Sea to Sky Highway
We took a few days off last week to make our annual trip up to Whistler for some trail biking, some R & R and of course some dining. Since we have only visited once since the Sea to Sky Highway upgrade has been complete we are still in awe of the new road and the just over 90 minutes from Coal Harbour to Whistler Village. We had planned to stop in Squamish for lunch to try the fairly new Grilled Fromage Diner, but it was closed on Monday so we headed to our favorite Whistler breakfast spot.
Elements Urban Tapas Parlour
When we lived in Whistler Elements was out favorite spot for breakfast and on our once or twice a year visits we always try to visit. We like Elements for the unique presentation of breakfast (almost tapas style) as well as the great food. The space is small and always busy so except to wait and the service is not always the best, but again, the food is great! And as an added bonus breakfast is served until 2pm. Tara’s favorites are the Eggs Benny options (6 in total and only 2 meat) especially the flavored hollandaise (Dill, Pesto, Citrus and Dijon). Jeff’s favorite is the aged cheddar and honey ham frittata, one of the six frittata choices. We both love the potato tartlet with chives and crème fraiche that accompanies each breakfast as well as the shot glass of fresh juice. We did only make it out for breakfast once on the three day trip so we were glad it was Elements.
Trail Riding
The plan was to check in to Club Intrawest after breakfast (eaten at noon) and hit the trails. However, as with most of this summer, the weather did not cooperate. Out first day poured rain and since we are not ‘extreme weather’ fans we chose the hot tub over the trails. The weather did improve the next day and we enjoyed our favorite part of Whistler the Lost Lake Trails. The ride starts over double wide cross-country ski trails with turn offs to more recently created green level, crush surfaced single-tracks and then to more natural blue and black intermediate trails. The new trails are all named and signed with level of difficulty and most can be ridden in either direction. We tend to stick to the green level single tracks with our favorites being Molly Hogan to Donkey Puncher, Gypsy Drum and Tin Pants. The weather was cool (not above 15 degrees) the whole trip and actually was great for biking.
Whistler Dining
Our other favorite thing about Whistler is restaurants. On this trip we dined at both Araxi and Hy’s. Another one of our top choices, La Rua, is closed until November while the building it is in is renovated. We had not been to Araxi for quite a few years and did not have a great experience the last time. This time was much better, but still a bit pretentious (see the full blog post coming in a day or two). Quite the opposite is Hy’s Whistler. While we have visited 5 of the 6 Canadian locations and the Vancouver one many times the Whistler Hy’s is still our favorite. The food is great and the service is fantastic! Every time!
Since we did not get the weather we were hoping for we may make another trip in August to try to get in more biking. Otherwise it will be next year as since we both hate snow and don’t ski a trip in winter in out of the question.
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