Final to do's

Well last day to see BC...

Got out and ended up renting one of those cool bikes that 2 people ride with Mary... Rode up to Stanley park and went to check out the Aquarium.

There are some pretty cool animals in there... dolphins, whales, frogs, fish, fishsticks and children.. lots of them.

So we checked that place out for a while, we watched a 4D (YES 4D!!!) movie while we were there... apparently one of the only of it's kind on the west coast.  So what made this movie 4D was nothing spectacular like wormholes, time travelling deloreans or stephen hawking. 

Basically it was a 2D film + 1 extra D for the 3D effect (had to wear polorized glasses)  The crazy extra D came in during the film and wasn't really a dimension, but more of an experience.  Every seat had stuff on it to make you feel part of the film...things like
- The chair infront squirting mists of water in your face when things would splash
- Giant fans blowing air in the room to simulate wind
- Rubling chairs to simulate... rumbling... chairs?
- And these little hose things that would fly around by your feet like something was crawling around you...
Oh and at one point all these soap bubbles would fall from the ceiling to feel like underwater.

So as interesting as that was, I was a little dissapointed since I didn't go back to the 80s.

After that whole Aquarium experience we rode the rest of the park... a nice ride.

Later on we had to check out Grandville island, a cool market that is cool and also a market.

Oh and on the way there we found a store that sold nothing but cream puffs, it was insane... we tried some of those.

Now it's back to this hotel that is nothing like Le Chateau Fairmont in Whistler... but something a little better from the motel in Psycho.

Tomorrow = Plane ride home!

Hello again Vancouver!

Did you miss me?

Probably not.... I was only away for a week.

Now that I'm back I see you made your weather nicer.

Mary and I probably spent a good 10 hours today walking non stop, walked a ton of the city, went out to that mega mall again... now it's time to let my feet return to their normal shape.

I think tomorrow will involve less walking and more non walking.

I'm sure we burned off all the calories from last week's SEC.. which is hard to believe since most of the week we just ate.

See ya Later Whistler!

It was nice knowing you... but you haven't seen the last of me! I'm debating whether or not to visit you again when you are in summer mode so I can bike, or in winter mode so I can skii.

Since it will take me a while to save up that kind of dough, I have some time to decide.

Heading back down to Vancouver to stay a couple of more days before the trip is done!

Hole in 1 Dinner

Ended up the conference at the Jack Nicklaus (not Jack Nicholson, I always get the 2 mixed up) golf course in Whistler. 

Now we didn't get to play golf, or meet Jack, but we did get to walk on the green made of solid gold (green gold) and then eat all his food... SUCKER! This was our final dinner and SEC ceremony closing and it was a good one.  Not only did we all dress up and look awesome, but we dressed up and looked awesome.   It was a good night for all, with that hint of it all being over so soon.  Got to meet a great bunch of people, have some great times, and see some great scenery.

We also were told where SEC will be next year, but I'm not going to tell you HA!  (unless you pay me 10 bucks!)

Whistler/ Vancouver is a wonderful part of Canada and I highly encourage  any of you who have not been to take the next flight out.

Free Day!

Free in the fact that we can do whatever we wish, not that we had to pay for any of the other days (expensive?)

Seems like the most popular thing planned for today is the Ziptrek eco tour... everybody's doing it these days.. so if you didn't do it then YOU AREN"T COOL!

Nah i'm just kidding, you Golfers, ATVers, Jeepers, Shoppers, Sleepers and whatever else you guys did are cool too!

So the Ziptrek tour is kind of what it sounds like... a trek on ziplines.  Unfortunatly we didn't get to set any phasers to stun, but we did get to set them to ZIP! (lame)

This tour offers 2 treks, the bear run and the eagle (EXTREEEEEEMEEE!) run.  Anybody that was EXTREEEEEEEMEEEEEE did the eagle, which really wasn't all that EXXTREEEEEMEEEEE.... but probably more so than the bear run.  So anyway they take a group of 10 people on this trek into the forrest... first they get you in your cool zippy harness thing, then stuff you in a van to go up the mountain a bit.  At the beginning of the course we got some cool facts and trivia about the surroundings and what not... I doubt anybody listened since they were thinking about zipping around, or plumetting to their death.

We started on zip 1 of 5 (obviously) and it wasn't too bad... got you use to the whole thing.  From there they got bigger, longer, higher and faster.  In between each zip the guides talked about more things like how the trees were bazillion years old and how us stupid humans are destroying the earth.  It's actually really informative from a sustainibility standpoint.

Line 4 of 5 was 2200 feet long and got up to like 70kmph or something crazy.  Line 5 they encouraged us to do a backflip and zip, which we all did because we are EXTREEEEEEEEEEMEEEEEEEEEE (and cool)

So for all of you visiting Whistler I reccomend you check this out if you like being outside, like depressing facts about how we kill our planet, like hanging 100s of feet in the air by a cable while you speed across to another tree and like spending 100 bucks.  (It was worth it, seriously)

The rest of this day was spent wandering the town of Whistler and buying lots of stuff!.

SEC Finale dinner and presentations coming soon... :(

Gondola, Restaurant, Bear, Cream puffs

This afternoon we began our journey up Whistler mountain in a 30 minute gondola ride.  Elevation went up, temperature went down, air pressure went crazy, snow appeared, typical mountain stuff.

At the top was probably the best scenery you could imagine, top that off with a sunset, and a giant inukshuk and you got yourself a fine evening.

But wait, there's more.

At the top there was a fine restaurant at which we had dinner.  A fine dinner.  Fine dessert too! During our fine dinner, desert and alcholic beverages we had an unexpected visitor.

Buckle up bear's cousions nephew's brother showed up.... except this guy didn't care about buckling up.  He tried to crash our party by somehow getting into the building and wandering around.  Luckily people noticed this and somehow got him out of the building before he turned us into his fine dinner (or dessert).  Not all of us managed to catch this event, but those who did can tell you about it.

"He had a nice butt" - Beth Murison

"I wanted to ride him around but he didn't wan't to co-operate" - Greg Laidman

(Note: Not actual quotes)

So after the he left we all had a sigh of relied that this years SEC reps didn't end up being bear dinner. That may have ruined the event for next year.

The ride down our gondola crew talked about cream puffs for 30 minutes.  You mess with the cream puffs and you mess with us.  I highly reccomend you don't do either.

Until next time!

Quick Update

Tonight it sounds like we are going up to the top of one of the mountains in a 30min gondola ride and dining at a fancy restaurant up there.  Should be fun!
Tomorrow brings Ziplining which most people seem to have signed up for, walking around in the tree tops and zipping around up to 80km/h!

Well I better go!

Dinner at Dusty's

So tonight we went to dinner at this place called Dusty's.
I brought a swiffer with me to be safe, but it turned out there was no dust in sight!

Ate some good food, listened to a live band that played music and stuff...

Somebody got the idea that dancing was fun (were they drunk!?) and decided to go up.  Thanks to the efforts of our beloved CEO, the lazy not wanting to dance people (me) ended up being pushed out onto the floor with everybody else.

Some of us decided to try our Elaine Benice dance impressions... others weren't impressions and actually dance like her (me again)

SEC Survivor

Do you like reality TV?

Didn't think so... I mean it was kind of cool when it first came out, but now it's just been over done... Jumped the shark a long time ago. I'm not even going to begin trying to list all the shows that polute the airwaves, cablewaves and satellitewaves... so I'll let an internet site do it for me!

Regardless of all that, we took it to the next level and made SEC SURVIVOR! We had to survive being together outside in the nice sun, by the lake and mountains, playing fun games. I bet if we taped it, it would have been the next biggest show on TV.

After being put in to teams of 8 we competed to see who would win bragging rights to surviving, while the rest of us... uh.. didn't survive?  Or I guess they say voted off the island (Whistler?)  Well... even though most of us lost we still got to stay the rest of the week! How nice of the event planners

So we got to play games such as

- Balance on some logs while answering weird questions

- Build a McGuver like personel resucing device so we could combine our powers to solve great puzzles

- Walk blindfolded doing tasks insructed by a person that... instructs... from instructions.

- Find some letters in a bush... (HARD!)

- Make a team name, flag, cheer, and get some facepaint

- Memorize a bunch of things and do stuff with the thingymajiggers (ALSO HARD!)

After all that it came to a face off to eat stuff.  Not stuff like cow brains and goat intestines... but normal stuff like gummi worms and sausages.  It wasn't all easy stuff though.  The lucky ones got snails, shots of hot sauce and TRICKERY OREOS WITH WASABI INSIDE!

Normal Oreo...

TRICKERY WASABI OREO!

I got 3 crackers with a nice topping of hot sauce... Wasn't so bad.  The best part was I BEAT YOU DAN GREENE HAH! TAKE THAT!

(Dan ate all of the challenges for his team... nobody knows how he is still alive, but there is a myth that his stomach is lined with golden tapeworms)

Good morning Viet-whistler

The beds in this place are insane, not only that, the pillows are some kind of magical pillows.  Definitely makes for a good nights sleep.

Well, time to go to breakfast, some presentations, and then FUN! (That's right, it deserves capitals)

Do you have any Grey Poupon?

Well... Do you?

No?

Well find somebody who does!

Arrival at Mega Castle!

Road up to whistler was quite the journey, took lots of pics, saw lots of nice mountains and stuff... you know.

Here is a pic of where we are staying for the week :)

Going to be eating a fancy dinner soon as well as meeting all the cool folks that are excellent at service...giving?

Yawn

Woke up early this morning to take off to Vancouver Airport... or as some like to call it YVR.

Kinda makes me wonder how they come up with these short 3 letter names... What does YVR stand for?  Could it be, Your Vancouver Rocks?  Or how about Yellow Violet Red?  Surely there has to be some reason.  I know I could look it up online in a second but this is more fun.  Why don't they just name it like VAN or something, seems a lot easier to understand.

YVR Acronyms

Once I get there I get to wait 3 hours till other fellow Guelphites arrive...

Then when they arrive I get to spend another 3 hours taking a nice scenic bus route to Whistler!

No donuts here...

I've seen 1 Tim Hortons out here in the entire city... not that I really care since I'm not a die hard fan of their stuff...

Here is an accurate representation of the preferred choice of coffee shop

(Real picture taken with the cartoon setting on my camera)