The Traveling Londons

We're home

Lots of laundry. Lots of unpacking. It's the beginning of the vacation hangover and it hurts.

I'll update in the next few days with pictures if anybody is interested.

Thanks for reading!

Back in Grants Pass, OR

Another long day of driving and we are once again staying in Grants Pass, OR where we spent the first night of our trip exactly two weeks ago (although we're staying in a different hotel this time).

We left Bellevue this morning in the pouring rain and it just got worse and worse. It was some of the worst driving conditions I've ever been in. On par to the time when I was a kid and we were caught in the tule fog in Central California and could drive only by following the taillights on the car in front of us. We ended up following them right into the parking lot of a Kentucky Fried Chicken. We were never sure whether it was their intention to go there or not but we arrived safely so we didn't really care!

At one point today we and the car next to us hit a puddle at the same time. For the next few heart-stopping seconds we were hydroplaning in our puddle while blinded from the spray from the car next to us. But Jay did an awesome job driving and we're all OK (obviously). Throughout the rest of the morning we had a few more episodes of heavy rain but it was never as heavy as when we were leaving Seattle. Finally in the middle of Oregon it stopped altogether.

Just after lunch we made a detour to Beaverton, OR to visit a friend of Adam and Daniel's (Jacob Bing) who had moved there in June. All three boys were so excited to see each other!

Barring anything unforseen we'll make it home tomorrow. It'll be good to be home but I'm sad our trip is ending.

"Back in the USA...

…where they sell Yu-Gi-Oh cards for less than $10 a pack!” So proclaimed Adam as we crossed the border. The border crossing was quick and (fairly) uneventful. We did learn one lesson when turning in our receipts for the GST refund…combine your purchases! We had a number of small purchases and they won’t give you the refund if the GST is less than $3.50 per individual receipt. Oh well…live and learn (or read the requirements before you start your trip). Our border guard was not quite as stern this time (he knew how to smile) but was still very business-like. Boy did he stare into the back of the car when he was questioning us! We thought he was going to start questioning the kids and we were truly afraid of what random things they might say! Then we bungled a question…he asked us if we had any meat with us and we said “uh….” because we did have some sliced turkey meat we bought at Safeway. Turns out he meant game meat. Oh. He gave us a long stare, gave the kids a long stare, and then said “OK, you can go through. And have a nice day.” Whew!

We made it to Bellevue, WA tonight and figure we should be home sometime on Wednesday. We spent much of the day in valleys driving first along the Okanogan River and then along the Columbia River. Finally Adam had had enough and said, “Mountains! All I’ve seen for the last two weeks are mountains! I want to see a city!” When we passed a Wal-Mart somewhere in Washington he was just beside himself with joy.

I do have an animal sighting to report. Driving through farmland I saw buffalo. Buffalo! (And soon after a sign for buffalo meat.) We didn’t turn around. It’s not much of a sport to see captive buffalo.

I’m reading a book right now by Bill Bryson (a GREAT travel writer. He’s just hilarious. If you haven’t read any of his books you need to. Start with A Sunburned Country.) This book (The Lost Continent) is about his road trip in small-town America and is very appropriate reading for me right now (even though he is traveling the eastern half of the country and I’m on the other end). He talks some about the road trips he used to take with his family when he was a kid and I’m cracking up at some of the things he and his brothers used to do in the backseat of the car while his oblivious parents were up front. I’m heartened because whatever my boys have done (really, not much), it’s nowhere NEAR what they did. Actually the kids have been awesome. Yes, there has been the requisite arguing (“M-o-m! His leg is on my side of the seat!!”), but for the most part they’ve been great travelers. I will tell you, though, the thing that has been driving us absolutely CRAZY is the NON-STOP talking. They are constantly chattering away about something, anything!. If it’s not Matthew singing the Olympic theme at random moments, it’s Daniel’s playing the non-stop “what if” game (“What if the Earth crashed into the sun? What would happen then? (small pause) And, what if dinosaurs were still around today? Would they be our pets? (small pause) And, what if the Oakland A’s weren’t in Oakland. Would we still root for them? (small pause) And, what if….”, ad nauseam. And then there’s Adam’s endless Yu-Gi-Oh and Gameboy strategies… It would be one thing if they could just say what they needed to say and be done with it but apparently everything needs to be repeated AT LEAST three times and punctuated by various vocal grunts, trills, hums, etc. AAARRRRGGHHHH! I always thought those noise-canceling headphones were silly and ridiculously expensive but I think I would have bought a pair if I’d come across them on this trip :-)

Finally, I think it’s a sign that your vacation is nearing the end when you dream (as I did last night) of cleaning out your car, taking it in to be detailed, and feeling SO happy afterwards. I was sincerely disappointed when I woke up this morning and realized that it hadn’t actually happened.

Goodbye Banff, Hello Kelowna

Another long day of driving. (Kelowna was further away that we thought!) Before we left we did a little more sightseeing around Banff. We drove down to Vermillion Lakes which really weren't all that impressive (especailly after everything else we've seen!). Apparently their greatest asset is the view towards Mount Rundle but since it was raining and cloudy we couldn't see anything. However, as we were leaving we saw a herd of elk feeding in the meadow so we were glad we went!

We then drove up to Moraine Lake to take a look around and have lunch. Unfortunately is was raining pretty hard when we got there so we didn't get to look around and instead made a mad dash for the restaurant. But that didn't work out well either since the entire restaurant was reserved for a tour group about to arrive. So we went to the small counter next door for hot dogs and pre-made sandwiches (not what we were hoping for!). It was still raining when we were done so we took a couple of quick pictures and headed for the car. It was just less than a week ago that we were in 114 degree heat and today it's raining and 43 degrees! On the bright side, all the low clouds hanging on the mountains are very pretty. I'm just glad this weather decided to arrive on a travel day and not (for example) on the day we drove the Icefields Parkway.

Tomorrow we will cross back over into the United States so tonight I am getting our receipts together to determine which things we can get a GST rebate on. What fun!

Our Last Night in Banff

We got up today and headed out to explore Lake Minnewanka. On our way through town we came across two deer right on the roadside (an adult and a baby). We didn’t expect to see any animals in town so we took this as a good animal spotting day omen (we’ll never learn, will we?) Up at the lake, we let the boys play on the shore for a bit throwing rocks and logs into the water but we were all starving so we didn’t stay too long. Back on the return loop to town we almost immediately found three more Rocky Mountain sheep walking along the road, one of them a baby. After passing them we found three more sheep a little ways up. Two more sheep were just past them and we have gotten so blasé about seeing sheep that when we came upon that final group we actually didn’t even stop to take pictures!

We lucked into a good parking space downtown and set out to find a restaurant. We’ve noticed that many restaurants in Canada don’t admit minors so it took us awhile to find a place. Maybe there’s some sort of tiered liquor license law (because many of the places we have eaten in do serve alcohol) or maybe they just don’t want kids. After lunch we headed out to Johnston Canyon and took a short walk up to the lower falls. I say “short walk” because we’re not allowed to say “hike”. If you say “we’re going on a hike” you are met with a chorus of “no, not a hike! We can’t go on a hike!” But call it a “short walk” and you’re fine. The hike was nice and the falls were well worth the walk. (Interesting note: the trailhead listed the distance to the falls in miles rather than kilometers. I have no idea why.) On the hike I saw the “rarely seen” pika. You know if I resort to mentioning rodents that our animal spotting really has reached a new low.

Back at the hotel Jay took the boys to the water slides and the pool and then the water slides again and they had a great time (although Daniel chose not to go down the water slide this time). We are now enjoying another fire but now know to say “check the flue!” whenever Jay approaches the fire. (We discovered that it’s the opening of the screen that sometimes knocks the flue closed). After a beautiful, warm, sunny day, it's now cool and rainy as we view the cloud-covered mountains, listen to the rain, and watch the fire - very nice! Tomorrow we’re off to Okanagan Lake in the town (Kelowna) that had that horrible fire exactly a year ago.

We have been watching the Olympics every night that we can. Sometimes we get the Canadian feed and sometimes we get the American feed (and often both). The American coverage (naturally) shows all the American medal wins and medal ceremonies. The Canadian coverage is gleeful in showing all of the contests where the Americans lose medals. The announcer is always so enthusiastic in calling the play-by-play as the Americans lose. Or maybe they have to show the American defeats because there are so few Canadian victories :-p

We Try Not To Get Kicked Out of Our Hotel

We've taken great pains this trip (as always) to keep quiet and not bother the other hotel guests (because I'm sensitive to that). We kinda failed tonight. First off, the kids were up late (um, 11:30) because we had a family gin tournament (which I won by the way). We put them to bed and then Jay put another log on the fire. In putting on the log he bumped the flue and it closed. Smoke started filling the place and the fire alarm went off. (Apparently it's a common occurance because there are instructions written on the alarm telling you how to turn it off.) It's now a short while later and the kids are asleep, the place is aired out, the alarm is back on, and we'll hide out here in the morning until all our neighbors have departed to avoid the dirty looks. They have probably been calling to complain but we've been connected to the internet on the phone line so they can't get through. Oops.

First Day in Banff

After another morning of sleeping in (it’s our vacation!) we set off to Lake Louise to take a better look around this time. The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and the lake itself are just amazing! (Have I used that word enough on this vacation?) The Chateau is like a castle right at the base of mountains and glaciers and right on the shore of a beautiful milky green lake. I want to stay there! Maybe someday I will. We had lunch on an outdoor patio at the Chateau. Well, we started to have lunch outdoors but moved inside when it started to rain. We walked around the hotel a bit but decided not to take the hike along the lake since we weren’t dressed for the rain (but we may come back tomorrow). We drove back to Banff (again on the scenic route, again no animals) and drove up to the Banff Castle (the Fairmont Banff Springs). Another great place!

After we got back to the hotel I took the kids to the water slides. Matthew and Adam LOVED them (of course). Daniel finally got up the courage to go down with Matthew but unfortunately a couple of older kids were fooling around and jumped down the slide right after they did, piggy backing onto them and making them go really, really fast. That was it for Daniel (he got very scared) and since we’d already been there quite awhile, we decided to go back to the room.

I’m not sure what’s on the agenda for tomorrow but for sure we’ll explore the area some more and go on the water slides again. But, the animals? Nope, we’re not looking for them anymore. Couldn’t care less if we see any at all. Nope, not us. (Matthew says we should try some reverse psychology).

The Icefields Parkway

The Icefields Parkway drive is definitely one of those “must sees” in your lifetime. Adam says he wants to come back and do it again. I, too, would love to do it again sometime especially to see what it looks like when the air is clear. It’s still very hazy here and while the views are still amazing, they must be infinitely more so when the weather is clear. I read in the paper that the haze is due to a prescribed burn in British Columbia set to help stop the Mountain Pine Beetle.

Apparently most people take the parkway from Lake Louise to Jasper and not the other way around (as we were doing) because both our guidebook and the online guide we printed out do the tour in that direction. So it was a bit confusing at times since I had to read the tour from the end to the beginning but read each individual section from beginning to end. So sometimes we weren’t sure if a stopping point was ahead of or behind us. Also, the online tour gave great kilometer markings to let you know where things were. Unfortunately, the kilometer markers were not on the road and our trip odometer wouldn’t switch over to kilometers so while they helped, we were a bit off sometimes. We only had to actually backtrack twice though. (But the first one didn’t really count because it was just a short turn around because I saw two deer and everyone else wanted to see them. When we turned around we were lucky enough to see them crossing the road and climbing the hill on the other side). We were encouraged to see some animals so soon on our journey! Both our guides let us know where each of the different animals was known to congregate so we felt even more encouraged.

Our first stop was the awesome top of Athabasca Falls where I had the following conversation with Adam:

Adam: Can I play on those rocks?
Me: What??? No!
Adam: Why?
Me: Why? Why??? Because they’re at the top of a waterfall!!!!
Adam: Oh.

(To be fair, the rocks weren’t directly over the falls and were in (seemingly) calm water. But they were very near the lip of the falls and a fall into the water could very easily have been deadly.)

We drove on looking for the black bear and elk that were supposed to frequent the area on this part of the drive. We didn’t see any but we did see many amazing mountains and glaciers of all kinds. After quickly looking at Sunwapta Falls we realized that we had missed the prime Rocky Mountain goat viewing area. Our guides each called the place something different and neither of those names was marked on the road. We figured that it was only about 16 kilometers back so we turned around and headed out there. Apparently, the goats come down out of the mountain to lick the salt and other minerals from the riverbed. We looked and looked but no goats. Then I found in the book that there are only 60 goats living in the area and summer isn’t the season for them to come salt-licking anyway. Bummer.

We went back to Sunwapta to have lunch at the lodge there. As we were getting out of the car a bus pulled up. I quickly grabbed the nearest child (Matthew) by the hand and literally dragged him into the line just as the people started streaming off the bus. Another bus pulled up right after. So maybe it was a good thing we didn’t see any goats and linger back there. If we had, the only lunch place for miles and miles would have been backed up an hour at least by the time we got there. See? There’s always a bright side.

As we got nearer to the Columbia Icefield, we ran into (thought not literally) another herd of mountain sheep wandering on the road. These guys (and gals I presume) were not approaching the cars and instead were there to lick the salt off the road. The horns on these goats were much bigger than on the other ones. I got some great pictures.

After some more driving and more gorgeous views, we arrived at the Columbia Icefield. We stopped first at the Icefield Centre to have a look around and then set off across the road to hike up to the Athabasca Glacier. It’s a bit of a hike straight up but the kids did great and were excited to walk out onto the ice. We didn’t go all the way up because we were just in tennis shoes and the kids were appropriately freaked out by all the warning signs about people who have died there. Especially the one about the nine-year old who fell into a crevasse “only meters from where you are standing”. We did, however, make it higher up than the two girls hiking in miniskirts and flip flops so I feel we did pretty well.

As we exited the Icefield, we entered Banff National Park and suddenly our navigation system was useful again! Immediately after we left the town of Whistler we entered an area not mapped on our system. It still knew where we were (as we would occasionally see bodies of water, etc.) but no roads were marked. It was a little disconcerting at first after having relied on it so much. But we survived and found everything we needed to find.

We drove on and on and saw more beautiful sights than I can name. We drove through many more “prime animal spotting” spots but the deer and the goats remained our only sightings for the day.

It started to rain a bit (really just a few sprinkles) which wasn’t a bad thing. It was cooler now and the air was definitely clearer.

We stopped at the Peyto Lake trail head and took a hike through the forest up to Peyto Lake. The lake is just beautiful! It’s a really pretty shade of blue (“robin’s egg blue”). Most of the lakes and rivers around here are very pretty shades of milky blue and green because they’re fed by the glaciers and get both glacier water and glacier silt. The color almost makes them look fake in a Disneyland-esque sort of way. Which makes them all the more beautiful because they're completely natural.

We made another brief stop at (beautiful blue-green) Bow Lake and Num-ti-jah lodge right on its shore and at the base of the Bow Glacier. That would be a great place to stay!

We rolled into Lake Louise around 5:00 PM or so. We just did a quick drive up to see the lake and the Chateau since we were all so tired and still had about an hour to go to get to our hotel in the town of Banff. To get to Banff, there are two parallel highways and we chose to take the more scenic, slightly slower one with the greater possibility of seeing animals. We saw none but it was a very pretty drive.

The kids are very excited to be here. Is it the beautiful view? Is it the possibility of all the nature to view in the National Park? Of course not. It’s the two story water slides. (Fact: Somebody did a survey and asked kids after their Disneyland vacation was over what the best part of their trip was. Ninety-some percent of them said the hotel pool.)

Banff

I'm exhausted so this entry will be short. I'll write more about today and respond to your comments tomorrow.

The short version is that we left Jasper this morning and drove along the amazing Icefields Parkway and arrived in Banff this evening. We saw some beautiful sights, took a number of short hikes (including one on a glacier), but (alas) didn't see many animals other than a few deer and some more Rocky Mountain sheep (again right on the roadway). Our hotel here in Banff is nice...more of an apartment or townhouse than a hotel which means that we have a lot more room to move around in. However, I would say that it is due for a renovation sometime soon (nothing bad really, just a little shabby around the edges which means that I'll have to wait a bit for my next bath). We lucked out in the location of our room and have an amazing view into the forest and up the mountain from our balcony. We got in too late to try the waterslides tonight but that's definitely on our agenda for tomorrow. Also on the agenda, I'll write more about our Icefields Parkway journey.

Last Day in Jasper

Well, we didn’t make the dawn or dusk animal viewing today but that’s OK. We’re talking about getting up early tomorrow and driving up there before we head out to Banff but I think we all know that’s just talk. After breakfast we drove over to the Jasper Park Lodge to walk around. It’s a beautiful (and big!) resort. Some group appeared to have taken over the entire place as everyone had a nametag, some were wearing costumes of some sort, and the entire place was decorated in an attempt to mimic the Olympics in Greece. Not wanting to either interrupt or watch their “games”, we decided to take a walk around Lac Beauvert. It was a nice shaded walk and the kids had fun chasing dragonflies, watching squirrels chase each other, and playing Harry Potter with sticks (wands). Unfortunately, as we were we getting back I noticed the tell-tale signs of a migraine beginning. I don’t get them all that often and really don’t get them all that bad if I can take some Excedrin with a can of Coke as quickly as possible. So, I hiked back up to the car and the boys and Jay went on to the lodge with the vague promise of “we’ll meet you there…” My migraines are mainly the eye kind which means that my vision is impaired for a good half hour to an hour and then I have a (mostly) mild hangover feeling for the rest of the day. By the time I got my medicine I was at the worst point of the distorted vision. So I stumbled off in the general direction of the lodge and eventually found them but only by pure luck. See…you knew I couldn’t make it though a trip without an eye-related malady of some sort. Really, my eyes work just fine when I’m at home. It’s just on vacation they go wonky. And I haven’t even told you about the time in Hawaii that I put two contacts in one eye (because I thought one had fallen out).

Next we went into town for lunch at a grill that had a very eclectic mix of American, Canadian, Chinese, Korean, and Italian food (but no poutine!) We ordered eclectically and it was all quite good! After that Jay and Matthew headed off to the Internet cafe and I took Adam and Daniel for a bit of a walk towards the car. Jay was able to post my last two entries but not download all of our email so we’ll try again tomorrow in Banff where (hopefully but not likely) we’ll have better connection luck. Earlier in the day we stopped in a computer store to ask if they had any AOL disks because surely they’d have a local access number, eh? Nope. She said she throws them all out since there’s no local access number. Oh. Right. It’s America Online. So we tried to sign up for an account on the local Telus system but since we’re not Canadian, we can’t.

After we returned to the hotel, we took a boat out onto Pyramid Lake. That was fun and nobody fell overboard (but not for a lack of trying). We overextended our allotted hour a bit (OK, by half) but I don’t think they charged us any extra. We decided to take the (electric) motor boat rather than a paddle or pedal boat because we wanted to be sure to see the whole lake. What a joke! The one-person canoes and the hikers on the shore were out pacing us!

Tomorrow we’re off for Banff (pronounced BAMFF not BANFF, by the way). So, why don’t they spell it with an M?!!!? They’re so difficult, these Canadians! J It really would have been nice to have one more day here so I hope we’ll come back someday. We really like this place we’re staying in. It’s beautiful, nice, and secluded. The downside is that we’re staying in a multi-level cabin made of wood so it’s very noisy when people walk. Our neighbors above us were doing laps (or so it seemed) in their room until almost midnight last night. According to our guidebook, we did most of the “must sees” here. Pyramid Lake? Check. Jasper Park Lodge? Check. Jasper Tramway? No because we just didn’t have time. But we’ll get to hike on a glacier tomorrow. Jasper Information Centre? Check (but why?) Hike the Whistlers? No because we didn’t take the tramway. Lac Beauvert shoreline trail? Check. Golf at Jasper Park Lodge? No, but we saw golfers there so I give us half credit. Tomorrow we take the famous Icefields Parkway to Lake Louse and then on to Banff. Hopefully along with all the great scenery we’ll see an animal or two. However, our high hopes of seeing a grizzly bear have been diminished somewhat. According to our guidebook, there are only 150 – 200 grizzly bears in all of the Rocky Mountain parks. However, 40 – 50 live in Banff so at least we have a better chance there. Around 50 – 60 black bears are in Banff (but they are more likely to be in areas near humans so our luck is better with them). Our next door neighbors here saw a black bear in Hinton but we’re not going there. We exchanged other information as well. We told them where to find the sheep and they told us where to find the elk.

We encountered another consequence of the park workers’ strike today. I took Daniel to the public washroom (the very same one we visited yesterday!) but today it was closed “due to the striking park workers.” We had to make a mad dash to the train station but we made it in time. Thank goodness! Because I don’t think having to buy Daniel new clothes is worth whatever it is they’re striking about. Or maybe it is…perhaps I’ll get a local paper tomorrow so I can speak intelligently about it.