• Valerie Eisler
  • Valerie Eisler

2016 Road Trip - MEX-CAN

56-päiväinen seikkaillu — Valerie Lue lisää
  • Day 33, Saturday June 11

    11. kesäkuuta 2016, Kanada ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Packed up our stuff from Erin and Vance's and headed out around 11.

    We had a couple of stops, but we made it out to the Assembly Hall close to 1. Tom and Sherry were there with Sherry's family and mom and dad had also arrived. We went for a quick tour of the hall. Troi of course got excited about the sound booth. He got talking with a couple of the brothers and managed to get a ticket to the graduation program (he had declined the invitation when it was first offered).

    They have renovated the Hall since we attended assemblies there and it is quite beautiful.

    Home around 3 to find my sister Sue and my aunt and uncle Jim and Pat waiting for us. Then shortly after we headed to one of my cousins' place for a family dinner. Met two new family members - Camila -7 months old and Sawyer - 6 months old. Had sore muscles the next day from tossing Sawyer around - he's a big baby.

    Comfort Inn and Suites, Surrey

    Hotel Info:

    The hotel is quite 'comfort'able. We had a queen suite, which was a room with a divided sleeping area with TV (divided because the wall doesn't go all the way to the ceiling) and a living area with TV, sofa(bed), chair with ottoman, coffee table, desk and chair, and small kitchen area. Kitchen has a fridge with an amazing large capacity and a microwave and small coffee pot. (the hotel provides pouches of coffee, if you use your own you will need to get basket filters).

    Breakfast was very good. For our two mornings there were eggs with bacon and eggs with sausage. Toast, bagels, muffins, waffles, juice, yogurt, etc.

    2 towels only provided.

    On Sunday we had a large group that wanted to have dinner together. No one had the capacity in either room or home for all of us to eat together. None of us wanted to go to a restaurant and it is difficult to visit with a large group in a noisy restaurant. So we inquired at the front desk and were given permission to use the breakfast room. We had Chinese food delivered and brought our drinks and we had a delightful time. The front desk staff were very helpful and accommodating. In addition, we had asked the restaurant to send plates and cutlery. All that made it was chopsticks. The delivery boy would have gone back to the restaurant to get them but the hotel happily provided enough.

    All in all a very nice experience.
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  • Day 34, Sunday June 12

    13. kesäkuuta 2016, Kanada ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Graduation Day

    A beautiful experience.

    The students in the class (#9 SKE in Canada) raised the funds to bring Brother Schaeffer and his wife out for the Graduation. Brother Schaeffer was the chairman of the program in addition to giving a talk in addition to the introductory comments.

    There were interviews of the brothers who had the job of running the school, getting the accommodations, looking after any problems the students may encounter, that sort of thing. For example, the second day of class the closet shelving in Tom and Sherry's place fell off the wall. The brothers asked if there were any problems with their accommodations. Tom told them and that day or maybe the next a brother was there to repair the problem. Others had car problems and there were mechanic brothers who were there to fix it. The purpose was to make the school as stress free for the students as possible, so that they could focus properly.

    There were interviews of the students and what they appreciated most from the school. There were also reenactments of nice service experiences some of the students experienced while they were attending the school.

    Afterward the brothers provided some beautiful finger foods and there was lots of time allowed to visit and catch up with many old friends and meet new ones.

    We saw many we haven't seen for years.

    Later Tom and Sherry's guests that were still around met at our hotel for a Chinese Takeout Dinner.
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  • Discovery Tours Bear Viewing Eco-Tour

    15. kesäkuuta 2016, Kanada ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    We went out with Discovery Tours for a 2 hour tour (it was actually just a little short of 2 hours). We were 7 people including the driver. It was suggested by the manager that the morning tour (6am) and the evening tour (7:15pm) were the best ones for finding bear - we opted for the evening tour - there is another option of 4:45 (give or take half an hour).

    We didn't drive very far away from home, but far enough to find 3 bears to watch.

    The driver Aldo was from Australia. He came to Whistler for 6 months.....two years ago. Very enthusiastic and definitely entertaining. He has made an obvious effort to get to know the flora and fauna of the area as well as some entertaining folklore. We were driving in a Landrover 4x4. I think Aldo enjoyed tossing around in the cab of the truck, looking for ditches and potholes to drive through. And well he might, the truck was extremely comfortable and smooth despite the terrain.

    We spent maybe half the time looking for and watching the bears. The other half we spent off-road. We followed a small side road up the to the top of a small mountain for a very nice view, stopping to take a quick look at a picturesque water fall (Alexander Falls).

    We enjoyed the experience and were happy that we weren't skunked in our bear watching. I'm not entirely sure it is worth the $125 (tax included) price tag. But that is coming from people who grew up in BC and have had many opportunities to see bears over the years (just not in recent history).
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  • Matkan lopetus
    1. heinäkuuta 2016