Some totem polls stood around the park near the harbor.
After our visit we’re back on Hwy 99. We noticed this little lake with a hiking trail along the Hwy and pulled off. It had a great place for a picnic and nice views of the water. Just a little lake to fish in on a quiet afternoon. I didn’t see any posting on the name of this lake, but it was just off the side of the Hwy.
Next we stopped by Shannon Falls which is the third-largest waterfall in BC. The falls were just trickling, but still beautiful. It was a short hike up to the falls and well worth it. A little misty, but felt good!
After exploring around Shannon Falls, we hit Hwy 99 once again. This time we headed towards Whistler Mountain where the 2010 Winter Olympics will be held. It’s about 75 miles north of Vancouver and is a peak in the Fitzsimmons Range and reaches 7,156 ft. We found this cute little restaurant called the Wild Wood Bistro & Bar where I had the best spinach salad ever! It had sundried cranberries in it as well. MMM mmm good. Now I’m hungry! Ray ordered a salmon burger which he enjoyed just as much. We both thought of ordering seconds, that’s how good it was, but we quickly decided we didn’t want to over stuff ourselves at that moment. Had some great tasting Whistler Ale beer.
We walked around the Whistler Village which has a variety of specialty shops, restaurants and bars. Cute, quaint and seems like a great ski place to hang out. Ray treated himself to a Cuban Cigar. His plan was to enjoy that cigar on the cruise with a drink. 
After our delicious lunch we took a Gondola ride up to the top, which was just part of the way up to the summit.
Once the Gondola ride was over, we had to hike about 5 minutes to hop on a ski lift to get to the summit of Whistler Mountain. What gorgeous views all around!
Ray had a great time getting a kick out of me being slightly scared on that! There was no snow under you to ease a fall. You can see my ‘white’ knuckles (circled in yellow) while I try to look like I was a pro at this.
Once we reached the very top – it was just amazing to see all those mountains in every single direction. Being away from California for so many years made me realize how much I miss seeing views like this. You just don’t find views like this in the South!
As we walked around, we ran across many stone structures called Ilanaaq. Turns out this is the symbol of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Ilanaaq is meant to represent a type of Inukshuk, which is a symbol deeply rooted in Inuit culture and is a marker that signifies safety, hope and friendship. I found one off by itself near a cliff and, of course, had to go over and snap a shot of it with the background.
We headed back down the ski lift to catch another Gondola over to the Blackcomb Peak which rises 5,133 ft. We had a choice of going on a glass bottom Gondola, line was too long to wait, so we shared one with 3 people from Germany. Views were awesome on this ride and Ray was soaking it all up!
Another ski lift back down to the bottom and we’re on our way back to Vancouver. While driving we noticed an inlet near the Hwy called Britannia Beach on the way to Whistler Mountain and stopped by on our way back. It was such a peaceful place. There was a camping site near the inlet. The sun was going down so we spent time taking pictures of the sunset.
While I was talking pictures of the sunset, 2 guys and a girl from England, in a pretty ‘happy’ mood, decided they wanted to jump off the pier right where I was standing before they sobered up. They talked back and forth about what the depth of the water might be, what if they hit their head on a rock, decided “there possibly can’t be any rocks this far out”, etc., etc., etc. It was quite funny listening in on their conversation about jumping in. After much anticipation by the three of them, the girl dove in first. YES, Girl Power! The 2 guys stood there in disbelief that she would actually do it. Then it was “you go first”, “no, you go first” over and over by the guys. She finally said something inaudible that shut the guys up and they jumped in. I took shots of them going in and their final picture together. I’ll be emailing their pictures to them. Actually, I couldn’t believe they would do it myself! That is some coooold water!
Hung around for a few more minutes then it started to sprinkle. Drove back to Vancouver.
Was a great day and we crammed it with all we could do today. Enjoyed every single minute of it. Events of day two should be up very soon.
