The snow was still around when they arrived, it was actually really pretty by then, with a lovely white covering and crisp clear blue skies.

We went out to Ask on Friday night (after trudging through the snow – it was impossible to find a Taxi) and Kel cooked us a Christmas Roast on the Saturday evening.

One little bonus we were very surprised about was the delivery of our new TV Stand and Coffee Table on the day of the heavy snow. Considering the trains were all cancelled and airports closed we were shocked when the lorry driver turned up at 5pm with the furniture!

They look lovely though.

This morning we woke to a thick dollop of snow covering Brighton. Very pretty to look at but we now feel rather cut off.

Kel trudged to the supermarket to get some supplies and saw the shelves were rather bare. Brighton Station is closed with no trains making it in or out.

I attempted to build a snowman on the terrace but the snow was too powdery. Tsk. So I grabbed our camera and took a walk down to the beach to see it in all its snowy glory.

Brighton itself looked more like an Austrian Ski resort than a seaside town but there was some stunning scenery.

We’ve both said we can’t quite get used to the sound of seagulls in the snow.

You can see all the pictures I took here.

The snow began falling towards the end of November after a really mild start to the month. It has to be the first time in living memory that we’ve put up the Christmas decorations while it’s snowing outside. We had our new tree delivered yesterday (after a delay because of the snow) and it’s lovely. A bit big for the room, but lovely!

I popped out and spent a few frozen moments on the terrace to take some pictures. Yes, that is Kel you can see popping his head out of the door. He was telling me lunch was ready :O)

We’ve tried our best with this view from our balcony, just as the sun disappears behind a distant mountain. It’s not perfect as it took a bit of fiddling with afterwards to bring some of the foreground details out, but it’ll do.

This area of Canada is on virtually the same latitude as the UK, so the days are the same length, though the light always fades a little earlier up here due to the mountains.

The walk around it is absolutely beautiful, with crystal clear water and clean fresh air, as well as stunning views. Some of the homes built around the lake made us green with envy! Most of them run into a few million dollars though.

Kel took some really great pictures.

Jon in snow

The mountain tops in the area are still covered in snow, which is very unusual for this time of year. As usual wherever you go in the world these days the locals are saying the weather patterns have gone nuts. It’s been a very cold summer up until a couple of weeks ago and now the temperatures are reaching record highs.

Accordingly, we were able to dress in shorts and t-shirts to visit he top of the mountains even though they were still deep in snow. See the picture of me looking like I should be freezing to death just to prove it :0)

It was a little cooler up top and I doubt we could have managed more than an hour up there without getting chilly. Never the less we were still standing in the snow, above the clouds, dressed in our summer gear. Surreal.

From Whistler Mountain we took the Peak 2 Peak cable car ride over to Blackcomb Mountain, Whistlers slightly taller neighbour.

Glass bottomed Cable Car

The most un-nerving statistic about the ride was that it has the worlds longest unsupported cable span. A total of 1.88 miles of cable with no towers!

The views were stunning though. On the way back from Blackcomb we managed to catch one of only two glass bottomed cable cars. The picture above is of Kel’s feet through to the ground a very, very long way below.

As always more pictures of the day are in our photo albums.

First on our list of things to do today was sorting out the extension to our stay at the Westin Whistler.

Whistler Village

When the original booking was made it was on a special offer, so we received an upgrade to a Junior Suite. Kel rang reservations and they told him we would have to pay full price to stay in our room for the additional nights.

The rack rate was way to much though, so we had to find out if we could negotiate some sort of deal.

In the end we decided to downgrade our room. The only difference between the ‘lesser’ room and the Suite we were occupying was not having a separate bedroom from the main living area.

We nipped out to Starbucks to make use of the free WiFi and discovered a special offer on the Westin website – book two nights and get the third free – which would make the downgrade affordable.

Armed with this information we approached Guest Services and spoke to a really helpful guy called Daniel.

He showed us the room we would be downgraded too, which was better in many ways as it had a King Bed and balcony with lovely mountain views. We decided to go for it and extended our stay.

Then another bonus, Daniel very kindly assigned us an Executive Suite! It’s bigger than the Junior Suite we started with, including a balcony and mountains views! Amazing.

So in the end we finished up with an upgrade on an upgrade and paying less than we first started with.

We have been lucky on the Canadian leg of this trip :o)

So we moved our luggage to the new room and set off on a walk around Lost Lake.

Several exhausted miles later we returned to the hotel for a sunbathe by the hotel pool.

Later we ate dinner at Earls, absolutely beautiful meal on the terrace in the sunshine below the mountains.

Westin Whistler

It’s like a London one bedroom apartment but with amazing views of the forest and mountains.

The Hotel is a total and utter escape from the real world, we can only imagine what it’s like in the height of snowy winter. Our room even has a push button fireplace!

We love it so much we hope cut down our final few days in Vancouver – which we had already extended – and transfer those dates to Whistler.

Kel came here nearly a decade ago and it’s changed beyond recognition, no doubt due to the Winter Olympics held here earlier this year.

Vancouver to Whistler

As a result of our horrific nights sleep the night before, we canceled our final night at the Wilshire Grand (ha!) and took the LA Metro – risking our lives in the process – out to the airport to stay at the Radisson, SO much better.

Another early start led us onto the Air Alaska flight to Vancouver.

As some of you probably figured out by now, we had free WiFi! Woohoo! It was a bit of a novelty updating Facebook, Twitter and sending emails at 48,000 feet. I’m sure once it’s a standard service in a couple of years time people will be annoyed it’s yet another place we can’t escape being contacted though :o)

We landed in Vancouver on time and after a quick lunch boarded to bus to Whistler Mountain, a resort a couple of hours away.

The trip up there was stunning to say the least, it’s called ‘Sea to Sky’ and it really is. The journey takes you from the turquoise Pacific Ocean up thousands of feet to the clear air of the mountains.

On arrival we were dropped off at our hotel, the Westin Resort and Spa Whistler, a very, very pleasant surprise indeed considering our last hotel the Flight Centre booked for us. More details to follow…..