theDIBB - The BIG 50th Vancouver Vacation Sept/Oct 2021 - Day 3 - Sea to Sky Gondola, Whistler & a proposal!

Day 3 - Saturday 2nd October 2021

I had quite a good lay in until 7.30 this morning which I was pleased about thinking I had kicked the jet lag.

Helen and Nick hadn’t faired so well waking up at just gone 4 so they were showered, dressed and packed by the time I’d woken up! They had gone out for a coffee and a wander so we got up and got ourselves ready.

Last look at this view!

By 8.30 we were all packed and in the lobby ready to check out. We just had to pay the daily parking charge of $38 as nothing else had been charged to the room.

We took all our luggage down to the parking garage and loaded it up in the car then went to find some breakfast.
I wanted to go to Bath and Bodyworks and Sephora but no shops open until 10 in Vancouver so headed to where they were in the Pacific Centre Mall to find some breakfast first. This was only round the corner from our hotel and had loads more shops than I realised! If only we had more time and I wasn’t with 3 non shoppers :mad:

We found an A&W in the food court that was serving breakfast so Jim and I both had a sausage and egg muffin and hash brown. Helen and Nick had already eaten when they were out earlier, they had a substandard breakfast roll from Starbucks.

Turned out I wasn’t that hungry so after a few bites I gave the rest to Jim and Helen. At about 9.45 I headed off so I could be the first in the shop when it opened. I was given until 10.30 to get what I needed! Challenge accepted ;)

At just before 10 B&BW opened up so armed with my list I did a bit of a supermarket sweep style haul. I had a few bits that friends wanted me to get but by 10.15 I was done and paid the rather large $230 Bill :omg:. Worth every penny!
The candles were $10 off today, so only $15 each so naturally I bought 4. The foaming hand soaps were 6 for $32 so I got 12 and the hand gels 6 for $10 so I also bought 12!

I had 3 HUGE bags so on the way to Sephora I found Jim sitting down so dumped them with him and went in search of the few Make Up bits I wanted.
I had been recommended their own brand primer so got 2 of those, another brown liquid liner which is THE best, the IT CC cream that everyone raves about and a new MAC lipgloss. $150 lighter I was now done and back with the others by 10.29. Boom! That’s how it’s done :pgig:

We now headed back to the hotel and picked the car up, plugging the Sea to Sky gondola into the Sat Nav.
Absolutely stunning views on the way!

The journey is very straight forward and 50 mins later we were pulling into the parking lot.

Quick loo break then we bought our tickets. $127.70 for 2 adults inc tax.
The gondolas are very fast loading so with only 3 people in front of us we were on and heading up the mountain in minutes.

Now as someone who isn’t great with heights I hate these things, but needs must!
Beautiful scenery all around though

Some crazy people climbing to the top :omg:

Once at the top we had a look around and took some photos, really breathtaking views in every direction! We decided to do the bridge last just in case my head went wobbly again.

The others were a bit peckish so as the restaurant was shut we just got a hotdog and fries from the food truck.
It was a bit nippy sitting outside but it was dry which was the main thing. The fries were piping hot so they warmed us up.
I made a new friend with a chipmunk, these little cuties were everywhere waiting for someone to drop their food. Or some idiot tourists to feed them!

Once we were sufficiently full we headed for the Panorama Trail which was only 1.3km.
This was much easier than yesterday :tongue:

Some really lovely viewpoints but the main attraction is the ledge that juts out from the mountain offering you these stunning panoramic views of the water below.

It only took 30 or so minutes to walk round then I psyched myself up for the bridge.
I reminded Nick of no horseplay! He said he couldn’t promise anything. Git :nonono:

This bridge was slightly better than the one yesterday as it was narrower so you could hold on with both arms but because of this it was also rockier!

Jim got halfway across and turned around looking very serious so I thought he was going to say he couldn’t go any further and that he had to go back :confused2. Instead he pulled a ring box out of his pocket and apologised for not getting down on one knee but he didn’t want to drop it! He then asked me to marry him :inlove:
It’s a good job I said yes as the wedding is already booked for next year :pgig:
We had a quick kiss and a selfie of the 4 of us but were conscious of not holding up the crossing for other people.

We made it to the other side and he put the ring on, I love it!

A little backstory of the ring
My grandmother left me her wedding and engagement ring in her will to me. I used to wear it on my right ring finger for years until one day the diamond fell out of it :cry:. At the time as a single parent I just didn't have the money to replace it so it sat in its box for over a decade :(.
When Jim and I began discussing getting married a few years ago (very modern of us, no huge surprise engagements when it's your second wedding :d:), he knew how much Grandma's ring meant to me so it was an obvious choice to spend the money on getting it looking like new instead of buying a new ring.

So last September when we came back from Turkey I took it to a local jeweller who I knew well and set about getting the ring looking fabulous again.
This is a before and after, I think Paul the jeweller did an amazing job :heart:

The ring then sat in Jim's wardrobe for over a year :erm:. In his defence we had 2 more lockdowns and various holidays cancelled so not really many chances of a proposal. As much as the whole engagement was no huge surprise I was totally shocked he did it right there and then, I was not expecting it to happen up a mountain in the slightest!

After a little while and lots of photos we made our way back over.

I called the kids straight away to tell them and they were as happy as two teenagers get 🙄

We now got the gondola down as we were keen to get to Whistler so we could celebrate properly.

I think going down is definitely worse than going up :confused2

Once on solid ground I bought a magnet from the gift shop. I definitely needed a reminder of today!

Helen drove this leg of the journey, it was only 40 mins to our hotel. You literally cannot go wrong in driving to Whistler from Vancouver as it’s one straight road directly there.
It had started to rain which was a shame. The men in the back had clearly had too much excitement for one day!

We found our home for the night, The Listel Hotel and pulled up out front so I could jump out and check us in. We needed our room key to open the parking garage below the hotel.

This was in a fantastic location right next door the village centre a 1 minute walk away.
We parked up then took the elevator up to the third floor. Our rooms were next door to each other which was handy, in fact they were interconnecting rooms but the door in between was locked.
We literally dumped our luggage, had a quick wash and went in search of a drink, it was about 3pm by now.
The plan was to have a couple then go back to the hotel to shower and change then get some dinner. Famous last words…!

We stopped at the first place we came to, the Tapley Bar. It looked like it had a good vibe with music playing and sport on the tv.
Jim, Nick and Helen ordered a jug of Budweiser and I went with my trusty Cosmo!
We were a bit peckish again so thought we’d get a snack of some nachos and chicken wings to tie us over till dinner.

Holy crap these were huge, we barely made a dent :omg:. They were good though.
Another round of drinks and another Cosmo! I love these glasses.

Nick thought it’d be a great idea to play darts so we moved tables nearer the board.

I’m not sure I’ve ever played before and with Helen and I having dodgy eyesight even before the strong cocktails we weren’t sure it was a good idea!
We were to play killer darts which meant we had 3 darts and whatever number we landed on first was our one. You then had 3 lives and if you hit your number those 3 times, you became the ‘killer’. You could then try to take someone else out by shooting for their number and taking away a life from them. It sounded very complicated when Nick was explaining it and I don’t think I have explained it very well but once we started playing it made sense!

I was first up and on my third go I managed to actually hit a 20! I was chuffed that I got it on the board let alone on a number :thumbs-up
Nick was 8, Jim 3 and Helen 12.
The game was now on!
We quickly ordered some more drinks before we started, a Moscow Mule for me this time.

Nick had a very good start and became killer first, this only went to his head and he became all cocky saying he was going to take us all out.
I won’t bore you with the ins and out but you can imagine everyone’s surprise when I ended up taking him out of the game with a double and Helen took Jim out straight after with a triple shot!

Please excuse the obscenities drawn on in chalk, a lot of alcohol was consumed and the boys were sore losers ;)

Well, we could barely breath we were laughing so much :pgig: Ooh the boys were not happy! First of all losing but to 2 people that had barely played before :pgig:

There were 2 guys sitting on the table behind us who were absolutely cracking up at us throughout the game so we got chatting with them after.

They loved the fact we were taking the mick out of each other and our very British sense of humour.
We ended up chatting to them for ages, they were in Whistler for a cycling weekend as it was one of their birthdays.

They left a little before us and Jim swapped numbers saying we’d be in contact when we return here to ski. They had very kindly paid our drinks bill without us knowing so we messaged them to thank them profusely.

We had one more drink, another Moscow Mule and ended up chatting to some other guys who were in a huge group who had been playing pub golf all day.
It’s a very small world as one of them had gone to St Mary’s University in Twickenham and lived in Teddington which is where I grew up!

We were now hungry so we moved on to the Dublin bar as apparently they were still serving food.

It was pouring down with rain so had to make a run for it!
We had to wait a while to get in as they had to seat you at tables, no one was allowed to stand up.
We ordered another Cosmo for me and Guinness for everyone else but unfortunately they had stopped serving food.
We stayed for two drinks but I wasn’t really feeling the love for this place. It was loud and we couldn’t hear each other speak plus I was now starving so after an hour Jim and I left to go back to the hotel. We left Helen and Nick there as they were enjoying watching the live music, although they would live to regret that decision in the morning as they didn’t get in until gone 2am!
So how does the day end after you get engaged? With a takeaway Domino’s pizza eaten in bed of course ;):pgig: