We met Vancouver-based writer Kevin Chong in Dawson City during the music festival.  He’s brilliant.  Already an established author, the young journalist is currently working on a non-fiction book about the Hastings Racecourse and the colorful characters that come with life in the stables.

I’m back in Vancouver and lodging at the uber-chic Opus Hotel in Yaletown.  Things have changed in the last seven and a half weeks since I’ve been gone.

Have you ever wondered what it was like to take part in an Olympic biathlon or ski jumping competition? If so, you can visit Whistler’s Olympic Park and Paralympic Park, and take a guided route up to the ski jumping site or learn to shoot a biathlon rifle on a real range.

The hardest part about visiting Whistler in the summer is trying to figure how to fit the myriad of activities into a day that only has 24-hours.  You see Whistler is not only a winter wonderland.  Yes, it is the site of the alpine, Nordic, and sliding events for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Our Westcoast Air float plane landed on Green Lake in Whistler yesterday, and it felt like we went over a bunch of speed bumps, minus the major headache.

It’s hard to oversleep when the smell of the ocean water, the brilliant sunshine and a bunch of chatty seagulls are your alarm clock.  And this always helps when we have an early itinerary and have to be somewhere on time.

My bar stool was in the middle of the hallway facing the open-kitchen and half-obstructing a walkway. I guess I was in the way of walking-traffic, but in all honesty I didn’t care.

Regardless of the country I’m in, my mood or what season it is, hearing the Flamenco guitar and Flamenco singers instantly transports me back to my days of exploring Granada, Spain. 

Have you ever wanted to do something impulsive or just had to deal with a change in your travel plans?  We have, especially on this trip.  With a looming VIA Rail strike and some last minute executive decisions that had to be made due to time commitments, we decided to get peachy in Penticton this long weekend and we needed to book a flight, fast.