{Canadian Cruise Vacation} Day Six

Today we rented a car and headed up to Whistler. Originally, I was going to ride the Tube to the airport, catch the rental car shuttle and then drive back to the condo to pick up Justin and Lauren, but because our cell phones did not work in Canada, I was very nervous about going out all by myself. So Justin and Lauren came with. We got off to a little later start than we had hoped, but we would make up for it since we could drive straight through instead of having to stop and pick them up later. We arrived to the Tube station at 9:22 and were supposed to pick up the car at 9:30am.




When we arrived at the airport, we could not figure out where on earth the shuttle pick up was. We shuffled around for about a half an hour before we figured it out. We then took the shuttle to the rental car office where two morons could not find our reservation, even though we were on the pick up sheet in front of them. After all of that, we finally got on the road at 11am. We made our way back through Vancouver toward Stanley Park and the Lion's Gate Bridge.


55 minutes later, we are still in Vancouver, not even to Stanley Park in a SERIOUS traffic jam and I am not happy. Thankfully, Lauren fell asleep as soon as we left the car rental place.


Then we see police cars going by and we are thinking this is not good. We get up there and they tell us that Lion's Gate Bridge is closed. We now have to turn around and back track through Vancouver to the Second Narrows Iron Worker's Memorial Bridge instead. So we get going the other way and stop in at a hotel hoping to get a map that will help us find this other bridge. Another 45 minutes later we end up in traffic to go over that bridge.

We finally make it to the bridge at 12:45. So from 9:30 until 12:45 we have just been trying to get a rental car and get out of Vancouver. We planned to be in Whistler by noon and it was still a two hour drive away. Part of me just wanted to turn around and go back, but we pushed on.


We finally made it to the Sea to Sky Highway, right as the little miss woke up from her nap hungry. So she had a snack.








We planned to stop at Shannon Falls before Squamish, but it was packed and we could not find a parking spot, so we kept going.

We stopped in Squamish, changed Lauren's pants and diaper, found her missing sock and then went in to McDonalds for lunch (it was only $13!) and these were our views from our table. Oh and did I mention they use ORGANIC beef?


We were back on the road by 2:30 headed to Whistler after another diaper change. These are Lauren's shoes and socks drying on the dashboard because someone has sweaty feet. Hahaha.




Finally, around 3pm we saw the sign for Whistler.



I was way more excited than Lauren was.



We found free street parking at what turned out to be Blackcomb Village...we wandered around there for a few minutes before realizing Whistler Village was a little ways away via a nice path. It was not very stroller friendly though.



We finally made it to Whistler Village and I squealed a little when I saw the Olympic Rings!



We walked around the Village a bit. (It was 75 degrees)

I ran in to a few shops while Justin let Lauren explore. Lauren found stairs, again!




By the time we made it to the gondolas it was after 4pm and everything was closed, so that ended our Whistler adventure. On our way out, we stopped in at a little shop called Whistler Smile Gifts and picked up two ornaments and then we were on our way back down the mountain. It went a lot faster going than it did coming. The scenery is just BEAUTIFUL!






Lauren started getting restless and right about that time, we pulled in to Shannon Falls and this time, we found a parking spot!




Shannon Falls was beautiful, but it was no Yosemite! We quickly got back on the road because we wanted to see the sunset on the Straight of Georgia, English Bay and Burrard Inlet.



We made it to the Lion's Gate Bridge right around 7pm and it was open again. (There had been a head on accident earlier causing the closure).


We stopped at Prospect Point in Stanley Park to see the lookout that we saw from the cruise ship and ran out of time to see yesterday.

As we were heading back to the car, I spotted some beautiful tulips and asked Justin to take a picture of Lauren and I as my "Official Mother's Day Picture with my Baby".








Stanley Park is just so beautiful.


And then...I spotted it! The Tea House in Stanley Park. I wanted to go there SO BAD, but thought that we had found it yesterday and ended up not going. Turns out, we found an empty pavilion yesterday. I pulled in to the Tea House, and luckily found a parking spot right up front. I ran in and looked at the menu and then back to the car to beg Justin to eat there. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. Lauren was tired. We had no idea how late it was. We watched the sun set from our table and by the time we left there it was 9pm and it was still daylight out!

Lauren had fruit and packaged chicken, but I think she was over that. Justin had the burger and I had the Mother's Day Prime Rib. It came with a delicious Cesar Salad and Amazing Chocolate Mousse Cake. Yummm.





The view of the Bay from Second Beach (just a few blocks from our condo).

By accident, I got in the wrong lane trying to avoid a traffic jam and ended up getting forced on to the Burrard Street Bridge. So we went to Granville Island, made a U-Turn, and headed back to Yaletown.

When we arrived back to Yaletown, I missed the alley I needed to turn on to get to the parking garage...and look what happened. We ended up with yet another police car making a detour! It was just our luck for the day. We just laughed.

We headed back to the condo. Justin put Lauren to bed, we ate the chocolate cake that we took to go and packed and packed and packed some more.