Monday August 15
Off to Whistler today. We packed up and took a taxi to YVR to collect our hire car - turned out it was a brand new Toyota. We were on the road at 11am and arrived at Whistler in great time - 1:15pm.
Of course we could not check-in to our unit at the Embarc so we went to the Mallard Bar at the Fairmont for lunch. We sat outside in lovely sunshine - we had one of our old favourites - a shared prime rib sandwich. By the time we finished it was past 2:30pm so we went back to the Embarc to see if our unit was ready. With a bit of pushing on our part we finally got in at 3:15pm. Dieter did a bit of shopping while I unpacked.
We decided to just go back to the Mallard Bar for dinner - we weren’t very hungry so we ordered nachos to share - they were ginormous ….. the service, unfortunately, was poor - our food arrived before our drinks and we had to make a big fuss to get these and to get plates and cutlery - it was very busy but our waitress seemed quite overwhelmed.
Back to our unit and off to bed.
Tuesday August 16
Well here we were for our first full day - trying to get organised as our booking was for 23 nights - we would have left for home sooner but alas changing our frequent flyer tickets was impossible.
So there was laundry to be done and lots of grocery shopping. It was a bit of a bummer - selection at the Fresh Street Market was very so-so but the prices were eye-watering - to top it off we got a $70 parking ticket in the Market Place car park (long story but I launched an non-line appeal) and as it came to pass the appeal was approved - whew!
Wednesday August 17
We took the Blackcomb gondola then the Peak-2-Peak to Whistler for the 11am opening of the Peak express chair. We then walked over the new (to us) bridge to another peak - amazing views on a sunny and warm day. From there we walked back to the Whistler gondola and went down to the village for lunch at Dub Linh.
It was then a lazy rest of the day watching some tennis etc - we stayed home for dinner of pasta & salad.
Thursday August 18
We did the Lost Lake walk on a hot and sunny day - 35℃. Then we came home for lunch of a toasty and spent the hot afternoon enjoying some more tennis and lazing. Dinner at home was pork chops.
Friday August 19
We drove to Squamish and did the Alice Lake walk - part way through it started to rain, not too heavily but we donned our gortex jackets which made it pretty steamy as it was another very hot day. Afterwards we tried in vain to find a nice pub for lunch but gave up and did some grocery shopping. By the time we got back to our condo it was too late for lunch so we had a banana.
We tried to go to the Mallard Bar for their 5-7pm Friday happy hour but alas it was too crowded - no seats for us. We went home and had our own happy hour on our balcony - the late afternoon had brought more blue skies. We then returned to the Fairmont for our dinner at Wildflower - it was excellent - helped along by a $100 gift certificate from Embarc. Of course we received this certificate for registering for an Embarc “update” - which as we knew was really a hard sell to buy more points - more on this later.
Saturday August 20
It was up the Blackcomb gondola this morning for some walks at the summit - we did the Alpine Loop connecting to the Overlord trail with a side trail to the Lakeside Loop which took us over to the 7th Heaven lake about one third of the way up - looping back we took the Marmot trail which to our surprise was really a tough slog - it connected to the Green Road which is the ski trail from the top of 7th Heaven back to the Rendezvous Lodge. We did see several marmots on the Alpine Loop and one more at the end of Green Road.
It was too late for a lunch out and about so we had a quick toastie at home while recovering from nearly 3 hours of hiking on another hot and sunny day.
We stayed home for steak - excellent.
Sunday August 21
We drove to Pemberton and did the Nairn Waterfall walk and had lunch at the local golf course bistro - very relaxing sitting outside in the shade. It was another hot but dry day - fortunately it cools off at night - as low as 10℃.
We had sambos for dinner.
Monday August 22
We started out the day in our usual fashion - fruit, yoghurt and/or cereal. we took the Blackcomb gondola then the Peak-2-Peak to Whistler from here we did the Harmony Lake walk. It was just over an hour walking but reasonably steep - an extension loop seemed to be closed. Back at the bottom we had lunch at the Mallard - shared flatbread - it was nothing special.
We had pasta and salad for dinner.
Tuesday August 23
We did the Chickamus River walk then went out to Araxi for dinner. We both had the sablefish for mains - it was prepared in one of the miso concoctions - we both decided we would avoid this sort of preparation in the future even though sablefish is a favourite and not many places serve it. The bill of just over $CAD300 with tip but a 10% Embarc discount proved again that Canada is quite a bit more expensive than OZ.
Wednesday August 24
Heat alert for Whistler today but cooling over the next few days.
Thursday August 25
Big Day Out - we booked the River of Golden Dreams self-guided canoe/kayak tour from Alta Lake to Green Lake down Dream river / creek. We set out at 9:30am at the same time as 4 other canoes. It was 2k’s down Alta Lake to the start of the river - then down the river with a small portage over a beaver dam to the first “test” - a portage of about 500m - there were trollies to load your canoe on - then back onto the river which winds around for 5k’s - there were about 5 more beaver dams to navigate which we managed to bash through without getting out of our canoe. There was a small downstream current but paddling was tough going - we were the first canoe to reach the end point but 3 others came in within minutes - fortunately there was family picnicking on the dock who helped us out of our canoe and got the canoe out of the water. There, one of the crew from the River of Golden Dreams took over and loaded the canoes onto their tailer. We waited around for 20+ minutes for the last canoe which never showed up so we were driven back to the starting point, The Lakeside Park - and drove home.
Friday August 26
We had a rest day today - did some boutique shopping but did not buy anything. We had lunch at Caramba for old times sake and decided it was our swan song there - prices had gone up and portion sizes gone down.
We decided to arrive at the Mallard right on 5pm - the start of their Friday night Happy Hour - last Friday we arrived at 6pm and could not get a seat. We had two $8 Margaritas each and one appetiser each ($9) - one duck wings and one coconut prawns - both excellent. Then it was home for a light dinner of sambos.
Saturday August 27
We had another ‘light’ day - in the morning we attended the Embarc “update”, better described as strong-arm sales pitch to buy additional points to access all sorts of new benefits. Well they were disappointed to find out we were going to exit the program come hell or high water - either by selling our points for a low-ball price or just walking away.
After a toastie at home we did a one hour circuit at the top of Blackcomb - we saw 4 marmots. We had dinner at the Grill Room at the Fairmont - very nice except after asking if we would like our salmon medium rare, mine came out well done. Also - we had barely finished our entree (a shared beet salad) when a waitress brought out our mains even though the table had not been cleared of our entree dishes. She turned around and went back to the kitchen - fearing this would mean cold mains we urgently called our waiter who immediately cleared the dishes and the waitress brought out the mains - all very unprofessional and far too speedy for fine dining. After finishing our mains I told our waiter that my fish had been well done - he was apologetic and in the end reduced the price of my dish by 75%. Nevertheless it was a nice dinner - just another service hiccup - there have been quite a few at Whistler this visit - perhaps due to insufficient and/or inexperienced staff - nothing too major - but different from previous visits.
Sunday August 28
We had a lazy morning - we went to the Sunday farmers' market and bought some berries which were more expensive than the supermarket. After another toastie at home for lunch we did the Rainbow falls walk, a really nice walk but steep in parts - we tried to do the Shadow Lake walk afterwards but missed the turnoff and had to drive almost to Pemberton before we could turn around so that walk was given a miss. We stayed home for dinner.
Monday August 29
We did the Lava trail to the Brandywine falls which was a long tricky walk with poor (ie non-existent) sign posting - we had dinner at Wildflower which was excellent - none of the small service issues of other recent visits to the Fairmont. Our waitress who lives near Meadow Park showed us pictures on her phone of bears in her back yard - one with 2 cubs climbing a tree. She said she sees bears “all the time” - so far we haven’t seen any - just fresh looking poo.
Tuesday August 30
We went up Blackcomb and did the short nature walk and saw 4 marmots. We had dinner at home - pasta.
Wednesday August 31
The heat wave returned with a high of 31℃. We went to the North Nicholas golf course and did the walk to the Green Lake lookout then had lunch at the clubhouse outdoor patio (Table 19) overlooking the lake. We stayed home for dinner - steak.
Thursday September 1
We returned to Shadow Lake for the walk we missed the other day - after the walk 1.5 hours, longer than planned due to a closed bridge, we drove onto the Pemberton golf course for lunch - a beet salad and veggie quesadilla, sort of shared.
For dinner we tried to get into the Four Seasons Thursday BBQ but even at 7pm there was a 1h15m+ wait so we went to the Mallard Bar for Lois Lake grilled steelhead salmon - excellent - washed down with a bottle of Dieter’s favourite Pino.
We had a call with Donny from a local real estate company to discuss the sale of our Embarc points - very unlikely or if they do sell (probably in the ski season) our proceeds would be minimal - otherwise we plan walk away from them by just not paying the annual maintenance.
Friday September 2
It was a lazy day with some grocery shopping, scrabble, tennis viewing - lunch at home then happy hour at the Mallard.
Saturday September 3
It was a bit cooler today - sunny with a high of 24℃. We left at 9:15 for the Cheakamus walk but from the suspension bridge we continued on to Loggers Lake up a steep and rugged trail at the end - Loggers Lake is in an old volcano crater. The return trip was about 2.5 hours. We then went to Table 19 at the Nicklaus golf course for lunch - a shared pizza - very enjoyable sitting outside overlooking Green Lake - then it was home for resting, tennis viewing, showering etc and dinner - pasta & salad.
Sunday September 4
It must be time to go home - weather changed to cool (high of 17℃) and drizzly so we had a lazy day.
Monday September 6
Back to fine weather - we did a walk around the Lost Lake trails. We had our grand finale dinner at Joe Fortes - pretty good but the venue had no outlook and can be very noisy.
Tuesday September 7
It was time to pack up and head home after 10 weeks away. We left Whistler around 4pm and had a pretty easy drive to Vancouver airport. After dropping our hire car and checking-in, we headed over to the bar at the airport Fairmont for some dinner, thinking it would be better than the AC lounge. After a hamburger and a club sandwich we went through security and headed to the AC lounge. To our complete surprise we were invited to the newly opened Signature Suite section of the lounge - with a la carte dining and premium beverages - could have skipped the Fairmont lounge. As our flight had been delayed from 11:15pm to 00:30am we still had several hours to enjoy the AC lounge. The flight finally took off at 1:00AM.
We landed in Sydney around 8-something AM - arrival was quite quick until we reached the never ending queue for customs & quarantine - no priority line with the queue snaking around the whole arrivals area - thank goodness only a couple of flights had landed. It took 30 minutes to get through then we caught a taxi home not having pre-booked a car and driver. The “Silver Service” taxi was a disgrace - bird shit all over it as well as dirty and broken down inside but we made it home and walked in the door at 10am on the dot.