Whistler, British Columbia, Canada

Karina finished her exams for the term last week and is now on winter vacation, so we took the opportunity to come up to Langley, British Columbia to visit her parents. I have also had the chance to visit both the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver to find out more about their graduate programmes, which has been very worthwhile.

We also went up to Whistler for a night, the mountain resort village where most of the events of the 2010 Winter Olympics will be held. It was a beautiful place. The weather in the Pacific Northwest this past week has been particularly extreme, with lots of snow and temperatures well below freezing in most places. The drive up to Whistler was very slow because it was snowing, and there were times where we thought we wouldn't make it. Also, the day before we left, one of the towers on one of the gondolas at Whistler collapsed! Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, but some people were left dangling in gondolas for up to 3 hours while waiting to be rescued!

Luckily, we had nothing but great experiences in Whistler. It was extremely cold while we were there, around -15°C during the day (and colder up the mountain!) and -25°C at night! Despite the cold, it was beautiful, the weather was great, and we got to check out the new Peak 2 Peak gondola during its first week of operation. The new gondola links the peaks of Whistler and Blackcome mountains and is the longest and highest in the world, spanning 4.4 km. We also saw the Olympic Park, where they will have ski jumping and cross-country skiing events.

Thanks so much, Howard and Ingrid, for an unforgettable trip!