Whistler, Sept 27, 2015

Today, I am testing another posting option to the blog, this time using the blogger app. I am hoping for a better display on narration. Meaning paragraph separation. Up front it looks like it may work but so did my other way, the proof will be in the actual post. So please bare with me. 

This is very unusual for us at this time of year to not be packing and taking an extended travel adventure. As many of you know this is the time of year that we get out of town and travel to some amazing places, especially for the month of November. Well for a variety of reasons we remain at home this year, call it a breather. We are weaning ourselves by taking mini day adventures (excursions), with today driving the amazing Sea to Sky highway to Whister. With the weather being perfectly clear we thought today would be "the day" to take in the spectacular sights. 

We took our time with making a few stops along the way, the first was at Shannon Falls - with all the rain we have had over the past few weeks we knew it would give us a great show. The next stop was at an amazing viewpoint offering spectacular views of a local glacier - at most times this peak is shrouded in cloud. Two hours after leaving home we were at our destination for the day, Whistler. 

Street parking was easy on a Monday, usually you would need to park in one of the pay day lots. We positioned ourselves close to the cross country ski trails as these offer great paths for biking. With bikes off loaded we tested Zydnea with her first ride with us and she did great. She kept up and seemed to love running along with us. We stopped at Lost Lake for a picnic lunch - amazing that there were some people actually swimming. Meaning about 100 metres to a float, lying in the sun and then swimming back as fast as they could. I heard one of them saying that they could feel their heart coming out of their chest - yes, a bit chilly. We then circled back to the truck, loaded the bikes back up and headed to the village for some retail therapy. 

A great day as we enjoy our extended summer. 

Paradise Rock at Half Moon Bay - July 2015

We originally purchased a retreat home here on the Sunshine Coast (British Columbia) in 2004, a block from where we are now. Although that house was beautiful and very solid (hand built by a Finnish carpenter) with a beautiful view, it wasn't exactly what we were looking for in a cabin retreat. So in early in 2006 we were very fortunate that our realtor personally knew the artist owner of our now waterfront retreat. You see we had been working with this realtor for some time to find us the perfect place, in fact we did find a beautiful home on the water, not 100% what we were looking for but given the market at the time we liked it enough where we were at the final stages of making our decision when we got a call while we were on the ferry. Jan told me it was our realtor and that she wanted to show us one more house, my knee jerk reaction was no, we had seen a lot and were about to make a final decision. Jan told this to the realtor who was insistent and finally said that she just wanted us to have a look to give her our opinion on the house, we agreed and she told us that to meet at our house. Well this where the story gets a bit crazy. We get into her car and she tells us to close our eyes, I'm thinking yeah right I don't think so and she gets insistent (btw, we love our realtor, she is a wonderful person), so we say okay, okay eyes are closed. She backs out of our driveway and starts to head down the hill and makes a turn all the while saying, lower bank, lower bank. She pulls into the driveway of this house and says, okay open your eyes. I look at the house before me and say, I know this house, this is a beautiful house, really this house. She says do you want to have a look, we respond with well yes. Now because this house is in our original neighbourhood we happen to know the owners, from dog walking etc., and they are there, so we have like a visit and go through the house. Everything we wanted and more, location, check, type of home, check, hot tub on the deck with water view, check, mooring buoy out front, check, check, check, check. Here's the rub, this house is actually not on the market, you see the owner called her friend the realtor (our realtor) and asked to meet for coffee that morning. They knew each other because as mentioned the owner is an artist and our realtor at some point purchased a piece from her and they became friends. Well at the meeting they discussed that they finally decided that they were going to sell and move back east, so they thought of their friend the realtor who after that coffee called us (back to while we were on the ferry). The owner wanted the realtor to come over and give them some ideas as to how to better present their home in preparation for sale. The realtor looked through the house and said don't change a thing I think I have the perfect couple and told the owner who, they were delighted to have us take "a look" and give us the chance to make a premarket offer. Well as they say, the rest is history... Long story short that was nine years ago, we have tweaked a few changes to date but in the most part the house is pretty much the same as when we moved in. We always wanted to name our little retreat but never could come up with the right name so we just called it the house on the Coast. We felt it was time to make it official and after some idea bouncing here we have it, Paradise Rock. Funny, the day we named it our internet installer came to the house ( yes, we are now connected), got out of his van and said to me as he walked up, this is paradise here and I said, yes it is, it definitely is Paradise. So with my new iPad and with a great optic fibre internet connection I thought I would highlight our place here in our travel blog as when we are in Vancouver and not travelling this is where we try to spend much of our time. So with these pictures, welcome to Paradise Rock, hope you enjoy! This is also an iPad test for uploading to our blog, so I am hoping for success here because I am hoping to lighten my load a bit and travel with just the iPad. Fingers crossed in this success...

At Home - Sea to Sky Gondola, June 2015

Hello to all from what looks like what will be a warm/hot dry summer here in Vancouver, sounds great to me. I usually only post our distant travels on our Travel Blog but yesterday felt like a full excursion day as friends picked us up at 8:30 and we headed towards Squamish and the latest attraction of the Sea to Sky Gondola. Two ways of going up, for a $35.00 ticket you can take the Gondola up and down or hike up and then Gondola it down for $10.00. Bonuses on both sides, if you take the Gondola up there is a huge network of trails up top for you to explore, if you hike up you can take your dog on this incredible hike with plenty of great vista points to enjoy along the way. Please note, to take your dog down the gondola you must hike up and your dog also pays the $10.00 going down fee, dogs cannot go both ways. Added bonus you get the gondola to yourself is you have a dog, so not a bad deal. The organizers here at the Sea to Sky Gondola have done as excellent job in setting this up as not only are there great trails on top but also wonderful view points, great lounge and restaurant and local guides that take groups around to give more detailed information. The hike itself is 7.5 kilometres going from about 100 feet above sea level to almost 3,000 feet, so depending on your condition this could take you 2 to 4 hours plus. We kept a good steady pace, stopping at the view points and a bit of a snack so all in for us this was a 3 and a half hour hike. Was this a tough hike, yes, did you have to use the attached ropes and chains, yes, would I do it again, you bet, the sightseeing and the rewards are worth it. The bonus is the full restaurant on top and to save your knees a great gondola ride down. All our other travel plans are currently in a hold pattern, it looks like we need to address some stuff here before heading out back to sea. That’s okay with us, we have to do what we have to do but stayed tuned as I will post here every couple of months or if we do something locally here that just makes me smile. If you have a Facebook profile or follow Facebook, look me up and send a friend request, I post here my day to weekly stuff here quiet regularly, no not every little thing that I do, just the good stuff. Thanks for following, here are a few pics of day at the Sea to Sky Gondola… Hope you enjoy!