My Big Fat Portuguese-English Christmas!

When we did finally arrive in England, there were only 3 days to go to Christmas! And we pretty much launched into Christmas day. As always it was loud and crazy - a very big, a very fat and a very Portuguesey-English Christmas!

Christmas dinner

Since the last time I was home, my sister, Jacqueline, had taken up cooking, so all I heard the first day or so was "Jamie Oliver this and Jamie Oliver that... etc etc". The plan was that my sister and I were going to cook Christmas dinner. When Christmas day arrived, Martin, my brother in-law Mark, and myself, prepared everything, except for my sister swanning in at the last second to do her Jamie Oliver Cabbage Dish! Needless to day, it was a huge wonderful feast, and so great to be with my family again, even if my sister was acting like she'd been slaving a ALL day in the kitchen! * Mush

To see more England Photos, click here

Surprise Stay in Iceland

Reykjavik, Iceland

To see our Iceland Photos, Click Here!!

We had planned a 10 hour layover in Reykjavik, Iceland on our way to England.  We figured this
would be enough time to take the 30 minute trip into town from the airport, have a good look around and then get back to the airport in time for our 4:30 PM flight.  Well, we got a bit of a surprise as our flight to London was cancelled because of snow in England, so we ended up being "stranded" in Iceland!  I say stranded, but as you can imagine, we saw it as a bonus vacation.  It's not like we had to be anywhere other than in England for Christmas Day.  I feel bad for the other people who had jobs to get to and families to be there for, but we actually felt lucky!!
We had arrived on Dec 19th, almost the shortest day of the year.  It was a bit strange having dawn for a couple of hours prior to sunrise at 11:30 AM.  And then the sun didn't really rise up very high in the sky at all.  This day, we walked around in the bone chilling wind, on a very quiet Sunday morning.  The capital of Reykjavik, was a quaint little downtown, with some colourful little buildings. 
We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant at the fishing docks, and had a nice bowl of lobster soup.  We noticed at the cabinet that they had all kinds of fish skewers, including whale meat!!  A walk along the coast brought us to the Solfan sculpture.  It looked like a a metal frame viking ship, and the mountains across the bay provided a beautiful backdrop.
Since we knew our flight was cancelled, we found ourselves a nice little hostel in town, and took a nap for a couple of hours as we had been up for almost 24 hours at this point.  Iceland is quite an expensive place, especially for us budget backpackers, so we found the cheapest food in town, and went out for a drink at a little local pub, where they show a movie on Sunday nights.
The next day, we had a flight scheduled for the afternoon, so we woke up early and went to a local outdoor hot pool to relax and try to warm our cores.  It worked, but on the walk to the Hallgrimskirka church, we quickly cooled off again.  The church had a very modern, simple look inside and a very new massive pipe organ  with hundreds and hundreds of pipes!  An elevator up the main steeple brought us up to some great views over the city, and when the bells chimed for Noon, the sun finally rose over the hills in the distance.  This provided some great light for photos of the town.

We headed back to the airport to find our luggage had already been sent to London on an earlier flight, but no worries, we were soon to join it......or so we thought.  As we were waiting at our gate, they announced that our flight was again canceled because of snow in London, so they we putting us up in a hotel for the night.  One problem for us though, we had been without a change of clothes for 3 days already, now one more!!

Gulfoss Waterfall

With everyone now scrambling to get on stand-by flights in the morning, we decided we didn't want to be handcuffed to the airport, so we rented a car and drove a couple of hours out to some amazing sights on the island.  First stop was Great Geysir and Strokkur.  The latter is a geyser that erupts every 4-8 minutes and shoots about 30 - 40 feet in the air.  Pretty impressive sight and then the mist freezes where it lands as it was really cold!!  A bit surreal really.

Blue Lagoon

From here, we drove 10 minutes further and arrived at the Gulfoss waterfall.  WOW, what a sight.  It was half frozen and all the mist around had created some cool features of ice on the grasses and vegetation around.  Martin walked out to the waterfall pictured, but we didn't stay long because it was absolutely freezing there..... oh yeah, and we had a plane to catch!!
Our last stop of the day was at the Blue Lagoon.  The water temperature is between 37 and 39 degrees celcius and creates a nice relaxing spa experience especially in the cold weather.  It is surrounded by dried lava beds and a geothermal power plant in the distance.  A pretty bizarre sight, but at least they have made the spa a pretty tasteful looking building.  
We headed back to the airport and finally were able to get on a flight to London.  We felt pretty lucky we were able to spend 3 days in Iceland, and it was a real bonus for us.  We would still make it in plenty of time for Christmas and got a little taste of what Iceland has to offer.  When we go back though, it won't be in the Winter!!!   *Stub

California

Bad Water Basin - Lowest Point in USA

Into the barren wasteland that is Death Valley, we found surprisingly enjoyable.  We were 280 ft below sea level at Bad Water Basin, before finding some very scenic sand dunes.  We got turned away at Giant Sequoia National Park because we didn't have chains with us (???) - winter tires and 4 wheel drive wasn't sufficient I guess.  We were worried we might not get in to Yosemite also, but a very nice ranger let us through, and we camped a night in the snow under Half Dome and El Capitan before continuing on to Oregon.

Sand Dunes in Death Valley

To see more of our California photos, click here!

Nevada

Hoover Dam

We visited the Hoover Dam on the way into Nevada, crossing over the brand spanking new bridge towering above the dam and canyon.  We paid a visit to the city of sin, Las Vegas, and surprised ourselves with how much we actually liked it.  We camped outside the city at Red Rock Canyon, and after 2 nights, were on our way to Death Valley, California.

To see our Nevada photos, click here!

Dancing waters at The Bellagio

Utah

Toadstools in Paria Canyon

We love Utah, it's quite an amazing place.  We spent some wonderful days hiking Buckskin Gulch in Paria Canyon, although we missed out on the lottery to hike to the formation they call The Wave.  Also a bone chillingly cold visit to the stunning Bryce Canyon.  All we can say is WOW!!

To see our Utah photos, click here!

Buckskin Gulch in Paria Canyon

 

Bryce Canyon

Arizona

Petrified Forest National Park

We entered Arizona at the Four Corners, and went to Canyon De Chelly National Park.  From there, we drove up past Lake Mead and into Utah.  On our return trip back into Arizona, we decided to head to the Grand Canyon and hike down into the canyon a bit.  From there, we went East to Petrified Forest National Park, before hitting Phoenix to stay with Martin's parents in their winter home.  A quick trip to Tucson for Thanksgiving, before heading on to Nevada!

To see our Arizona photos, click here

Canyon de Chelly National Park

Antelope Canyon

New Mexico

Adobe Church in Taos

In New Mexico, we traveled down through Taos to Santa Fe.  We spent our coldest night camping near Santa Fe, and woke up to -10 degrees Celsius.  From here, we headed back into Colorado to head to Mesa Verde.

To see our New Mexico photos, click here.

Bridge high above the Rio Grande

Nov 9-10th
Sante Fe, New Mexico
Heading south across the dry desert plains passing small scrubby towns, we eventually hit scenic byways to the small adobe-style town of Taos and onto touristy, yet classy, Santa Fe. We spent our coldest night yet in the National Forest outside Santa Fe; we awoke to a temperature of -10C! Crazy! A stream that had been flowing when we arrived the night before was frozen solid! We warmed up at a balmy 8 to 10 degC exploring Santa Fe's down town. The adobe architecture was cool and funky and we couldn't stop taking photos. Canyon Road - the arty farty part of town was filled with galleries that were super sophisticated yet set in buildings with lots of adobe character. The street was choc-a-bloc with weird and funky sculptures inside and out, not to mention some really amazing (and pricey paintings and native Indian artifacts. Would love to come back sometime and spend days exploring the art scene. Pretty cool! * Mush

Colorado

Great Sand Dunes National Park

In Colorado, we visited the Great Sand Dunes National Park where Martin climbed to the to of a 650 ft dune.  After some chilly camping nights we made our way to Mesa Verde to see some of the native cliff dwellings which were quite incredible.

To see our photos of Colorado, click here.

Nov 8th Great Sand Dunes National Park.
A surprising and unusual stopover about 3 hours south of Colorado Springs at this relatively new National Park! On the high flat desert plains blown in from the San Juan Mountains and up against the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains are 30 square miles of pure, brown sand. Dunes rising over 750 feet. Amazing, and challenge to climb! After spending a very cold night at the campsite (2 degree C), it was blowing pretty cold, so I left the tallest dune climb to Martin. Who described it as awesome and rewarding with an incredible 360 view for a looong way.

Cliff Palace - Mesa Verde National Park

Nov 11 MesaVerde National Park.
We took some interesting, scenic (single track) backroads from Sante Fe, through the mesas of Los Alamos (where the first atomic bomb was built) up to the SW corner of Colorado to Mesa Verde National Park. In AD 450 native Indians, called ancestral Pueblo Indians, built on the tops of mesas then later cities adobe-style into the side of the steep walls of the canyons. Pretty amazing to see the the Puebloan villages dotted around the mesas and the cliff dwellings in the canyons. It seemed crazy to build and live in homes clinging to the side of steep cliffs. Getting in and out, accessing food, water etc. must have been challenging.  Mysteriously the people disappeared in 1300 and the buildings were only discovered in 1850.AD. * Mush

Good times with my old best friend, Colorado Springs

One of my best friends from secondary school was Michele Moore. When we were 14 we would spend our summers playing non-stop tennis and badminton, have bazillions of sleepovers and drove our parents nuts. Michele now lives in Colorado Springs and it was brilliant to see her, and to see that she hasn't changed! Excellent to see Dylan, her son - my Godson - a pleasant young man of 15 now! (OMG how time flies!) It was 8 years ago when I last saw him and I'm really glad I got to see him again.
One evening with Michele, hubby-to-be John, and their friends Kim and Brian, we went to the local comedy club, then found ourselves pole-dancing on Michele's pole at home and had some great laughs ...and a bad head the next day! * Mush

The Butterworths, Wichita Kansas

Martin with Dave and Matthew Butterworth

We were excited to land at the Butterworths as the last couple of days had seemed extremely long drives. It was great to see them and the next few days were spent catching up and celebrating till two in the morning! While we all nursed our hangovers the next day, Dave cooked up a storm and smoked pork butt and ribs pretty much all day. After salivating for most of the afternoon as it slow-cooked in the oven, we dived into a monster meat-fest with Angie's parents and aunt and uncle.

Our visit wasn't all about eating, enjoying delicious wine and good company: Angie did also give us a tour of Wichita where we learnt several totally random facts, such as: Pizza Hut originated here, Kirstie Allie hails from here, it is the aeroplane capital of the US and the President's Airforce One is serviced here, plus the private jets of many celebrities, such as Harrison Ford and John Travolta who are frequently seen in town. * Mush

 To see our Kansas photos, click here.

Mammoth Caves National Monument, Kentucky

Tues 2nd Nov.

These caves are huge caverns, some with stalactite and stalagmites. We did a couple of tours the first of which was very poor value for money and was disappointing. The second tour deep into the cavernous 'room's was actually quite good.  The caves are massive, with tons of off tunnels off the main ones.  At one point you have to snake your way through, then climb a huge tower of stairs to get out.  Pretty impressive, but I guess it is the largest network in the world - that they know of!!

The plains of Missouri were pretty flat as expected, but there were still items of interest: many roadside farm buildings, and like the plains of Alberta and Saskatchewan, occasionally dotted with slow-pumping mini oil rigs.

The Tomlinsons in the Carolinas

We didn't give our friends the Tomlinson's much notice of timing for our visit, but of course, we were welcomed with open arms into their 'new' home Fort Mill South Carolina (even though they've been here for 3 years). Fantastic to see them and great to hear that they are enjoying their 'new' vocations - marketing for John with Western Star and horticulture for Trish. The weekend was relaxed  with plain old catching up with their lives, eating Trish's delicious gourmet cuisine, getting a private tour of the Botanical Gardens where Trish works, and a great-value nine holes of golf at Tega Kaye Golf Course. Because we move pretty much from campground on to campground every day, we rarely have time to 'clean house' so we spent a highly  constructive morning clearing out the tent and camping gear, overhauling the 'kitchen' and doing and laundry. John, never one to sit around twiddling his thumbs, pulled out the shop-vac and promptly valeted the inside of the car from head to toe! Star! We reluctantly left two days later, but what a feeling of rejuvenation - from the gourmet pampering to the spring clean of our home on wheels! You rock Trish and John! * Mush

Thanksgiving in Ottawa, Ontario

Sacha and Mush at Canadian Parliament Buildings

Oct 9th
Time to hit the road again moving on to Ottawa via Kingston where Martin went to Queen’s University. Nostalgia hit as Martin showed me all his old hang-outs and recounted all the stories of his time at Queen’s. The student part of town, called the ‘ghetto’, was unusually quiet and we finally remembered that it was Canadian Thanksgiving so students would be at home for the weekend.

Leaving Kingston we headed to Ottawa passed Fort Henry for great views over the city and Wolfe island, and along the Thousand Island Parkway – a lovely drive along the Lawrence river between Canada and the US. A very pretty, scenic area with a number of small islands with homes built on them… What a great idea: to own your own island and live on it! Cool!

Thanksgiving at the Singh/Wiseman's

In Ottawa we landed on Sacha, one of Martin’s high school buddies, and his wife Andie. Great to see them and their kids Rhianna and Callum, and Andie’s Mum and Dad and sister who were there for Thanksgiving. Sunday morning was bright and beautiful and we went hiking in Gatineau park across the river into Quebec to appreciate the last of the great autumn colours. It was pretty spectacular still.

We caught up with Martin’s roommate/ housemate of five years at Queen’s, Dan, also in town for Thanksgiving. Martin said ‘Same old Dan’ as they reminisced on old times, with some that they weren’t allowed to repeat! Then we hurried off to Andie’s amazing Thanksgiving dinner  - a monster sized 8lb chicken! Phew!

Monday 11th
Sacha and Andie live in a beautiful renovated townhouse in the centre of town and Sacha took us on a walking tour of Ottawa of this beautiful capital of Canada. The Rideau canal runs through the city and I discovered that in winter it freezes and people skate to work! The city maintains and keeps a short 5km stretch frozen. At the Rideau locks we watched a 70ft working boat practically fill the whole length of each lock as it slowly made its way to the Ottawa river. We walked along the river for a while and up onto parliament hill admiring its beautiful architecture. Into town and around the market area, we discovered lots of hidden alleyways and courtyards. Tin roofs of Notre Dame. The spider at National Gallery to name a few.   *Mush

Brampton (near Toronto), Ontario, Sept 29 to Oct 9

 To see our Ontario photos, click here.

Great to hang out seeing family and friends here. Spencer,  Martin’s nephew, had his 10th birthday. Martin's Mum and Dad had flown over too. And while Martin reunited with his high school buddies at his friend’s cottage near Huntsville, I went to Peterborough to see Kelowna friends, Aaron and Katherine, who moved here about a year ago. Fantastic to catch up and hang out with them and the kids. Being on the road after what feels like a long time, it felt nice and fuzzy to do normal stuff like the farmers’ market, Sunday brunch or the zoo ...including dressing up in wigs to family and friends' places!

The big 4 - 0 for Martin fast approached and back at Martin's  sister's his birthday meal of choice was delicious roast turkey which his mum had cooked. Together with his family and their friends Jim and Cheryl, crazy games ensued. 

Over the next few days we hung out at Lorraine’s, as well as caught up with a few old friends: Kevin (and his girlfriend, Fiona) who we’d met in China back in 2005, and  Andrew Parker who Martin traveled with in 2001/02.

By the end of the week we headed over to Peterborough: Martin hadn’t seen Aaron and Katherine yet. For me, it was great to see them all again so soon. We celebrated Martin’s birthday with Sushi - which we hadn’t had since we’d left Kelowna. It seems waaaay longer, but five weeks is definitely a long time to go without Sushi for us!  *Mush

The Big 4 0 - Birthday reunion, Baysville Oct 1 – 4

 To see our Ontario photos, click here!

7 of the 6-Pack in the Muskokas

 This is the reason we traveled across country.  2 years ago, six of my best friends from high school, had a reunion up in Revelstoke and we decided that we would do another for our 40th birthday’s.  It was decided to head East this time, to where it all began (at least close to Brampton).  I met up with Sacha for the first time since his accident (he broke his neck mountain biking in early July), and his parents.  Great to see Tage and Viv again, and even better to see how well Sacha was doing after the accident.  It’s a strange thing to hear that one of your best friends’ is seriously injured and you can’t do anything about it.  Sacha is in great spirits and recovering more everyday!!

Rob celebrating my 40th birthday with Ripps

Mark, Sacha and I picked up Colin on the way up to the Muskokas to the Stella and Steve’s cottage/house on Dickie Lake up in beautiful cottage country, Ontario.  Stella and Steve had graciously ‘loaned’ us the house for the weekend and taken off camping themselves – how nice is that!  The following day, Rob, Jeff and Greg arrived and we met at the local pub – The Pav.  Always a good laugh when we all get together.  Only Mike was missing, but not to worry, we had a life size cardboard cutout and Mike’s photo mounted on it.  Mike traveled with us everywhere.
Of course, the first night is a big celebration, with plenty of single malts drank, and cigars smoked.  And the next morning is filled with hangover’s from our 40 year old bodies.
You might ask, what did we do all weekend, and the answer is ……nothing really.  Unless you include drunken swims in the lake, late night canoes, and Frisbee golf with Tupperware lids.  We sure had our quota of laughs though – very healthy.  I don’t think I ever laugh as much as when I am with these characters. *Stub

More Prairies to Winnipeg, Manitoba

Leaving Moose Jaw around lunchtime, we set off on the 650km journey to Winnipeg to see friends we met in Vietnam – Wes and Amanda. We spent a day or so hanging out with them reminiscing on old times of our 3 weeks of travel together in 2006. We enjoyed walking around Winnipeg and seeing downtown. Winnipeg has many funky neighbourhoods that seem to be busy and ‘happening’. It also has a large French community so we had some great Poutine. Originating from Montreal, traditional poutine is a French Canadian dish made of chips (with real potato, not skinny fries), thick gravy and cheese curds. Not exactly very healthy, but really really gooood! Great to see Wes and Amanda and catch up with them. * Mush
 

To see more Prairies photos, click here

Little Chicago – Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Well, the town of Moose Jaw has nothing to do with mooses or jaws but comes from the Cree word ‘moosegaw’ for ‘warm breezes’. Moose jaw used to be a lonely trading post in mid Saskachewan until the railways transformed it into a bustling prairie town in the 1880s. It’s claim to fame is a little-known gangster bringing his criminal escapades north from Chicago during Prohibition in the 20’s. Al Capone – his guns, his goons, his gin, his gals – had a secret world in the underground tunnels of Moose Jaw. Now I didn’t realize just how much money Big Al made: a $100 million a year! That’s an amazing amount of money. We took a tour through a maze of underground spaces which was informative and very entertaining. Our guides would drop into character every once in a while. We learned that the tunnels were originally made and used by Chinese immigrants who, after working on the railroad and with no job or return ticket to China (as had been promised), still had to repay their fee for their original passage from China. The ‘coulee’ as they were disrespectfully referred to worked for a pittance in the underground in laundries or burlap factories trying to pay off their debts. They were persecuted by white people, and even though they endured intolerable working and living conditions below, they never ventured above ground. Eventually immigration laws changed but not after may more years of hardship for the Chinese.

From here, we set off on the 650km journey to Winnipeg to see our friends from Vietnam – Wes and Amanda!

Writing-on Stone Provincial Park, Alberta

 To see more photos of Writing on Stone, click here
Today we started heading East across the Prairies of Alberta.  The winds picked up the morning we left Waterton. It was blowing 40km/hr (25miles/hr) winds forecast to increase to 60k/hr, gusting to 80! Probably a good time to pack up the tent before that happenend! So we headed east for the flat prairies leaving the mountains behind. The prairies were indeed flat as far as they eye could see, though not as dull as we were expecting. Farms flanked the road we took. The landscape of crops of corn or wheat were broken up with silos or grain elevators. Occasionally, there’d be an oil rig in the middle of a sea of wheat.

Once in a while the flat landscape would drop into a valley created by meandering rivers giving rise to unexpected oases of trees and lush undergrowth. Writing-on Stone Provincial Park was a highlight. A lush oasis with eroded rock formations called hoodoos. These reminded Martin of Cappadocia in Turkey: lots of unusual shapes and sizes of eroded rocks with funky layers and flat tops. Petroglyphs were depicting life of the Blackfoot Indians are carved into the rocks here. Pretty cool.

We were going to cross the province border in the very south, but hit dirt gravel roads every which way we turned, so decided to go north and take the main TransCanada Highway1 into Saskachewan. It was dark when we arrived in a campsite north of Moosejaw in a lush little valley on a lake. *Mush

Prairie Meets Mountains at Waterton Lakes

To see more Waterton Lakes photos click here 
Waterton National Park is in south east Alberta near the border with BC to the west and the states to the south. Beautiful place. Serene mountains and lakes teeming with wildlife starting with buffalo as we entered the park, tons of deer, and the highlight: a cinnamon bear cub in a tree with mum out of sight in the bushes down below. We thought that it was a grizzly, but discovered it wasn’t. Cinnamon bears are light brown in colour and part of the black bear family (not brown bear).  We did a very cool six hour hike into the mountains to Carthew pass. Our starting point at Cameron lake and it’s surrounding peaks were shrouded in cloud.  We walked up beautiful snowy forests passed another lake for lunch with a view of pretty mountains. Steep scree terrain rewarded us with a spectacular 360 degree view at the saddle summit with Glacier National Park (Waterton’s equivalent in the US) to the south and glimpses of prairies to the east beyond Waterton’s peaks. Just before entering Waterton’s pretty townsite the Prince of Wales Hotel had a perch overlooking the lake that I think any Fairmont Hotel would kill for! In comparison, our accommodation was less pretty even though it was beside the lake. We were surprised to see that the National Park campground (the only one open) was pretty much an open field with no character or privacy between sites. Stone chimneyed kitchen huts offered some warmth and shelter, but we couldn’t find any wood at the camp or in town. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the beautiful colours and hiking. *Mush

City Slickers Here We Come!

Time to leave the shelter of Calgary and face the open road and whatever the weather would throw at us now that we were dried out and fuelled to go. First stop was Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump - a UNESCO World Heritage site where the ancient method of hunting buffalo by herding them for miles and then funneling them driving them over very specific cliffs areas. The Blackfoot first nations people (the Plains Indians of this area) hunted this way for nearly 6000 years. The exhibit centre is pretty cool describing the pre-hunt ceremony, the herding process and the jump with interesting archeological evidence. There are also walks around the area of the cliffs and the kill site, though nothing much to see now apart from cliffs that once were originally 20m high are now, after thousands of years of buffalo bone deposits, only 10m high.

Our end destination of the day was a somewhat surprise/short-notice landing on friends of Rob’s who own a ranch in south-east Alberta. Jim and Lauren and their two kids Sophie and Mattias, made us feel super welcome at their family ranch known as Antelope Butte Ranch. Unfortunately, it snowed that night (thankfully we were inside by a nice wood burning stove) which meant there was no harvesting of crop to be done the next morning. But a ranch is a ranch… and there’s always work to be done! Well, the first job of the day was milking Hazel their family cow, of course, for the family fridge. I was pretty excited as I have never milked a cow before despite many school visits ‘to the farm’ when I was a kid in England. Anyway, it was not as difficult as I had imagined although my aim was a bit dubious. It’s an interesting technique requiring one to grip the hand around the teet and squeeze with the fingers in quick succession starting from the index to the pinkie allowing milk to collect then squirt out. Collect, squirt, collect, squirt etc. Who would have dreamt that we would be milking a cow on our trip!

Second job of the day (after Martin helped Sophie build a snowman, of course) was to bring a renegade bull home. City slickers eat your heart out… I have been on a horse probably twice in my life, but Jim was not perturbed (which meant that he could probably do the job single handedly). Anyway, once I got a quick lesson on how to ride a horse, we went in search of the Bull. The ranch is at least 9,000 acres, but Jim knew where to start looking. As we slowly made our way we saw a bald eagle, a golden eagle, and in the distance, a coyote. We eventually found the bull in a field (probably doing his job), but with the neighbours cows who had got out of their own field and onto the more juicier plains of Antelope Butte. So not only did we have to bring the bull home, we had to get the girls back into their own field. By the three of us manouvering in a line towards the herd constantly moving our horses back and forth so that the herd would move towards the gate we were able to get them back in to the correct field! Using the same process we were able to separate the bull from the cows, and with Jim, Martin and I always in constant eye contact with the bull from the rear side we ‘walked’ the bull home and herded him into the corral. The whole experience was amazing and every minute we had to keep reminding ourselves that we were actually doing this. Holy Cow! *Mush

To see more photos, click on this link

Dry Days in Calgary

It seemed to keep on raining when we got to Calgary. We didn't care: we were DRY and WARM for the first time in what felt like a loooong time. Heaven! It was great to stay with friends Robb and Nat and their two kids, Abby and Maggie.... not to mention, the fabulous warm, dry roof over our heads! We spent some goofy times catching up with friends Jeff and Alana, and Sean and Emma too. We were reluctant to leave the warmth and comfort, so poor Robb and Nat had to put up with us for another day!

We managed a quick visit with Slim and Michelle on what happened to be their son Zach's 7th birthday.  All the kids were out for a 'Harry Potter' party, so plenty of spells were cast, and potions drank.  Brian and Mel, Martin's friends from Queen's were also there with their 2 kids!!
We spent four glorious dry days in Calgary before moving on.  *Mush

To see more Alberta pictures, click here

Lake O’Hara, British Columbia, Canada

The next four days we spent at beautiful Lake O’Hara.
Surprise, surprise, but more rain!  We boarded the bright yellow school bus bound for Lake O’Hara with a group of other campers.  They limit the number of people that can head up to the lake to 40/day.  This is to protect the natural beauty of the area and to restore a lot of the trampled habitat.  Because of this, we had to book the bus and campsite 3 months in advance, and had been looking forward to it.  It did not disappoint.

The campground was like a little community, with communal cooking shelters/warming huts and a big fire pit where we could all gather when it wasn’t raining. The hiking around the alpine circuits was amazing in spite of the rain. The mist and low-lying clouds added to the atmosphere, and once they lifted, the colours were more vibrant, if anything. The first larches were turning gold too. For those of you who don't know, larches are unusual trees because they are the only pine-needle tree that will change colour in autumn and lose its needles.

Anyway, we had fun meeting a variety of people on the trails and at the campsite. At the end of each day we would take shelter from the rain and cook dinner in the kitchen huts sharing stories of the day’s adventures with other campers. We decided to stay an extra night as there was space due to poor weather, and to our surprise, we found little food packages and farewell notes in our bear locker from friends we’d made whom we'd told. We couldn’t believe it. It made us feel good that people are so generous despite only knowing them for a day or so.

On the evenings that it didn’t rain, we sat around the group fire pit and had great laughs and made smores (again generously donated by new friends who had left that day). I will have to explain smores as they are a very north American thing and we don’t 'do' them in England. They are basically a sandwich that you make around the campfire made with a freshly melted-on-the fire marshmallow with a square of (unmelted) chocolate and placed between 2 graham crackers (biscuits). They can only be eaten whole so you have to cram them in your mouth in one go, and if it's done correctly, the chocolate should melt from the heat of the marshmallow.
We did not want to leave this beautiful place, but know that we aim to come back again, as seems to be the norm with most of the people we met who come back year after year. * Mush

To see more BC photos, click here