I was so excited for this portion of the trip! A new country checked off our bucket list with all new adventures! First on the itinerary, The Whistler Village Gondola to Whistler Mountain which was adjacent to the Westin. Perfect!
Marisa was all sorts of crazy nervous for the ride. She is afraid of heights and naturally afraid of anything too risky, even the slightest. Even with my reassurance that the entire ride is completely enclosed she still nervously walked into the lift to quickly seat herself and beg for everyone to hurry in and not the rock the lift! haha I shouldn't laugh, but it is cute.
Here we go!
I couldn't stop taking pictures every time I looked back because every view was beautiful!
See what I mean??
Slowly but surely we made the climb up with snow beginning to make its appearance. My kids were mesmerized by the white stuff!
Once you exit the gondola ride at the very top you are greeted with more snow and cooler temps than below. Nothing a sweatshirt couldn't handle though this time of year. Plus, a beautiful semi circle of Canadian flags blowing in the wind with incredible mountains behind it stood right outside the doors. Oh, Canada!
With every excited step we took we inhaled and filled our lungs with fresh mountain Canadian air along with indulging our eyes on the breathtaking views all around us. I'm a sucker for all things water but the mountains sure do a lot of good for the soul too. Watching a helicopter land and take off right in front of us made for a memorable time for the kids happily playing in the hardish snow a bit.
Also at the top, right outside the cafe/restaurant area, is the iconic statue Inukshuk, created for Whistler as a symbol of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. It was incredible!
Once the kids got their wiggles out we approached the much anticipated Peak 2 Peak Gondola ride. (Recommendation: I ordered my tickets 5 days out for a discounted price.) The ride holds the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest and highest lift in the world, connecting the peaks of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. (Another recommendation: We did not wait for the glass bottom gondola as it was a smaller gondola, longer line, packed with people per gondola, and we wanted our own gondola. And to be honest, the glass bottom is wrapped around with a railing so it seemed like you couldn't even get a good view anyway. The true view is around you!)
Marisa was completely content sitting back and enjoying the views. She was all straight faced and stiff hanging onto the seats but after a little bit I managed to get a smile out of her and more of a relaxed emotion from her.
These three on the other hand wanted front row seats to the spectacular views!
All around us, 360 degree views of majesty!
On Blackcomb mountain there was more snow and another cafe/restaurant that looked pretty good. We wanted to eat down in the village so we took another short little time for Natalie to build her mini snowman before heading back.
The best part of all of this is you can go across the gondola as many times as you want. We opted to go back across to enjoy the 360 degree views again and then back down Whistler mountain instead of going down the open ski lift down Backcomb mountain for obvious reasons.
Not bad for a first day!
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