Leaving The Wonder
We had finally reached the last day of our Wonder vacation to Alaska. We got up early and headed up to Cabana's for breakfast and then finished packing up the room and waiting for the ship to be cleared. We were going to take our luggage off ourselves since we wanted to get an early start on our day. We hung out in Promenade Lounge for a bit then walked off the ship for the final time, went through customs and were soon out on the street. J. R. hung out near Canada Place while Janie and Rebecca walked up the street to pick up a rental car from Avis.
Whistler Mountain
The Dodge Charger pulled up and we loaded in the luggage for a two-hour drive on the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler Mountain. We arrived at Whistler Village and drove around for awhile trying to figure out how to get to the gondola to go up the mountain. J. R. got a map at the visitor's center and directions and we parked and took the Whistler Gondola to the top of Whistler Mountain. We thought about taking a hike and gondola up to the top of the mountain but the haze and smoke from the wildfires in British Columbia limited visibility so we decided instead to take a short hike and then ride the Peak2Peak Gondola to Blackcomb Mountain.
Hiking and Brandywine Falls
After riding the long gondola ride to Blackcomb, we hung out for a little while and took in the scenery. Janie didn't want to do any more hiking so we rode the chairlift down to the valley. We ate lunch at Milestones at the base of Blackcomb Mountain then got in the car for the drive back to Vancouver. We had passed Brandywine Falls Provincial Park just north of Squamish so we pulled in on the southbound trip and took the short hike up to the two observation areas. Brandywine Park features a 70 meter waterfall into a deep glacier cavern.
Shannon Falls
After a stop at 7-11 for some sodas and some Canadian candy, we stopped at Shannon Falls Provincial Park, another set of waterfalls south of Squamish. Shannon Falls are 335 meters tall and required only a short walk to access the viewing areas.
Vancouver Airport and Flight Home
After the falls, we got back into the car and drove back to Vancouver. We tried to avoid the Red Lion Bridge but the traffic wasn't much better but we had plenty of time and ended up at the airport four hours before our flight. We learned we couldn't check in for our flight until three hours before so we sat in the food court. Rebecca and J. R. were entertained by a customer at Wendy's arguing with the cashier over "chicken fingers" which I guess was a foreign term to her and the customer who couldn't read the menu and understand "chicken tenders" were "chicken fingers". We checked in and learned customs closed at 8PM (conveniently just three hours before our flight and we would have to clear customs in Chicago. This was no big deal, but we ended up having to stand in four different lines to get to the gates. First we had to go to a kiosk to get boarding passes and luggage tags. Then we were told to go a counter, where our IDs were checked. Then we were sent to another counter across the airport to drop off our bags and get our IDs checked again. Then we had a short security line. We ran into the Coffeys in the terminal. Their flight had been cancelled and they were redirected to our red-eye to Chicago to catch a connecting flight. Their daughter shared a power port with Rebecca and shared photos while we talked about our cruise experience until it was time to board our flight and return to Chicago.