Let’s continue talking about my summer trip to Vancouver, Whistler, and ultimately, Alaska.
Day 5:
It was Louie’s last morning of the conference and we had to check out, so I took care of that and stored the bags at the hotel before heading out for my last morning of solo sightseeing. I walked to the Roedde House Museum, which is an old house from 1893 that has been restored and decorated with stuff from the period it was from.
There were a few people there at the same time, but the person from the museum tried to go around and give some information and answer questions. The house was very neat, though she thought I wouldn’t be too impressed as St Louis has tons of old houses, hah! We don’t have that many house museums though, so it was still a lot of fun.
After visiting the museum I headed to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch and enjoyed some Pho.
Then it was time to get back to the hotel to meet Louie–we had to walk a few minutes to the bus stop, where were taking the YVR Skylynx bus to Whistler! It was easy to find the bus stop and we (as usual) got there a little too early. We boarded the bus with no problems, and then settled in for about a 2 hour bus ride. It was a very scenic ride along the Sea to Sky Highway, but I did fall asleep for part of it.
We got to Whistler and then went to find our hotel. I had chosen the Adara Hotel for a good price, decent location, and good reviews. It was a little tricky to find–navigating a pedestrian area like Whistler reminded me of navigating in Tokyo, where you would find it but then not find what you were looking for! But we managed, and we got checked in, and were able to enjoy the hot tub as well–it was an outdoor hot tub by the pool, on a rooftop of sorts, but really just the second floor.
Whistler is a very nice, but very high end ski resort. It reminded me of Vail, and I assume costs to ski and such are similar, though the restaurants were cheaper. That might have been an exchange rate thing though. We had an evening restaurant at Alta Bistro–we sat outside and it was so lovely! We got a prix fix menu which gave us a few choices and a few courses, and wow, it was amazing!
We started with oysters, which I enjoy but Louie enjoys more than me.
You can see it was a beautiful location! The outside patio was lovely, and the service was friendly and timely. We enjoyed watching some birds as well.
Note to self for next trip: take pictures of the MENU as well so I know what we got. There was also dessert but it was getting dark by then so the pictures weren’t any good. We walked back to the hotel, satisfied and happy, glad to be in Whistler for two nights!
Day 6:
We woke up and got breakfast at Mogul Coffee–very nice overnight oats and coffee. Then we stopped into a grocery store to get snacks and sandwiches for the day.
Initially I had planned for us to take the gondolas up and do the High Note Hike on this day, but it wasn’t open yet for the season (too much snow still I guess!). The gondolas on Whistler Mountain weren’t open in the morning either, so we found our way to Blackcomb Gondola and took the gondola up. You have to buy a daily pass for the gondolas, which isn’t cheap, but you can ride all day. Once you buy it, you might as well use all of the ones that you can!
Don’t tease the bears!
The gondola ride was very scenic, though the air was a bit hazy with smoke from nearby (not too nearby thankfully) wildfires.
I believe that is Green Lake.
We headed out on the path after arriving and using the bathrooms (there’s a whole infrastruture with a ski restaurant, shop, etc on the top.)
We did the Overlord Trail and the Lakeside Loop, and were thinking maybe the Decker Loop, but it was a bit too steep for me at the beginning, so Louie and I decided to split up.
But first we were together for awhile, enjoying the fresh air and piney smell from high elevation. You sure don’t get that in St Louis! We saw a marmot pretty early in the hike as well, which was a lovely bonus.
I mean, really, this hike was phenomenally beautiful. Words cannot describe it. I took a million pictures (only a slight exaggeration) because I just couldn’t stop myself.
It was a fairly busy hike, so when we decided to split up we knew each of us would be okay on our own because there were plenty of people around. I did slip once and landed right on my butt, but my hiking poles helped me fall more slowly (ha!) and I was okay.
When I got back close to the appropriately named Rendezvous Lodge, where Louie would meet me when he was done, I saw another marmot. This one stayed in view for some time and allowed me to take quite a few pictures of him.
I ate my lunch and then after awhile Louie found me. We took the Peak to Peak Gondola across the mountain to Whistler Mountain. This was an insane ride, the gondola is so high up and it is a little scary if you have a fear of heights, but was amazingly fun!
Then we did a shorter hike on Whistler Mountain as we couldn’t resist. This hike went down first and up later, which is pretty much nobody’s favorite, but it had amazing views as well.
We posed with the Olympic Rings: the skiing parts of the Vancouver Olympics were held in Whistler.
We took a gondola down, finally, towards the end of the day. We got our own gondola (it wasn’t very busy) and really enjoyed the views on the way down as well. It was fun to have a private gondola and chat without worrying about other people correctly us or annoying them.
We got back to the hotel then (very short walk from the Whistler Gondola) and decided to hit up the hot tub again (after cleaning up first, of course.) Our hotel had also given us a coupon for two free “welcome drinks” so we wanted to take advantage of it. Unlike the day before when the pool and hot tub were crowded, we were the only ones out there. We ordered our free drinks at the bar/restaurant that was right there, planning to drink them outside, but then after we ordered, it started raining! So we decided to go into the restaurant for our drinks, even though we only had our robes over our swimsuits. Vacation is here, baby!
I seem to be wearing some sort of shorts too, so I guess I didn’t JUST have my robe.
For dinner we chose a nearby, highly rated Mexican place called Mexican Corner. There was a short wait to get seated, but then we enjoyed our food quite a bit.
We split a ceviche appetizer and then I had enchiladas with mole sauce. It was delicious, especially after all the hiking! Everything tastes better after a day of hiking.
We weren’t quite ready for bed after dinner so we walked around a little more.
I guess Sean had an accident.
The Adara Hotel: not fancy, but totally nice enough. We would stay here again, especially if the price were right, which it was for this visit.
The next day we will have the morning in Whistler and then back to Vancouver, so I’ll tell you about that soon!