On July 8^th, we had a long driving day. Until the 17^th, we will have to drive a lot. Today, we drove 13 and a half hour. Up here, it rarely ever goes dark, so you don’t have to worry about driving in the dark. We went from Jasper to Dawson Creek. By the time we got to the campground, it was too late to do anything.

On July 7^th, we went to Banff National Park, our first Canadian National Park! We went to the village area of Banff and we had a good time. First my mom would give me money, and I would get to go next door to the pizza place, and get the GIANT slices of pizza! Then I would eat it, and meet my sisters and mom back next door at the sushi place, where there would be a U-shaped counter, and the chief would be in the middle, cooking these nice platters of food, putting them on color-coated plates (The white was $2, yellow was $3, and so on), sticking it on a train that goes in circles around the counter to everybody, and you could pick off a plate of what you want. After that, we went and looked around town, bought some fudge, and had a good time.

Today we drove along the Icefields Highway, the 93, to Jasper. The Icefields Parkway is a spectacular 230 km long road between Lake Louise and Jasper. On our way we passed, and of course stopped, at a lot of beautifull sites.

The first one we reached was the Crowfoot Glacier. A century ago, the glacier had three 'toes' of ice. Since then the glacier has melted back and the lower toe has been lost. The middle toe is disappearing too.

Next we passed Bow Pass, 'Bow Summit', the highest road pass in the four mountain parks at 2.088 m above sea level. After a short walk we reach a fantastic viewpoint on Peyto Lake. The lake looks brilliantly turquoise.

Third on our list was Mistaya Canyon. A deep canyon worn out by the water with a natural arch on the canyon walls. The photo's we took do not look so great, but in real life it is realy beautifull.

After a tankstop at Saskatchewan Crossing, the only gasstation between Lake Louise and Jasper, we drove to the Columbia Icefield. Overthere we took a motorized tour to the glacier. We stayed a while on the glacier, drink a bit of glacier water, and head back to the visitor's center at the foot of the glacier. Although, the foot of the glacier a century ago. Now the foot of the glacier is far away from the visitor's center as you can see on the photo.

Before reaching Jasper we passed, and stopped at a few falls. First Sunwapta Falls, named of the Stoney Indian term 'Sunwapta', meaning 'turbulunt river'. Next was Athabasca Falls, a 23 metre waterfall wich has the most powerful flow to be found anywhere in the mountain parks. Due to this flow. When we reached our hotel it was already getting dark.

Today we drove the Bow Valley Parkway, the 1A, wich is a parallel road of the Trans-Canada Highway, the 1, to Lake Louise.

Halfway we stopped at Johnston Canyon and walked to the lower and upper falls. To the upper falls it's about 2.7 km, or approximately one hour. The trail was partly clinched at the canyon walls. After taking some pictures, I'm glad I have a digital camera, we walked back to our car.

Next we drove to Lake Louise to take a walk around the lake, at least, along one side of the lake and back again. The views were beautifull, especially the water with in the background the mountains covered in snow.

Finally we drove Mordine Lake wich gave the same views, except for the water. The water of Mordine Lake was blue while the water of Lake Louise was more grey.

On our way back to our hotel we stumbled on some roadworks, they were paving some parkways, and after a little chat, we're also in road construction so we were al little interested in how they do things, they gave us the next written bear warning:

It is advisable to wear bright coloured clothing wit little bells for noise, and to carry pepper spray while hiking in Canadas beautifull parks. There are two species of bear residing in these parks. The black and GRIZZLY bears.
Distinguishing between these two different species is done visually and by studying their droppings or SCAT. Black bear scat consist of berries and insect bits, where as Grizzly bear scat consists of bits of brightly coloured clothing interspersed with little dangly bells and smells like pepper spray!

After a good night sleep, we drove to Banff. After checking in at our hotel, we went sightseeing in the neighbourhood.

After a quick look at downtown Banff, we went up to Sulphur Mountain with the Banff Gondola to see the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station. Next we drove to Lake Minnewanka and on the way back to the hotel we drove by The Hoodoos wich gave a fantastic view of the Bow Valley.

After a flight of seven hours, we arrived around 8.00 pm at Calgary, Canada, for a three week roadtrip around the westcoast of Canada. After we picked up our car for the trip, we went to the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel it was already dark, so we went to bed early. The trip will begin the next morning.

The flight from Calgary to Glasgow was schedule for 22:00 on June 17,2008. The Flyglobespan flight from Vancouver was late. We boarded close to midnight then sat on on the tarmac. They had some mechanical problems. They served the meal and we sat. The pilot announced that they we looking for a starter part and we should soon be on our way.

02:30 June 18  The flight is scrapped and we are told to come back at 15:00 hours. They need a part from Vancouver. All flight staff vanished.

head back to my sisters. for sleep.  During the day we rescheduled on to the Zoom Flight that leaves at 19:00 to Glasgow.

19:00 hours the Zoom flight departs for Glasgow. The Flyglobespan flight that was leaving at  15:00 is still on the tarmac.

July 7, 2008

• Drove from Calgary to Banff-very glad to be out of the city and back in the country
• Arrived in Banff-very pretty
• Took nice long, hot showers in showers provided in campground
• Rode bike trails
• Went out to dinner-we got to go to this cool sushi place. You would sit at the bar and the chef would stand on the inside making the sushi. Then, he would put it on this train that went in a circle around the bar. You knew the price by the color of the plate. Each color was a different price. 
• We got to go to the Olympic park. It was the host to the 1988 Olympics. I got to go down the fastest zip-line in North America. It went 120-140 miles/hr. and started 90 meters in the air. It was sooo much fun!

July 6, 2008

·         Went to the Calgary stampede

·         Bought Pizza on a stick-very good

·         Got up early so we could get in for free

·         A mile long line for a pancake breakfast

·         Just like the Houston rodeo

·         Got to pet a 6 day old piglet!-and the mom pig

·         Say dogs herd sheep-very cool but very difficult(for the dog)

·         Didn’t like campground-people in front office were very mean and competitive

July 5, 2008

• Crossed into Canada-yea. We didn’t have to throw any of our fruit out!
• Drove to Calgary
• Found campground-very lucky since we hadn’t reserved and the Calgary stampede was going on
• Stopped at the visitor’s center-they were very nice
• Went to head-smashed-in-buffalo-jump: a place were the Indians use to run the buffalo off the cliff to kill them, named after a guy who wanted to watch the kill and got to close. A buffalo landed on him and he got his head smashed in

Lake Louise and the treasures of Jasper National Park took hours to explore, yet only the surface was touched. 

• Hikes to waterfalls
• the Columbia Icecap
• glaciers
• wildlife (including a black bear and huge elk!)
• incredible sunset
• 10 pm (still light enough to see) arrival at the gorgeous Whistler National Campground near Jasper Township

Incredible!

Best described through pictures, to follow:

7.7.08       Olympic Park to Banff

I stayed up late last night researching online for our adventures today.  The kids said last summer that such nighttime research produces more fun the following day and we had a zinger today!

First, we traversed Calgary east to west on Canada 1.  That would be the Trans-Canada Highway.  The highway that goes 35 miles per hour through a business district complete with lights every 20 feet, none of them timed for progression.  Very interesting.  Also there were very few side streets, in fact none, which could be used for a detour.  Fortunately, Sallie the GPS showed this before I attempted to find detours on my own.  So patience prevailed and we were through it.  No worries.

Canada Olympic Park,the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics, is just outside of Calgary and was a blast!  Jazy went ziplining down the ski jump!  http://www.canadaolympicpark.ca/Home/Activities.asp#Ski_Jump_Tower_Elevation  I told her that if she was brave enough to do it, Dad would pay for it.  J  Look at the picture that shows the view from the top!  Lia and I paid to ride up later to the observation tower and got to see some other victims, I mean, zippers head down the hill.  That 90-meter jump is something to behold.  Jazy thought it was great fun and not as scary as she’d anticipated.

Did you know that they no longer use the Calgary facility for 90-meter ski jump for competitions?  Since 1988 Olympics, the techniques and equipment have improved so vastly that the run is too short now!

Lia and Charles got to Euro-bungie, which was similar to their Breckenridge experience, and Lia zipped up and down the rock wall 4 times without much apparent effort.  Although as a parent, I shiver at the thought, she would be a terrific rock-climber with her strength and agility and Jazy wants to skydive.  Perhaps I shouldn’t encourage these activities.

The Olympic Hall of Fame was also entertaining with a movie and a personalized talk (we were the only ones there), and we all took pictures holding the actual Olympic torch, which is kept under a locked glass case until picture time.  Very cool.

Also, they had the awards podium just outside - kids' fierce negotiations resulted in them each having pictures at every medal level.  We also liked slaloming on the interactive ski game machine and testing our hockey stroke speeds. 

The actual bobsled from the famous Jamaican team (Disney’s “Cool Runnings” movie) and the "Hidy and Howdy" bear mascot suits were there on display. 

Then a bunch of fun kids on a scavenger hunt from the summer camp joined us.  They were very intelligent, entertaining, and seemed to be having a terrific time.  We could have spent much more time in the Hall of Fame- much to see. 

The luge center was scheduled to open today (Monday) for rides, but unfortunately had a problem with ice -Charles was very disappointed that he couldn’t go down it (it’s expected to open Weds).  There are many more fun activities there (mountain biking, rolling down a hill in a giant ball, etc) but I’ll let you enjoy it on their website.

Hours later, we finally headed for Banff, out-dashing a vicious thunderstorm that was headed for Calgary.  It was a short drive of just over an hour when the Highway 1 came to a stop at the entrance to Banff National Park!

The Ranger advised us to try a park campground with 618 sites!  They have 13 campgrounds here!  No worries on finding a spot in this lovely, dry campground of Tunnel Mountain. 

We decided to drive Ciao into Banff, the township, and risk finding parking - we found a terrific parallel parking site with no parking behind us (important escape route).  Charles’ pizza-by-the-slice place and our sushi restaurant were on that same street, side-by-side!  Awesome!

The sushi place was special because a Northern Pacific model train chugged around a U-shaped table that seated about 20 people, the chef stood in the middle, and the food rode on the train on little colored plates.  Each plate color indicated price.  You just pulled the plate you wanted off the train as it came around.  They count your plates of each color to calculate your bill.   

Lia missed the train for her first choice, but the chef heard her and pulled it for her.  She said, “Thank you!” and proceeded to take just one sushi piece off the plate as he held it!  Haha!  I snagged the entire plate for her - she caught on.  (It reminded me of the time Jazy was little and poked her finger into the cheesecake piece on a waitress’ dessert display tray.) Cool place and a great experience!  We got to try different sushi, request items from the placemat menu, chat with the chef, and try “green tea ice cream”.

Afterward, we walked the town of Banff, buying postcards with pre-paid international postage and fudge and watching a Grizzlies in Banff movie at the Visitor’s Center (standing-room only).  We saw a pay phone and I gave the kids the Canadian calling card with a “Good luck!”  I was so surprised and impressed when I heard them talking with Ned!  These are the international skills that I want them to learn from this trip.

“No worries” and “quiet” summarize our favorable day’s impressions of Canadians.  First, rather than the “no problem” response we frequently hear in the U.S., many Canadians say, “no worries” as a response to “thanks” or an apology.  I love it.  Charles is less enamored and has a whole comedy routine on his response that comment.  He apparently DOES have some worries.

Also, the Canadians around us are quiet.  When you’re on the street, you can hear no other conversations.  At the Stampede, hardly anyone talked to the people they were with ��" it was strange for us.  There were all these people and yet very little sound. 

Tonight, we’re in a campground that obviously has quite a few people around (although these sites are acres compared to our Calgary RV Park- think “squashed”).  Anyway, we opened the windows to listen… not a peep even though we’re surrounded by tents with no sound-proofing.  Fascinating!  I decided not to rev up the generator to use the hairdryer tonight. 

Here’s another example:  to blend in when travelling and avoid “obnoxious American” behavior, I was talking only as loudly as necessary to the woman in the gift shop regarding postcard mailing options.  We were almost whispering even though the place was completely overrun with people, but no noise- they just are very quiet and don’t talk much.  Very difficult for this rambunctious Texan, to be sure!  We’ll just spread quiet joy wherever we roam.  I must say that it is quite peaceful.  J

Let’s talk about Banff and the Canadian Rockies.  Can you say, AMAZING?!  These are enormous mountains that ring clear lakes, which are bright turquoise from the glacier particles that suspend in the water.  Our elevation is only about 1300 feet and these monster mountains are so tall that they’re difficult to frame in the camera.  The weather is cool enough to wear a fleece over our shorts and t-shirts. 

The town of Banff, which has grown up as a resort/spa town during the hundred years since the railroad arrived, is delicious.  It is beautiful, quaint, clean, and perfect in every way.  It is like Vail, but without the rolling hills, and the buildings here seem limited to 2-stories high.  There are pots of blooming flowers everywhere and activities like rafting, horseback riding, etc.  This is the type of place in which to honeymoon.  It is not very big and yet not overrun with people, but it has plenty of energy, delightful restaurants and shops. 

Also, Banff Township is the first (maybe only?) town to be fully incorporated (rather recently) within a national park.  Banff is Canada’s first national park, as Yellowstone is for America.  There are six national parks (Banff, Jasper, Yoho, etc) in a group that is considered part of ��" drum roll… a UNESCO World Heritage Site!  Hooray- check another one off on our scavenger hunt for the best of the best!

We’ve just 10 days before we’re due in Inuvik for Charles’ birthday, with many miles to go.  I wish we had more time here, but we’re headed to Lake Louise tomorrow, then up to Jasper for the night, stopping to see the sights along every part of this beautiful park system.  It is lucky for us that sunset is not until 10pm!  If only we could arise at 5am sunrise.  J

Hooray!  We've made it to Calgary and miracle-of-miracles, got a 2-night RV spot (the last site) at the Mountainview Campground http://www.calgarycamping.com/home1.html during the famous Calgary Stampede, which is celebrating its 125th year!  http://calgarystampede.com/  The Visitor's Center ladies were very kind and called the campground for us this morning.  We are very lucky!

Customs this morning went great- we got a nice Customs guy and we chatted after I'd handed over the passports, my driver's license, proof of insurance in Canada, and my vehicle registration before he could request it all.  It turns out that in B.C. and Alberta they do NOT confiscate all your fruit - we had no need to eat all those bananas this morning!

The campground has a shuttle ($10 each) to take us to the Stampede tomorrow at 11:15 am and we'll return at either 5:30 pm or Midnight.  Hmmm....

Upon crossing the border, we switched our GPS to metric and took off going 110!  Km/hour that is. 

We crossed 5,000 miles on our trip today!  Although it is effort to catch up on the blog by each evening's bedtime, we feel our travel and activity pace have been sustainable and we've really gotten to experience the best of the best in many places.  Or course, that is categorized as national parks and natural wonders.  I would love to have all the time in the world to appreciate everything in our path, but we do prioritize our time and have been pleased with our choices.

We were told that roaming charges on cell phones were horrible and not to use ours, so we bought a few groceries at the IGA and got a $10 phone card.  We also used the debit card cash back to obtain $200 in colorful Canadian money.  We called Ned on a pay phone, which took multiple attempts, but finally we finally got through (but missed him).  

I have no idea what our Verizon Air Card rates are for Canada, so we paid $6 for the campground wifi. 

Gas is $1.38 here... per liter.  There's 3.8 liters to the gallon.  Yes, it's pricey.

This is like International Powder-Puff Travel.  Everyone still speaks English and the exchange rate 1:1 is easy.  However, there are enough changes to wake us up a bit and challenge us.

Although people have been helpful when asked, they are more, let's say "reserved" when we talk to them.  I haven't gotten many warm fuzzies.  I'm not sure if it is the U.S., the Texas license plate, me, or them, but I always love to take a "people-pulse" to see what the climate is like.  I'm betting things are different world-wide with the attitude toward Americans than it has been in previous decades.

Oh!  We went to the very good World Heritage Site, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.  The excellent movie (that Jazy refused to watch) explained how important the buffalo were to the First People, who used every part of the buffalos they killed.  The name technically does not come from the way the buffalo died, but rather a legend of a young brave who was in a tragic accident during one of the buffalo jumps.  The Buffalo Jumps were so much work that when the Indians got guns and ponies from Europeans in the mid-1800's, they stopped organizing the labor-intensive jumps.  We hiked both the upper and lower cliff paths and enjoyed the strong winds that are native to that area.

Alberta is beautiful!  Fields and acres of flowers and grass- so much grass!  I'll try to upload some pictures later.  We're off to explore for now the campground with a petting zoo, horseshoes, playground, etc.!

We enjoyed the Stampede today! 

Be careful if you put your kids in charge of the budget!  They can get picky.  They convinced me last night to skip the shuttle and we were kindly refunded our $40. 

Early this morning we drove our big rig throughout a major city, down small streets, with construction barriers, and 3km runners.  Fortunately, Calgary was reduced traffic this Sunday morning.  By 7:15 am. we'd paid $20 total for 2 parking spots in city parking and walked the few blocks to the Stampede. (See picture)

Because it was Family Day, admission ($41 for the 4 of us) was free before 9am.  Also, they provided free Pancake Breakfast tickets, but the line was several people thick from the entrance alll the way to the Grandstand at the far end of the park.  I would estimate the line at half a mile!  Of course we did not wait and enjoyed the rest of the park and some muffins.  We did attempt to go at the end of the breakfast, but just missed it. 

We made ourselves feel better with pizza-on-a-stick (like a calzone on an oversized popsicle stick) and popcorn.  The kids figured we came out $50 ahead because we drove ourselves.

The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed the dog-herding competition where the border collie gets the sheep to circle the barrels, circle the trainer, run through a chute along the fence, and then pens them in under 4 minutes, directed by the trainer's different whistles.  We were so impressed with the dogs!  Some of the sheep were mean and head-butted the dogs!

The animals were a real treat and we got to pet pigs, piglets, cows, and huge draft horses. 

They had a carnival there with rides ($5-$6 each), lots of food, cowboy hats for sale, etc.  It was VERY similar to the Houston rodeo, but with a population that was much more diverse (many Asian and Indian families, which we enjoyed) and without the festive spirit, which is probably due to the early rise of the visitors and the fact that Calgary is a major city.  We did meet some very nice, helpful people.

We were all caught up on our rodeo-quotient and ready to return to the RV by 12:30 pm - we were glad that our driving plan worked.  Sallie, our GPS, got us back to the campground and we hooked up just before a major hailstorm blew through.  I'm betting hail cleared out the Stampede's straggling parents who needed a nap!  Ha!

We've been working on schoolwork- Lia reached her subtraction goal on Level 9 on the Flashmaster today!  We also reached our internet upload limit and had to buy more time.  We are so grateful to have it though.

Then the kids got ice cream and ran off to the playground.  Ahhh.

Hopefully we'll get on an earlier schedule now and plan to be through Calgary early again tomorrow.  The Canada 1 Highway goes right through the middle of town, complete with construction and stoplights.  I can only imagine how much fun it is with real traffic!  We've seen much of Calgary on our drives and it is a big, vibrant city.  We'll head for Banff and then Jasper, enjoying natural beauty again.

This morning the alarm went off way too early, ringing at 6am. By 6:30 we were on the subway on our way to the airport. I had booked mom's flight through Areoplan, and it had really bad connections. The first flight at 1:30 (instead of my 10:30am flight) with a 6 hour layover in Montreal, getting her in at 11:30pm. We went to the booking agent and for $50 got her flight changed so she was on my flight and got into Halifax at 4:30pm. Much better and definitely worth the change fee!

Mom had given me a book to read by Nicholas Sparks called A Bend in the Road. Over the length of the flight to Montreal I read the entire 366 pages (although some of that was in the customs line up and waiting for the next flight)> I also had enough time to watch 27 dresses as well. That's how long that flight is!

In Montreal me and mom were parting ways and then she was onto Halifax and I onto Calgary. I was hoping to sleep on the plane to Calgary so I could go out for a friends bachelorette party but seeing as I landed at 5pm, which felt like 1am, and didn't sleep for a second on the plane, I had to bail on the partying.

So now I'm back in my apartment, half empty and definitely different than before I left for Europe. At least my cat is here and is very happy to see me. Now I have to get used to "normal life" and I'm not looking forward to it. Thank goodness for a 4 day long weekend!