MuchMusic.com | Blog

Wendy and I arrived super early Thursday morning with a back-to-back schedule of events planned to get us amped for Pemberton Festival, which starts later this afternoon.

On our agenda:

The Vancouver Aquarium

Wendy and I returned to the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park (a 1000 acre park at the northwest tip of Vancouver) for the second time to revisit our buddies Milo and Nyac, the ‘hand-holding’ otters from the YouTube video. I’m not exaggerating when I say we stood at the otter pavilion watching them clean themselves and float around like little brahmas for over an hour. Nyac, the older female (she’s about 19, a fact that makes me weep for two reasons. Number one, she’s a survivor of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, and number two, females only live to be about 20. *tear*), is a fastidiously tidy otter. She’s constantly grooming herself with her tail, wiping her face and cleaning out her ears. So much so that she can’t be bothered with den partner Milo’s advances. Milo is obviously younger and friskier at only 8 years of age. Throughout our viewing he was constantly drifting towards Nyac and trying to latch paws with her, but she wouldn’t have any of it. She was all “not tonight, honey…”. At one point Milo got tired of subtlety and pounced on her, dragging her across the pond in a playful chokehold for about ten minutes (I’ve got video of this that you can see later).

At the aquarium we also had a chance to check out the beautiful sea lions and dolphins, as well as Qila the beluga and her new baby girl, who’s only a month old.

Stanley Park

Next we went and explored the rest of Stanley Park by foot. We walked through some dense shrubbery and took a look at some of the more than 500,000 colossal trees that are in the park. Some of them are over 250 feet tall and hundreds of years old. We also walked along the small beach and admired North Vancouver, Lion’s Gate Bridge and collected some crabs and shells.

Lunch at The Foundation

Next up, lunch at The Foundation, a hippie vegetarian hotspot near Gastown. Last time we were in Vancouver for Virgin Festival I had the chance to eat here and I haven’t forgotten about it since. I had spicy black beans and bananas (!) with quinoa and Wendy ordered a vegan BLT with guacamole. UMM.

Tandem Paragliding

Let me start off by saying this was NOT scary at all, and surprisingly so. We drove up to Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver and took a sky car nearly to the top (about 4500 feet). Once there, we filled out paperwork and met our tandem paragliding guide, who drove me and Wendy (plus two other paragliders) to the peak in a dusty old Range Rover. The vehicle’s all-terrain capabilities were REALLY put to the test on this trek - the car was full and the route was STEEP. On the way we passed a fenced off area to the rest of the forest that our guide warned us had grizzly bears in it (seriously). We got out, then picked a guide, who had already set up the paragliders and other equipment, got a quick lesson, and just like that, it was time to run off. The way it works is that you’re strapped in with the guide behind you, cradled in a styrofoam covered harness of sorts. You get a running start off the mountain until you lift off, the parachute (hopefully - jokes) opens, and then before you know it you’re in the air, just dangling there, slowly floating above everything with views of Mount Baker (an 11,000 foot mountain - and active volcano - in Washington State), West Vancouver, Capilano Lake and the Strait of Georgia. Being in the air is peaceful and the ride is a lot smoother than you’d think. My guide was a seasoned pro who had been paragliding since he was 12 years-old and took the liberty of performing some tricks, including a few 360 loops, while we were up there. We glided for about twenty minutes thanks to perfect weather and then started to make our descent to the marked landing spot (a baseball diamond) for a smooth finish.

Two hour scenic drive from Vancouver to Whistler

Ever since I peeped the Google satellite map of the route last week I’d been looking forward to this drive. We were pretty much staring out the window the entire time, ogling mountain after mountain and hundreds of thousands of trees. Oh, and we were simultaneously jamming to MuchDance ‘93 and ‘94. Original CDs, yo.

OK. Now to the task at hand: Pemberton Festival. Today’s lineup is pretty exciting because it includes a classic act that I’ve never actually seen before - Nine Inch Nails. And seeing them perform in an open air festival setting with Mount Currie is going to be breathtaking to say the least.

In all there are over 60 acts performing over the next three days and the expected crowd is supposed to be over 60,000 people. Have I mentioned that the 30 minute drive from Whistler to Pemberton on Highway 99, the “sea-to-sky highway”, is only one lane each way?! Thankfully it’s my understanding that a lot of these festival-goers will be camping onsite and not driving to and from Whistler every night the way we are.

Also on today’s roster: Interpol, Wolfmother, Metric, The Secret Machines, plus DJ sets from Junkie XL and Booka Shade that go till 1am tonight. More updates to come throughout the weekend!

Posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 12:07 pm by Kat and is filed under Concerts & Events.

Related Articles:

• News for Monday: Festival News, and the Future!
• VFest 2007: From England With Love
• Yes! Karma & K-OS will save us all!
• V-Fest BC Adds Bands!
• New Festival Alert: Pemberton