Waiting in Calgary part two

Ten gallon hat man just walked by again - he must get his fair share of exercise to be sure!  Good for him-  probably keeps him young.  I think maybe someday i'd like a job like that - being a welcomer or such - i do like greeting at church too and greeting customers at the farm. 
Back to the storyline - Sunday morning, we attended the Surrey CRC with my Uncle Brent (Dad's oldest brother) and heard a good message about Esther and sang some good songs and it was good to be in the house of the Lord!  After church, we visited Grandpa's grave - took a little time for the cemetary guy to find it for us but he is buried near two very large beautiful trees and it was good to remember and visit... i do that when i go to Holland as well - i know he is not there but it is a place for memories to percolate and surface.  It has been a lot of years since he passed away and memories can fade so quickly - but i sure remember his smoking on the porch, their visit out to Canada and picking us up from school in his little Datsun pickup truck and his smile.  He passed away in December 1997 so that's quite a while ago...

After the cemetary, we picked Grandma up from Manoah and we drove to my cousin Charlie's place - he lives fairly close and we had a barbeque with a whole group.  Charlie is married to Lana and they together have five kids - nice to meet/see them again.  Shawn is married to Susie and they have two kids who were also there - they sure are getting big!  And Angela came with her husband Ted and their three kids (whom i have never met) so it was a big reunion of sorts.  We talked, ate, Dad played WI golf and we spent a pleasant afternoon.  Then it was home again with a head full of thoughts and memories.

Monday morning, we packed our lunches up and headed north.  Our goal was to see Whistler (when asked what i wanted to see in B.C., i could only think of this - actually i had three things i wanted to do - visit Grandma, visit mountains and dip my toe in the ocean). 
We left after rush hour traffic and were soon on the Sea-to-Sky highway enjoying beautiful vistas that seemed to become more amazing as the curves and bends snaked around and about mountain bases and rivers and lakes.  We had a few stops here and there for lookouts and pictures.  We walked out to Brandywine Falls (love the name!) and enjoyed seeing that.  Back on the road again, with eyes peeled most clearly for bear-sightings, we reached Whistler around 1:00. 

We enjoyed our lunch in the shadow of Whistler mountain, spying on the few skiers and snowboarders who were left negotiating the slush on the slopes.  The only Olympic paraphernalia was the rings in the medal awarding square - none too impressive - i guess i expected Olympic mascots or something gold to be lying around??  We did a quick run-through of Whistler village but since none of us are really shoppers per se, that was a bit of a fruitless exercise.  Far better was getting back in the car and heading up the highway towards Pemberton and enjoying more beautiful mountain views and hiking up to Nairn Falls which was pretty neat (though very difficult to photograph through the rocky crags).  We were pretty tired and warm by the time we reached the falls but it was definitely worth it. 

The drive home was fairly uneventful - taking pictures along the way - and finding our very favorite place of the day, Tantalus Lookout where we saw amazing views of Tantalus Mountain covered in snow and towering above the valley - how small we are and how big the world is and yet how small in the grand scheme of things eh? 
Our search for a bear was nearly fruitless until we were fairly close to leaving the Highway - when all of a sudden all the scanning and searching paid off and there for our view was a bear - we pulled off to the highway edge (kinda illegal) and snapped away with our cameras.  One of the shots should work out right?  And we did get a few in the end when we reviewed all our pics.  That was super exciting and made our day all the more great.  And to top it off, when we pulled away from our stop, there to our amazement on the other side of the road was another bear - super cool!  I was so excited - you'd think i was five! 

We then had fixed our minds on the fact that fish and chips would be the ideal end to this day - and so made our long way across the Valley and city of Vancouver to White Rock, where we were treated to a yummy supper at a place trying to be a pirate hang-out, i can't remember the name but it had something to do with the Jolly Roger...
And yes, as per Danielle's traditions, toes must be dipped in oceans no matter what season of the year we are at - so down to the waterfront i went, and to my disgust, there was so much seaweed along the shore that there was nary a place to be found seaweedless for my poor picky toes... or so it seemed.  Dad eventually managed to find a place for my tender tootsies to taste the temperature of the ocean and that was checked off the list of things to do - along with giving me super warm feet since the water was pretty pretty cold!!! 

Bed sure felt good when we arrived home - it was a super great day however, full of images and scents and smells and experiences!!!