the area and have had a couple great days in Vancouver. On Wednesday, we went into town and explored the area around Granville Island on our bikes. The public market has a very similar feel to the St. Lawrence market in Toronto and in addition to eating a yummy lunch and watching some great street performers, we had fun exploring the interesting array of shops. Yesterday for Canada Day, we were fortunate to be able to head to Lilith Fair, an amazing concert at Ambleside Park where we enjoyed some of our favourite bands including Sarah McLachlan and Sugarland. It was a great day!

Today, we had fun cheering on Reid and Carter in a head to head lacrosse game and are looking forward to a BBQ with Jana's sister Tanya and her two girls. Tomorrow, we will head out toward Chilliwack where will will have an evening to catch-up with Shawn's cousin Kenny and his family before heading to Kelowna on Sunday. We are still enjoying our adventure and can hardly believe that we will be heading home in just over 6 weeks!

Tammy