Banff to Whistler

Cherries for breakfast -yum, yum!! We hit the road at 7:45 to head over the mountains to Whistler (the site of the next winter olympics), it started to rain but by the time we were at the summit it was snowing!!
By the time we started to go down the pass it had turned to rain and then it cleared. Most of the day was driving through the fruit bowl of Canada and most interesting most of the drive was through First Nations (Indian) land. They own the land and it can be leased for development such as housing, hotels roads etc. and these people can never own the land only lease it. This gives them pride and income. Canada was different to the USA in that the Royal Mounted Police were a peace keeping force compared with the US Cavalry who had the charter to subdue the Indians by force. As a result the relationships with the First Nations people are better than the US but there are still poverty problems. We stopped for morning tea, in Merritt, at "Tim Hortons" coffee and donuts, a huge chain but it looked to fattening for us so we had an apple each. Lunch was at Lillooet, the site of one of the Canadian gold rushes. Gold is no longer the main economic base as this has been replaced by tourists - we were one of five tour busses and a large gaggle of bikies, all vying for freshly cooked pies and the use of the toilets. A nice little town followed by a drive through some very dramatic scenery. We are now booked into the Coast Plaza at Whistler, a luxury ski lodge and are exploring a plethora of clubs restaurants and bars, obviously a top spot for the beautiful people to ski.