Vancouver, BC

I’ve always wanted to visit Vancouver for some reason. Not really sure why. It just always seemed like the type of place that I would like and would find interesting. The Olympics this past winter brought the city tons of attention, but there really isn’t anything there that you would necessarily describe as an attraction.




Regardless, we wanted to check it out and get a feel for the city. And what better way than to walk the entire thing…



Our day began by jumping on the commuter train and heading into town without any issues, besides the fact that the train system there is kinda confusing… Regardless, we hit the visitor’s center to get some city maps and plan out our walking trip. But before getting under way, we had to go check out the waterfront…

We then headed to the huge park on the western end of the city.  Tons of sweet buildings and sculptures...

We walked past a harbor along the way too…

Went through some gardens and then got good and lost in some northwestern pacific rainforest…

Eventually we made it to the other side of the peninsula that makes up downtown. This side was mostly beaches and bike paths.  Heading back into the city proper, we came across some more cool buildings and an interesting sculpture…

The walking continues. Eventually we made our way over one of the main bridges to the south and got a bird’s eye view of some of the city, as well as an island covered with markets…

We grabbed some lunch in a park and then continued down the waterfront. Great views of the city across the bay…

We had thought that we were walking towards the Olympic Village. But when we got to the general area where it was supposed to be, there really wasn’t anything to tell us we were right… So it could have been this…

Or, more probably, this area…

Then further down the waterfront until we were back in the city. Megs had read about an authentic Chinese garden in what is purported to be the largest Chinatown in North America. So we went and checked that out…

By then it was the middle of the afternoon, but we had literally walked miles around the entire city already and seen everything we could think of that looked cool on the map. Megs has a hidden fetish for suspension bridges and found that there was a large one outside of the city. Plus, we knew that we had to catch a flight early the next morning in Seattle, WA. So, new plan! Go check out the bridge and then head back to the US tonight rather than battling heavy traffic in the morning…



It was a good plan. Part of it worked out.



We got back on the train and found Rocky patiently still waiting for us at Walmart. I’m always convinced that, whenever we leave the RV at a Walmart during the day, we’ll return later to find it gone… I suppose it would probably be waaay too much of a pain for a tow truck to take it away anyhow.



Anywho, we made it to the north of the city and found the entrance for the suspension bridge. We then found that they wanted like $30 bucks to walk across it!! I guess that included entrance to a museum and whatnot, but still!! Ridiculous. So, suspension bridge fail. We couldn’t even find a vista to get a look at it from afar…



Our trip back through the city and over the border was pretty uneventful though. I guess a month between trips to Canada was enough for us to be off of the border patrol’s shady persons radar. A few hours later, we were safely installed at a Walmart, close to the airport for our morning flight to Boston for the wedding of a close family friend!! And we’ll get to see the mother too!!



I’d say that Vancouver definitely lived up to my expectations. It was a really fun and vibrant city. Seemed really young actually. We found out later that many former Hong Kong upper class members had decided to move to Vancouver when the province reverted back to Chinese control some years ago. Maybe the influx of money, along with the Olympics, is why there were cool new buildings everywhere.



It was strange though. From what we could tell, the vast majority of the buildings in the city were residential. Which begs the question, what do all those people do for work??? We would ask around in the following days and the first guess of everyone was always the same… Drugs. Alrighty then. Didn’t seem like it when we were visiting, but the rumor is that the city is one of the gateways to North America.



Regardless, it was a great city. If I had to move to Canada, I am pretty certain I’d choose to live in or outside of Vancouver. A great feel to the city. Great, forward thinking architecture. Beautiful country surrounding it. What else could you ask for?

Vancouver, BC

Today was a driving day, which usually means there is not much to report. But this time we were able to do a little sightseeing as well…




The area surrounding Banff National Park is also home to 3 other parks. Jasper is to the north. Kootenany to the south. And to the west, along our route that day, was Yoho National Park.



Even with the late night the evening before, we were up early and headed out of the Lake Louise area. Our first stop in Yoho was at a vista where you could view a couple of the mountain tunnels associated with the Spiral Train Tunnels. Instead of having the tracks slope straight down a steep grade or building huge bridges, they decided to make a series of huge sweeping spirals. And most of these spirals are actually in long tunnels through the mountains. Not much to see from the road, but a pretty sweet marvel of a design…

The next stop was at a Natural Bridge that a river had cut out of the surrounding rock…

Further west, we turned onto a crazy switchback filled road up to Takakkaw Falls. At one point we actually had to do a three point turn because one of the switches was so quick and narrow! There had been a sign at the bottom saying that only vehicles less than 7 meters where allowed up the road. But, obviously, we had no clue how long that was… Oh well, we made it. And the waterfall was pretty sweet…

Our sightseeing mainly completed, we began the long trek to Vancouver. Along the way we passed a bunch of interesting towns. One, in particular, boasted that it was the houseboat capitol of the world…



It was also on this drive that we realized how high of an elevation we had been living in for the past few weeks. There was one point along the drive where we drove downhill for almost two hours without the road leveling off at all… Better than going up!!



Eventually we hit flat land and it was only a little ways further to Vancouver. We found a Walmart that was within a couple blocks of a commuter train station! I love it when a plan comes together.

Tomorrow, Vancouver!!!

Banff National Park

It was cold, rainy, and dreary last night. And the morning didn’t look much better. Plus, the Banff forecast for today was looking like we should be expecting more of the same for the entire day…




Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada was recommended to Megs and me by our mother, Barbara. She had visited the Lake Louise area earlier this year and told us it was beautiful. And it was a good destination for us between Glacier National Park and Vancouver, so we put it on the list!



We got up early and arrived in Banff about 8am so that we could get some visitor information and plan out our day. Or rather, Megs got up early and drove while I slept in the back… I do the late night driving and she does anything that is really early. It works out.



We discovered a few things upon entering Banff. First, the weather had not improved. Second, the visitor’s center didn’t open until 9am. And, lastly, Banff National Park is basically the Yellowstone of Canada. The town was really neat but has clearly been built up to service all the tourists who visit the park…

And, after we picked up our visitor information, we found that all the sights in the park can be driven up to or only require a short walk. Which was probably for the best, since we only had one day to see as much of Banff as we could. Not to mention the fact that we were both pretty tired from the last couple days of hiking…



We also discovered that Lake Louise was actually 45 kilometers away from the town of Banff. We started off, but decided to stop along the way at Johnston Canyon. It was really cool, boasting several waterfalls and a steep gorge along a 5 km hike…

We found that the weather had noticeably cleared so far on our way north from Banff and were delighted to find sunshine waiting for us when we made it to Lake Louise!! The lake is fed by the glaciers farther up the valley and was created after the last ice age when the massive glacier filling the valley melted, leaving behind a dam of rubble. We decided to walk a couple kilometers along the gorgeous aqua blue lake…

We then made our way over to Lake Moraine, set in a cradle of 10 peaks!!

The first thing we found when we walked down to the shore was a huge rock pile that looked exactly like the Agrocrag from the Nickelodeon tv show Guts! Fond memories of that show… So, obviously, we scrambled up the thing as fast as possible, dodging smoke, confetti, falling Styrofoam rocks, and huge inflatable boulders…

Do, do, do ya have it! Guts!



From the shore Lake Moraine seemed a dark gray color, but once we reached the top of the Crag, we found that it actually had a nice blue color similar to its neighbor Lake Louise…

After successfully eating our lunch, even though we were under heavy attack the whole time from the local fat chipmunk population, we headed out along the scenic highway north of Lake Louise. I will grant that you can’t really drive into the heart of the American Rockies, but man, the Canadian Rockies are pretty incredible…

With the sun about to go down, we came up on the Mistaya Canyon. We weren’t sure what to expect, but the Johnston Canyon had been pretty cool so we decided to check it out. Wow it was really amazing! Over the years the water had carved a skinny, twisting gorge at least 100 feet deep in places!! And it was a cool time to see it to with the sun setting in the back ground…

Of course, I had to play with shadows a bit…

With the light fading, we made our way back to Lake Louise, but stopped a few times along the way to check out some of the views and glaciers…

One in particular was called the crowfoot glacier because of its three separate ice flows below the main glacier. And a real crow actually stopped by so we could make a comparison!!

Wow what a long day! But we weren’t finished yet… Once we got back to our campsite at the Lake Louise village, we had dinner and then went and did some laundry. Of course the place only had two washers and two dryers, and we actually miscalculated and ran out of Canadian money. So, not only did we get to bed really late, but we ended up with damp clothes strewn all about the RV! Looked like a disaster area…



We weren’t too concerned though. The plan for the next day was a long driving day across Alberta and British Columbia to Vancouver! Plenty of time to get our lives back together…