Trip to Vancouver & Seattle - Day 4

We got up on Tuesday morning and while we were having coffee in the lobby we met an Irish woman named Mary. Mary had come to Vancouver unexpectedly as her daughter had been in a plane crash a couple of days before, and thankfully survived but with fairly major injuries. She is in a hospital in New Westminster, and is going to recover, but will probably have to spend eight weeks in the hospital in Canada. She was actually going skydiving, but at 4000 feet, an engine failed, and so they started to descend. On the way down, unfortunately, the other engine failed and they ended up crash landing. Fortunately, everyone on board survived although apparently one person is on life support. Apparently, the plane has to climb to 5000 feet before any skydivers can jump, so even though they had parachutes, they all remained in the plane. It was certainly a stunning story!

We decided to head on up to Whistler for the day. Before we got on the road, we went to the local English shop to buy sweets and other things that Aisling and I miss! In addition to the turkish delight and milky bars, we bought some savory items for breakfast, including a scotch egg. I've been telling Gordon about how great they are for years! Unfortunately, it was possibly the worst scotch egg ever created!! So we got on the freeway, first the Trans-Canada highway and then the Sea-to-Sky highway. Highways have such nice names here! The Sea-to-Sky (or 99) runs from Vancouver to Whistler, and because they are having the winter olympics here in 2010, there is a huge amount of construction on it, so the drive was really slow. However, it is quite possibly the most beautiful drive in the world, absolutely stunning scenery. It follows Horseshoe Bay on up to Howe Strait, and then more inland, through Squamish into Whistler. Squamish and Whistler are really more winter destinations, however, in Whistler, there are lots of lakes connected by short and easy hikes (walks really) so out plan was to swim in those lakes. Unfortunately, when we got up to Whistler, it was about 20 degrees colder than Vancouver and outdoor swimming didn't seem like it made sense! However, we saw an ad for an indoor sports center, with a pool, so we went there and spent the whole afternoon in the pool, spa and hot tub!! Gordon even used the treadmill and weight room. They had a slide and basketball in the pool and we just had a blast. On the way out, we stopped at a lake park - we thought we should see some Whistler scenery since we made the drive! We enjoyed the drive back also, more fabulous scenery. We also listened to Canadian radio in the car, and they were just as obsessed as Canadian TV about the lack of Olympic medals won by the Canadian athletes!

When we got back to New Westminster, we had dinner at a Sushi place called Ki Sushi. Aisling was able to get oysters, which she had been craving. Gordon got the Canada special, which includes deep-fried creamed corn. He also continued to sample many Canadian beers.

Vancouver photos are on Flickr.