1 road trip, 1 plane trip, 1 bus trip, 36 hours and 3 time zones later, MooReece, Snaily, Carolyn and I finally made it to Adara Hotel Whistler, our home base for the next 6 days and change. It is now 11:42 pm Sudbury time and I am running on roughly 3 hours of sleep (if it can even be called sleep...) but it's not even 8pm here. I love time travel! Of course we've caught our 5th wind by now but we are both exhausted and our brains are slowly starting to show signs of fatigue (no the shower isn't broken Carolyn, we PULL the knob to turn the shower! haha). It won't be a late night but that's ok - it's been a long 2 days and we've met some interesting friends along the way already.
The entire trip from the hotel (via shuttle) to Gate C38 in Terminal 3 of Pearson International took us all of 25 minutes (max) - that include the ride, checking in, going through security and finding ourselves a spot to sit and wate at our gate. I've been lucky with airports in the past, but nothing like this - takes longer for me to drive to work in the morning. An enthusiastic WOOHOO for the start of our trip. Our shuttle chauffeur was not having as good a morning as we were though, she had no qualms about yelling at her dispatcher while driving a van load of passengers to their destinations. That awkward "ouuu she's some pissed!" glance was exchanged between us passengers but nobody dared emit a peep for fear of her unleashing her wrath on us and possibly dropping us on at the WRONG terminal.
Once seated at our gate, we had over an hour to kill because we never expected to get in so quickly and easily. Of course I scoped out the nearest Starbucks and got my usual 3xshot Machiatto and Carolyn and I enjoyed the musical stylings of a man sitting across from us who was singing (audibly) to the music he was listening to in his earphones. Being the kind souls that we are we tried to ignore, but even we can only handle so much before cracking up. Of course me and my big mouth "let's hope he's not seat 19D" comment undoubtedly changed the hands of fate because karma likes to play jokes on me and when we finally board the plane, Carolyn looks back at me with a stunned expression and says "Oh my GOD, he IS sitting with US!!!!" and sure enough, Mr. Singing to the songs only he can hear is plopped in 19D. We could NOT believe it. What are the odds? On a plane that sits 180-200 people... WHAT ARE THE ODDS? And for those of you wondering, no he didn't sing all the way to Vancouver (thankfully).
Yep... that's him!!! We wanted to be sure to get a picture with the boys!We landed in Vancouver just before 10:30am Pacific and had some time to kill again before our shuttle at 1pm. It went by fairly quickly by the time we got our luggage, looked for food (of course I was famished) and found our shuttle pick up. Turns out Fridays are filled with
entertainment at the Vancouver airport. Included in that entertainment is live music as well as adults walking around in furry animal costumes. Yes, you read that correctly, Carolyn spotted a giant Beaver and a Moose (or was he a Cariboo?) and before I knew it she had Snaily and Moo and ran off for a photo opp! FURRY FRIENDS UNITE!!! They were great - when we asked their lady rep what they represented and why they were dressed up...her answer was "why not?" I have to agree, if it makes people laugh and smile like it did for us then all the more power to them :)The shuttle ride was LONG! Stop and go, stop and go and very jerky through the city for over an hour before getting on the highway to drive up to Whistler. The highway is something else - I would LOVE to drive it one day - I could have alot of fun on these roads ;) It's scenic beyond all imagination and had it been sunny, I'm sure it would have been even more stunning. It's only 111km from Vancouver to Whistler but because of the curvy nature of the highway, it takes quite some time to get there (especially on a bus). It took nearly 3 hours :(
FInally settled in, just about ready for bed. It's a good 30 degrees cooler here than it is back in Ontario. It's cool for Summer but it's a nice temperature to be doing outdoorsy things like we have on our agenda. There isn't much sun in the forecast but we will no doubt make the best of our time here. I've already walked the Village and made mental notes of the hot spots to return to when I have time. This place is breathtaking and full of life. I can't wait to get started.
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