Day 3: Mushing!

Seems that no matter how early we go to sleep, we still seem to always end up rushing in the morning. Today, we had to rush to the Hilton for our 9:30am dog-sled booking. The Adora receptionist who booked our tour said that they will forfeit our slot (and payment) if we're late! We did get there about 10 mins late, but luckily, there were no problems. We took a big van with a newlywed couple to go to the sledding area.

The whole sledding tour is supposed to be 2.5 hrs. But it turned out that almost 40 mins of that is just going back and forth to/from drop-off point. When we got to the sledding area, the guide gave a quick intro on the tradition of sledding and how the sleds today are still pretty much the same in design as they were hundreds of years ago by the Native Americans. They gave us a quick intro to the dogs and off we went.

Cols and Ethan went in one sled, while Caitlin and I in another. The sled is 7-ft long and can accommodate a max of 2 adults and 1 kid. It would have been cheaper actually if its 2 adults and 1 kid because they would charge about half price for the kid. But since we were 4, we had to take 2 sleds @ $145/person. Ouch!

From Whistler

The fresh snow was very thick and powerdery. The kids loved it. There was also a little snowfall while sledding on the way back. But other than that, it was beautiful, bright weather. The trail through the forest was not that long. The dogs would rest every now and then and start running again when you should "mush!". I sat inside the sled at first but it was quite uncomfortable. So on the trip back, I decided to ride beside our dogsledder.

We got back to Adara by noon and drove off. We stopped over a Chinese restaurant with a Filipina manager at the next town. The Chinese food was terrible, but we had no choice since the kids were not into western food.

I was quite sleepy driving back through 99-South. The kids were knocked out at the back seat. We tried to pass the Capillano Suspension Bridge but since the kids were asleep, we did not go down anymore. I peeked from the outside but there was no photo opportunity as it is completely blocked by walls. The entrance was pretty expensive too. Not worth paying just to take photos.

Went back to the car and drove through traffic at Lions Gate Bridge. We arrived back at Sutton around 4pm. The kids rested at the room while I went out to buy truffle puree at Urban Fare. Also bought pizza for dinner (finally!); McDonalds nuggets and rice for the kids.

Day 2: Off to Whistler

First night sleep at North America. Had a bit of a jet lag. Woke up at around 3:30am and could not get back to sleep until 5am. Must be an effect of getting old. I've never had problems sleeping with jet lag before.

We must have been more tired than we thought. Since Cols closed the thick drapes last night, the room remained dark in the morning. So we did not really know that the sun was already up. We broke into a panic when Cols announced that it was already 11am! I had to immediately call the Reception to ask for a late checkout since we could not possibly get ready in such a short time. The Sutton Place people were very nice and gave us a 30 min extension.

The kids ate their take-out rice from last night and instant noodles at the room. I consumed my CAD 20 coupon at the hotel restaurant with a big club sandwich. The serving was pretty big so I could only eat half and took out the other half.

We left Sutton around 1pm and drove off to Whistler. A GPS is not really necessary as going to Whistler is very straightforward. I just looked at the city map to get an idea how to get out of the city. Once out, you just follow the signs through the Sea-to-Sky Highway all the way to Whistler. I drove at regular speed (80 ~ 100 kmph) and got to Whistler Village around 4pm -- just in time for our check-in at Adara Hotel.

The Adara is a small, 3-storey, boutique hotel in Village Green. Whistler Village is pretty small. So everything is just walking distance. We were booked at Room 220. The room came with a microwave oven and free Wifi Internet access. Actually, the Wifi provider is not really the hotel but Wireless in Whistler. So you can take out your laptop and connect to the access point even if you are far away from the hotel. The other SSID I could see was that of Basewireless which supposedly has a 100mbps fiber link to the Internet.

From Whistler

We walked around Whistler Village but it got dark early and activities are closed by this time. Ethan started complaining he was hungry by 5pm, so we had early dinner at the Japanese sushi-to-go take-out counter at the Visitor Center.

Our room aircon was very noisy. Everytime the thermostat kicks in, it hums really loudly. I actually preferred having the window just open but Cols could not sleep with the voice of people outside. At around 1am, everyone woke up and took some time to get back to sleep again.