Whistleri (ing a Tune)

TOP: Finishing curve on the bobsled/luge/skeleton run. Riders will be going around 90mph at this point, and totally horizontal

2nd: Laraine, always the watersports person, getting into the Pacific Ocean...well, OK, it WAS a major tributary to the Ocean

3rd: "Tyra" modeling at the finish line

BOTTOM: Zipline rider (find the horizontal cable, look to the left to find the actual rider) traversing a canyon

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We were pretty puckered out after the day in victoria, the gardens, and the ferry rides, so decided to make it a lazier day today by driving up to Whistler, the home of the 2010 winter olympics. Laraine is an olympic junkie, taping something like 200 hours last summer, and she was really psyched to try out some of the venues. Luge is her forte actually, what she competed in back in college...you know, in those rare days when she wasn't driniking.

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Along the way we stopped at Squamish, where the last vestiges of the Pacific Ocean reach far, far inland through an incredibly deep fjord. It was all we could do to stop laraine from diving into the ocean. We had to practically tie her to the car. She was screaming "let me be free"! We finally settled her down with some sushi and a cafe'and moved on "up the hill" to Whistler.

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Whistlers was also quite beautiful, nestled in the mountains. There was a mountain biking race on the calendar the day we visited, so we watched a bit of that (the hill climbs were incredible, they biked up hills that I don't think I could walk up!), and walked around the various ski towns for a while. We came upon the sliding centre, where they host the luge, skeleton, and bobsled, and a bunch of workers were busy trying to wrap up the wiring, lighting, and TV so that they could freeze it up and start testing the track under race conditions. One of the workers kindly gave us a guided tour, and told us how they put the workers on roller-sleds to test out the track after it was first constructed. Oh, yeah, that's what I want to do...be first down an untested track on a bobsled at 90mph.

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Fortunately, the town had lots of coffee for me, tom, and kathy, and a nearly endless supply of vodka for laraine. We'll be waiting with baited breath to see the Winter Olympics in January, so we can yell out "We were there!".

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"Can you ride skeleton if you're Lumpy?" Lumpy out

Gardens addendum

TOP: Something fishy going on there...

2nd: Hanging baskets the size of small countries

3rd: The continuously morphing fountain

BOTTOM: In a site that brought back memories of home, statue of mercury alongside a massive hedgerow

Laraine Drinking again...

Man, what a lush...Unfortunately, the ferry had a bar...

Butchart Gardens

In the afternoon we went over to Butchart Gardens, just expecting some nice shrubbery. Well, were we ever surprised! The gardens were incredible, they had stage show scattered about, waterfalls and fountains, trellis and arbors, it was quite the site. The pics just don't do it justice.

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"Flower Power" Lumpy out

Victoria addendum

TOP: The Swan hotel, home of the best breakfast in Victoria

2nd: If you see this man...

3rd: Crew studying the tourguide on the ferry over

Bottom: Kathy getting "Mount-eed"

Lovely Victoria

TOP: Pastry shops abounded, which was NOT a good thing for my waistline given I had 7 days of unlimited buffets coming up onship!

2nd: A typical Victoria shop. Everything you looked, flowers, flowers, flowers

3rd: Victoria harbor

4th: The BC parliment building

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The Gallagher's and us took a small (400 people!) ferry today to Victoria, the island capital of BC. I had read good things about it, but was really, really impressed when I got there. It's a beautiful little city, on a major (300 miles!) island, that is mostly uninhabited. If only we could be so lucky with Washington DC :-) The island has a 7000' mountain, galciers, and an incredible garden (next post).

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We walked the city for hours, stopping at the quaint little swan hotel for an awesome breakfast. Victoria has an "old" chinatown, and a lot of water based activities. We saw boat and cyclists everywhere, and Tom and I were itching to get out for a ride (which will have to await our return trip!). The south end of the city contains a huge park, with endless vista looking out on the sound/straight/bay/whatever the heck the name these bodies of water.

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After a great half day around town, we headed up-island to see what was purported to be a good garden. Good was a MASSIVE understatement...

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"A Farthing for Your Foughts" Lumpy out

Vancouver Pix addendum

TOP: Stanley Park lighthouse

2nd: Sandcastle showcasing China at TerraCotta exhibit

3rd: An actual TerraCotta warrior

BOTTOM: Laraine and Kathy hanging by the park shoreline

Vancouver Bound

TOP: The beautiful North Vancouver skyline from downtown Vancouver

2nd: Totems come in many shapes and sizes. This one reads "large man look better, swim faster than wimpy birdlike creature

3rd: Laraine drunk, again...WHAT a lush!

4th: The early arrival crew; Lumpy, Kathy, Laraine, Tom

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We arrived into Vancouver after a road trip to Phoenix thanks to USscare. Because, OBVIOUSLY that's the most direct route to fly from Rochester to Vancouver...via Arizona. So, there goes one more day of my life lost.

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In all our north america travels, Kathy and I had never yet gotten to Vancouver, but it was high on our list. We had heard that it was a beautiful city, and we had gotten as close as Penticton for the Ironman years back. We rendezvous'd with Laraine and Tom at the airport, where we were informed that Laraine had purchased extra leg room on the plane. Now, this is massively comical, as she's about 5 foot tall with her heels on....wearing a big hat....and standing on a ladder. x

We awoke Tuesday morning and started our Vancouver walkabout. First stop was the Yeoman mall, named after the basketball player. It was the heart of "old chinatown" in Richmond (a major Vancouver suburb), and an interesting area. Finally, a place where Laraine felt sizewise at home. I felt like a giant, and I can only imagine what the real Yao-Man must feel like when he walks around with his countryman. They had an exhibit for the TerraCotta warriors from China, and they were really cool (some pix in next post), displayed surrounding a large, intricate sand sculpture. Laraine checked out a chinese dress, but struggled with the size -7. I swear that the waistline was about the size of my calf. Who has a waist like that????

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We left Richmond Chinatown and went to grab the bus to downtown Vancouver. Well, THAT was a project! The city is undergoing major pre-Olympics construction, and everthing transit-wise is discombobulated. We walked to the overhead light rail, only to find out that it wasn't opening until the following monday. So we walked to the bus stop, only to find out that the bus was detoured because the light rail would take over that street's transit. So we walked to another bus stop, only to find out that this was the "asians only loading zone". Ok, I'm kidding on that one, just checking to see if you were still reading. We took the bus downtown, jumped off, and started walking about the CBD.

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Vancouver was far larger than I had expected, but it was a very pretty city. Rimmed on the north by a sound and mountains, on the west by the ocean, and on the east by the pathway to the rockies, you had magnificent vistas from almost every vantage point. It has a beautiful suspension bridge connecting Vancouver City with North Vancouver, a massive oceanside park with totems, a zoo, bike trails, and more, and the downtown is very pedestrian. Basically, everything that repbulicans hate...animals, open spaces, and walkers :-)

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We hung out at the Lennox Pub, and that's where Laraine's drinking problem first started to surface. By the end of lunch she was not one, but TWO sea-breezes to the wind, and I thought we were going to have to carry her around town. WHAT a lush! The food was excellent, as was the service, and we spent several hours there I think. We finally had to pull Laraine away from the vodka dispenser, as she was doing shots with the barkeep.

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We were to pickup the rental car at the end of the day, and when we got to the location, it turns out that it was the wrong location, we were 10 miles away, and that location had no cars left. I have to mention here that the folks at Enterprise were awesome. They actually put us all in one of their own cars and drove us to the other location to make sure that we were all set, and then refused to even take a tip! What freakin'A canadian service. I LOVE these guys!

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We loaded up the GPS for our evening travels, and that's when we realized that the GPS did not have alaska or canada maps on it, only the lower 48. OK, that could be a problem (but thankfully turned out not to be, as vancouver was very easy to navigate, and alaska only had 4 roads).
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We were exhausted by the end of the day, but not too exhausted to grab a 50th BIRTHDAY DINNER for Kathy, complete with enough candles to torch the city.

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Day one a success....on to Victoria tomorrow.

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"Mounty" Lumpy out

Alaska Bound

The next dozen or so posts will be my blog on our Vancouver & Alaska trip. To set the stage, there were 10 of us on various portions of the trip, Kathy and me, Tom and Laraine Gallagher, Scott and Jan Kozlowski, and the 4 Heidicks (laraine's brother and his family). The trip gets underway in Vancouver BC...enjoy...

It's All About The Pie....

My old buddy Bob was in town last weekend, and after he left he headed up to the Adirondacks for some hiking.

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Imagine my surprise when a NOONMARK PIE showed up at my door a couple of days later!!!! Of course, that took me nearly a whole evening to polish off, but I sure did it justice.

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Wonder why I have a weight problem???

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"Sho-fly pie" Lumpy out

And the Winner Is....

Lumpy in his winning pose from the 1st annual lake ontario open water swim!