When it's Summertime in the Rockies

The drive through the Rocky Mountains was just astonishing - excellent roads and around every corner there were spectacular views. There were many signposted places to stop and marvel at Mother Nature's work and we did too and took masses of photos.

Mostly we had blue skies with fluffy white cloud weather, with only one rainy day in Revelstoke which didn't bother us too much.

With the roads cutting through the wilderness areas, it was interesting to see the provision made for wildlife to safely move from one area to another and, despite the quite heavy holiday traffic (RVs, caravans, coaches, etc), there didn't seem to be any roadkill at all. Many overpasses have been built with wire fences hidden in the trees all along the roads - all very discreet and beautifully managed.

Speaking of wildlife, through the entire Rockies trip, we didn't see one bear or one caribou. A few mountain goats, a deer or two and lots of these cute little creatures.
There were quite a few of these gophers around the Pinewood Lodge Resort high up near Radium Springs. (I took advantage of the mineral springs there for a lovely soak one day).

We stopped in Banff and it is a very pretty town however very geared to tourists with many souvenir shops and eateries - and therefore many, many people. (Interesting to hear lots of different languages spoken).

Banff

We find we much prefer the smaller towns near to these famous resorts. Accommodation is easier to find away from the big name tourist spots.

Jasper was another place we decided not to linger in. So busy and a similar plethora of tourist shops from which to keep away.

We tend to travel economically and this means using mostly 2 star hotels and motels, Hostels International and B&Bs. The hotels and motels are varied - some with fridges and microwaves and all with the inevitable coffee maker. Unfortunately for moi who loves a cup of tea (English Breakfast - black tea) in the morning, very rarely do we find an electric kettle. Sometimes, we are loaned one when I look desperate and refuse to use the hotwater from the coffee-maker. It surprises me that with Canada being part of the British Commonwealth for so many years, the making of tea is not more widely known. The main variety available seems to be Orange Pekoe which I rather liken to the by-product of kittycats. Luckily I found a rare supermarket which sold a large box of English PG Tips teabags.We have also shopped and have a supply of bread, butter, cold ham, tomatoes, salad, cereal, milk, yoghurt and fruit for breakfast and lunches. We keep the dairy items in an insulated carrybag and we also have a Thermos for when we can get boiled water to make mugs of Cup-a-Soup at lunchbreaks. Speaking of Cup-a-Soup there is certainly not the range that we have in Australia. Here you get a choice of Chicken Noodle, Cream of Chicken, Chicken & Veg. and Tomato. That's it! Think the Aussie brands of Maggi & Continental would do well here.

Three of the five glaciers to be seen from this spot.

Back to the wonderful scenery that greets us at every bend of the road. The massively big rugged mountains, astonishing glacier-fed blue/green lakes, spectacular waterfalls and glaciers were really becoming quite commonplace after so many days and it is so hard to them describe it in a few paltry sentences. Here are a few photos which might give you a bit of an idea of this amazing part of the world.

Just one of the beautiful aqua glacier-fed lakes.

The Tangle Creek falls

It wasn't all driving. At Lake Louise we stopped for a walk around and at the beautiful lake fronting the Fairmont Chateau, we just had to take a turn in the canoes available for hire. It was great fun and although it is many years since each of us has been in a canoe, we bravely paddled out and over to the opposite side of the lake and back. Thoroughly enjoyed the unexpected experience.

Now that we are through the Rockies, the countryside is getting quite flat and we find that we are missing those wonderful mountains and forests. We look foward to the next stage.

Vancouver and the beginning of our Canadian wanderings

We had the afternoon in Vancouver and used the 'hop on/hop off' bus to get around and see the sights, getting off to have some lunch and again for various beauty spots and also, to our pleasure, dropping off just a few doors from our hotel. On our second day, we picked up our hire car and headed off on our independent Canadian adventure.

First of all, down to the USA border and into Washington for the Boeing 'Future of Flight' tour. It takes about an hour and a half and as well as a brief history of the Boeing company, we were taken into the massively huge factories where their various planes are made including the new 787 Dreamliner. It certainly is an impressive set-up.

Our overnight stop was at Mukilteo Landing and probably the nicest accommodation we'll ever have on this trip.   Right at the water's edge, we had a large and beautiful room with all the usual amenities plus a fire place with gas log fire!

However with the warm weather, we made do with just opening the window and foregoing the aircon. Next day we took the short trip ferry to the next island and on our way to the next ferry, stopped at Freeland to post off home some excess clothing and a few things collected on the trip. We found the post office and packed our stuff into a large box, sealed and addressed it, then found we really needed to put a return address as well. As we stood in the small post office debating whether to put last night's Inn address, we had our first unexpected kindness shown when a smiling lady offered to let us use her own address. She took over and filled in the form for us giving her own details, and we gave her our own address card. We were most grateful and she said it was a pleasure and 'the island way' to be friendly. We've been the recipients of a few 'unexpected kindnesses' during our travels and it always warms our hearts. Such a nice memory to have.

The next few days were spent travelling from island to island by ferry till finally we arrived back in Canada to Victoria on Vancouver Island. Such a very pretty place and we headed to the outskirts of the city to visit the Butchart Gardens. It was created initially by Jenny Butchart, in an old disused quarry on the family property.

Over the years it has been enlarged and now has a Japanese Garden, an Italian Garden, Mediterranean Garden and a stunning rose garden. It also has areas with plants native to this part of the world. Being summer, it was ablaze with flowers and it was interesting to see not only the clever colour combinations but also the amount of flowers blooming happily beneath shady trees. We were happy to spend a good part of the day there but didn't stay for the evening fireworks held during the summer months and apparently quite spectacular.

We had an overnight stay in Victoria and next morning visited the wonderful Royal British Columbian Museum. A special exhibition was on Vikings and accompanying the exhibition was an IMAX show on Vikings and the areas to which they travelled all those years ago. There was a vast display of archaeological finds and all beautifully presented. Aside from the Vikings, early British Columbian history was imaginatively presented from the original inhabitants to the arrival of European settlers. In the afternoon we took our last ferry ride to the mainland and so began our travels to the east through the Rockies, stopping first at Chilliwack, then Princeton.

Washing cherries with old pump

We drove through Keremeos which is a big fruit growing area with many roadside stalls selling fresh produce. With cherries in season, we stopped to buy some - $5 for a 1kg box. They were big, sweet and beautiful and disappeared fast.

We stopped for a couple of days at Princeton, an old mining town, then drove about 400kms to Revelstoke through the Okanagan Valley - extremely pretty countryside alongside very long lakes. Revelstoke is high in the mountains quite near Glacier National Park and Mt Revelstoke National Park. The scenery is astounding - when it is fine. On our second day here the sky turned grey,it rained continually and visibility of the nearby snow-capped mountains was non-existent. What to do?

Well, we had a wonderful morning visiting the Nickelodeon Museum in town. It is a private collection of mechanical musical instruments on display which the owners have beautifully restored. We were given almost two hours of an extremely interesting talk and working demonstration of many of the items. The instruments ranged from 300 years old to the 1960s. Absolutely loved it.

After lunch Peter visited the Revelstoke Railway Museum (wouldn't you know??).

Hopefully the weather will improve for our drive through to the Banff area tomorrow.

The "Volendam" - Skagway to Vancouver

The Volendam at Skagway.

The last stage of this tour was a four day cruise from Skagway to Vancouver. We boarded in the morning and got settled in our stateroom. To our surprise after booking a moderate priced cabin with a small verandah view, we had received two upgrades in the few weeks prior to our trip. The cabin (sorry, stateroom!) turned out to be on the highest accommodation deck with its own private balcony with outdoor setting. Inside we had a lounge area with comfortable sofa, mini fridge, and desk, as well as a king size bed, plentiful hanging and drawer space and finally a well appointed ensuite bathroom (with a spa bath!). Needless to say we were MOST comfortable and remembering the small cabin with bunks and porthole that we had for 5 weeks on the old 'Fairstar' on our trip to England in 1971, I was quite bemused with the luxury of it all.

As well as a complimentary dinner at the very posh Pinnacle restaurant on the first night (which normally costs extra), we also dined very well at the Rotterdam Dining Room and a very fine Italian dinner at the Caneletto. For breakfast and lunch we ate at the more casual Lido. We had made friends with several couples on our tour so most of these dinners were very convivial with happy chatter so much so that we didn't manage to get to any of the evening entertainment provided on board.

On the second day of our cruise, we sailed gently into Glacier Bay. The first we noticed from our cabin were very small icebergs floating past. Up on deck we were confronted with the awesome sight of the huge, very pale blue glacier in all its majesty. Quite breath-taking. Occasionally, there would be a loud crack and pieces of ice would fall away to became icebergs bobbing in the water. Certainly a sight never to forget.

On the middle day of our cruise we docked at the very pretty harbour town of Ketchikan. I must say I have never seen so many souvenir and jewellery shops in my life. Our guide on our excursion to the Saxman Native Village joked that Ketchikan meant 'place of many jewellery shops'. Saxman village is the home of many of the Tlingit natives and we were told and shown a little of their culture and also had a performance of native dancing. The participants were of all ages and one little boy of about 4 quite stole the show - he was so serious about his dancing.

We later learnt about the Tlingit totem poles and visited the carving workshop. There were some very beautiful re-carving of old poles as well as new ones - some of which had been commissioned and which cost up to $6000 per foot. They prefer to keep to the traditional styles of carving and one recent commission for a Star Wars totem pole was politely declined!

Later that day we enjoyed a Lumberjack show in Ketchikan. This was great fun with two 'teams' - one Canadian and one America competing in various events with the audience encouraged to loudly support 'their' team.

Our last day at sea was a quiet one and we took the opportunity to investigate all the places on board which we hadn't yet discovered. A beautiful little library and an internet room, a quiet reading lounge, a piano bar, and the Crow's Nest which was a stunning room with 180 degree views from the front of the ship. (Did I tell you we were invited to the Captain's cocktail party before dinner one evening?? Very high society we are, don't you know!)

All too soon we again had to pack our cases in readiness for disembarking at Vancouver. We've had a fabulous cruise following on from the wonderful land tour of Alaska and the Yukon, but will miss the lovely people we've been travelling with along the way.