Whistler Wednesday - I Rode the Chairs (8/21/2013)

We arrived at Whistler on Sunday. Monday, Cathie and I walked to Lost Lake.  Tuesday I rode the trails around Lost Lake.  Wednesday I decided to take the chair to the top of Blackcomb.  I just can't sit by the pool.

I hiked around a little.  This is one of my favorite places to ski.

A few years ago, Whistler put the Peak to Peak gondola in.

I have a terrible fear of heights.  I swore I would never ride the gondola. But the lift ticket includes the gondola, so I figured I could tough it out for 20 minutes.

I was able to stand for the first bit, but once we got to the middle, it became a bit much. There was a very nice Canadian couple on the gondola with me that were quite amused about my issues.  They were also nice enough to take a picture of me white knuckling the middle of the ride.

The Whistler side is also lovely.

This is the view back towards Blackcomb.

It was very busy up there.

And I finished by taking the gondola back down to the village.

Weekend Number Two/Vacation (8/17/2013

Last weekend was just the setup for this.

Here was the plan, I ride my bike to Bellingham on Friday, then on to Vancouver, BC, Saturday. Cathie drives Madeleine up to Roberts Creek (outside Gibson, BC). Belinda brings Alexandra and Iona down from Alison Lake. I get from Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay, then they pick me up from the ferry on the other side. On Sunday, we go to Whistler.

The first part went exactly as planned, I rode my bike to Bellingham.

I love the view from Chuckanut Drive.

Everyone else made it to Roberts Creek.

Then I threw a massive monkey wrench into the plans.

The last ten miles on Friday were difficult.  Saturday morning, we headed out and my legs hadn't recovered.  I had nothing. Add to that my heart medication limiting my heart rate and I managed a queasy stomach  almost to Lynden.  When I accelerated I got dizzy and I knew I was done for the day.  

I called my parents, they picked me up in Lynden, took me to the train in Bellingham. Train to Vancouver, taxi to the ride hotel, picked up my bag, taxi to Horseshoe Bay (the 4:30 ferry because one ferry was out of commission).  I arrived at Roberts Creek at 6:30.

We had so much fun at Roberts Creek, there are no pictures.

On to Whistler.  Day one, Cathie and I walked to Lost Lake.

We saw a toad on the path.

We had dinner with Fuzz and Taunna and Taunna's mom and stepdad.

 

This was the remainder of Cathie and the girlies' week.

On Wednesday, I took the chair to the top of Blackcomb.  That will be it's own post.

Weekend Number One

Our hectic lives get a little more hectic.

The plan is to take Alexandra up to Alison Lake (which is just outside Princeton, BC) to spend a week with her friend Iona and Iona's granny, Trish.

To do that, we decide to drive up to Kamloops on Friday for a quick visit with the uncles. Both Jim and Lyle were there, but, as often happens, Jim is the only one that ended up in the picture.

The next day we drove to Alison Lake. It has been one of my favorite places in the world for the last 25 years. Here is the view from the boat.

This is Madeleine on the inner tube.

Here is the group shot before we left.  It was a lovely, if not a little fast paced weekend.

Day 9 - St. Andrews to the Hilton Garden Inn, Edinburgh Airport

Since Cathie returned from St. Andrews in September of last year, every Sunday morning Skype call with Madeleine has started with, "Did you do the pier walk, today?" At this point, Madeleine reminds her it is a Sunday morning activity and she, and her friends, are college students, thus, not awake on Sunday morning.

The pier walk starts at the chapel after church on Sunday (approximately 11:15).  The students walk about a mile down to the harbor pier in their robes.  They walk to the end of the pier on the wide, flat part of the walkway, then walk back along the top of the pier wall.  Cathie's one goal this trip was to get photos of Madeleine and her roommates doing the pier walk.

We arrived at Madeleine's dorm, and started moving them along.  Earlier in the trip, I had mentioned the term, "Madeleine Time" to some of her roommates and everyone understood what that meant. We arrived in town as everyone was leaving the chapel.  So, Madeleine and her friends drove halfway to the pier, we parked the cars, then they blended into the walk.

The weather was exactly like it looks, cold, drizzly, windy.

They said the top of the pier was pretty scary.  It was bumpy, wet and the gowns acted like sails.

A group selfie for Facebook.

Then it was off to brunch in town.  It was part of the bribe to get everyone out of bed for the walk.

A few more errands in town, then it was time for us to take Madeleine back to her dorm and say goodbye.  As always, Skootch was extra teary, but we got Madeleine off to her room.  Then we got in car to realize that she had left her gown in the car.  So we sent Alexandra off with the gown to Madeleine.

She was gone about 15 minutes, which was 10 minutes longer than it needed to take.  I was just about to go get her when she showed up at the car, really mad.  Madeleine's room is on the 4th floor of the dorm.  Instead of Madeleine coming down to get the gown, she made Alexandra come up.  So they had a big argument about it.  Alexandra eventually did it, then stormed back to the car.  As Madeleine explained, she just couldn't go through the tears again. It was easier to have Alexandra angry and ready to leave.

We left, drove to Dundee, then to the Hilton Garden Inn at the Airport. There were bunnies.

Caught the flights the next day and came home.

Day 8 - St. Andrews, The Old Course

It was here, my day to walk the entire length of the Old Course along the coast.  Cathie and the girlies were going to do some shopping and I wasn't interested in that.  I had a nice big breakfast with Cathie, we went and got the girls, parked the car, and I told them I would see them back at the hotel sometime that afternoon.

The Old Course looks like a big field that somebody dropped a gold course on.  There are the parts where you want a golf ball to land and that is where the grass is short.  The other part, they don't cut the grass.  Because of the high amount of sand in the dirt, the ground is very hard and fairways are as hard as putting greens.  If the grass is mowed, it lays down.  If it's not mowed it quickly becomes matted dune grass.

It is an out and back layout. The 1st and 18th share fairways and look like a big flat inviting field where you can hit the ball wherever you want.  As you get farther in, the fairways are separated by 50 foot talls, grass covered dunes where you will never find your ball, though I saw plenty of guys looking.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the pot bunkers.  They are everywhere and look just as formidable as they do on television.  Don't hit the ball there.

All the way along the course there is a huge grass parking lot where people drive their campers down for weekends at the beach.  It was early in the year, so it was only about a quarter full.  I imagine it is very busy in the summer.

I made it to the end, which is right behind the 8th tee.  They have built a little platform that looks over the inlet, the marsh and allows you to be a bit above the 8th hole.

The more you stand there, you start to feel the wind.  On the walk out, I thought it was about a half club wind, but when I stood there, I realized it was closer to a club and a half, and this was a calm day.  The wind was coming from about 10 o clock in relation to the green.  This means you are going to have to play your tee shot out over the fence (out of bounds) and bring it back if you hope to land it on the green.

 I realized the whole course was this way.  Anytime you had the ball in the air, the wind would move it somewhere you didn't want it.  It is an amazingly challenging course that I am looking forward to playing someday.

I got back to town and it was 50 minutes until the shuttle left for the hotel.  So, I wandered around, bought some chocolates, had a pint then headed back to the Fairmount.  When I got back, Cathie and Alexandra were getting ready to watch the Grand National horse race.

I had never watched it before.  37 horses started and they don't use a starting gate.  The horses and jockeys just mill in a circle until it is time to start, then they go.  It is a long race, so a quick start isn't important.  They had made a number of safety changes this year, so know horses had to be put down at the end and there weren't any significant injuries to the jockeys.  That said, there were only 22 horses that still had jockeys on them at the end.  Alexandra felt it was quite unfair that the horse in second place didn't win anything because it was missing a jockey.

We had a quiet early dinner in town, then took Alexandra back to hang out with Madeleine.  Madeleine and her roommates were starting to feel the workload of the end of the year, so it was a quiet Saturday for them.

Day 7 - St. Andrews

Cathie warned us early in the trip that we shouldn't do all the St. Andrews' tourist stuff on the same day.  It's a small town and it doesn't take that much time.  Friday was a day that didn't have any plans attached to it.

We woke up and had a lovely breakfast with Belinda, getting caught up on all the boring talk that parent's have about their children.  Then we went and picked up Alexandra from Madeleine's dorm.  She had only been waiting outside half an hour.  Hypothermia hadn't set in.

While Cathie can start a day unstructured and flow through it, I usually need more of a plan.  It turns out Belinda likes a plan also! After going through the Chapel, we wandered over to the Tourist info office.  Two minutes later, Belinda pops out with some sort of mystery map scavenger hunt that has you wandering around the town.  It sounded like a good excuse to walk and talk, so I was in.

It actually did a very nice job of dragging us down some side streets and alleys that we normally wouldn't have thought of looking.  There was one very narrow path, that wasn't more than two people wide, that had a constant stream of people on it while we were looking for a name or number on a building.  It obviously was a way to get directly to somewhere by walking, but you wouldn't have found it on your own as a tourist.

Wandering with Belinda turned into lunch with Belinda which became finishing the map with Belinda.  Then, too soon, it was 2:30 and time for Belinda to go catch her flight.

I remember when I was a college student and on a budget having meals bought for me friend's parents.  It was so nice to have somebody buying you a nice meal where you didn't have to worry about the bill.  I promised myself that when my children were in school, I would take their friend's out to dinner.  We had a lovely time.  Madeleine has lovely friends.

After dinner, Cathie and Skootch were done for the evening, but I got to go pub crawling with Madeleine and her friends.  We went to a couple of places.  The first one was dead, the second one more lively.  Then word filtered to the group that it was time to get in line to get into the Lizard. Madeleine said I could go in and see what it was like, but it was gross and I couldn't stay.  I walked over to the line with them.

They were 20 minutes back at least.  I hung around for five minutes, but it became very apparent to me that I would rather catch a cab to the hotel and climb into a nice warm bed, than stand in a line for dance club.  Why did I do that when I was younger?

So, I proved to myself that I know how to catch a taxi in St. Andrews at night (hint - it's on the street next to the Vic). And I was in my room getting ready for bed by 12:15.  Madeleine had a much later evening.

Day 6 - Balmoral, Cairngorms

The Cairngorms are a national park in the Highlands of Scotland.  When we were researching where to go on our trip, I said I wanted to go somewhere that is like the place where James Bond went at the end of Skyfall.

We loaded the car, in the morning, and started the drive towards Balmoral. We entered the park about 20 minutes into the drive.  The scenery was very pretty and it just got better as the day went on.  It was rolling hills with snow covered mountains in the distance.  Lots of trees and the road followed the Dees River.

The Lonely Planet Guide to Scotland said Balmoral wasn't very good as castle tours go.  It was mostly a tour of the grounds and you got to see one room of the castle.  They were correct.  The grounds are very pretty and it was worth the self guided tour.  

We walked the grounds.  

Took pictures of the castle.

At the end of the tour, we went to the cafe (cafeteria) that the Scottish love to stick at the end of castle tours.  I had haggis, neeps and tatties (haggis, turnips and potatoes). They gave me a mountain of food that I couldn't possibly eat.  The haggis isn't nearly as bad as the description of it.

Wikipedia - Haggis

After lunch, we started our drive back to St. Andrews.  The road was open through the Cairngorms so we finished the loop we had started on Tuesday.  As we drove deeper into the hills, they started getting a little taller and more snow covered.  

We came around a corner and we were at the Glenshee Ski Centre. The entire ski area is above the treeline.  I am sure it is miserable there when the wind blows.  It is very similar in appearance to Snoqualmie.

Ski Glenshee

We drove a little more to the top of the pass, took a couple of pictures, then we started down.  We would have stopped a little more for pictures on the way down, but we were ahead of a couple of semis and wanted to stay in front of them.

We returned to St. Andrews and met up with Cathie's very good friend, Belinda.  Days that end with Belinda are always good days.