Our Week in Whistler

After bidding farewell to Vancouver and our friends, Mimi, Brianne, Bridgette and I drove 2 hours north for our last leg of the trip–Whistler.

A few years ago, Alan, Bridgette, and I spent X’mas and New Years week in Whistler and we still talk about it to this day as one of our most memorable trips ever. We loved Whistler Village and all the festivities it offered during the holidays. This time, we wanted to experience what summer was like there, and it surely did not disappoint.

We stayed at the Pinnacle Hotel in Whistler Village, which is conveniently located towards the center of the village. The rooms are a decent size, with a small kitchenette and a jacuzzi tub next to the bed, which the girls loved. On our first day there, we took it easy and had a picnic dinner, followed by hours at the adjacent playground.

When I planned the Whistler part of the trip, I had intended for it to be a good mix of adventures and down time. I didn’t want the rush of back to back activities, so I picked 3 scheduled activities for our week there, and left the other days unplanned, which worked out perfectly.

Our first scheduled activity was a white water rafting excursion. It was Mimi, Brianne, and Bridgette’s very first rafting experience, and though I wanted us to start off in a Class III rapid, we had to stick to a Class II. since the girls didn’t meet the weight requirement of the upper levels. Nonetheless, we were super excited for the adventure.

We took a bus ride to the river, where we changed into wet suits (Bridgette hated it ofcourse) and sat through a quick tutorial with the guides. We then got our paddles, helmets and life jackets and then helped to pull our raft into the river.

With Class II, there aren’t a lot of rapids and the river is pretty tamed for the most part. When there were rapids, the kids were super excited and followed the guide’s instruction to make sure nobody gets thrown overboard. While in the tamed water, the kids got to do different tricks on the raft, and even got to jump in the water for a bit!

The second scheduled activity that week was ziplining, which was an activity that Bridgette and I did previously when we were in Whistler over the winter. At the time, we trekked through snowy mountains and ziplined above snow covered rivers. This time, the experience felt very different to us as we got to enjoy the lush green mountains and flowing rivers.

Our third and final scheduled activity was the Treetop Adventure course, which was an obstacle course in the forest. I had originally hoped that all four of us could go on the full course, but because the girls didn’t make the height requirement, they were only able to go on the kids’ course. They still loved it, and Bridgette declared it to be her favorite activity of the summer. 🙂

The challenging part was that they had to do the course on their own. The guide helped them put their harnesses on in the beginning, and gave them a quick tutorial on using their buckles, but after that, the girls had to conquer each obstacle by themselves.

Each of our three scheduled activities were on three separate days, and usually lasted for 3-4 hours. That still gave us most of the afternoons and evenings free to stroll around Whistler Village. We didn’t make any restaurant reservations, and ate whenever and wherever we felt like it. The benefits of not having a full agenda each day!

On one of our free afternoons, we decided to venture a little further from the village since we had a car, and ended up at Green Lake. Despite the near freezing temperature of the water, we still swam for a bit and got some funny footage under the water with our go pro.

Playing out in the sun is tiring! Not so much for the kids, but for us aging adults. 🙂 Mimi and I took any opportunity to do a power nap back at the hotel, in between all the fun.

On our last day, we decided to head over to the base of Blackcomb Mountain for their Family Adventure Zone. It required a bit of a hike, in really hot weather, so naturally we had to make pit stops whenever we spotted water!

We stumbled upon a Farmer’s Market where we got shaved ice and cooled down some more with an indoor lunch before hitting the adventure zone.

Whistler is one of those places that you can go back again and again and still love it. We want to make it an annual tradition to spend a week of our summer up there, but we’ll have to see how the girls feel about that next year, since there are still so many unexplored places calling our names!