For the last week and a half or so, I was on a family vacation! Of course this means I took a lot of pictures and enjoyed a lot of activities with the family. Our destination was Mt. Whistler with a few stops along the way.
Seattle, Mt. St. Helens, Stanley Park, ATV rides, Zip lines, getting a new transmission for our car in Canada and seeing some beautiful waterfalls and mountain ranges are some things and places we did and saw.
Read on to see the pictures and videos captured from this trip (roughly in the order they were done). It was quite fun!
Mt. St. Helens
We started our trek up to visit some family to celebrate my nieces 4th birthday!! This was done at a bowling alley with lots of other kids and of course it was fun and enjoyable. After that we drove on up to Centralia, WA to stay a night. During this time we visited some of the observation centers for Mt. St. Helens!
I've always wanted to visit this place and especially take a helicopter ride into the mountain. Sadly we weren't able to do that, but we were able to get some breath taking views of the mountain and valleys surrounding it.
Check out the few photos in the slider below, or if you want to see bigger versions check out the gallery link by clicking here. Highly recommend viewing larger for better color, detail and perspective, especially for the panoramas.
Seattle
Needing to pass some time during the day on Sunday, we decided to look for something to do in Seattle. Of course there's A LOT to do here, but we didn't want to spend much money. What we found was pretty awesome though.
Located at South Lake Union park, the Center For Wooden Boats offers rides in sail boats and such during the week. On Sunday though, they offer them for free! On nice days, there's a line early on to sign up for times later in the day. We arrived early to get a spot in line, and lucky for us, the people in front of us were signing up for a time slot later in the day. So we went right away.
We didn't go on a sailboat though, we went on a small steam powered boat! it was really cool and a pleasant time on the water with awesome views of the city.
Watch the slideshow below or view larger versions of the images by clicking here!
Stanley Park
After the boat ride in Seattle, we headed to cross the border and meet up with some other family in the Vancouver, BC area. We stayed here for a couple nights and ran into some trouble. The transmission on one of our vehicles died and we had to get a new one. We were able to drive it carefully, but it was stuck in one gear and what not. While checking it out along side the road at the house we stayed in, a guy who works at a car shop happened to drive by! He gave us directions to where the shop was and we went there first thing in the morning. They were able to diagnose the problem, and get a transmission replacement picked up and put in the very next day. Was great and fast service. The shop was Port Moody Auto Repair, in the town aptly named Port Moody.
Meanwhile, we ventured into Vancouver proper and went to the big Stanley Park. A lot to do here and one can easily spend a couple of days. We spent a full day day here at the park and saw some interesting things such as a Black Squirrel, and some fighter jets flying overhead as well. This was on Canada Day, so it was a VERY busy city and traffic was terrible when attempting to leave.
Check out the slideshow below or view the larger versions by clicking here!
I had to add this picture below because it was quite funny to watch. Of course I am bias towards my nieces, but they have to be the cutest ever! Below is one of my nieces and her dad. He was trying to teach her how to throw rocks and lifting your leg to do it. She got all the steps down, just in the wrong order. She would stay planted and throw, then lift the leg after the fact, and it was the same side leg as the throwing arm. Quite fun to watch.
Whistler Fun Stuff
Mt. Whistler was the main event for our vacation. I thoroughly loved the area and could easily see myself living in a place like this if it weren't so dang expensive. Mountains everywhere, lakes and rivers everywhere, pretty much any activity you can think of is close by, lots of people from all over the world, all seasons and lots of wildlife. What's not to love about this area? I can't think of anything!!!
I borrowed a friends GoPro camera in hopes of capturing some video of the fun things we did. I don't know if I'd call any of it successful, but there is video from myself going down the big zip lines, and then the next day with my sister going down the zip lines. The group that went with my sister did a lot more interesting stuff, like going upside down and what not. I also used the camera to make a timelapse of our ATV ride we went on.
First up comes my perspective of the zip lines. The longest line was roughly 2200 feet long and they say you reach 55-60mph! There is audio in the videos, but it's mostly muffled voices and the loud noise of the zipline above you, so you aren't missing anything by having it muted.
Below is from my sisters perspective. They did more riding upside down and what not as well!
A couple days later, we were deciding on what else we wanted to do. A few of us really wanted to ride some ATV's and others weren't so keen on it. We had a 2 year old with us, and she was to young to ride on an ATV anyways, so we found some Jeep tours! Some family went on the Jeep tour up the mountain, and others went on the ATV's. Here's a timelapse at 30fps from my perspective on the ATV.
Waterfalls and Forest
There is no shortage of waterfalls nearby Whistler as well. We were only able to hit up 4 or so, but all were quite enjoyable and rather easy to get to. Shannon Falls was by far the most beautiful with the way it cascaded down the cliff. It is also by far the most popular and very easy to get to, but still stunning even with all the people. The others we visited were Brandywhine Falls, Nairn Falls and Alexander Falls.
Watch the slideshow below or view the larger and better versions by going to the full album by clicking here!
Sunrise and Sunset
A few days were perfectly clear with no clouds, and others had a great amount of clouds for shooting! In the evenings and early morning we hung out as a family, so I did all my shooting from our balcony, but it still had some beautiful views!
As with the others, watch the slideshow below or if you want to view the larger and better versions, visit the gallery by clicking here! I highly recommend viewing larger, especially for the panoramas.
Short timelapse of a sunrise as well.
So there you have it...
All the worthwhile stuff from the trip! It was definitely a fun time with TONS of stuff to do. We only did a few small things, and there's a lot more if we go back. Bungee jumping, white water rafting, jet boats, sky diving, over night hiking/camping at some high lakes etc...
If you've been up to the Mt. Whistler area, what did you do? Id love to hear what others did during their stay here. Also let me know what you think about the stuff I captured.