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So the day started packing up the hotel room, heading down to breakfast and then hitting the road. It was meant to be about an hours drive to Nanaimo for the ferry back to Horseshoe Bay and the mainland but it actually took us around two with one stop along the way. We had to stop at the hearing aid shop for Trevor to get some new wax guards as they had been missed in the packing. The great news was that they were free, happy boyz!

We had a reservation on the ferry so we were actually one of the first on this time and feeling a bit more familiar we parked the car up on the top deck this time and headed for the lounge area for the crossing. Once the ferry leaves the shores of Vancouver Island there is not actually that much to see on the

journey over other than , well...sea! The views start to get much more impressive as you have about twenty minutes of the crossing left where you can see Vancouver and The Lions Gate Bridge in the distance. Its a real case of there is nothing and then suddenly this big tall shiny city erupts out of the landscape but today that was not our destination.

We disembarked the boat and headed up highway 99 or the Sea to Sky Highway as it is known. It has this name as it heads up from sea level to the Rocky Mountains where Whistler is situated. Jonathan has travelled this highway four times before so for him it was a road of memories as the town was when we eventually got here.

We arrived in Whistler just before four in the afternoon and checked into our room at The Crystal Lodge right in the middle of the town. We were lucky that the sun was shining brightly this time on the mainland as it had been in Victoria . We dumped the bags off in the room and headed out to get something to eat as we had not had anything since breakfast. With Jonathan having been here when Whistler is covered in snow we knew where we were heading so first stop was right at the base of the Whistler Mountain and the Garibaldi Lift Company of the GLC to those in the know. We had what seems to be a bit of a local delicacy of pulled pork rolls with Trevor having the biggest portion of waffle cut chips I think that either of us had ever seen.

Now this was a bad time of the day to eat as we knew that it was going to completely mess us up for the evenings meal but we needed food.

Now the snow has all but melted in Whistler (what we can see anyway) and to keep the resort running in the summer it turns into a mountain bike mecca. We could obviously only look at the base of the slopes from the village centre but they were now covered in dried earth made into ramps and tracks for the many mountain bikers to come taring down the mountain on. They came jumping out of the woods, tearing down new dust tracks at phenomenal speeds it really was a sight to behold. Something tells me we wont be doing any of that!! Put Jonathan on a snowboard any day of the week and then bring it on!!!

Jonathan actually still had all his Whistler photographs on his phone and it was quite fun matching up the different views with the snow covered to the spring dirt tracks for the bikes and the green grass of the ski runs.

After our much needed food stop we walked the length of the village, It's actually a lot bigger than you would expect and has everything you would need to be able to live here all year round (some 10,000 do).

Whistler hosted the winter olympics in 2010 and that heritage is very clear to see. Although the actual olympic park is about ten minutes out of town there is a plaza ant the far end of the village with the olympic hoops and the symbol that was chosen for Whistler. We posed for the compulsory photograph against the hoops and walked back to the hotel via picking up a few essential supplies from the supermarket. Although Jonathan had been here before it was Trevor's first time and he really was impressed with how bit the town was and the facilities it has on offer. You can certainly see how it got to be the worlds number one ski resort.

We crashed at the hotel for a good hour or so researching what we wer going to do tomorrow (even though we already sort of knew ) then it was out again to the local Irish pub for a few beers and some Nachos to share.

Travel days are always good as you get to go to somewhere new but at the same time it does make the blog a little flat?

Tomorrow we are heading up into the mountains and I for one (Jonathan) am so excited about that.

Night night folks, or good morning for some as you are still eight hours in front of us.

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