B.C. Weekend

As we enter the home stretch of our tenure in the Pacific Northwest, we are feeling desperate for two things: heat and seeing everything the area has to offer, at least once, if not twice.  The first thing we can't do anything about, but the second is fully in our control as long as the car cooperates.  So a long holiday weekend with nothing on the docket led us to flee the country by car, to the north.  We spent one night in the Richmond suburb of Vancouver, which might as well have been a suburb of Beijing and where 9 out of 10 cars were luxury vehicles (with the one out of ten drivers being non-Asian), and every regional taste of China represented (we hit up a little Shanghai cuisine).

Ben says that Vancouver is the prettiest city he has ever seen, knocking Seattle off the top of his list.  Stanley Park right in the middle of it is a stunner and we would love to spend more time there.

The next day we took the Sea to Sky drive to Whistler and were rewarded with scenery as beautiful as the name suggests.  We saw rock climbers hanging from the face of The Chief, scuba divers braving the freezing sound, lots of bicyclists, hikers and I'm now fairly convinced that B.C. Canadians do not spend any time watching TV. 

                                    

 We made it to Whistler and checked out the Olympic Village, which was just as you would imagine - lovely and overpriced.

 A lot of hiking never hurt anyone:

We've seen our share of slugs before, but never giant black slugs.

The hotel waterslide was a major hit, and where Miles can say he learned to swim.

Bonjour Canada.  We'll be back.