Ski lifts, long drives and family ties

Family are now all in residence and there has been much laughter, good food, good wine and adventure had. Vancouver is everything everyone promised. For those in the know we are down by the water front (opposite Granville Island). The whole area has been beautifully landscaped and they have managed to build high rise housing without ruining the whole effect – do you suppose Wellington City Council would come and visit? We have walked miles and, while we stuck to most of the tourist routes, I have managed to navigate us through some slightly dodgy areas at least twice (both here and in San Fran!).
Highlight so far has been our trip to Whistler. A ski field in winter in summer it transforms into a mountain bike park……..no we didn’t go for the mountain biking. We ended up heading up the mountain on a gondola (half hour ride), taking a shortish walk and riding a ski lift to the very top of the mountain – wow. Needless to say all the runs in the area are black diamond and, as far as I could tell, involved some perilous dropping off the side of cliff faces in order to reach snow. There was still some permafrost on the side of the mountain but even the seasoned skiers among us (K & B) weren’t convinced this part of the mountain was for them.
Whistler, in theory, is only 2.5hrs from Vancouver. We decided to take the “loop road” only to discover that the road we really wanted didn’t seem to exist, there began a very beautiful scenic journey through the mountains, heading North for a very very long time (at this stage there is much nervous giggling from K and I who have the maps – neither of which quite matched up). All up our 2.5hr trip took 5hrs, involved much mocking and deriding from the cheap seats and no relationships or familial ties were destroyed in the making of this adventure (that in itself is worthy of note).
Weather has been fantastically hot and I am now sporting the first signs of a summer tan. All of which comes to an abrupt end shortly as, yet again, I find myself in the northern hemisphere about to enjoy a winter.
We are here until Friday so still have more adventuring to do.
I have been talking to K & B about “what happens next” and getting very excited about going to the ranch, doin’ chores and starting to look for work (luckee, luckee, luckee).