The Epic Road Trip - August 2013 Edition - Day 4 - Whistler and beyond

The weather was still a little dreary, but we were raring to go. Not only was it time to visit Whistler, it was also a day to go on a boat!

We had decided a week or so before heading out to ditch our original plan of going to Portland via Montana and Idaho to go to Vancouver Island instead. We had been to Vancouver a number of times in the past six years (including the August 2012 road trip), but we always thought the cost of the ferry crossing was prohibitive.

We loosely strapped Mr P into his car seat and packed away the tent. He sat contently drinking water, eating crackers and throwing his cars around until we were done. We drove into Whistler. Which is a bit of a deceiving town! Everything (restaurants, stores, etc) are hidden away from the main highway. It's a nice way to build a city (everything looks so clean!), but hard for the spontaneous to find breakfast.

After finally tracking down a place, we decided we should see SOMETHING from the 2010 Winter Olympics, and decided to take a short detour to the Whistler/Blackcomb resort where the downhill ski events had been held. Here is where we ran into one of the few drawbacks of travelling with a toddler.

I'm sure it's very nice.

We were still (and continued to stay on) Alberta time. Which means Mr P woke up at his usual 7:30 a.m. time. It just meant 6:30 a.m. in BC. So when we went to go take a look around the resort (and buy a tshirt!), we found it all closed up. It wouldn't open for another couple of hours. We wanted to catch an early afternoon ferry to the Island, so we decided not to wait around, and headed into Vancouver.

I don't know why, but I always pictured ferry travel to be not very popular, and thus was surprised by the lineups to get on the boat. Granted, we were going from one of the most popular ports to one of the most popular ports, but I still didn't expect a two-hour wait.

So close...

Confession time - besides a canoe, I'd never really been on a boat before. So this was kind of new and cool to me. Mr P was a take it or leave it kind of guy, but was really excited by the whole driving onto the boat thing.

Oooh. We're moving.

Well I don't like this one bit!

The view from the ferry. What a beautiful country I live in.

Umm. So over this. Can I go inside now?

Mr P really didn't care that he was on a boat. He didn't want to be outside (too windy). There wasn't much to do inside, until we found...

What?!? I can go down these things on my belly?

The ferry crossing is about one and half hours. We were about an hour in when we found the kid area. It had a slide! That was the best news ever for our boy. He spent the rest of the crossing here, having fun and being a kid.

Once off the boat, it was time to pick a place to stay for the night. Back to our handy BC Parks Guide, I picked Sproat Lake. Little did I know how completely awesome it was going to be. My kid (and Mr T) LOVE airplanes. So when we got to our campsite and saw this, I knew it was going to be one of the best campsites ever.

The Martin Mars - used as a tool in forest fires. Check out the link here for more info.

It was a beautiful site with a rock beach to play on, and of course an airplane to stare at all day long. Sproat Lake Provincial Park is also home to some Petroglyphs, which are kind of cool. More info here.

It was an early night to bed - the next day was going to be exciting - we were off to a place Mr T had wanted to go for a very long time - Tofino.

The Epic Road Trip - August 2013 Edition - Day 3

After waking up, getting some breakfast we got back on the road. 

With Matchbox cars in hand, and happily looking at all of the new scenery ("treeeeeeees! Treeeeeeeees!), Mr P was ready for travel.

We've taken a bunch of different routes to Vancouver, but never Sea to Sky Highway. We had never been to Whistler . We decided it was time to change that.

However, before you can get to Whistler (and the Sea to Sky), you have to drive BC Highway 99. If you love twists, turns, extreme drop offs, trees and water, this is the road for you. Full of 50 km/h speed zones (and really, with the twists and switch backs, you should pay attention to these speed signs), it takes what feels like forever to get to where you're going, but it's totally worth the drive.

(I apologize now for not having photos, but due to weather and wildlife on this road, I was being more of a co-pilot and less of an archivist as we went).

We stopped in Lillooet for lunch. It's a quaint little town nestled in the heart of a valley, accessible only by these heart-stopping curvy roads. Mr P was having a blast looking down at the village though, and liked being able to see airplanes and helicopters so close to us when we were at the summit.

After lunch, we surprised Mr P with a 45-minute visit to the local playground. There wasn't much there - a slide and a lot of rocks, but plenty of room to run. He was in heaven when he realized he had free reign.

Back on the road, we picked out a campground from the BC Parks Guide and made our way to Nairn Falls Provincial Park 30 km outside of Whistler. While we didn't get to see the falls (the 2.5 km one-way hike is on a super narrow trail and runs right beside the river - plus it was raining), it was a great place to stay. It was P's first night in a tent since the 2012 road trip, and he did well. 

As all toddlers do, he took up almost all of the room in the tent by sleeping at a strange angle. We found as long as he had a car and his blankie he was good to go. Oh - and as long as he could spend at least 20 minutes using Mr T and I as his personal trampolines, he slept just fine. Not like a baby at all!