Whistler Olympic Park or Olympic Center

My favorite Olympic venue was the new Nordic sports Whistler Olympic Park.   I’m probably biased because I’m such an avid cross-country skier, or maybe it was my favorite because the new facilities were so beautiful, and the remote mountainous setting was perfect for such sporting events. 

These facilities are located in the Callaghan Valley about 15 kilometers from the Whistler Village.  The Callaghan Valley is an undeveloped area full of wonderful large trees and surrounded by numerous snow covered mountain peaks.  Along with cross-country skiing, this area will also host other Nordic events such as biathlon and ski jumping.  Below is the new ski jumping hill.

An Olympic hopeful training at the brand new Richmond Speed Skating Oval near Vancouver.  This venue will be used for long track speed skating in next year’s winter games.

I thought this scene epitomizes the typical Olympic athlete’s life.  Long hours of training by themselves in relative anonymity.  It is kind of ironic, if he does make the Olympic team as expected, millions of people from around the world will one day watch him skate on this same ice surface.   On this day, it was only Janine and I, along with his friendly girlfriend.Read More

Whistler Village, Canada.

Whistler Village is a really cool little town.  The majority of the hotels, shops and restaurants are connected by a pedestrian only walkway, and access to both mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb are readily available thanks to multiple gondolas or chairlifts that originate from the town.  And if that wasn’t enough, the two mountains are also connected thanks to a new peak to peak tram that extends almost 3 miles across, and almost 1,500 feet above the valley floor! Read More

Bobsleigh or Bobsled at the Whistler Sliding Centre, Canada

We were disappointed at first to learn that the brand new Whistler Sliding Centre was closed to the public during our stay here at Whistler.  You see, there is a World Cup event being held here this weekend, and the various countries from around the world were here doing training runs this week.  We made some inquiries, and fortunately we were able to obtain press passes to photograph the facility and the training – I gotta say, what an amazing treat to be able to stand just feet away as bobsleds zoomed by at over a hundred miles an hour!Read More

Gastown Vancouver, Canada

This is a little street side cafe on a rainy night in the Gastown area of downtown, Vancouver.  Fortunately when we arrived yesterday the weather was fairly nice, so we ran around like mad!  Today, as you can see, it rained – but it did light up the streets nice.

Check out more of our Vancouver Canada photos.