The last three days...Canada, good bye. USA, hello.

From awesome David

We packed up all of our belongings, a little sad to leave Canada, a little anxious about our upcoming bobsled experience, and a little ready to settle in one place for a longer period of time. I was also looking forward to catch up with friends again - we realised that we'd not had others to have a decent conversation with for our entire time in Canada.

After Eliza and I went sliding, we picked up Jane and the boys and began the journey back to Vancouver. The drive went so quickly, and we found a beautiful lunch place overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It is such a great coastal highway drive. 

Once we hit the city traffic, we slowed down considerably. It took such a long time to get into the city centre, and we got caught by a few one way streets; but we were able to drop the car off by the required time and begin our trek with all of our luggage to the train station.

After arriving at the Pacific Central train terminal, we waited to be processed and found getting through customs relatively easy. It's a little disconcerting to think that the US now have all of our fingerprints on file! We climbed on board the Amtrak to Seattle, WA and began our journey south into the US of A.

Late evening over Mud Bay, Canada

Sunset over Bellingham, WA

Jane and the boys on the Amtrak (all wearing their Whistler t-shirts)

It was great to have Jeremy and Barb waiting at the Edmunds stop for us, and to feel welcomed into their house for the next while. It's going to be a friendly introduction to the US.

From Splendid Eliza

On Friday Dad and Me went Bobsledding. Before we left I was so scared out of my life. Before we went anywhere we went into a room where the merchandise was and where you signed in. Then we went into a bus and went to a building where we watched a slide-show and then  we got helmet fittings. After this we watched some of the other people do the Bobsledding.

Team CDE (Crow, David & Eliza) after the bobsledding

From spectacular Jonty

On Saturday we went out on the boat with the Tantrum family, and I had the important job of putting the fenders (we called them 'marshmallows') out off the side of the boat whenever we came into dock, and pulling them in when we were leaving the docks. I had to wear a life-jacket whenever I was on the deck.

By amazing Logan
Over the last few days we have spent the time with the Tantrum family. They have six kids but only 4 live with them their names are Abigail, Nathan, Natalie and Miriam. The parents are Jeremy and Barbara. They also have 2 dogs Poppy and Daisy

Also we went kayaking.I fell in the water and it was scary.

From um, astonishing Jane

Jonty wrote something, but somehow it has disappeared. I will look again. Sorry for taking so long to update. It has been busy. Staying with a family has reminded us of how complicated it all is, having a real life. Finding time to do something like update the blog has been really hard.

Peak to Peak - by far the best day yet

Intro from the tired, somewhat astonishing Jane

Wow, wow and wow.......If you ever want to have a cool, cool place to go, come to Whistler and do the Peak 2 Peak 360 Experience. An incredibly long gondola ride up the mountain, phenomenal views, glorious walks to do, incredible fun and then the breathtaking next gondola ride from peak to peak. Before that we went on a stunning tree top walk.

It was a long day with lots of walking. Whistler is an Olympic village (winter 2010) with buildings built for the very occasion. The village makes sense, kinda, but it all looks the same and is easy to get disoriented.


Anyhow, I got (legitimately) separated from the rest of the family whilst running an errand. I couldn't find them in the direction they headed when we left each other. I couldn't find the playground they ultimately headed for. After walking for 10 minutes, I could find the helpful people at the information kiosk, who told me to head back in the direction I had just come for a 10 minute walk to find the playground. They weren't there. Now what? The car. During another 10 minutes walking in the other direction again, thoughts raced through my head, what if they were driving to pick me up from my errand? We are staying 4 km a way (more walking) and I knew I couldn't remember the 9 number code to get back into the building.

Let's just say it was a mighty relief to find my family bored, hungry, tired, but still present waiting for me in the car park.

From Splendid Eliza

When the boys went up another 440 metres on a chair lift, Me (freezing) and Mum (liking her feet on solid ground) went looking around. We found a little stream so we followed it and I went to go touch it. I was still freezing but it was actually not cold but it wasn't warm either. After that we took some panorama's of the view. Please excuse the photo taking as I don't have the greatest camera

Do you like my new swimming pool?

This is the panorama I took with the mountains
in the background

This is the beautiful landscape

This is the mountain the boys were up while we
were down.

Waiting for the boys to come back...

After this we went on a gondola to get to Blackcomb and then we went on another walk.  On this walk we went on a little trail that ended up taking photos of because the view was AMAZING!

You are supposed to be able to see the gondolas but it didn't really work.

Long days need sleep, even with a cougar. No bears sadly.  :(

From Awesome David

What an absolutely glorious view from the peak of Whistler mountain (2,200m)! It was great to take the boys up in the chairlift with me and look out in all directions. There were some great short walks up the top and the boys were pretty keen to touch the snow up there.

Logan and Jonty at Whistler peak - before checking out the snow

Me and the view north from the peak

It was fun hanging in the chairlift 100m above the ground; though the wind on the facing side was quite cold and it was nice to get back into the comfort of the gondola building afterwards.

Jonty in the chairlift on the way back to the gondola

The view north from the chairlift

By: Amazing Logan

The treetop walk

We went in a van to an alpine rain forest to go on a tree top walk. When we were in the van our tour guide told us about Fitzsimmons, this man came to British Columbia and saw a river he thought that it had copper in it by the colour of it and he decided to start a mining business. After years of mining he realised that there was no copper in the water it was just glacial. He didn't want to look like a failure so he named lots of stuff after him. Now I call him failure Fitzsimmons. The trees are very tall but they are very skinny because they only have 3-4 months each year of growing time. The tree top walk is 50m of the ground and it consists of Red Cedar, Douglas fir and Hemlock trees. The walk went for 1 and 1/2 hours and we saw some amazing views and awesome lakes. The trail has had bears and cougars in the past but sadly we didn't see any. The guide also told us the regeneration of the trees. When you cut one tree down you have to plant two more, while the system is productive it has a negative side. When you cut the tree down all the plant life and animals have to leave and by the time the next tree grows the animals and plant life will be gone. All the board walks and swing bridges are made from Red Cedar from that rain forest, they only cut down the biggest trees because they want  other small trees to get sunlight so they can grow taller and bigger. While we where there the zip lines were close by and the tour guide told us that the sasquatch line is the longest in Canada and America 2.2 km long and the record for speed is 210 km per hour.
 

This is us with Whistler Mountain behind.

We were very high up.

Very high.

This is the Fitzsimmon River, the border between the two peaks

The volcanic ash soil is unstable and can land slide easily.

 From Spectacular Jonty

A Marmot. This photo is from Wikipedia.

We were coming back from the alpine walk loop on Blackcomb Mountain. Then we saw some marmots. They are the size of a cat and they look beavers and otters. They make a whistle noise and sometimes a roaring noise.

The Road to Whistler

This is where we went.

From Splendid Eliza

Shannon Falls

Today we went to Shannon Falls. Shannon Falls are a very tall water fall, very tall, like can't believe it's that tall. It is very popular because it took a very long time to find a car-park, but it was worth it in the end. The water coming down was very clear and cold, brrr.

The BIG water fall that is so pretty.

From far away - it looks much cooler
up close

Up close, So Pretty. It just whooshes one
way then to the next. Amazing 

I took this photo of the family and not
with myself, but i still like it. :)

From Below the waterfall. Nothing beats its beauty

Walking back from the waterfall. We found a big tree-trunk
that had a hole in the middle of it so we
decided to take a photo of us kids.

By: Amazing Logan 

Brandywine falls

Today we went to Brandywine Falls. It is near Whistler. it is quite tall but not as tall as Shannon Falls. Also you need to lookout from the top unlike Shannon Falls. It is quite similar to New Zealand because most of the rocks are volcanic. When we tried to get to  Swim lake we were blocked because of tree destruction, but the walk there was cool climbing over mountains and volcanic rock.

The family with the fall in the background.Wonderful.

The wondrous waterfall surrounded by rocks

From Spectacular Jonty

Cypress Park
On the drive to Whistler we saw some container ships. We found a lookout and Logan and I had a photo together with the container ships in the background. There were about 12 container ships.

Logan and I with the container ships

The 12 container ships

This park is on a big, tall mountain with a turn-y corner road. We saw big, strong cyclists pedaling up the mountain, then they zoomed back down.
You can see the city from the mountain including many of the bridges.

The family with the city behind us

From Awesome David

The drive from Vancouver to Whistler is absolutely stunning. Parts of the highway remind me of New Zealand, as you wind your way around the coast. The west coast here is also part of the Pacific rim of fire, so it is cool to see all of the basalt volcanic rocks among the ubiquitous granite.

As we looked to the West, we looked out over the Pacific Ocean containing mountainous islands; while looking to the North we could see the snowy mountains above Whistler. (Sorry, no photos)

From a geological perspective, the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate is being pushed by the Pacific plate under the North American plate - in fact, about 75% of the Juan de Fuca is now submerged under the North American. This is raising the amazing mountains around the region.

Tuesday 22nd, Hell's gate

From Splendid Eliza

Hell's Gate Airtram
Today we went on the air-trams. Air-trams are like gondolas. The air-tram goes over the Fraser River. There are humongous rocks on each side of the air-tram. Going across the air-tram was cool because you could see the water crash against each other and you were so high off the ground.

This is a little photo booth thingy, where you
can have a photo

Logan inside the air-tram over the crashing water

The air-tram and the massively long train. 

The Fraser River is very narrow at Hell's Gate and makes going on a boat nearly impossible as the water is also really rough. The early explorers used ingenious ways to get across.

Here is Logan joining the climbers trying to get along the rocks

From Awesome David

As some of you are aware, prior to our holiday departure I was making good progress through the Booker prizewinning novel The Luminaries. This book is set during the NZ gold rush on the West Coast. Today's adventure, took us to the era of the Canadian gold rush on the Fraser River. Hell's Gate is the site of a railway construction mishap during the 1860's, where some over-enthusiastic blasting caused a massive rockfall that inhibited the flow of the river. The consequence being that the water in this small region is too turbulent for the salmon to get further downstream, and altered the ability of smaller river craft to make it up the river. 

Hell's Gate (with salmon fishways on either side)

Logan on the suspension bridge looking down Fraser's Canyon

Gold panning was the rage at the time, so we tried our hand at it today - we're not very good, but we did get a few specks. 

When there's not much gold there, it's harder than you think.

Also, the train line, which at the time was just being constructed, now runs on both sides of the canyon, and continues to deliver primary resources right across Canada.

A very long train winds through the mountains running along Fraser's River

We had noticed the long trains from the aeroplane, when flying into Vancouver; meandering their way across the countryside. A couple went by during our visit to Hell's Gate and so we tried counting the carriages. We gave up at 100, and it still continued to run past us. Jane decided to time the second (and shorter) train, and it took just over 3 minutes to get past. The other interesting thing is that they only carry one type of carriage, and so, I guess one type of good.

By:Amazing Logan
Our trip to Bridal Veil Falls
Today we went to bridal veil falls, bridal falls is a place where you need to walk for 15 minutes to get to a waterfall then have to climb fallen down trees and debris to get to the top of a awesome waterfall.

us at the bottom of bridal falls

the way up to the top was covered with debris

From Spectacular Jonty

Trying to take pictures of chipmunks is not that easy

There's a chipmunk. Can you find it? This is a photo I took.

I tried using the camera and I did not get a good photo. We saw chipmunks and squirrels and they like to eat peanuts. Each time Dad took a photo, I always threw a peanut at the chipmunk and then it ran away. Chipmunks are very small, like a mouse.

Comparison: This is a photo from Wikipedia.

From Astonishing Jane

Goodness do cars drive fast. The highway to Hell's gate was the Trans-Canada Highway.

It's a real highway, at least two lanes in each direction, separated by several metres, complete with off-ramps, clear signs, lots of tunnels and a fast speed limit.

This photo took about 10 attempts to take, but I got there in the end!

Hell's gate tunnel. With solid granite walls, this is the easy way through.

Trucks! Huge Trucks. 

As it's the main highway there are HUGE trucks that zoom past. Try merging with one at 110km/h, when it won't let you in. Not easy, mildly hair raising. No one seems to stick to the speed limit. Keeping right unless passing......and getting passed by trucks and cars alike, even when going 10 km over the speed limit.

On the happy side, navigation is heaps better! We can follow maps (now we have some) and know what the signs mean. It is nice to feel successful and in control for a change. So, with all that success, it seems timely to leave. Off to Whistler as soon as we pack up the car.