#TBT – Whistler

Quick throwback to a family trip to Whistler last year!

2017 Family Whistler Trip

In the summer of 2017, our family took a short trip to Whistler, BC for the Canada Day weekend. My parents have a timeshare there and so our accommodations were already taken care of.  After work and dinner, we all hopped in my car and made the scenic drive up the Sea to Sky highway towards Whistler. We arrived, checked in and got settled for the evening. We intended for this trip to be a very chill and relaxing, so we hooked up the laptop and loaded a movie.

Whistler Village

The next morning, we headed into Whistler Village to hang out and explore. We spent the morning walking around and enjoying the vibe. Most tend to attribute Whistler to a winter ski resort, but there is also a vibrant summer atmosphere as well. Our family has been to Whistler several times so we didn’t have any set plans. Instead we stopped for lunch at one of our favorite places called El Furniture Warehouse. They have a great $5.95 food menu and a great selection of drinks too. We got a table outside on their “patio” and spent a few hours simply taking in the sun and people watching. Sadly things were so chill I neglected to take any photos of the food! Suffice to say we had a great time relaxing.

After eating we slowly meandered back to our apartment for a lazy afternoon.

Green Lake

I wanted to take some photos of the surrounding area. So my sister, mom and I drove out to Green Lake where we spent the afternoon walking around the lake and enjoying this beautiful part of Whistler. I really enjoyed this area and it was a great way to spend some time.

In the evening, we planned to cook dinner at our apartment. We’d brought a bottle of wine, some chinese BBQ pork and instant noodles to cook. It wasn’t a culinary marvel, but it was simple, homely and something our family has done before, so it was awesome! We spent the evening playing some cards and relaxing!

Astro

As the night wore on, one of the things I wanted to do was take night photos in Whistler. It’s rare that I’m away from the city and being a bit more “remote” was a treat. So near midnight my sister and I drove to the other side of Green Lake and tried our hand at some night photography. We were able to get one or two good shots and were game to get more, but got spooked. First some rustling in the bushes caught our attention and immediately we thought “bear”? Then oddly another car pulled over near ours and we thought it best to jump back into ours. But it got weird because they just stayed in their car while we stayed in ours. Well they waited us out and we eventually left to return back to our place. At first we were a bit anxious but as we waited it was kind of curious and we were perplexed!

Train Wreck Hike

The next day, our plan was to visit the Train Wreck Hike. This is a short easy hike south of Whistler village. The story goes that there was a train wreck in the area and the remnants of the wreckage is what is on display in the forest now. The wreckage itself has been turned into an area for graffiti artists to show their craft and for mountain bikers to use for jumps and tricks.

It was a very easy hike and our parents didn’t have any issue navigating the trail. It’s a beautiful trail and once you arrive at the “wreck” it’s a very unique sightseeing these artsy twisted box cars amongst the forest.

Lazy Afternoon

After the “hike” we headed into the village for lunch. We visited a pasta place I’ve known since my days working for the Olympics called Pasta Lupino. Its a tiny little pasta place that makes their own pasta and is very tasty. Again I was not in “blogger” mode and didn’t take any photos. But next time….

Nonetheless, the rest of our afternoon was very lazy. We were partly relaxing and partly waiting for the sister’s husband to drive up. Once he arrived we headed out to Earls Whistler for dinner before returning back for another round of card playing!

Canada Day

Our final day was Canada Day. There were lots of celebrations going on and it was great to just be in the lively village with everyone.

We spent some time enjoying the celebratory atmosphere before ducking into Elements Whistler for brunch. I ordered a crab meat benedict and was not disappointed, it was delicious! After brunch, we slowly made our way back to our apartment to check out and head home.

It was a very short few days but a very needed departure from normally busy lives. We didn’t do a whole lot but in the end it was still very nice to rest and recharge before a busy summer ahead.