The Rockies to the Capital

  Woody Woodpecker Thanksgiving for Bev’s Canadian family is very much a family day.   A nephew and his family had arrived the previous day from Montreal for the celebration as well as a nephew from Toronto. It was a house was full of adults and children.     Eating, drinking, and catching up with each other was the main activity of the day with 6 young children filled with of the excitement of the occasion and being together.   Fortuitously it was fine for much of the day and after some lunch we headed out to a place called Mer Bleue which is a peat bog that was part of an ancient river course of the Ottawa river after the last ice-age.   It is an example of the tundra according to the information posted at the bog.   The family  With a large number of children darting off in all directions it was never going to be a fast walk so we meandered through the bog which was mostly on a board walk.   It was lovely and t...

  Rideau Falls We awoke quite late.   After some breakfast we were taken for a walk around the neighbourhood and along a walkway where there was a fine display of the leaves changing colour. This year we are told, they do not have quite the same intensity of colour and are shedding faster than usual.    It was interesting to see a bit of Gloucester suburbia.   There were lots of houses in the area where we went one thing we saw was what is regarded as a white elephant public transport hub.   It seems that in Ottawa they have messed with the system and for many people made public transport even more difficult to use as has also happened in Wellington.   It was interesting to see that people have already begun to put out Halloween decorations some of which were very cute. Preparing for Halloween   Early afternoon I was picked up by my friend Paul in his rather wonderful Mercedes electric car.   It is the first time I have b...

  It was an early start for our flight to Ottawa.   We caught the shuttle to the airport and quickly got through security.   We had a nice breakfast at the Maple Lounge before boarding our flight to Ottawa.   The lounge gave a good view out over the CBD and the snow capped Rockies beyond.   A bright cool morning made it look very nice.     I had a good flight managing to finish series 4 of Succession.   A compelling series about some very flawed and largely unpleasant people.   If that is truly what it is like to be mega wealthy it is not for me.   All the baubles in the world do not make for happy and fulfilled people.     We flew in an Airbus A220 which was a nice aircraft to be in with good leg room for our seats and it was a 2-3 configuration.     We arrived on time at Ottawa and were picked up by Bev’s brother Graham arriving at his place to a very warm welcome from her nephews. ...

  Waterfowl Lake We had a 400 kilometre drive to Calgary via the Icefields Parkway.   This road goes through a series of valleys between two ranges of the Rockies.   It is spectacular.   Occasionally it felt like being in the southern alps except these are bigger mountains with several of them being higher than Aoraki Mt Cook in New Zealand.     Our first stop was the Athabasca Falls which were interesting and apparently can be quite spectacular during the spring when the spring melt is well underway.   Athabasca Falls   The road continued climbing until we came to the Columbia icefields which consists of several glaciers including the Athabasca Glacier which is visible from the road and a visitor centre.   There are also tours that can be taken onto the glacier, but   being a bit stretched for time we couldn’t avail ourselves of that experience.   Upper Athabasca River   When I was here last time...

  Mt Robson We had a surprise when we opened the curtains of our motel room to find that we were looking out at a pretty lake through the trees.   We stretched our legs by walking to a nearby hotel for breakfast after which there was a little exploration of the area around the lake. View from motel window Dutch Lake Clearwater   We continued up the valley which I think was probably called the Thompson Valley as that was the river that ran through most of the valley we traversed.   We stopped at a ski village called Valemount which was about 200 kilometres from Clearwater.   It was a rather disjointed place.   We found a café to have a coffee.   The question was “would they be able to provide a decaf flat white?”.   They had an expresso machine so perhaps they could. The conversation went so:   “Do you have decaf?” “Yes we have decaf, do you want a large mug?” “Is that a drip coffee or one made made by your espre...

  The Fraser River just before it enters the Canyon The rain had stopped which made our walk to collect our car a pleasant stroll.   A good way to start the road trip.   The check-in was easy and hassle free and before we knew it, we were in our Mitsubishi Eclipse heading back to our hotel to collect our bags.   I am always a little nervous when transitioning from driving on the left-hand side of the road especially on roads I don’t know.   The Canadian drivers were very tolerant of my initial slowness in figuring out where I was going.   Finding a place to park near our hotel was a bit of a challenge but eventually I found somewhere and we got our bags in the car, hooked up the phone to Apple Carplay   and told the Maps app where we were going.   No built in GPS in the car which surprised me.     Our route took us on the Trans Canada Highway to a little place called Hope where we stopped for a bite to eat.   ...

  The weather forecast had predicted rain for Monday so we weren’t surprised to find that it was raining when we awoke.   This was going to be the second city tour we had done in the rain, the last being in Portland.     It was a bit of a rush to get out the door to get to the Seabus for our short journey across the harbour.   A very helpful volunteer at the station directed us to the right street and from there we walked to the meeting place at the cycle shop.   It rains for about 250 days of the year in Vancouver, so rain was not going to stop the tour going ahead.   We just had time to go around the corner from the shop for a quick coffee and some breakfast. The coffee was not too bad and they even did a decaf which is what I drink these days.     There were six of us on the tour with us probably more than twice the age of the other four people who were English.   Vancouver City has an amazing cycle network ...