Category Archives: Travel

A Trip to Whistler

We made our way to Whistler on a day trip. It’s about 120km from Vancouver, and takes roughly an 2 hours by car.

If you don’t have a car, you can take the Whistler Shuttle and Bus which are offered daily, with frequent transportation from Vancouver to Whistler. Just sit back and enjoy the scenery, or stay in touch, whether with friends or for business with their free WiFi. Depending on whether you’re going from the airport or downtown, fares can be $72 or $55 respectively. This can be pricey, so it’s best to hitch a ride with a friend and split the gas costs ;) It’s also a lot more fun anyways.

idearabbit-whislter idearabbit-whistler2Crossing the Lion Gate’s Bridge. Yay! It’s not raining!idearabbit-whistler3

Driving along Sea to Sky Highway.idearabbit-whistler4

Today, White FlatBear joins us for the trip.idearabbit-whistler5There’s something for everyone, like chilling at Starbucks while enjoying the beautiful scenery. If you’re an outdoor person, there are lots of skiing and snowboarding opportunities. In the summer, there are four golf courses to practice your swings and hiking trails to enjoy some breath of fresh air. idearabbit-whistler6 idearabbit-whistler7 idearabbit-whistler8 idearabbit-whistler9 idearabbit-whistler10There are lots of trendy shopping for yourself and souvenirs for your family and friends. There are restaurants and bars, but we found that it was really difficult to find a reasonable priced place that didn’t have an hour or more line up.   idearabbit-whistler11Take some photos of the Olympic rings that were installed for the 2010 Winter Games. Each winter, the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW), in partnership with the Province of British Columbia, transforms Whistler Olympic Plaza into skating rinks. It’s free admission, so bring your pair of skates. Great for the whole family or for romantic dates. You can also rent skates for $5. Helmets are available at no charge. Note: To keep the rinks safe and family-friendly, hockey and figure skating are not permitted.

Trip to Leavenworth, Washington

For the Christmas spirit, I decided I wanted to check out Leavenworth as several had mentioned about this little town, known as the ‘Bavarian’ town to be a replica of traditional Germany. I had just been to Germany in Sept, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look.

From the Youtube videos that we watched before heading out, Sheepie was already complaining at the fact that the buildings were not made of stone like in Germany. I was disappointed to find out that it wasn’t an authentic German town. I thought that the original settlers from Germany somehow gathered there and started the town. Instead, it used to be another usual American town until they switched for tourist reason only. There are several language mistakes, like “Gift Haus” (Haus is ‘house’ in German). However, they didn’t bother to translate the word Gift into German – well I guess then visitors wouldn’t know what it is. Unfortunately, the word ‘gift’ in German means poison. So if you know German, it can be entertaining, as with any time one is ‘trying’ to translate from one language to another. I see similar things in happening in Asia.

idearabbit-leavenworth12Our first stop in Leavenworth – the gasoline station!

See my first Idea Rabbit video on Youtube! (yes! finally!!! I’m venturing out onto video too!)

We left Vancouver, BC around 11am or so and arrived in Leavenworth around 6pm. It was already dark, perfect for the lit Christmas lights. With the exceptionally warm winter of 2014, there weren’t any snow, even though it was snowing while we drove through the snow covered forests to the town. It was however super cold.

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The word ‘Gift’ in German means ‘poison’. So the Poison House! LOLidearabbit-leavenworth6 idearabbit-leavenworth5 idearabbit-leavenworth4 idearabbit-leavenworth3 idearabbit-leavenworth2 idearabbit-leavenworthBeing the day of Christmas, not much was open, especially at this time. We got to take lots of photos but was quite a challenge to find a place to dine. There was King Ludwig open, but there was a huge lineup, so we ended up at Wok About Grill – a Mongolian fast food that had just opened that month.

Read Wok About Grill review here.

idearabbit-leavenworth9With it being the holidays, finding accomodation online prior to going was also time consuming. Most places were all booked out, and only really expensive places were still available. Since we were going there to check out the city and not the hotel, I booked at the Wedge Mountain Inn in Dryden – about a 10 minute drive from Leavenworth for $79.99 USD a night. The manager was originally from Germany but came to America at a young age.

Read Wedge Mountain Inn review here.

The next day, we had breakfast at the cafe next to the inn called the Big Y Cafe. Afterwards, we checked out and headed east to Wenatchee since Sheepie was curious to what that town was like. So we drove around and checked it out, also doing some super deal shopping at Walmart.

Read Big Y Cafe review here.

We drove through some really interesting terrains. Very different from what we have in Canada. Lots of hills and valleys but Sheepie was puzzled at why there were very little vegetation. The hills seemed to be composed of very loose soil and looked unstable.

We returned to Leavenworth to see the stores open and streets bustling with tourists. If you’re not a crowd-person, then this might not be for you. The town’s core attraction is about a dozen or so blocks, so you can easily go through the entire thing. The town reminded me of being in Germany and it was a nice trip from Vancouver.

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Wedge Mountain Inn

idearabbit-wedgemountain_innAll of the accommodation in Leavenworth was booked out for Christmas. Those remaining were very expensive and since we were going to check out the town and not the hotel, we wanted to keep it cheap as possible. I got 2 Queen Beds at $79.99 USD for Christmas night.

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Reception areaidearabbit-wedgeinn3
There is a TV, but only one working channel. WiFi is offered, but none of our devices would connect (and one of us is an IT person). No hair dryer! Strong fragrance smell in hallway, but none in suites. Ample parking space. Heater kept blowing cool air – in the midst of winter. Room was clean and comes with microwave and small fridge. Manager speaks German.

Not great, but the price is good, and only about a 10 minute drive to Leavenworth.

Service: carrot  Cost: carrotcarrotcarrotcarrot

Atmosphere: carrotcarrot   Location:carrotcarrot