Whistler

Skwikw is the Native word for Whistler. I know because they put it on the highway sign, which shows the distance metric.

Now will somebody just convert all those metric signs for me?

From Squamish today we visited Whistler, British Columbia. It's only about 25 miles.  I gave in and changed the setting on Lady GaGa to the metric system so we would know if we were breaking the speed limit. For the life of me, I can't get into metric and sure hope the United States doesn't change into in during my lifetime.

About Whistler: It's an award-winning destination for some two million people annually,  mostly for the winter sports of alpine skiing and snowboarding.  In summer, tourists hone their mountain biking skills here.  It's one of those places that has ritzy hotels and activity driven shops all jammed together in a small parcel of land that is immaculately landscaped and discourages automobile traffic. Ski magazines vote it a top destination in all of North America regularly. 

We parked in an underground parking lot, loaded the pups into their stroller and made our way to find lunch.  Lunch was not an easy task with a couple of pooches.  In the end it was sandwiches from Subway eaten on a bus stop bench. Afterward we strolled around the shopping areas until I sensed Wayne was fed-up with it.  I did manage to find a Whistler T-shirt on sale.  You'll see it later, I'm sure.

Ozzie will not pay attention in this picture because he's concerned with the dog to our left. That's why he's in my arms instead of in his stroller.   Hey! Real manly dogs ride in pink strollers!

Okay Pop, we're ready for our close-up now.

It's a little like being at Disney World. 
There are very few places to sit.  I think they want you to sit in the restaurants... and order food.

Not into winter sports, I know Whistler only because it hosted several 2010 Winter Olympic events.  The Olympic Park area was more interesting to me than the small cramped shopping, restaurant and hotel laden town, though it was all nice for a day long visit.

Trivia Now...

Whistler hosted, for the first time in Olympic history, four Nordic disciplines at one venue.
Whistler hosted 30% of the Olympic medal events.
The only use of artificial snow (snow making equipment) was used at the ski jump landing hill.

(All this I learned from a sign)

We had to pay $10 Canadian to enter Olympic Park. That's probably about $50 US (ha).

Behave around bears the way you would behave when meeting the Queen.

Bear Viewing Etiquette a.k.a. what to do after you see a bear and poop your pants.

Yes, that real bear do-do.

We walked up to the ski jump landing area. Beside us is a picture of how it looked in winter 2010.
Those little buildings at the top are real far away.  No, ski jumping is not on my bucket list of things to do.

This picture was taken looking across from where we were in the previous picture.

Our gang with Ilanaaq the Inukasuk

About Ilanaaq the Inukasuk:
It's a stack of rocks, assembled to look like a human figure -- a symbol of hope and friendship.  To express appreciation to Canada's aboriginal people, the Olympic committee gave a name to it's Inukasuk that would show gratitude and friendship.  That word is Ilanaaq. 

Introducing..... roller skiing!
This is how Olympic hopefuls practice in summer.

Did I mention there are bear warnings here?

So at the end of the afternoon, hot, tired and sweaty, we returned to our campground at Squamish. Along the way, we stopped for another few good views.  The sun was not right for photography this time of day, but these pictures seemed worth sharing.

So now we can all say we've been to the Olympics. Hope you had a good time. We did.