During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Whistler hosted most of the alpine, Nordic, luge, skeleton, and bobsled events.
It's also less than 2 hours drive from Vancouver. Of course, when we realized how close it was, we had to figure out how to get there. We planned to rent a car and drive there early Sunday morning. And that's just what we did.
On the way there, we made a few stops. The less than 2 hour drive became more like 3 and half. All for great reasons though, I promise.
Canada is GORGEOUS. I was so pleased that my first trip to our Northern neighbor was to Vancouver.
I've recently decided that I like to do outdoorsy things but Houston is tooooooo hot during the spring, summer and fall lol. The weather in Vancouver was amazing and the city is surrounded by breath taking views. So that makes doing outdoorsy stuff way more plausible.
Our first stop was a cafe for breakfast. We were gonna stop for a meal as soon as we got to Whistler but we were both hangry so we needed to locate a morsel to fortify us for the journey. I can't remember what I ate but I do recall thinking that it was cold outside and I was gonna need more than a denim jacket to keep me from freezing. Oh well....onward.
On the winding road up the mountain, there were spectacular views...I mean views you see on the pages of travel magazines, taken and likely edited by professionals. Then we'd see a road sign indicating that we were driving over a creek which has us all excited like we'd never seen running water before. But if you looked to the right there was a cute little waterfall beside the highway that fell into a creek. There are also other strategically placed signs to alert you that you were approaching a place of interest so you can stop and see some off-the-beaten-path wonders of Canada. We were curious, so we stopped. A lot.
Hence, stop 2. Place of interest: we weren't exactly sure what we would find until we saw the next sign which indicated that this was Shannon Falls. So we pulled of into the nearly full parking lot, giddy with anticipation. There was a little hiking involved, no biggie tho. The short hike brought us to a babbling creek with some of the cleanest, crystal clear water you've ever seen. I'm sure this stuff could be bottled and sold. The water was rushing down the creek pretty rapidly and but the unmistakable sound of the water falling off the side of a cliff and crashing somewhere below was near. Must be just around the corner. I look up. And there it is. Shannon Falls. 😍😍😍
Shannon Falls renders me speechless. And this wasn't even a full view....through the trees, we could just see the water gathering as it tumbled over the edge of the cliff. We followed the trail a little more and then....there it was in its full glory.
Yes....that is Joseph drinking the water from the creek....I did it too. That water was so refreshing. I was waiting the whole day for a 3rd eye to sprout on my forehead but I was good....no mutations. We went back to the car and continued the journey.
Stop 3. Place of interest: Brandywine Falls. I really don't have to say much about Brandywine. Just see the video and the pictures below.
We didn't stop anymore....if we stopped every time we saw something interesting, we would still be driving to Whistler. I'll tell you all about the cute little town of Whistler in another post. Just take time to admire the pics and do me a favor, get to Canada if you can. You won't be disappointed.
