Banff to SunPeaks to Whistler

Left Banff very early for a marathon trip to SunPeaks ski resort.  Got held up on road by avalanche - the Army was out with its cannons which they fire at the slopes to have a controlled avalance, then held up by accident, so very long day.  Rained all afternoon and arrived at hotel in time for dinner.  Worst meal so far, a buffet with absolutely nothing of any flavour or variety, had lettuce and bread for dinner.  Dinner was followed by a presentation on the history of canada and the fur trade.  Would have been better if I could have lay down to listen to it.  I was exhausted and my cold was giving me grief but the presentation was good.

Up early next day for Whistler.  Stopped at a First Nations (native Indians) ranch for a look see and a dance show etc,  They had yummy home made bikkies.  Back on bus and backtracking over country we passed on the train, not much excitement in scenery till the afternoon when we travelled up into the mountains again to Whistler.

Arrived about 4 and went into the Black Bear presentation.  Very interesting and managed to stay awake for this one.  Learned lots of stuff about bears and not so frightened of them know.  But then again we haven't come face to face with one yet.  Wandered into the village and found a pub for dinner and had our first lot of ribs.  Very nice.  Back to hotel which is another very fancy one but with a lot bigger rooms this time.

Nothing on this morning!!!!  (previous 3 mornings we have had to be up by 5am) yeah got to sleep in on my birthday and then had a very leisurely breakfast, read a bit and then went off for our snowmobile ride.  Beautiful day, clear skies and no wind and all very excited.  Off we went and within the first 5 minutes the guides snowmobile broke down so we sat and waited for a new one to come up the track, on our way again and we had to stop just round the corner as the group in front had lost someone so we had to sit and wait until their guide came back which took up all our time so we then had to turn around and come back.  We, meaning all of our group, were severely pissed off and didn't the company get a mouthful from us! We were supposed to have an hour and only got 20 minutes.  Unfortunately the company didn't understand why we were upset, saying we had to come back as it was a safety issue, but they were just keeping to their schedule.  Certainly spoiled our day as the short time we had was fabulous.  Sue I think it was the equivalent of a Harley on snow.

We are now back in hotel, doing the laundry, eating muffins I stole from breakfast and having a cuppa.  We have booked in for a nice dinner tonight but decided that we really couldn't be bothered looking around the village again so going to have a lie down and read a book for a couple of hours till dinner.

Another long trip to Victoria tomorrow so will update again on Friday night.