Dale planned a Labour Day weekend trip to Whistler for us, to follow up on an overnight trip we took earlier this summer. That night we stayed in a tiny studio room, with a Murphy bed. It was fun but we didn’t see much of Whistler and we felt like students on a cheap weekend. This time we booked a much nicer room and we planned some things to do.

Normally I start packing for an adventure several days before we leave. This time Dale didn’t get the suitcases until the morning of. I overpacked clothes because I didn’t have time to plan several outfits and then put most of them back. We were well on our way before I realized I had forgotten my magnifying make-up mirror, my iPad and an umbrella. As it turned out, none if them were really necessary,  although at the certain age I’m at, hairs tend to grow on my chin overnight and removing them by feel was hard.

We left around 9:00 on Friday morning and went to the Lonsdale Quay for breakfast. There’s a little cafe/kiosk there that serves an all-day breakfast. They make steamed eggs with their fancy-dancy coffee machine and serve them on lightly grilled croissants. Dale loves their salmon benny. We sat and had our breakfasts, lingering over our hot beverages and then we strolled through the shops. We looked at umbrellas but decided we would risk the rain in Whistler, after all we had three or four at home and didn’t really need to add to the collection. We thought that might have been a mistake because once were were back on the road the sky opened and it poured. I mean it rained so hard we almost couldn’t see where we were going and windshield wipers couldn’t keep up. However, the skies cleared the closer we got to Whistler and by the time we checked into our hotel, it was sunny and almost warm.

We walked up to the village from our hotel. I sat on a rock wall up by the gondola while Dale went to get our tickets. We were going up to the peak to have dinner so we needed to pick up both the tickets for the barbecue and the ride up. While Dale was gone I was approached by a host who asked me to do a quick survey. I finished it just as Dale cam back. We weren’t hungry but we decided to sit on one of patios with a beverage. The sun was warm and we were entertained by the crowds and the bike riders coming down off the mountain. I love sitting outside but restaurant areas attract birds. Little birds are okay but pigeons are not. However, I learned that tapping or waving my cane will keep those nasty pests away, so they can’t sneak up in me and peck my eyes out. We dragged out our beverages for as long as we could then we headed back to the hotel. We had to change as the temperature at the top of the mountain was zero degrees Celcius and the light rain up there could turn into snow. That called for shoes and socks, long pants and jackets. By 2:45 we were back at the gondola station, ready to head up.

The gondola ride was amazing, it was quite steep but the views were incredible. The ride to the top of Whister took 25 minutes. When we got the top we were glad we had heeded the information we had received. It was cold and windy. There was no snow on the ground where we were, but you could see snow just up a little higher.

We looked around a little and then headed over to the other building, to take the Peak2Peak gondola ride. It is an 11 minute ride, going 4.4 kilometres from the peak of Whistler to the peak of Blackcomb. We got on quickly, as most of the people there were waiting for the glass bottom gondola cars. We rode through the fog. When it cleared we could see how high we were. It was quite disconcerting. We could see birds flying below us.

The views on Blackcomb were spectacular. We were too late to see all if the alpine flowers but there were still a few here and there. We did see, and hear, the whistling marmots that live up there.

After lokking around we went into the lodge and had some hot chocolate. The servers in the lodge were wearing name tags that also identified where they were from. A young woman from Sweden took our order and another one from Australia made our drinks. Both were friendly and patient. An older woman barged in front of us, entering the line-up from the exit point, and ordered before we could say anything. When she got her coffee, in a mug, she asked for a to-go cup. Then, rather than going over to the service area to get cream, she interrupted the barista who was making our hot chocolates. Both women handled the situation, and the rude woman, very well. We took our hot chocolates over to a table and spooned out the melting marshmallows. They were delicious! After watching a short film about the resort, we walked up to the gondola building and headed back to Whistler. The fog was more intense on our way back. for a while all we could see were the wires and that was a little eerie. But, of course, the fog lifted and then the views came back.

We had had dinner in the lodge at the top of Whistler. It was a southern-style barbecue, complete with beans, ribs and cornbread. I had brownies for dessert, Dale had more ribs. The ride back down the mountain was anticlimactic. We wanted to sit by a firepit and sip some Scotch, but the first bar we stopped at had the former but not the latter. We decided to forego the flames, deciding that good liquor was more important. We had our nightcap and wandered back to our hotel, a little tipsy and a little tired.