a day at the top of the world

My day had a pedestrian start , laundry (surprise I did not shrink my uniform) and grocery shopping (why are most of my food products on a 7 day cycle but English muffins only come in packages of 6?). People who know how dependent I am on my darling wife are probably surprised I've managed to cope so far. OK Geof, Jane, Matt, and Lisa you can all stop laughing now.

At noon I met up with Chris(my roomie from Hamilton), Allan (a retired police detective from Wales), and Arnold (the head of anti-doping in Taiwan and whose real name is beyond all of us so he says just call him Arnold) and we headed off to Whistler Village to buy tickets for the Peak to Peak Gondola Ride. With our credentials etc for a discount the price was good. The trip up Whistler Mountain by gondola to the top(over 6000') was very nice. Then we changed to the Peak to Peak Gondola for the trip across the valley. These pictures capture some of it.

 

I have lots more of these kind of photos. The view is spectacular!  As I know Deen would not like this type of trip (she would be hiding on the floor) I had to phone her and give her the play by play while we crossing the valley. I'm not sure how much she enjoyed that. We landed  at Blackcomb Mountain and went in for a very nice lunch at the top.Great spot. THis next picture was taken at the top of Blackcomb.

We also did a variety of group shots. There were of course skiiers and snowboarders all over the place. While it's been over 30 years since I last downhill skied I may have to try it again- maybe a lesson and a rental of a snowboard . And yes Deen my life insurance is still fully paid.  Great afternoon with a lot of laughs with my 3 friends.

Afterwards we we recrossed to Whistler then descended back to the village. A short walk over to the Excalibur gondola at the base of Blackcomb and we rode up to the Whistler Sliding Centre to watch a qualification round of women's luge. It was tough to get good pictures as they come by so fast (speeds over 140 km/hr) but I think this is one of my better ones. Arnold got some great shots which I'll have to get from him. We were literally just a few feet away from the track when the athletes went speeding by. Now that I've seen some of it live I have amuch better appreciation of it but will happlily watch it on TV to see more.

Today in Ontario was Family Day but more significantly in Canada it marked the 45th anniversary of the Canadian Flag. I was recalling to my much younger roomies (37 and 25 ,Chris called me Old Timer the other day and I of course won't let him forget that) and friend Kathy (less than 45) the controversy over the whole flag debate - I even got to march in a military parade in 1965 the day the Maple Leaf flag became our flag.

Tomorrow back to the Olympic Willage starting in mid-afternoon. Hopefully I'll have some interesting stories (assuming my faithful readers find these meanderings interesting) to pass along.