UCA - Ultimate Canadian Adventure - Part IV & V - abridged

so.... i'm taking forever to finish this re-cap of my cross canada trip... partially due to my general lack of focus for these things, and partially due to the "big move" that started right when i got back from my trip... i also don't have internet at the new place yet. either way, i returned from my trip at the end of may, and now it's the beginning of august and i'm still writing about it :S hence, i have set aside this time to - come hell or high water - FINISH IT! :)

Day 16: We arrived in Port Hardy and were given unofficial guidance to follow the train tracks into town. so we did. it was much prettier to walk by the water, then through the main roads in town. Eagles are like pigeons here... FLOCKS of them everywhere. We then hung out at Breaker's Pub watching wildlife out the window and catching up on correspondence until we had to head back to catch our ferry to QCC.
Day 17: The boat was rocking like a freaking rocking horse all night! it was rocking so hard that it forced the bathroom door open. i didn't sleep a wink :| When we got to the Island we were given official guidance that hitching from place to place was safe. so we hitched a ride from queen charlotte city to the haida gwaii museum in skidegate. and then hitched back... wandered the beaches of queen charlotte city till evening, then had dinner at howler's. all the ferry's were delayed due to bad weather. so we missed the 11pm ferry and ended up staying on the island another extra day.
Day 18: This is one of the most memorable days for me, since it was the most unexpected. Because our ferry wasn't leaving until 8:30pm, we had no choice but to enjoy ourselves! and enjoy ourselves we did. It wasn't raining!! and what's more, it was clear skies almost all day! we rented a car and drove to the north tip of Queen Charlotte's North Island! (on really clear days you can see Alaska from there!) We drove through Tlell, Port Clements, Masset, Old Masset and made it all the way to Agate beach! filled our pockets with Agates and other pretty things... then headed back down for dinner and to eventually catch the ferry. Day's 18/19 blur into eachother since we didn't sleep on the ferry much that night (watched two movies instead) because it was bringing us into Prince Rupert at 3am!! at the station we watched cartoons and napped on uncomfortable plastic chairs until the train arrived for 8am.
Day 19: train from Prince Rupert to Prince George. pretty uneventful. mostly just hung out with PGgirl and JohnnyBoy. got to hang out in the first class car for a bit too. preeeeeeeetttttty. saw some wildlife. spent an overnight in Prince George.
Day 20: the usual pretty stuff, flora, fauna. etc. ended up in Just Another Small Place Earning Revenue. Saw a random heard of Elk Grazing beside the Petro Canada station... just hanging out, in town. chillin, relaxin, grabbing a bite to eat. you know. the usual.
Day 21: did the whole Jasper super tour! checked out Whislter's mountain, athabasca glacier, pyramid lake, spirit island, medicine lake, maligne lake, and maligne canyon. the day wouldn't be complete without being chased off the road by Bighorn Sheep!
Day 22: 30 degrees in Jasper today! they RARELY get this kind of warm weather... souvenir shopping and wandering while we wait for our LAST train ride of our trip... bitter sweet moments... on the train had ravioli and maple salmon with wine for dinner... :)
Day 23: arrived in vancouver! took the aquabus to grenville island and wandered about. drove through chinatown, wandered through Gas town. had sushi for lunch.... and dinner... :) checked into our hostel (which is a converted nunnery) then headed over to Kitsilano beach to watch the sunset with BigTop and Pilot... it was mostly covered by clouds (of course) but was still pretty. then we headed out to some pubs (Wolf & Hound; Copper Tank; The New Bohemian; Elwoods) yes... that was in one night. it was a gooooooooooood night. ended too early...
Day 24: woke up still drunk. it was raining. but we have to make the most of our last few hours in vancity. we drove through stanley park. Lucy took some pics. i recuperated in the car (since i'd already been through stanley park before). went to Earl's for lunch. then off to the airport to catch our flight home. and watch the last sunset on our vacation from the plane.

Days 16-24 Highlights: silly children; us: "what do you do?" him: "I'm an alcoholic... see" (as he points to his liquor store bag); QCC beaches - mostly Agate beach; "In America, our trains MOVE" - lady from Atlanta; "wolf-elk"; Pam's Legs.

Shoe Betcha...

so i just did a preliminary shoe count for my pending move... :S apparently, in the past 15 years of my existence i have amassed 70 pairs of shoes. 6 slippers, 7 flip flops, and about 57 pair of dress, casuals, boots and sandals... yup, that works out to about 4.5 shoe purchases a year... wow.

UCA - Ultimate Canadian Adventure - Part III

Day 11: this day started in search of dinosaurs, hoodoo's and a guinness world record and ended with white linen tablecloths and $7.50/bottle of still water... we left calgary on a bus tour to drumheller and the badlands of alberta... other sights included: two GORGEOUS canyons (horseshoe, and horsethief...), sprawling oil fields, 11 bridges in 4 miles (a record) and the Last Chance Saloon (so named because years ago when people traveled through the valley in Wayne Alberta in a horse and buggy this was truly their "last chance" for a drink before the 45 km trip to the next town... SOOOO adorably western!). Our guide gave us free admission to the Calgary Tower at the end of this trip (YES, we saved $13) for a nice view of the downtown and around. now the end of this night is something else... so we wanted steak. Alberta beef, you know, in Alberta. we ask T-mo, and he's like, "you gotta go all the way"... so we went where he suggested... Meal: $250, Wine: $34, 2 Bottles of Still Water: $15, waiter's in white coat's folding your napkin on the table while you are in the washroom: Priceless. suffice it to say it was quite the experience we had, in our jeans, sweatshirts runners and hoodies... :S

Day 12: slightly less eventful then the last... we spent the whole day wandering about Calgary Downtown... bought myself cowboy boots and a cowboy hat!! WOO HOO! i've been wanting those for YEARS... and what better place to get them then Calgary... now i will have to visit during the stampede so i can wear them where they should be worn :) then we had the tastiest Tandoori Chicken Pizza for lunch... and finally T-mo whipped up a super SCRUMPTIOUS BBQ... :)

Day 13: so when we left Calgary this morning it was cloudy, but not raining or anything... drive, drive, drive... 1 hour later... :S where the BLEEP did all this snow come from!! just as we were driving through Cochrane on the way to Banff we hit SOOOO much snow! it wasn't deep, or accumulating too much, but there was a LOT more than you would expect on the road on May 8th!!! i had to follow the tire tracks of the car ahead of me to be sure of where the road was!! it was a while before we got out of the full on snow storm-y-ness... but it was still sprinkling snow pretty much the whole way until we were in Jasper... unfortunately, though the icefields parkway is known for wildlife, we did not see any on the way up... except for these really scary huge Raven's, or maybe they were crows... well, whatever they were, they seemed to be chasing us away whenever we parked the car somewhere... perhaps they were spirits guiding us away from the freak snowstorm that was chasing us up the mountain from cochrane...?? perhaps... Jasper was a dream... and though our train was late, i was NOT disappointed as it gave me plenty more time to spend just wandering about and soaking in the mountain scenery... it was pretty damned cold... but i didn't mind... i never wanted to leave! :) most of the train ride to vancouver was dark, since evening was on the approach when we boarded... so very little wildlife viewing here as well... just a few bears, elk, and deer.

Day 14: we woke up to some really beautiful and unexpected sights! if our train had been on time, we would have been passing through the Thompson and Fraser Valley's by night... but since we were late, we got to see all the picturesque views! sometimes what seems like a set-back, is really a blessing in disguise... :) it was like it was painted or something... the views were so unbelievably vivid... although, because of the delay's, we didn't have enough time to check out Victoria, and had to go straight to Nanaimo instead... i'm not too dissapointed though... Victoria is just another medium sized canadian city... we wandered about in nanaimo, which was a cute little town... but not much to see and we were tired... so off to bed, off to bed...

Day 15: off we go to drive North up the East coast of Vancouver Island... we made a stop in MacMillan Provincial Park at Cathedral Grove to check out the GINORMOUS (technical term) Douglas Firs... the forests were as wonderful as i remember them... and all my favorite trees, roots, and stumps were right where i left them! we continued on through the town of Campbell River (which was MUCH bigger than i thought it was! quite nice...) and finally to Port Hardy where it rains pretty much alllllllll year... :S but, we did get to buy some super yummy smoked salmon :) the ferry left on time (unlike Via) and so we were on our way to northern BC!! The first few hours of the ferry ride were like being on a rocking horse because we were being hit by Pacific Ocean currents... then we moved in among the little islands along the west coast of BC and it was smooooooooooth sailing until bedtime...

Days 11-15 Highlights: Alberta's Canyons, Vintage Chophouse, Cowboy Boots, Jasper, Jasper, Jasper, Fraser River Valley, Pacific Ocean.