Day 6
Weather: sunny with sometimes a small rain shower. 19 to 22 degrees
We started the day with a decent breakfast with some toast and cereal. As usual the coffee was horrible. Let us hope that it will be better again in Canada. We were hoping that Mt. Rainier would be visible. But unfortunately it was still very clouded. Plans for today were doing some shopping in a mall and to drive through Seattle. So after setting the destination in the navigation to a shopping mall in Tukwila we set off again.
After parking our car we first went for some easy geocaches. Both were hidden in lamp posts. We had to take a lit off to get to them. While we were doing that we were busted by a very nice lady, who was also a geocacher (but switched recently to Munzee) She blocked the view for us with her car so we could hide the cache again. Lady, you were awesome! In the mall we went on a shopping spree. We bought caps, shirts and CDs. I also bought myself a new pola filter since I forgot that at home.We also had our lunch there. We had some nice teriyaki from a Japanese joint.
After spending hours in the mall we finally left for Vancouver. We drove through Seattle to see its skyline and of course the Space Needle. We were soon pretty bored of driving through the city and we went through the border. That went pretty smooth. Smoothness was over when we went to the MacDonalds to connect us to the WIFI to find us a place to stay… WHAT IS VANCOUVER EXPENSIVE. It took us a while to find us a nice hotel. We luckily found one back at the border again. So we drove the whole way back again. It was a decent hotel. We even managed to talk 20% off! After the long drive we decided to relax in the pool to close this long day off.
Day 7
Weather clouded with a bit of sun. 17 to 21 degrees
Breakfast was quite unique for this one. The hotel did not offer breakfast. We had coffee in our room and we made our own sandwiches. We ate those watching our world cup match! It was not a problem for the front desk to check out a bit later. We won the match! So we kept our orange shirts on for today.
Today we drove to Whistler and surroundings. A very nice drive to Horseshoe bay. Where the mountains rise from the water. On the road we visited some highlights. Some were pretty busy with local Canadians and fellow Dutch who recognize our orange shirts. First we visited Shannon Falls. A nice fall to see. We then proceeded to Alice Lake Provincial Park where we made a trip around a lake. Halfway we found two daughters in panic. Their mother hit her head and was bleeding. They were almost at the entrance and we looked out for the mother. We have not found her. But when we arrived back at the entrance the ambulance was already there. So hopefully thing went well.
We headed for the next falls, the Brandywine Falls. In this one the water made a huge drop. Next stop was Whistler. It is the village where you can ski in the winter. There were ski elevators and it was easy to see where the slopes were in winter. Not much else to do so we went to our next stop the Nairn Falls. After a walk of one and a half kilometer we arrived at the falls. It were the best one of the day. Very wild going through a nice canyon.
Then is was time for the long drive back to our motel that we booked. Along the road we saw a bear wanted to cross. He got scared of our car and went the other way. We got him on camera though! Â Halfway we stopped at Squamish The first restaurant we visited was closing.. So we went to the second option which happens to be a brewery! The Howe Sound Inn & Brewing company. HW was quite happy. I sadly still had to drive. But we bought two bottles with us to try.
After another hour we ended up at our hotel. Exhausted after a long day.
Day 8
Weather: hot around 30 degrees
Breakfast was not included in our motel for free. But with a small fee it was. It was worth it. Even the coffee was decent.
After breakfast we left for Kamloops for our next motel that is near Wells Gray National Park. We made a pit stop in Hope for some food and gas. We could even buy ‘drop’ amongst other Dutch things. We took the scenic route over the Trans-Canada Highway. It took us from a nice valley with the Fraser river to desert mountains where not much grew and was hot. Not really what we expected from Canada. We made some stops. We checked out the Hell’s Gate air tram. But to us that was bit too expensive. There were not many areas of interest to visit along the route. We made some pictures and we e ate our lunch near a rail track.
We arrived on time on Kamloops. We did some fast shopping and went for something to eat. We ate at a sports bar that had beautiful women wearing tiny black dresses and high heals. Very stereo type, but still nice to look at :-) We ended the evening in the pool and some relaxing.