September 2; Vacation #3

We have thought of this vacatoin and three in one. First there was the train trip; then there was the visit with family and now we have begun #3 a road trip on our own from Kamploops to Vancouver to Seattle. Today we set out on a long and winding way from Kamloops to Vancouver. This trip took us approximately 3.5 hours on Thursday, August 27; today it took all day. This is a typical Dave and Paula roadtrip.

Dave is a great tour guide. Unfortunately I did not write it all down so I can't tell you exactly where we were the whole time. I can tell you the veiws were awesome even if I did not see all of them. Some of them I had to view from the camera. The sheer drop from the road to the river was so long and dramatic that I could not look. I found myself leaning on to Dave's side of the car to make sure it would not tip over. Dave went to pull over into a lookout spot and I begged him to stay close to the road. He got out and took these pictures.

We arrived in Pemberton, BC around 1:00 PM. Time to find some lunch. We stopped first at the Pemberton General Store. It seemed like a good place to find some souvenirs. We walked in, the store owner greeted us with "I know you" to which Dave replied "I know you too!". Years ago Dave had a business merchandising smaller clothing stores. He sold Brent Pipe, the owner of the Pemberton General Store a line of jeans and belts and a few other things. Brent, however, always came to the Show Mart where the vendors would bring the samples. Although Dave did go on the road a lot and visited stores, he had never visisted Brent at his store and didn't make the connection before we entered the store. On Brent's suggestion we had lunch at a local cafe. It was delicious. Soup and sandwhich was just enough. We left Pemberton with a souvenir t-shirt for Dave and these pictures.

Further down the road we arrived at Whistler, BC. Now some of you may know (and if you don't I'm about to tell you) that British Columbia and the Vancouver area in particular will be the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. As we arrived in Whistler and continued on to Vancouver we saw many signs telling us where different events would take place or where the athletes village would be. This picture you will see again in February 2010 but the mountain will be covered in snow and the skiiers will be doing their thing.
Have you ever seen the TV show "Men in Trees". It starred Anne Heche as a love advice columnist who ends up in Alaska after her own love life falls apart. One of the places on the show where the characters often met was "The Chieftain". Dave always told me that the Chieftain was a real place and in fact the outside shots were taken at the real Chieftain. Well here is proof that he knew what he was talking about.

Finally toward evening we arrived in Vancouver where we spent an inordinate amount of time on the Lions Gate Bridge. This was the only night that we did not have any overnight accomdation reserved. We took our chances and found a very reasonable rate for a top (5th) floor room with a view of the English Bay. I leave you with that view until tomorrow.