Today we headed to Whistler, host to some of the 2010 Winter Olympic events. John, our driver, picked us up and showed us the sights of the Sea to Sky coast road on our journey north. We dropped past a little bay, Porteau Bay, which is used by the ferry companies when the storms damage the harbour close to Vancouver. The bay was sheltered and had a little campsite. The water was great for diving as there was a number of ship wrecks there and the water was amazingly clear. The fog made it hard to see the islands along the coast or the mountains on the road side. We stopped past the town of Squamish to get coffee and hot chocolate and information about Whistler. John was an encyclopedia of local information during the trip. As we got closer to Whistler the ground started to have snow covering it. Not as much snow as we saw in Banff, but still nice to see. The town was bigger than I expected. There was 2 sets of traffic lights. After a quick road tour we got dropped off and had time to walk around. The first place was Olympic Plaza where the Olympic rings are. For any PE teacher and Olympic tragic this was a cool place to see. Still on my bucket list is to go to an Olympic games, winter and summer would be cool. We crammed into a bobsled for a photo and I quickly worked out my frame was not built for this. Whistler was more touristy than I thought it would be. Not much snow and lots of shops. Dad commented that there was alot of people carrying ski's, which may be more for show than for actual skiing. We strolled to the gondola for Blackcomb and chair for Whistler mountain. There was snow there but still patchy. Lifts were limited on the mountains as the weather was not great. We found a hot dog stand which was staffed by Aussies and food was good. Penny and Emily had a Cheesymite scroll from the grocery store, just like Bakers Delight. After being tempted by a snowboard shop we headed back. John stopped at a cool spot with rapids and Shannon Falls which was really big. Penny enjoyed this as we missed the Rainbow Falls in Hawaii and Stacey and Sue said Shannon Falls were much better. The afternoon rain came in on the drive back to Vancouver and the scenery was patchy.

We returned to Vancouver at rush hour. The cars were queued in many places. They did have bus lanes which John could take and he was comfortable with blocking off lanes and cutting around the outside to get us back. After dumping our gear we had a great dinner in the hotel restaurant. Food was great, we drank local wines and beer and the staff were great with the kids.

The weather is coming in which has, unfortunately, made changes to the New Years celebration fire works. What will be, will be. It will be a different New Years to that down under, although hopefully in the current climate there will be no fireworks there either!