Our Whistler Ski Trip.

We have finally ventured further than an hour of out Vancouver, and I never want to leave. It's official, Canada has stolen my heart. Michael and I, along with Justin (aka. our chauffeur & friend from back home who is now living in Vancouver), headed to Whistler over the weekend and the drive alone is breathtaking. The snow covered mountains surround by the beautiful lakes line the highway and makes the 1 and a half hour drive fly by.

The drive to Whistler

It was a perfect weekend for a ski trip. The mountain opened its Gondolas 2 weeks early, the price was cheaper because of the limited opened slopes, there weren't as many people around and best of all the forecast was sunny! We drove up Saturday morning, hired our gear, rode the Gondola up the mountain for half an hour and by the time we hit the slopes it was about 11am.

Whistler, view from the top of the Gondola.

For those of you who don't know, I'm not much of a skier or boarder. I tried my luck back in 2007 in Switzerland, in the most amazing town ever and failed horribly. So, needless to say I was extremely nervous about giving it another go. I ended up doing 3 runs. I was keen for the family zone, which was explained to us as a nice, green run, perfect for beginners.

What they didn't tell us is that to get to the family zone, you have to go down what felt like a section of a black run due to it's vertical cliff. In reality, it was a pretty steep hill, but for a nervous beginner, not being able to see the space between the top and bottom of the hill wasn't at all appealing. This is where my memories of my previous skiing experience came flooding back. I remember trying to go down hills and loosing control. Falling over, and not being able to get back up, or get my shoe clipped back in mid slope. I remember taking my ski's off and walking down the hill and thinking that I would be stuck on the mountain forever, because there is no way I could ski down to the Gondola.

Michael, geared up and ready to go!

The first run started well. I was slow, Michael and Justin were very patient, and apart from having to side step down 1 section of the run, it was good. I fell over once or twice, got back up and kept on going, slowly. Towards the end I was getting faster and a little more comfortable with the ski's.

Our second run was the exact same run as the first but we kept on going, further down the mountain to the second Gondola stop. Apart from the terrifying hill at the top, this run was great. I was getting really comfortable going down the slopes. I felt comfortable turning, slowing down, when I lost control I didn't stress out, it was great. We got to the bottom of the slope and the boys said I was doing great, I felt great and thought, I should leave it here. I've had a great experience, lets not ruin that, but the boys were like, you're doing great, lets do 1 more run.

View from the top.

Top of the Whistler Gondola, looking to Blackcomb

Lesson of the weekend: Listen to your gut! A new trail opened that afternoon, the Pony run. It was described as one of the easiest green runs on the mountain. It was awful. There were quite a few moguls on the downhill sections.The boys were loving them on their boards, but for me, it was tough to ski on. As I tried to turn, one ski's would go half way up a mogul, my other ski was further down, and all of a sudden I was on the ground. This happened numerous times, and to make things worse I was having real issues getting my foot back in the skis. It was so frustrating. By the end of the run I felt like I had been used as a punching bag. I had stacked it repeatedly. I had fallen on my side, on my butt, on my belly face down the mountain, pretty much every way. My legs were aching because at times my feet weren't releasing from the ski's as I fell which, can get them pretty twisted and sore. All my confidence that I gained by the end of the second run was gone and my memories of disliking skiing were back, more prominent than ever.

More amazing views of Whistler.

Although I had a bad experience on that third run, I still had fun. The second run was great and I really did enjoy giving it another go. The views also made up for every bad moment. It was amazing, being out there in the mountains, it was just so beautiful!

The mountains close around 4 so we headed back to our hotel, got warm and went out for some well deserved beers. The town of Whistler is a really cute ski village. There is a main section that is pedestrian only, and it's a pretty good vibe.

Overall, an amazing trip. I'm glad I skied, I would most likely do it again but other recreational activities such as saunas and outdoor heat tubs and heated pools sound just as amazing!

View from Whistler Village

Small lake, frozen over in the village.

Bottom of the slopes, in Whistler Village.

Our first 2 weeks in Vancouver, BC

I know it's been a while since the last blog but we have been pretty busy. We arrived in Vancouver 2 weeks ago and we have already played a Frisbee game, played a Frisbee tournament, found an apartment till June, I've found a job, I've quit a job, we've become more 'Canadian' by getting social insurance numbers (which is basically a tax file number), bank accounts & cell phones. Between all this we have traveled near (and sometimes what feels like far) to find a decent coffee. We are currently in a rental vacation which has served it's purpose well but we are excited to move closer to the city in just over a week.

View from our rental apartment. You can see the mountains, they are beautiful!

The first two days we did a few touristy things and went to downtown Vancouver. It was rainy so after 6 weeks of travel, aimlessly walking through the city wasn't so much fun, so we just went home and relaxed in an apartment instead of a tiny hotel room. The next day, and every day since has been amazing weather. It's been sunny, cool yet slightly warm. Temperatures have been sitting around 12-15 degrees, so cold when you first go outside but since we are walking a lot to get places it gets pretty warm quickly. The second day was beautiful so we headed 16 blocks north for English Bay. There is a 'beach' there, but it's no Aussie Beach. It's in the English Bay area but in the Summer apparently it's packed! You can see the mountains in the background and go on a nice, leisurely walk, jog or ride around the headland.

 

English Bay and Kitsilano Beach. In the background is the main Western part of the downtown Vancouver.

English Bay and Kitsilano Beach.

If you go far enough you'll hit Granville Island which is now a small market area. It has it's own brewery and is known mainly for its fresh produce markets 7 days a week. We have only been there once but we aim to go there on a regular basis for our produce once we move.  

View from Granville Island. The river here if False Creek. Our new apartment is probably 2 blocks to the right if it were in this picture. It's got nice views! Directly across the river, at the end of the bridge is the downtown Vancouver.

Yesterday was the first day that we got out and explored greater Vancouver area. There are quite a few mountains and hikes that are easily accessible via public transport within less than an hours commute away. It would be faster if we had a car, but we are working with what we got. We went to Lynn Valley yesterday which was fun. We did an 8km hike and although it wasn't the most interesting hike we have been on, the scenery definitely made up for it. We are hoping to explore a lot of the hiking areas around the city in the upcoming months, so stay tuned for some nature blogs. 

Lynn Valley, Vancouver

Lynn Valley, Vancouver

That's it for now. I'm sorry to say that I have not yet tried Canadian pancakes. We will go out for breakfast sometime soon and get our maple syrup hit. To buy it in the supermarkets is just expensive at home, maybe even a little more expensive. I'm also sorry to report that I have not yet found milk in a bag, which I am slightly sad about but as soon as I do, there will be information posted!

Redwoods to Portland(ia)

After driving 3,500km in 14 days we finally made it to our second last US destination of Portland, Oregon. Oregon is a pretty crazy place, with some pretty crazy laws but I will get to that soon.

We left Chico and headed back to the coast/Highway 1. We spent two days driving through amazing scenery. We went through the Redwoods National Park, drove the Avenue of the Giants, and even got to drive our car through a tree. It was pretty exciting. The Redwood National/State Parks are home to the tallest/biggest trees of the world. The largest tree is about 113 meters, which is six feet taller than the statue of liberty (if anyone has seen that).

Avenue of the Giants. It's a 30 mile long road of this amazing scenery.

We got to drive through a tree

And hug a tree...

Coastline of 101 - this particular section is a very tectonically active section.

After the Redwoods, we headed inland along Route 199. We were originally going to keep following the coastline but due to the rainy weather we decided to just go inland and head North. I'm so glad we did because the beginning of Route 199 was amazing. It follows the Smith River through yet another State Park and the whole drive you are next to a beautiful river with even more trees surrounding you.

Now for Portland. It's a beautiful town which is divided into an East and West side. There are 8 bridges crossing the river within the downtown section alone. The city is also known as Bridgetown & Stumptown. We went on a walking tour and the man told us that when the city was clearing the woods to develop Portland they had to remove a lot of trees quickly. However, once the lumberjacks cut down the trees, they didn't have the equipment to remove the stumps, and therefore, they remained in the ground. The city was also almost called Boston. Two gentleman bought the land in which Portland was developed on, 1 was from Portland, Maine, and one was from Boston, Massachusetts. They ended up flipping a penny, and Portland won. The penny is on display in the public Museum.

The crazy laws that makes Portland weird (some are state wide) are as follows:

• You can not pump your own gas. If you lift the pump and a cop sees you, it's a $500 fine. 
• In Portland, it is illegal to have a rooster for your own personal use
• In the state of Oregon, it is illegal to strap your children to the roof, fender or hood of your car (This law passed less than 10 years ago, I would have imagined it was just common sense)
• In Oregon, it is illegal to modify the weather without a permit
• In Portland, laying on the floor of a public bathroom is a misuse of a public bathroom.
• In Marion, Oregon, it is illegal for Ministers to eat garlic and onion before giving a sermon. 
• In Portland it is illegal to whistle underwater
• In Yamhill, Oregon, it is illegal to predict the future. 
• In Portland, Oregon, it is illegal to feed fish canned corn.

Anyway, theses are just a few of the many crazy laws. If you want to read more, then just google it. Portland is also home to the worlds largest public park, as well as the worlds smallest public park. England are currently disputing the claim that Portland's smallest public park is in fact a park as it has no fence or sitting area, which apparently make a park, a park. This was quickly rectified by the installment of the worlds tiniest park bench and fence... and a bazooka for good measure. The smallest park is also known as Lepricorn Park and every Saint Patty's day they close the street and have a massive party. 

Portland is also home to about 700 food carts. They are amazing. There are blocks of food carts in the downtown area. There is a block and a half of carts known as the Mecca and you can get almost any cuisine you want. There are waffles, burritos, chicken and rice (which sounds boring, but this chicken and rice will change your life), Indian, Thai, Bangladesh, Egyptian, Korean BBQ, Vietnamese, Italian...you name it, it's there...and for pretty cheap.

A half hour drive outside of Portland also gets you to amazing waterfalls. There are about 7 waterfalls within a 15 minute drive of each other. We headed there on the way from Eugene to Portland. It was a little rainy but totally worth the trip. That is where I will leave it. Enjoy the photos below. 

Food Carts

Worlds Smallest Public Park

Us in Portland

Multonomah Falls

(More waterfalls, I'm not sure what this one is called)

Sonoma Wine Valley & Yosemite National Park

We have spent the last three days in Sonoma Valley and Yosemite National Park. They were both amazing experiences. I'll first start in Sonoma. As Sonoma is home to about 450 small and family ru
n wineries, we didn't know where to go and thanks to google we found ourselves in a small town called Healdsburg. It is located in the Northern part of the Sonoma County and is well known for being one of North California's wine capitals. The main town strip is lined with delicious cafe's, each selling local wine and offering wine tastings. We also came across Bear Republic Brewery which is tucked off the side strip in Healdsburg. Michael wanted to spend the whole day, so instead, he bought a t-shirt.

Anyway, we hoped in our cars, wine tasting tokens in hand (complimentary of the visitors center) and headed to Dry Creek Rd. It is probably one of my most favourite roads in the whole of the US, and I have been to the strip. The road is about 9 miles long and is lined with wineries. We have tried some California wine on our trip, but nothing much has stood out. They have some different wines here like Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and a few others and by the end of the day we knew we liked the Zinfandel wine. We went to four wineries all up and they were all so delicious. Our favourite place was called Dutcher Crossing Winery, which you can only by from the cellar door or delivered to your US adders. Closely followed was Ferrari-Carano Vineyard and Winery. I'm not much of a white wine lover, but some of their Sauvignon Blanc's were delicious! If you ever plan a trip to Napa or Sonoma and love red wines, then this is your street.

Anyway, from there we headed to Yosemite National Park which is about 4 hours east. We didn't see Yosemite Sam, nor did we see any black bears, but we did see some more deers and plenty of squirrels. Yosemite was amazing. It is huge. There are 4 different regions you can go to throughout the park. You could get lost with about 800 miles of hiking tracks to choose from in a 1,200 square mile area. We picked a combination of waterfalls and scenic rim views. We headed down to the Valley floor on the first day and did a 12km hike. It was pretty intense. We hiked from a 4000ft elevation to 6000ft in about 5km. We did what is called the 'mist trail' which involves hiking up to the top of two waterfalls. The waterfalls aren't in full swing at the moment, but they were amazing and would be stunning in spring as the ice melts.

Vernal Falls, Yosemite

Top of Nevada Falls, Yosemite

The second day we headed further up and went to Glacier Point. It has an elevation of 8000ft and we hiked about 9km to two amazing views of Yosemite Valley and panoramic views of pretty much the whole Yosemite area. While we were at Galcier point we saw some people preparing for hang-gliding. I couldn't imagine jumping off an 8,000ft elevation into the valley. The views would be amazing, but it would be pretty scary!

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley

View of half dome, from Sentinal Dome hike

On top of Taft Point, Yosemite

That is pretty much our last few days. We are currently in a stop-over night in Sacramento, which, fun fact, is the capital of California. We are off to Chico tomorrow which is a place I'm sure a lot of you may not know, but appreciate. It's the Sierra Nevada Brewery and Michael is super excited about it. We are doing a brewery tour in the afternoon, followed by Beer. Our next big stop is Redwood National Park which we will get too on our Monday.

San Francisco & Oakland, CA

We have just spent the last 4 days in Oakland & San Francisco. We stayed in Oakland which is easily accessible to San Fran by a 7km bridge, or in our case a 7km underground tunnel that the local trains use. It is a pretty crazy bridge, and I think it's equally as impressive as the Golden Gate, especially at night when it shimmers. San Francisco was fun. Michael enjoyed the selection of craft beer and coffee the city had to offer.

We spent the first few days exploring the city of San Francisco. We took a Chinatown guided walking tour, we woke up particularly early to see the sunrise from 'twin peaks' (Mt Cootha equivalent) just to have yet another massive cloud in our midst. San Francisco is a very hilly city. There are about 10 roads that are above a 25% gradient. We hiked up Powell street which is a 27% gradient and then walked down the 'crookedest' St in  San Fran.

Lombard Street

We also headed to Alcatraz which was very interesting. It's situated just over 1 mile from the bay area of San Fran. We learnt a lot on our tour and was able to walk throughout the cell house and see the rows of cells, the isolation cells, the dining hall and we were able to see where the guards and their families lived on Alcatraz too. Here are some facts you may not have known about Alcatraz:

• It was closed due to it's deteriorating buildings and high operating costs .
• Alcatraz was never filled to capacity and the average amount of prisoners were about 260.
• 1,576 inmate numbers were issue, although, no one knows how many inmates came to the island as prisoners who served multiple times at Alcatraz were given new numbers. 
• In the 29 years Alcatraz served as a prison, 36 prisoners tried to escaped, all but five were recaptured or otherwise accounted for.  

Alcatraz cells

And, what would a San Francisco trip be without seeing the Golden Gate Bridge. We headed there in the afternoon and walked most of the way across the bridge. Mid way along there are beautiful views of the city. It would have been amazing to see at night. We then walked from the bridge back to their main tourist wharf which was about 10km.

View of San Francisco

One of the most exciting things about our time in Oakland was going to an Oakland A's major league baseball game. It was so much fun. I don't really know the first thing about baseball, I have never watched a full game and half of the time I don't know what is  going on. After a few innings though I caught on, and had a really good time. Between each innings they have entertainment periods. It may just be a mascot race, but always involve crowd involvement. We even got to sing the famous, 'take me out to the ballgame' song. A lot of the players have their own 'tag' and so when they either pitch or bat the crowd goes crazy with their thing. For example, there is an Aussie in the team and when he comes out to pitch they do this...

and then they do this....I had no idea what this 'dance' was that they were doing but the easiest way to explain it is like a 'gangnam style' dance for the Oakland A's and the whole crowd gets into it.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for our Yosemite & Sonama Wine Valley blog.

Los Angeles to Santa Cruz, CA

Venice Beach, Sunset

Los Angeles was quite enjoyable. We stayed at a property we found at Venice Beach and it was a wonderful location for seeing the coastal sights. We had access to two bikes and were able to ride to the famous Venice Beach boardwalk & Abbot Kinney Blvd in about 5 minutes. We spent our first day in Venice Beach and Santa Monica area. You could sit on Venice Beach Boardwalk and watch people all day. There are countless things to do and see there such as surfing, zip lining, there are volleyball nets at the beach, a tennis court, squash court, muscle beach, a pier, skate park, basketball court and I'm sure there is more.

A few blocks back you then have Abbot Kinney Blvd. It is a palm-lined mile of restaurants, yoga studies, art galleries and boutique stores. It's probably a little hipster if you needed to put a label on it. We rode our bikes from Venice Beach for about 10km. We headed through Santa Monica and if we kept on going we could have reached Malibu but it would have been about 26 miles all up I think, which we would have happily done if our bikes weren't so bad. Santa Monica pier is a happening place. It's the end of route 66 and is lined with restaurants and even a very mini theme park. Along our ride we saw dolphins just playing in the breakers about 30 meters from the shore. 

Venice Beach is a beautiful place to see the sunset. It was a little cloudy the day we went but it was beautiful. You can see 2 photos below and 1 above.

Venice Beach, Sunset 

Venice Beach & Santa Monica Pier, Sunset

The next day we boarded our buses and headed for Hollywood. For those of you who have not been to L.A it's awful without a car. We probably spent about 4-5 hours altogether trying to get to all the sights and even then, we did not make it to everything. Hollywood is crazy. We were wondering where all the people were and the traffic and, we eventually stumbled across it. We headed to Rodeo drive first and ended up walking the whole street (3.2km) and not just the famous shopping precinct as that is where our bus dropped us. It was a nice walk though, and quite peaceful. I like to think we passed lots of famous peoples houses, but we probably didn't. We then headed to Hollywood. It was very busy with lots of tourists. We saw the Hollywood sign and if you squint your eyes, and tilt your head, you can see it too! We spotted no celebrities but we did stand where they stood!

Hollywood Sign from Dolby Theatre

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Hollywood Walk of Fame.

After L.A we started our Highway 1 journey to San Francisco via San Luis Obispo & Santa Cruz. The windmill game (which is pretty much just yelling 'windmill' when you see one) turned into the Mustang game, although I think Michael was the only one playing (every 20th car was a Mustang). The first day didn't really involve much coastal driving to San Luis Obispo, but the town is cute. It's the birthplace of one very famous Zac Efron and every Thursday night it has a market in their main street with delicious local food and produce.

The second day we set out for Santa Cruz where we spent 2 nights. This was the part of highway 1 with the gorgeous coastal views. It's very similar to our great ocean road. The only issue with the drive is that there was this annoying cloud cover that ruined our views for the most part. We did get some beautiful sights when we cleared it, but you can see from the photo it was just cloud and we probably had about 200 meters visibility for the most part but either way, we couldn't see the ocean. We did see a squirrel though and some sea lions. There were so many! That's pretty much it. We are have just arrived in San Francisco where we will stay for 4 nights.

Squirrel

Sea lions

This is what we drove through. There is a beautiful scenic coast drive under there somewhere, I'm sure of it! 

Highway 1

Santa Cruz

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

Forget everything you have read and appreciate this. Today was probably our biggest day so far and probably my favourite. We went to 2 National Parks and hiked about 15km all up.

Bryce Canyon National Park was our first stop. I don't know how to describe this place and photo's don't do it justice. At 8100ft, the canyon is formed by the natural force of water, ice and gravity that forms the 'hoodoos' of Bryce Canyon which makes it so unique. For 200 days each year, snow and ice will melt in the afternoon and freeze at night. When the water freezes, it expands and pushes  the rocks apart creating the different hoodoos and windows that can be found in the Bryce Canyon amphitheater. We hiked 4.6km throughout the amphitheater and then hiked further along the rim of the canyon. It was incredible, it topped the grand canyon by far! With every twist and turn came a new angel of the canyon. It was like a wonderland. It would be incredible to see it when there is snow scattered throughout the amphitheater.

Stomping Bryce...

We came from down the bottom...

View of Bryce Canyon

Bringing back the hurdling

Anyway, that is Bryce. If you ever plan a trip to the USA, include Bryce Canyon! Next stop, Zion National Park.