My second (and final) day in Vancouver, at the suggestion of the owners of the cottage I stayed at, after an early morning hike that
eventually took me to
Quarry Rock, I made a day trip to Whistler and enjoyed the incredible beauty of the Sea to Sky Highway, going from Vancouver up to Whistler. It literally took my breath away and gave me goosebumps. The signs kinda taunted me, saying absolutely no stopping, because all I wanted to do was slam on the brakes and sit there in the middle of the mountain road staring. Seriously. Incredible!
I took off around 10am from North Vancouver, and although I WANTED to stop along the way up to capture the insane raw natural beauty along the way up, I made it a straight shot, with this being my only stop:
How crazy is it that when I stopped, I was sad that they chose THIS spot to have as a stop for photo op, because compared to what I had just seen, it was NOTHING.
I made it to Whistler around noon time and found parking, and then some lunch in the ADORABLE little Whistler Village.
I walked around the village for a good half hour before deciding to stop for some lunch at The Brasserie.
I decided at the urging of a few of my Canadian friends to give poutine another try. The only other time I had tried it was at the Toronto airport before we went to Ireland, and I was sorely disappointed. This time I opted to add some shredded pork to it, and it was a HUGE hit! I still wasn't overly fond of any bite that I took where it was just the fries and gravy and cheese curds, but any bite with the pork was AWESOME!
While Whistler is known for its incredible skiing in the winter time, when it gets into summer time, it isn't skiing, but mountain biking that takes over. There was a really cool course, and I'm assuming some sort of tournament while I was there. There were mountain biker dudes (and dudettes...and little biker kiddos) EVERYWHERE.
The people watching was paramount here! It was the perfect place to just sort of sit back, relax and watch all the different people.
After lunch, I explored more and did some light shopping for the kiddos and myself.
Whistler was such a wonderful little place! I would absolutely go back, given the opportunity! It was such an easy, relaxing place to stroll around, shop a little, eat a little, relax a little. I think it'd be an excellent place for families and kids, was SO walkable, and the village was just so quaint and cozy and inviting. It was absolutely worth the drive up from Vancouver.
