Wild Times at Whistler

So our last time at Whistler was the greenest Sea to Sky Highway drive we've ever had! but it was still just as beautiful none the less!

We introduced Mom and Mara to the delights of Tim Hortons and took them on a 'Timmy Run' for some hot chocolate and bagels and bacon biscuits!

As if that wasn't exciting enough...we also got to check out these awesome views,

and admire the still snow capped mountains!

and then as drove past Squamish Byron shouted 'bear'!!! and there it was just at the side of the road chowing down on some grass!! We made a quick u-turn thinking it would for sure be gone by the time we drove back past it but to our delight it was still there! and we were able to roll down our window and zoom in to get this awesome pic! It was our first bear we've seen here so there was lots of excitement all round! 

When we arrived at Whistler, we discovered we were so eager that the chair lifts weren't even open yet! (apparently the times change for spring skiing) so we went on a little stroll through the woods.

There were some pretty funny antics that proceeded this pic! and that followed...Mom ended up with a shoe full of water! 

We came across this sign in the woods and thought it was very apt considering the bear we'd come across that morning!

When the lifts finally opened, we made it straight to the top of Seventh Heaven to catch this awesome sight!

and Mara got her first taste of Whistler skiing!  

Here we are posing with one of the many 'Inukshuk' you see around these parts! They are sculptures built with stones to make it look like a human, and are made by the natives of these territories all around the Canadian Great North.  Apparently they are as synonymous to Canada as the maple leaf is!! (and I'm not afraid to admit I hadn't heard of them before landing on Canadian shores!)

I will never grow tired of that awesome awesome view! 

Mara was pretty excited to get out their on the slopes! She's only skiied once in Poland before and that was many years ago so she wasn't sure if she'd still remember how!

but she picked it up fast and was whizzing down runs with us in no time! 

It was so strange to pass patches of dry grass and such green trees! Some people are really into spring skiing, but I would much rather take a fresh pow day in the winter if I had my pick! It was cool to get to go one last time, but it was my least favourite of all our ski days due to melting snow.

Of course any ski day gets better with some good old poutine! 

and of course beavertails too, it's our Whistler tradition after all! and one that Mara enjoyed joining in on! 

Mom got involved too and even rode the gondola to the top, in her pumps and everything! She had the shoe full of snow afterwards to prove it! 

As we were going up for our final run of the day,

we passed Mom and Mara going down the other way so we snapped pics of each other! 

We took the obligatory tourist shot with the Olympic rings, Mom decided it would be fun to lie down inside the rings - apparently lie down means different things to Mom and Mara!! Haha, we laughed for ages the night we got home and viewed these photos and saw Mom's pose! 

...and no Whistler day is complete without a trip to Splitz for the best burger in B.C!

and I'd been promising my Mom the thickest shakes in the west for months before they arrived!

They were met with seals of approval all round! In fact I think Mom is struggling to even get hers through her straw in this pic...now that is a sign of a good shake!

and because they took a while to bring us all our shakes, they gave us a free banana split for dessert! and if you can believe it, we managed to devour that whole thing even after our burgers and double thick shakes! 

...and then the cherry on top to an already awesome day was spotting MORE bears on the way home! That poor little cub was scared of our engine as we pulled over, so he ran up the tree...so cute!

and this time we came across a mommy bear with her 3 cubs! 

This one was a bit of an exhibitionist and entertained us by playing with this branch for a while!

We literally watched these bears for about half an hour, and I took hundreds of pictures (I spared you by only adding in a couple!).  We kept looking around us and wondering why no one else was pulling over! I guess to a Canadian from around these parts bears on the highway are just a regular occurrence but we were fascinated!!

We stopped off at a viewpoint on the way back to Van, and took in those snow capped mountains for one last time.

Vancouver, Vancouver, how will we ever leave you! (Am I sounding like a broken down record yet?!) I can't believe we only have 2 weeks left in this majestical land!

and because I can never get enough of waterfalls, we stopped off at Shannon Falls to give Mom and Mara a quick tour.  It was close to 9pm by the time we arrived so we were losing light fast and really this picture was taken in the dark so luckily lightroom did some magic on it...be prepared for lots more waterfall pics to come! 

I'm aiming to do a post a day to get all our B.C adventures caught up before we head Stateside for our road trip, so be prepared to be bombarded! 

Spring Break Part 2: Whistler, Cypress & Las Margaritas!

So it was inevitable that Spring Break was going to involve some sort of Whistler fun! It had been a month since our last visit and we were getting restless! Plus with the warmer weather finally coming our way, we know our time on the slopes is limited so we need to fully make the most of it while we can!

It was a beautiful clear day, which is pretty unusual for Whistler so we were loving the awesome views! I think I've mentioned before but Whistler ski resort is made up of two mountains: Whistler and Blackcomb.  We decided to dedicate our whole day to Blackcomb, because we've spent way more time on Whistler and wanted to see what we were missing out on!

As we got to the top of 'Seventh Heaven' the sun was just shielded behind the clouds and making this rather cool glow!

We also got some really awesome views from up there! We tried out some pretty fun runs, but the snow wasn't as thick as we'd have liked so we decided to venture even further up to Blackcomb Glacier.

I had to go on my first t-bar to get there! which I was a bit worried about but luckily it wasn't as hard as it looks and we made it up to the very top.  When we got there we realised to then get to the top of the glacier you had to walk quite far up, so there's Byron in the picture below (in black) with his snowboard on his back hiking up to get a good spot! 

The glacier was full of pure powder...and it was really deep! We were kicking ourselves that we've been to Whistler so many times and never discovered the glacier before!

The pictures don't really do it justice, but it was pretty amazing! I wiped out pretty big at the bottom of our first trip down it, and landed on my head...so my feelings on the glacier were skewed slightly because of that!! but at the end of our day I gave it another shot, thanks to Byron's insistence and this time just enjoyed whizzing through some awesome snow...and this time I stayed upright! 

While Byron did another run of the glacier bowl, I had some of the other runs all to myself! It was so quiet and it ended up being one of our best days we've had on the mountain in a while! 

A few days later, we got our gear together again but this time we headed to Cypress, one of the local mountains.  It takes us about 1 hour, 45 mins to get to Whistler, whilst Cypress mountain is only 45 minutes away from our house.  The reason we usually ski Whistler instead of the local mountains is just because it's so much bigger and the quality of the runs and the skiing there more than make up for our longer travel time! However, the chairlifts at Whistler close at 4pm whereas all of the local Vancouver mountains offer night skiing and this is something I definitely wanted to try! 

So we ventured out on an unusually clear and blue sky day in Vancouver, because we knew that would make for the most awesome views and we were certainly not disappointed! 

We stopped at Cypress Provincial Park on the way to check out the awesome view...

Although it was blue skies, it was a little hazy.  

We had a little picnic at the picnic spot, it as pretty crazy to be sitting in t-shirts and then 10 minutes after lunch we were wrapped up in our skiing gear in the snow! 

Byron thought I looked like a pro because of the backpack! Really, it was just so we could take our big SLR and get some better quality shots this time around.

Icicles!!! 

Despite there being frozen trees at the top of the mountain, it was still surprisingly warm and probably the warmest day of skiing I've experienced so far!

As you ski down, on one side you have views of the ocean and the islands in the distance...

on the other side you have views of the skyline and Vancouver city below! It's pretty incredible!

I was loving it! and kicking myself for being so snobby about the local mountains!

Can you believe these views?!

We snuck over this fence at one point to get closer to the edge, luckily a french man had done the same and so he was able to take this picture of the two of us!

and I had to take a feet shot to add to our new collection!

As the sun set, the floodlights came on, most of the other skiers went home! and we were left with the slopes to ourselves practically! Often we were the only ones riding the chair lifts in the dark! It was so fun! and unfortunately I managed to delete the night pictures I took which wasn't very clever! but we did take a few mini video clips...and I had a go at editing all our clips into a video for the first time!

So here for your viewing pleasure is a little snapshot into our day on the slopes! Forgive the shaky camera...there was no go pro involved! Only an SLR we hung around our neck, and so every time we went over a bump the camera experienced the bump too - hence the shakiness! 

We finished off our action packed Spring Break week with some Margarita fun at our favourite Mexican restaurant - Las Margaritas! because nothing beats some strawberry-lime, raspberry-coconut and pineapple-coconut virgin Margaritas! 

and all meals that start with free chips and salsa...

and end with churros are great nights out! Especially because these were the yummiest churros! and nothings better than good Mexican shared with good friends!