Day Two- Venue Training at Whistler

It was nothing but pure blue sky this morning. The air was fresh, the birds were singing and the reflection on the water; stunning. The cabin we are staying at is on Pinecrest Lake, it's surrounded by beautiful big trees and white mountains. Heather and I took a few pictures this morning, but she says "they just don't do it justice." By that I think she means you can't really tell just how beautiful it is, unless you are here.

We got a ride into Whistler with a friend from next door and headed right to our training at Whistler Creekside. It was a sea of blue! Everyone looks so great with their matching blue uniforms on, it's very cool to see. We sat through a few hours of presentations about working as a volunteer, where everything is, what your role as a volunteer involves and of course safety issues. It was really neat to be sitting in a room full of volunteers, all who are VERY excited to help run a successful Paralympic event!

Once all the presentations were complete we headed outside for a tour of the site(s). Everything is set up in these large white tents, once your inside you don't actually know your in a tent, it's pretty cool. We got to see the area that Heather has to check in at 7am each day, then she heads UP a chair lift to where the Media Center is located.

You can see in this picture that there is basically another "village" set up at the finish area of the Apline events. The ride is about the same length it takes to get up any hill in Ontario. Riding the lift with NO SKIS felt very weird, but I guess I'll have to get used to it as I'll be doing it every day.

After Heather was finished with training we hung out in Whistler Village for a few hours while we waited for the bus. We went and visited Josh who is a friend of a friends. He told us to head to Zogs for lunch, it was pretty tasty! Then we grabbed the bus back to the cabin, it's about a 15-20 minute walk from the bus stop at the highway back to the cabin.

Once inside Heather and I thought it was far to nice to be sitting indoors. We headed back out and went for a hike along the trail that winds around the lake.

It has been such a great experience so far and it's only day two. I can't imagine what the next few days will bring. Heather has tomorrow off before she starts a long run of shifts. We'll be heading to the mountain though to enjoy a day of skiing!

Pip and Heather