We had a great time in Whistler. Whistler reminded us of Park City but only Whistler was 4 times the size and had huge mountains and beautiful lakes in every direction. The mountain biking is awesome. We all enjoyed it! We all went biking on Monday. Todd and his brother, Brandon are pro's and had nice bikes to start with so they took off and did their thing. Todd's parents, Bryan and Ann, his brother, Ryan and I all rented some nice downhill mountain bikes and had a private lesson. The lesson was wonderful. I've apparently been riding my bike wrong my whole life. Its crazy how changing such little things can make such a big difference. While we were on the mountain, we saw tons of black bears! They were everywhere. As you were riding the lift, they would be right below you and as you were riding down the mountain, they would be right off the trail. It was awesome! It was raining off and on that day so we all got pretty muddy, but it was still fun.
This is what Todd and Brandon looked like after a full day of riding!
Our private lesson included a trip on the Peak 2 Peak gondola. This gondola connects Whistler Mountain with Blackcomb Mountain. It holds many world records including the longest unsupported span (1.88 miles) and the highest point above ground (1,430 feet). Pretty amazing! Unfortunately it was rainy, so the pictures didn't turn out great but you can still tell how high we were!
Todd and Brandon had a 3 day pass so they biked 2 more days. The rest of us biked another half day on the mountain. We all enjoyed the other trails around Whistler that would take you to different lakes, however you did have to pedal uphill on those ones!
While we were there we enjoyed shopping and exploring the town of Whistler.
We saw many of the venues where the Olympics took place.
We were even there on Canada Day! We watch the parade go around the village. It's pretty much like the 4th of July. We ate lunch at the bottom of the mountain and we saw Greg Watts who is a pro mountain biker. Todd showed me some videos of him later and he's pretty amazing. He can throw double back flips on a bike.
The whole family went and saw Knight and Day and when we were buying tickets we learned that they still had tickets for the midnight showing of Eclipse! So Todd and I, along with some of our friends that were up there, all went and saw it! We all liked it but I think the boys enjoyed it more then us girls!
We also went and did a rope's course on Cougar Mountain. It was pretty crazy. It had some very hard obstacle and to make it worst you were 60 feet off the ground. Brandon thought it wasn't that bad but he had just done a 160 ft bungee jump a few days before. Todd would try and go across all the obstacles without using his hands. I was holding on for dear life!
Brandon bungee jumping!
We had a great time on our vacation! Thank you Gilbert's for a wonderful time in Whistler!
At the border we had to wait a while to get back in the US. It's a lot easier to leave the United States then come back! They have a park right on the border with each country's flag made out of flowers.
