Snow Covered Whistler

Well, it happens to everyone, wherever you go, and this time its our turn, its time to meet our final destination. But boy did we pick a good one to go out on, Whistler hands down was unanimously voted the most beautiful place we have visited on our 40+ destination extravaganza. Helped in most part by the constant barrage of snow, it covered buildings and people alike in such a beautiful fashion. And unlike rain, you could walk in it quite comfortably without it disrupting your activities. Whistler itself was also beautiful, the old log-style cabins and buildings lining the strictly pedestrian walkways were wonderful to walk through with a wide array of shops to keep one particular woman (ahem, Lauren) happy. Then we move on to our hotel, the Whistler Pinnacle Hotel felt like a quaint log cabin in the deep Canadian forest, except it was right in downtown Whistler. We had a King bed, always a good start, a large spa bath, full featured foxtel (or Shaw as they call it) and a gas fireplace. And did the fireplace get some use, being -6 most days, it was nice to return back to the room and thaw out. So check it out below to see pictures of our room and Whistler blanketed in snow.

Our very last Blizzard from Diary Queen. How ironic that we would want something so cold you can hold it upside down and it won't drip, when it was -6 outside. 

As most of you will know Whistler hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics. There isn't too much left in Whistler to remind you that it was hosted there except for these giant Olympic rings in the centre of the village.

Whistler was still in the Christmas spirit.

Catching snow flakes outside the hotel.

One of our balconies with the snow starting to build up.

The street out the front of our hotel.

This is one of the main parts of the shopping area in Whistler before it started snowing heavily.

Being in Whistler we had to go check out some of the slopes. We didn't bother to ski or snowboard because it was incredibly expensive plus we didn't want to break any bones before we head home.

One of the many slopes in Whistler.

One of the many chairlifts talking you to one of the sites on Blackcomb mountain.

Trying to find some good snow to eat.

Believe it or not, there was actually a frozen river on the left hand side of this picture. 

Just beyond those blue chairs I decided to walk out on the frozen river, and no I did not fall in, but as I was walking out to the middle there was an almighty crack. Safe to say I ran off that thing like I had soiled my pants (which I may or may not have done after I heard the cracking noise).

Our lovely hotel, with the spa bath, fireplace and two balconies. If you look at the middle of the left hand side pillar, that was one of our balconies. 

On our full day in Whistler is snowed literally all day, from the moment we woke up and until we went to bed. So as we were incredibly cold we decided to head to the Brewhouse not far from our hotel, have a beer or two and some good food.

Our view from the Brewhouse window. It was really nice to sit inside in the warm and watch it snow outside.

Now that we were back in Canada it was time for some poutine. It had been a long three months without it and Lauren sure did miss it.

Out the front of the brewhouse.

These two bears were friendly, they even let us pat them. 

Yes that is Kristian licking snow off a baby bears head.....

I couldn't imagine going to school in this weather, all I'd want to do is have a snowball fight!

This was the Ice rink, or over the right of the shot. 

This was my attempt at a snow angel. The only problem was I had to be quick because if I lay there too long my pants and jacket would get soaking wet. I think it looks more like an axe than an angel. 

Kristian baring it all to take a photo off our balcony. 

This was a map of all the shops in Whistler, and as you can see it was quite a big place. 

One of the main strips in the town centre after the big dumping of snow.

A look down the main street at dusk. 

This was a panorama of our hotel. If you look at the very left you will see a balcony on the second floor, that was one of ours, so needless to say we had a pretty good room with a view. 

On our final night in Whistler we decided it would be fun to try and ice skate considering it was free and only $5 for skates. At the start Lauren was too embarrassed to do it so she made me go first to see how hard it was. While it was immensely embarrassing, the arena had these walking frames that would help you stay upright and basically not fall over. Everyone was too embarrassed to use it, so being the daring human I am I put my dignity aside and took flight with my skating frame. Shortly after, it was a cool thing to have one of these frames as everyone seemed to adopt one, including Lauren who had picked on me for using it. Even with the frame, it turns out it was much harder than it looks and has given us a greater appreciation for NHL players. But after a while I managed to get the hang of it a bit and convinced Lauren to come and try it out. 

Surprisingly neither of us fell over, though we did have a couple of close calls.

After a little bit of convincing and watching other people including me using the little zimmer frames Lauren decided to have a go to and she was a bit better than me. We didn't get any photos of her skating but don't worry we got some video!

A shot of the small ice rink and surrounding area.

So that was a glimpse of our short time spent in Whistler.
The next and final post will be done when we arrive home and when we aren't to jet lagged to type.

For now we will enjoy our last afternoon with Jill & Fred in Vancouver before we board our excruciatingly long 16 hours and 35 minutes flight tonight.

We hope everyone is well and we will see you all very soon

Kristian and Lauren :)

America's Biggest Car Wash... Seattle

Like the title of the post suggests, it rains a lot in Seattle. And our visit was no exception, but luckily for us it mostly rained whilst we were inside, so like most Seattleans (if that's what they call themselves?), we spent a lot of time indoors. Unbeknown to us until arriving in Seattle, the first Starbucks actually originated in Seattle. And since then, the multiplication rate has been phenomenal around the city, to the point that you can literally stand on a street corner and see roughly 2 or more Starbucks in one quick glance. And for the most part we couldn't figure out why there were so many, maybe Seattleans just liked their Starbucks, but so does the rest of America, and those other places don't have such an unnecessary saturation of Starbucks on every single street corner?

But as we made the transition indoors, we found ourselves in one of those Starbucks on every corner, then we would venture out into the dark, dreary, cold and rainy outdoors, then migrate to another Starbucks on every other corner, and the funny thing is, an hour could go by and you would look down the street and see the last 2 or 3 Starbucks' you'd just been in. So suddenly the Starbucks on every corner didn't seem so obsessive, they actually served a purpose, they gave refuge to the thousands of people that didn't want to battle through the terrible weather, and as a result many people would spend their days in these establishments, hence the Starbucks (or coffee shop) culture was created. So please read on, I promise we won't cover too much more on Starbucks, instead we will try and focus on Seattle (even though the two are synonymous with each other).

As we were completely over buses and trains we sucked it up and got a flight to Seattle which was just so much easier and less time consuming. As always we get bored on flights, this was Kristian pretending he only had one tooth which was actually an M & M, but not the nice variety, this one had pretzel inside! Honestly, that is just a nasty combination. 

As Seattle was incredibly cold we had to warm up with out daily Starbucks. Well actually, it was more likely twice or three times daily. Don't judge us. 

The major attraction in Seattle is the Pike Place Market. The market has seafood, fresh produce and a lot of hand made arts & crafts. This was probably the second coolest market we'd been to, with the first being St Lawrence market in Toronto. 

Inside some of the market.

The very first Starbucks right across from Pike Place Market.

The art/craft/flower section of the market.

Turns out Seattle has a really gross "tourist attraction", can you guess what it is?

No its not this. This is just an artist installation. 

Yes that is a huge wall covered in peoples chewed gum. It was pretty gross but at least it smelt fruity/minty (with a hint of bad breath).

Look at the drooping from the gum on the window. 

More of the gum covered wall.

I swear I didn't actually lick the wall.

Layers upon layers of gum.

This is the famous fish stall at the market which you may have seen on TV and some point or another, but they basically shout at each other and throw fish around when someone orders something.

Delicious pastries.

A whole lot of cheese.

We decided to have some food just across the street from the market, the fish wasn't too bad but the chips were nasty. We had to keep squeezing oil out of them so they would be slightly edible, needless to say we didn't eat very many.

Pier 69 (or something)

The wildly overpriced ferris wheel ,like most places. 

We were pretty tired on our first night in Seattle and it was awfully cold, but lucky for us there was a super cool pizza place right around the corner from our hotel. The pizza place is called MOD Pizza and every pizza is $7.17. You can add and subtract any ingredient you want at no extra charge so of course Kristian had to add almost every topping, including lettuce (which even the guy behind the counter thought that was strange).

The pizza was that packed with toppings that it had to be folded.

The Seattle Space Needle.
It was such a horribly miserable day in Seattle so we didn't bother to go up the space needle as we wouldn't have been able to see much.

The shop front of the very first Starbucks.

On our last night in America we decided it would only be fitting to find a sports bar, have some good food and watch the Flyers on tele and that's just what we did.

Good old sliders.

See, I told you there wouldn't be much more about Starbucks. However I don't know if I can say the same about Whistler, hot chocolate was pretty much running through our veins (not because we were fat piggies, but because it was just so damn cold and we needed something to warm ourselves up).

So get ready for whistler, which undoubtedly was the prettiest place we had ever visited. I won't say much more than that.

So until then, we will see you all in a couple of days!
Kristian & Lauren.