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Butchart Gardens, Victoria, Canada.

Well, saying how much I loved a flower garden isn’t going to do anything to improve the macho, tough guy image I have worked so hard to create (joking), but this place was gorgeous!  I think you could be blind folded, and  still could come away with beautiful images, because literally every inch of extensive grounds at Butchart Gardens is perfectly manicured with wonderful, colorful flowers.  Here are more Victoria photos.

The Sunken Garden, Butchart Gardens, Victoria.

The Harbor and Legislative Building, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

We spent the last two nights of our trip in the beautiful seaside community of Victoria.  I can’t think of too many towns more photogenic then Victoria!  See more Victoria photos.

Sunset over Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.

These beautiful clouds and thunderstorm pretty much appeared out of nowhere at the end of a hot day in Whistler.  This is at the base of Whistler Mountain – you can see some of the Bike Park.  The top of the mountain you see here is the 1/3 point on the ride to the top!  Blackcomb is equally as tall, and rises to the left of this view.

Usually the blog is pretty close to real time – but I have fallen behind a bit.  We actually returned to Alaska yesterday, but I will keep sharing more photos from this trip.

Having only one full day (two nights) in both Whistler and Victoria was not near enough time.  Unfortunately, it would have cost us a bunch more of our valuable  free miles to return after Tuesday – so we did our best to cram it all in.

I’m hoping these summer images will be a good compliment to our winter Whistler photos.

The Peak to Peak (actually called Peak 2 Peak) trams runs between the tops of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains.

This was an amazing ride!  We had to do it, although Janine had to take a big step given her fear of heights!

So check out these stats – all world records by the way:

• Largest unsupported free span in the world – 1.88 miles.
• Highest lift in the world of its kind –  1,361 feet.
• It is also the longest continuous lift in the world – total distance traveled is 2.73 miles.

And in case that wasn’t enough excitement, they even put a glass floor in a few of the cars!

Here are some more interesting facts.  The total ride lasts 11 minutes.  There are 28 cars, each can carry up to 28 passengers, that means the thing can move 4,100 passengers per hour.

Here are more Whistler, Canada pictures.

Mountain biker launches of a ledge on one of the intermediate trails in the Bike Park, Whistler, Canada.

We were surprised to see that Whistler is just as busy in the summer as it is in the winter.  You can still ski and snowboard high up on the glacier.  In addition, you can raft, kayak, golf, zip-line, bungee jump, ride alpine slides…

But the big activity is downhill mountain biking.  They have an elaborate set of trails on the mountain complete with ramps, jumps and a whole bunch of other challenges.  Riders wear “body armor” and full face helmets and ride mountain bikes that appear to have suspensions similar to motorcycles!

We only had one day and two nights – it was tough not having the time to “play”!

Here are more biking photos

A baby raccoon, Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada.

Found this young guy along with its sibling and parents – they were sure fun to watch!

Took the bus to Whistler yesterday, and have a full day in the cool ski resort town today.

Vancouver skyline at sunset, Canada.

We had a beautiful sunset over Vancouver last night!

Check out more Vancover photos.

Fireworks over Vancouver, Canada.

We were excited to learn we were going to be in Vancouver for one of  the nights of Celebration of Light – an international fireworks competition, and something we did not know about when we booked this trip.  We were disappointed to learn that more then 300,000 people crowd the waterfront in a mass sea of people, and to gain a decent vantage point, you have to arrive many hours early and stand your ground and wait.

So we decided our time was better served doing other things, so we rented a boat and followed and photographed a couple cruiseships as they left Vancouver.  Well as luck would have it, at the end of the night when we were all done, the owner of the boat rental company invited us up to the roof of his high-rise apartment building!  This was from the roof top pool area – it was a great show!

See more Vancouver photos.