Road trip!!!!

 

We love a road trip, and we love Canada!   This time, we will be exploring the Canadian Rockies, but starting on the West coast.  So we are flying to Vancouver, getting a car there and then off to Whistler (which we have seen before, but in the winter) and turning East though the Rockies, to Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff.  The return from Banff to Vancouver will be on a panoramic train, which takes 2 days - something new to us.  

Our flight is at a reasonable time, so we did not even have to get up before sunrise, an unusual treat!  Since we are flying from Newark airport, the traditional picture of the Manhattan skyline from the Whitestone bridge has been replaced by a picture of the Catskills from the Bear Mountain bridge.  Still, nice view of Manhattan skyline from the airport itself.   And then another one from the air, just after takeoff.  

   The flight was uneventful (which is the way we like it) and mostly over very flat landscapes, until at last, we started seeing the Rockies, flying over cool rivers (I love the shadow of the clouds on this one) ,  and then over the Fraser river into Vancouver.   

 We even got to see Mt Rainier- all the way in Seattle, poking above the clouds - not a great picture, but it made me happy!

  Anyone that knows us knows that we are not city people, so we drove straight out of Vancouver to Whistler (where the 2020 Winter Olympics were held). It’s only 75 miles, but it does go through Vancouver, so it takes longer than you’d think (then again, it sometimes take 3 hours to go from JFK to home…..).  

 Once out of Vancouver, the drive is along the rugged coast and very pretty (if a bit twisty).  We made it to Whistler by 5:00pm local time.   The village is lovely, but we are too tired to really enjoy it this evening, so we will have more about it tomorrow.