The Pursuit of Leisure Don't expect too much, and you won't be disappointed.

Woke up super early this morning and took the Sea to Sky train to arrive in Whistler.  It was a scenic train ride, with average speeds of 25 mph.  I met this Australian woman and her family taking their annual month-long vacation around the world (darn foreigners and their propensity for long vacations!!!)  I didn't opt for first class this time since there was an open-air viewing cart where I spent most of the time standing up during 3+ hour ride.  Whistler is, you guessed it, pretty damn gorgeous.  I booked a room at the Crystal Lodge - the centralmost hotel in Whistler Village - and of course traveling by myself, I got upgraded to a deluxe king suite for free.  There is a kitchen, living room with pull-out king-size sofa and flatscreen tv, in addition to the bedroom with king-
size bed with flatscreen tv.  And the bathroom has both a shower and a giant bathtub with jets.  This is about 3 times the size of my apartment in college.  You could easily fit 4 people in here, in which case this hotel would be a super cheap deal.

The village itself is cute and colorful - all shops, cafes, restaurants within a pedestrian-only village stroll.  I opted to buy some food from the grocery store instead of eating out for dinner tonight... although now I'm going to have a problem of needing to eat the same thing multiple times and then when I leave there will be lots of leftovers.  Why must everything come in packs of 6???

I headed up Whistler Mountain via the gondola, passing by lots of mountain bike paths and lots of mountain bikers.  It was perfect weather today.  Passed by a black bear on the way up to boot.  Bet that would be fun to encounter on a mountain bike.  Up on the mountain was pretty cold.  It was a pretty steep ascent to get up to Whistler and I could feel the temperature continually dropping until I got to the top.  Unfortunately no hiking paths were open on Whistler because it is still all snowed out and apparently was snowing up to 3 weeks ago.  Went for the Peak 2 Peak Gondola next, and that connects the mountains Whistler to Blackcomb and it is a pretty intense ride with the longest unsupported span in the world at 2 miles.  

Got to Blackcomb and the paths there were closed too.  I walked up on the snow a bit and it was very icy and slippery so I don't think I'll be able to explore much else on foot on the mountains now.  They fenced off a lot of the snowed off areas; I think if you to tried walk on that and accidentally fell it would be a serious drop.  So it's summer, but not quite SUMMER yet.  I feel like it's RIGHT before the busy season starts so everything is a bit cheaper but there's still enough people to have scheduled activities and as long as you don't want to ski (or you are REALLY good at it and can do the glacier field that's open) or hike on the mountain then it's very affordable (with at least 2 people).  

Took the open air chair descending all the way down Blackcomb and THAT was definitely intense... oh wait, I guess I'd better put that restraining bar down.  (Seriously joking).  Even though a lot of the snow fields have melted, seeing everything from up high you can really see how intimidating and difficult these fields must be when it's peak winter season.

Tomorrow I am sleeping in!  Sun is up after 5 a.m. already but no stores will be open and no hiking paths are open so I am going to take it easy.  Made reservations to go ziplining in the morning and whitewater rafting in the afternoon.  =)