1. Whistler is a singularly unnatural town. This is particularly ironic considering how much it caters to nature enthusiasts. Like many cities in the Pacific Northwest, the thick vegetation tends to hide everything. This walking bridge is right in the middle of town.
2. Actually, town consists of a large number of resorts, time-share/condos, and hotels. The few buildings we could clearly identify as single family dwellings were all on the southern side of a system of lakes, and were all mansions. Yeah, hard to tell through the trees.
3. The ski lifts really do go right in to town. I saw three such landing spots while I was there, and know there are even more. Once you get on a ski lift, you will be carried into a network of lifts all over the mountains. Notice how this one is surrounded by a cluster of resorts. Whistler seems to be composed of such clusters.
4. The condo where we stayed was a megaplex with long, narrow, two-story units. The front only had a couple of windows facing the parking lot, and entry hall that featured knobs over a bench that could double as a ski rack and a grate in place of a welcome mat. This is a view of the neighbors out the back. Sitting in the living room, all you see are trees.
5. We drove around for a couple of days, then happened to go out the back of a store to discover that most of Whistler has nothing to do with cars. Also, most of the people are young and healthy. For a place focused on leisure, it’s remarkable how low the percentage of retirees.
6. Apparently you’re supposed to park in an one of their extensive community parking lots, then get out on foot or bicycle. The lots use an intricate electronic system. You can only pay with either Canadian coin dollars or a credit card that has a Canadian chip. They don’t accept paper money, Canadian or otherwise. Once you’ve got your license plate info in their system, you can call a special number on your cell phone and add more time as you go.
7. There was a bicycle rally going on in Whistler while we were there. They turned one of the parking lots into a vendor’s tent area. But the most impressive wasn’t the bicycles, but rather the jeep try out center. Apparently covering concrete with large quantities of dirt and gravel was fine.
8. From there you can hit the extensive path system. There are more of these paved paths than there are roads.
9. Some of those paths go into the down town area, which is primarily accessed on foot. This includes some lovely little parks, complete with glacier run off.
10. And art galleries. This was right outside one.
11. And of course their tribute to the Olympics. Along with a few of these, they also had Olympics re-runs on TV in restaurants.
12. If you went the other way from the parking lot, you could end up on a ski lift converted to carry mountain bikes.
13. Or simply end up wandering around the outskirts of town.
For more lists of Thirteen, visit Thursday Thirteen
10 Responses to T13: Whistler