Day 18 - Whistler

 29 December 2025

A bit of a slow start for us today. After a really good sleep in, Joshua and I ventured into some of Vancouvers outer city suburbs to find another vintage clothing store. It was actually nice to venture past the city streets to see some of the residential areas. Although spotted with large, almost ugly tall apartment blocks, and despite the weather worn wooden homes, I suspect that the area was a bit wealthier than first appearances gave. Sometimes, with constant overcast weather, and the loss of greenery and brown grass, it feels like there is a lot of dullness. You can understand why there is a lot of decorating with fairy lights to brighten up the world. I suspect that I would be very vulnerable to seasonal depression, especially if I lived in a wintery world without the sparkle of snow. 

Dog parks are interesting. I saw a couple while I was in Vancouver. Both were covered in what appeared to be gravel rather than dirty / grass. I thought it a bit odd given there was a large open grassed park right next door.

I loved this. The tree was just outside of the dog park and appeared to be filled with 
decorative bird houses. Although judging by the size, or fixtures of some of the doors/windows I'm not sure that any birds would have been able to fit or access the homes.

Unfortunately for Joshua the vintage store was a bit of a bust. Belle and I had a final wonder around Indigo, one of the bookstores readily found around Canada. 

Off to Whistler. This was an easy drive by car for us. Steve, and I suspect Joshua and Belle, gets horrible travel sickness when travelling by bus. We learnt that the hard way during our first trip, as did the 30 odd passengers who travelled with us. There was a bit of snow on the ground in Whistler, but clear skies. There had been a recent dump in recent days and we were expecting more to follow in coming days.

First stop on arrival was to sort out ski hire and snow boarding lessons for Isabelle. This is an ordeal in itself with 8 of us lining up to be fitted and measured for our various boots and equipment for the coming days.

Eryn, the youngest in our party, was already finding every opportunity to form a snow ball or play in the snow. It was rather icy already, but it didn't stop Eryn, with or without gloves on.

Last stop before an early bed was dinner at the local Irish Pub. The crowds are high at the moment in Whistler so we really had to take where ever we could get in. Fortunately, the pub was warm, company was great and the food was good. I think we are all really looking forward to finding snow tomorrow.

Just a cute moment with Eryn and Joshua who was helping his youngest cousin work out 
what to eat for dinner.