A rainy welcome to Manitoba

July 16, 2012

Yesterday, July 15th, we left Saskatchewan for Manitoba. We woke up in the morning in our campsite in Good Spirit Lake Provincial Park bright and early. As soon as we starting packing up our belongings the rain started. It was very heavy and strong rain that soaked us to the core in just a few minutes. We quickly got the boys in the car while we finished packing up and by the time we were done, Ben and I were completely soaked. We left the park as soon as we could and our plan was to head for Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba for a couple of nights of camping there.

When we arrived at the park, the heavy rain was still falling and we reluctantly decided that it would be safer to stay the night in a hotel, especially with warnings of thunder storms over night.  We spent about an hour in Wasagaming unsuccessfully looking for accommodation. The resort town combined with heavy rain which may have driven many people away from camping and into hotels, meant that very few rooms were available and those that were were very expensive.  After checking 5 of 6 places we decided to drive to Minnedosa which is another town less than an hour away to find a hotel there.  Our search in Minnedosa was fruitful and we quickly found ourselves safe and dry in a simple but comfortable motel room. 

The following morning, we left our motel to head to Winnipeg. Before leaving Minnedosa however we made a stop at the town's heritage village site. The site had a few houses built about 100 years ago and a beautiful park which we walked in, enjoying views from the lake and river in town. I have been getting very interested in bird viewing since we started on this trip, enjoyed spotting a couple of new species which I then ticked away on my bird viewing checklist which I piked up in Cypress Hills. When our walk was complete we got back into our car and headed to Winnipeg.

Just outside of Winnipeg, we stopped for lunch at a park by the water treatment centre for the city of Portage La Prairie which sits right beside the Assiniboine River. As we conveniently travel with our kitchen in our trunk, it took us mere minutes to have our stove/grill set up on a picnic table and have our hot dogs grilling away on it. After enjoying hot dogs for lunch we walked around and by the river. We were all excited to spot a threesome of Pelicans playing in the water (one more bird for me to tick off).

We finally arrived at our hotel in Winnipeg just in time for checking in time and after a quick rest in our room, we were off again to visit the city's main park, the Assiniboine Park.  This was  a beautiful park almost as big as Stanley Park in Vancouver. It contained a kid's dream playground area complete with a very small door that adults need to bend down in order to go through. It also had a lovely flower and plant garden with many local plant species and a beautiful sculpture garden than must host 20 or 30 different sculptures scattered around flower garden and gorgeous looking ponds.

Our walk in Assiniboine Park took us to dinner time and we weer back in our car driving to a local perogies  place recommended by a friend of Ben's. Unfortunately by the time we arrived at the restaurant it was closed for the day and we had to continue driving around looking for an alternative. Being far away in the outskirts of town, the only available places were fast food junk joints and with the two boys hungry and screaming in the back seat, we eventually pulled over at Wendy's for our dinner. The food was your typical junk fair but while we were disappointed to not be eating perogies we were  all too starved to care much by that point and  gobbled our burgers and fries very quickly. As a special treat we decided to allow Zaid to drink pop for the first time, but were happily surprised to see that he did not like it. After making a disgusted face he asked for water! We were very proud of him but also felt a little guilty that our effort to always eat healthy wholesome food may have gone a little too far. I mean what kid does not like pop??!! 


There is much to do and see in Winnipeg and we only have a very short time. Tomorrow is going to be busy with plans to visit a Children's museum, St. Boniface, the Forks and couple of other things. We might not be able to get a round to see everything we want but we will try our best. 


Next will be more camping just before the border with Ontario and then in Ontario. Ben is itching to be camping again and we are all hoping for good weather so that we can enjoy it. Our next post will most likely then come to you from the USA!


until then. 


Haifa 

Day 22: Thoughts From Saskatchewan

July 14, 2012

Tonight is the last of our three nights in Saskatchewan. We are at Good Spirit Lake, about an hour North-East of Melville and are staying in a nice campground amongst a small poplar forest. Tomorrow we head for Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. I have lots of thoughts about our short time in this province but there is little way to combine them into a cohesive unit. Therefore, I present a collection of musings and happenings from Saskatchewan.

1) There is no flag that better represents the area it stands for than that of Saskatchewan. Today we were driving along a small, and very straight, country highway, to the left was a young wheat field – green as far as the eye could see, and to the right was a canola field – yellow as far as the eye could see. I felt as if we were driving down the centre of the Provincial flag.

2) Regina kind of blows. We went downtown for dinner on Friday night, only to find a deserted city. Most restaurants were closed and the few people we did see seemed to be in a hurry to get out of dodge. After 30 minutes of walking we stumbled upon a greasy Chinese diner that served some very good white-person Chinese food, the restaurant had only 3 of 20 tables full. There were more people, by a factor of 10, at the Superstore this morning than downtown on a Friday night, not a good sign for a city.

Downtown Regina - Friday Night

3)  I have no idea what the term is for someone from Saskatchewan or Regina. Our best guess is that residents of Regina are called “Reggies.”

4) They REALLY like the Roughriders here. They have highway road signs celebrating old football heroes. They have a whole area of Regina cordoned off as the “Green Mile.” Approximately 75% of all people (from babies to old women in wheelchairs) today (when the Roughriders play the BC Lions) were wearing some kind of team paraphernalia. It should be noted that we travelled about 200 KM today and drove through multiple small towns, all Rider obsessed. One of the two official provincial license plates comes adorned with the Roughriders logo and slogan. They REALLY like the Roughriders here.

5) Despite my dislike for Regina, we all found the Royal Saskatchewan Museum to be a hoot. They had a very nice natural history of Saskatchewan gallery that we all loved, as well as a dinosaur and First Nations Gallery. To top it off, Zaid spent 30 minutes playing in the “Paleo Pit” in the basement – a playroom stuffed from wall to wall with Dinosaur toys.

6) There are a tonne of dragonflies here. I picked 15 full ones out of the grill of the car today. They have been circling our campsite since we arrived 7 hours ago, even going so far as to land on books we are carrying, or beside Owen in his carseat.

7) I was out trying to find a garbage can after dinner and decided to go have a second look by the washrooms. I turned the corner from the road to the path towards the washrooms and came face to face with a mama deer and her 2 babies. The quickly passed me by, about 2 feet in front of me. It was quite something to witness. We have seen this deer family 3 times now in the campground.

8) Owen has been drooling a lot recently, and we finally figured out why. His first tooth came in! Despite indications that it would be an incisor, it was the traditional lower front tooth. The one next door is on the verge of popping out as well. Hopefully this explains the slightly less than pleased behaviour he has been showing in the car.

9) Our car is disgustingly filthy. It hasn’t rained more than a couple of drops in over a week and the combined effects of dirt roads and thousands of bug splatters from the top of the carrier to the bottom of the front grill are taking their toll. When we stop the front of our car becomes a feeding ground for all kinds of bugs. I hope automatic car washes can account for the car-top carrier.

10) We stopped for a lunch in Melville today and stumbled upon a garage sale. It was hosted by an older man who needed to empty his late mother’s house after he had sold it - $90,000. We purchased an old school film camera as a toy for Zaid. He has been loving taking pictures from the car.

11) We stopped for lunch in Herbert, just east of Swift Current, on the way to Regina. We stopped at the tourist centre, which happened to double as an old train museum. Zaid, who has developed an obsession for trains as large as his obsession for trucks, was in heaven. We spent about an hour puttering inside the old train cars. A little gem by the side of the highway.

12) We cannot wait for traditional perogies made by old Ukrainian grandmothers in Winnipeg. 

Cypress Hills

July 10 - 12 , 2012

We spent July 10th to 12th camping in Cypress Hills. Cypress Hills, for those who do not know, is described as the highest point between the Rockies and Labrador. That makes it quite literally an island of hills in the middle of a sea of flat Prairie fields. And because of that  it is a perfect holiday and camping spot in this area and weather. The Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park straddles the borders of both Alberta and Saskatchewan. We chose to camp in the Alberta part of the park in a little campground nestled between the hills and Elkwater lake.

As we began setting up our camp we noticed that the sites around us were all occupied by families with  children. There were at least four family with children ranging from age 6 to10 and Zaid quickly ran out to some of them and started chatting with them. Most of the kids had brought their bikes with them and were zooming around the site, and Zaid was very interested in all the bikes. The children were all very kind and most of them would stop as soon as they saw Zaid and would allow him to touch their bikes, inspecting every parts of them. One little girl told me that after spending a few minutes examining her bike Zaid firmly  said "good bike" and finally allowed her to continue her ride around the grounds. Another little girl took it upon herself to make sure that whenever Zaid wondered too far away from our site, she would hold his hand and lead him all the way back to his mommy and daddy. The older boys walked with him as he went to explore the little creek across from our site, and all of the kids just made sure that he was safe and having a fun. For Zaid this was by far our best camp.

On our first day we drove to the beach and had a swim in Elkwater lake. The lake was not as warm or clean as Newell Lake from our previous site, but was still very pleasant to be in especially in 30 degree weather.  The following day was our relaxing day. In the morning we visit Fort Walsh, a fort built in the 1800s to help expand the sovereignty of Canada to the western regions. The tour guide was an excellent historian who was dressed the part and who was full of interesting and educational historical information about the fort, the era and the region. Unfortunately standing and listening to a history lesson about the fort was not too interesting to Zaid and Owen, and so we quickly broke away from the group and explored the rest of the fort according to our own schedule and route. Following a quick lunch at the site's information centre we drove back to our camp for a relaxing afternoon in the shade of the trees surrounding our tent.

In the evening we enjoyed a simple dinner of franks and beans, followed by a walk to the town's corner store for some ice-cream and a walk back to prepare the boys for bed time.

It is fair to say that apart from the little accident we had with Own, as talked about in Ben's previous post, the stay at Cypress Hills was great. We enjoyed some shade and coolness after being in the heat of the Prairies for a few days and it was nice to be back in a climate and eco-zone similar to that of the West Coast. The area is also full of wild life although we only managed to spot birds and deer, in addition to the not so wild cows grazing every here and there in the hills. The hills are home to the scary Cougar but luckily for us we did not spot any.

Cypress Hills were recommended to us by several people back in Vancouver and we are very happy to have listened. If you are ever in this part of the country it is definitely not to be missed. A great community, with everything to make a summer holiday fun, relaxing and adventurous.

Next is off to Regina and a couple of days break from camping. As always we are all looking forward to a comfortable bed and a hot shower, and of course a chance to do some laundry. Ah the life of road travellers!

Haifa 

Day 18: I Dropped Owen

July 10, 2012. 

I dropped Owen this evening. It was almost 4 hours ago and he is fine now. He has a big welt on his forehead and scratches all over, but is alert, focused, and as cheerful as ever. Owen is fine, but I am still a bit shaken. I expect to poke Haifa awake every hour to make sure he is still fine.

We had just finished dinner and I was holding Owen at the picnic table. Zaid was fiddling with the propane tank on the campstove and Haifa decided to put the stove away to end the fiddling. However, in doing the job quickly, the propane tank remained open, spilling propane out into the air. In a flash I had two thoughts: get the propane tank closed ASAP and keep the kids away from it. Holding Owen, the only way for me to accomplish this was to hold him in one hand, arm outstretched, and remove the hose from the propane tank with the other. As I put this hastily thought out plan into action Owen slipped from my grasp and fell about 2 feet to the gravel floor below. He fell face first and immediately burst into tears.

Neither Haifa nor I really recall many of the details of the next 5 minutes or so. Owen ended up in Haifa’s arms and I managed to corral the propane. Zaid was a bit scared and so was still hanging around, which is good because if he had decided to wander we would still be looking for him. 5 minutes more pass during which Zaid remained in the camp and Haifa alternately consoled both Owen and me. Thankfully, our neighbouring campers, Jeff and Kay from Fort Saskatchewan, had seen the scene unfold and came over. Their presence shook us out of our shock and got us into action. A phone call to the Visitor Centre revealed the small town of Elkwater has not even a doctor’s office and the nearest Hospital was 45 minutes away in Medicine Hat. After 4 more phone calls we managed to get the Parks Paramedic to come up and pay us a visit. By the time she arrived Owen was mostly back to his old ways. He greeted her with a huge smile and passed all of the concussion tests with flying colours. Nevertheless, we now have her number on file and will be monitoring Owen all night long.

Owen and I - none the worse for wear the following morning

Aside from the stress and worry of the evening the day was excellent. We broke camp early at Kinbrook Island and had a midmorning swim at the, surprisingly, empty beach. The drive to Elkwater in the interprovincial park of Cypress Hills proved to pass surprisingly well, Owen only required one stop and Zaid had a long nap as well. After settling into our campground we headed down to Elkwater Lake for another dip in the water to cool down before heading back to camp and the stress to come.

Zaid and I playing in Elkwater Lake - Cypress Hills

Tomorrow we head to Saskatchewan for the day, visiting Fort Walsh and the Cypress Hills Massacre National Parks sites before coming back to our camp in the Alberta side of the park. We are planning a long drive to Regina for the day after that, bringing us fully into our third province.

Day 17: Bloodsuckers of the Badlands

July 9, 2012

We are deep into Alberta and the great Canadian Prairies now; it is quite a change from the environment we 

are used to in BC. It is, however, not really like the stereotypical prairie environment either. Coming from the mountains we have a view of the prairies as this great flat wasteland. We joke that from the Rockies you can see the city of Winnipeg off in the distance, unobstructed by anything.

In my mind the term flat brought to mind a blank sheet of white paper lying on a table, textureless, empty, plain. While the prairies are most certainly flat, they are far from empty. From softly rising and falling slopes, to canyons cut out over thousands of years by rivers, to groves of trees, to vast fields of yellow canola and green soy, to the silos, barns, and farmhouses in the middle of this all, the terrain of the prairies is full of texture. It is nice to be in a place that celebrates much of what we take for granted having come from the mountains.

Heading to Drumheller for Zaid’s most anticipated visit, the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum, Owen wakes up, forcing us to stop for a roadside feeding. Being locked in the air-conditioned car since leaving Calgary, our system was shocked by the opening of the door. The freshest and most wonderful scent filled the car. All the various crops, as well as the roadside grasses come together to create the most beautiful smell in the prairies. Haifa immediately had recollections of springtime in Jenin when her family had just moved to their home atop the mountain. Surrounded by fields this was the smell she had grown up with.

A second stop was required before checking into our campground, a visit to an ATM, since campgrounds generally only accept cash payments. The map, as well as the roadsigns, suggested that Carbon might be an option for us. A short 3 kilometer drive from the highway we grew sceptical when there was no sight of any house after our turnoff. However, we quickly made our way down into this depression which housed the prairie town of Carbon. This is pretty much exactly what I had in mind when thinking of small prairie towns; one single main street, with a few houses in the background. The main businesses along main street were an agricultural co-op, what seemed to be a tractor storage yard, a bar/restaurant, and, luckily for us, a Credit Union. In the 10 minutes we were there, getting cash, taking pictures, and calming Owen, we saw only 1 other individual in the background.

Main Street in Carbon, Alberta

Given the popularity of Drumheller and the Dinosaur museum we decided to procure accommodations before visiting the museum. We decided on Bleriot Ferry provincial park, about 20 KM North of the city, right on the shores of the Red Deer River, on the floor of a canyon. Being in a location called “The Badlands”, and amidst the heatwave that had been ravaging Eastern North America, we thought that such a location would be cooler. It very well may have been, but any gains in the temperature department were more than offset by the Mosquito department. I have never seen such quantities of mosquitos in my life. We woke up in the morning to a nearly black ceiling of bloodsuckers stuck between the tent and fly, waiting for us to depart before the struck. The Mosquitos, combined with the drunkards next door (from Vancouver), the loud bully of a mother next to them, the 30 degree heat, and the filthy washrooms that hadn’t been cleaned in at least a month made this by far our worst campsite yet, and one that we expect to be the worst of our trip. We left as soon as was humanly possible in the morning to get away from it.

Luckily, the experience at the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum overshadowed the experience at the campground. Alberta has one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur fossils in the world, and much of it is clustered in the area around Drumheller. As such, this museum has been built, and proven to be a massive success. The place is full of complete dinosaur skeletons from probably 30-40 different unique dinosaurs, including Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and the T-Rex. The newest addition was a fossil recently discovered of a sea-creature that had 76 vertebrae in its neck (making it 10 times longer than a Giraffe’s neck). This was truly an awe-inspiring visit for all of us, and has proven to be a highlight of the trip so far.

T-Rex Skeleton in the museum

Today we made our way in a south-easterly direction to Kinbrook Island Provincial Park, about 15 KM south of Brooks. This has proven to be a very welcome time to relax. The Island is in Lake Newell, which is a popular boating, fishing, and swimming destination for Albertans. The campsite reminds me very much of Hayne’s Point in Osoyoos. Most of the campers spent the day sitting at the beach or swimming in the just warm enough (and just cool enough) water. The campground is very well run, with lots of shade to keep the scorching sun at bay. Our strategy of swimming in full clothing proved to be very successful, as we were kept cool by our wet shirts all afternoon. The excitement was a bit much for Zaid though as he took two and half hours to fall asleep this evening.

Tomorrow we will pack up our tent, head to the beach for one last cooling swim, and then head for Cypress Hills Provincial Park. This brings us to the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan, heading towards our third province. It also comes at an opportune time as I have just started reading “The Englishman’s Boy” by Guy Vanderhaege, which deals with an event known as the Cypress Hills Massacre. It will be nice to have the place provide context to the book, and the book provide context to the place, in particular our planned visit to the Cypress Hills Massacre National Historic Site.

I can’t believe we are almost in Saskatchewan. In a week or so we should be crossing into Minnesota to begin the US portion of our trip, and then a short time later we will be in Toronto. There is still lots of new stuff to see and do though, so we are staying excited and ready for new adventures.

Calgary

July 6-8 

On July 6^th we left Banff and headed towards Calgary. We started our Calgary visit by stopping at Olympic Park which happened to be on the way from the Banff and is where events from the 1988 Olympics in Calgary took place. The park was quite interesting with lots of fun Olympics inspired activities to satisfy a whole family. We opted to visit the Sports Hall of Fame since it would have been challenging to do any other activity such as Zip-lining, luging etc with two young children. The highlight from the Hall of Fame was when Ben spotted a gold medal in diving from the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games won by his mother’s cousin!

Next we drove all the way to the opposite end of town to visit Calgary Fort. More like a museum than a fort, the place had many interesting exhibits showing life in Alberta in the early days of the20^th century. Zaid enjoyed two things in particular; playing with antique  toys from in the interactive children’s area, and painting a buffalo to put on the Alberta map in an activity called “reherding Alberta”. He also loved watching the horses in the barn right outside the Fort.

By the time we were finished with the Fort it was time to head to my friend’s place. Joanne lived in a very nice community in south west Calgary. After a brief period of being lost we found ourselves at her front door.

Our stay with Joanne was fantastic. She was a most generous and gracious host, who adore children in general and who loved Zaid and Own. Within a few minutes of our arrival Joanne managed to become Zaid’s newest best buddies.  Acting just as you might expect a great aunt to, she had all of his favorite things; snacks, toys, tv shows, books and other activities. When Zaid was done exploring all of the toys and books, he moved on to explore every nook and cranny of the house, including all of the kitchen cupboards. Faced with all of her pots and pans spread on the kitchen floor, my friend did not bat an eye, instead she happily joked that she’s been meaning to clean up her kitchen for a while and now she has the chance to do so! Zaid  an amazing time with his new friend Joanne and was quite sad to leave a couple of days later. Even now a few days after we have left he still asks every now and then to go back to Joanne's house. 

Our second day in Calgary started with a quick breakfast at home and then a trip to the Ismaili Community Stampede Pancake Breakfast.  Pancake breakfast seems to be the thing to do and have during the Calgary stampede and it sounded like everything community and organization in town was putting on one. In fact there was a list in the newspaper of the locations of all breakfasts staking place during every day of the stampede . And they were all free! We were enticed by the Ismaili breakfast when Joanne mentioned that they serve pancakes, scrambled eggs, curry and chai. The meal did not disappoint and somehow these very different foods and flavors seemed to all go well together, especially washed down with a super strong and creamy chai.  After filling up with yummy food we joined an organized tour of the Ismaili temple. The temple was so beautiful and filled us all with a sense of tranquility and peace. I am not sure if it was the calmness of the place, the symmetrical architecture, or the special windows allowing for a perfect balance of light and shade, but I believe it was all of these elements combined to create that perfect environment for worship and contemplation.

Following a trip back to Joanne’s house for some rest we headed out in the afternoon to the Calgary Zoo. The Zoo was disappointed due to two things. First the very hot weather meant that most of the animals were hiding in the comfort of their den’s and difficult to see. And secondly it was the fact that the Zoo was so big and required a lot of walking to get around and see all the animals. The walking combined with heat and a cranky and tired Zaid did not make for a fun time. In spite of that though there were still some great moments spent there. For me, it was seeing the Elephants who luckily happened to be outside their home and so close to the fences surrounding their area you could almost reach out and touch them. We also all enjoyed watching the grizzly bear pacing back and forth across the hill in his enclosed area. The grizzly seemed agitated or perhaps hungry but in any case not too happy and we were sure glad there was a fence between us and him. It was so amazing to watch him and we did stand there mesmerized for a few minutes before we could peel our eyes away and on to the next animal. 

Zaid’s favorite part about the Zoo was the butterfly garden.  Earlier in the day when we told him that we were going to the zoo and asked him what animal he wanted to see the most, his reply was “lions and butterflies”. We assured him that we will most certainly see a lion but that we were not sure that the Zoo will have butterflies. But Joanne informed us that this particular Zoo does indeed have butterflies and Zaid was very excited to see them. The butterfly garden was small but very pretty and there were indeed many beautiful and lively butterflies zooming around the place not at all scarred by all the people around. Zaid was having an amazing time until two butterflies decided to land on him, at which point he decided that he had enough and urged Joanne to push his stroller out and away.

The next day our visit to Calgary was coming to an end. We had a lovely breakfast with Joanne and after saying goodbye we got into our car and drove to our next destination: Drumhheller and a campground just outside of it called Bleriot Ferry Park. I will leave it to Ben to tell you all about this part of the trip but it is sufficient to say for now that the campground was awful and the dinosaurs were awesome!

I am writing this tonight from our last stop in Alberta. Next is Saskatchewan, and our next post will be coming to you from Regina!

Haifa 

Camping in Banff

July 5^th, 2012

We’ve been camping in Banff since Monday night and we love it over here. Ben keeps talking about how this is real camping and how much he is loving the place and I can totally see why. We are camping in Johnston Canyon camping ground which seems to be very central and equally close to Banff and Lake Louise. Out of all of our different campsites so far this has been the most comfortable for me. The camp is large and almost always at least two thirds full which gives us a nice feeling of not being all alone in the wilderness. We’ve also seen many more fellow tenters here than in BC camp grounds which is also very nice. I personally like that the camp has enough modern life conveniences like flush toilets, dish washing sinks and power outlets to make it comfortable while at the same time, keeping the heart and soul of the forest alive enough to make us feel that we are indeed in the wilderness.  I also feel safer here than in previous sites, something that is unexpected considering the abundance of wild animals in this area. The feeling of security was helped by the assurance by the check- in lady that although bears are frequently seen just outside the camp, they almost never actually come into it. I am not surprised because the camp is busy and loud while also (thanks to the very vigilant park staff) being very clean of food and anything else that might attract bears which is the trick to keeping wild animals away.

Speaking of wild animals, the days we’ve been here have been great for viewing wild animals that I have never seen before. On the way up here we spotted a grizzly bear and the next day a black bear. We also spotted three big horn sheep on our second morning. But yesterday in my opinion brought the best wildlife viewing.  We had gone for a walk to the nearby lodge and restaurant for an afternoon ice cream treat. On the way back we were walking by the creek under a little bridge and just as we came out of under the bridge we noticed two HUGE elks standing on the other side of the creek feeding on grass. It was a great sight!! These two very big animals were right there mere meters away from us, completely oblivious to us watching them eat away. We stood there for a good 5 minutes or more, taking pictures and then just watching in awe. We then walked the rest of the way home leaving the elks to continue their dinner in peace. 

Elks in Banff

It seems that the elk population here is out and about these days because today we spotted two more as we drove back to camp at the end of our day. We also saw a deer in Banff town and it was right in the front courtyard of a residential apartment building!  We’ve seen warning signs for wolfs around here but have not spotted any, which in my opinion is not a bad thing! I would however like to see a bear from a clearer (but safe) vantage point as so far the only two I spotted I only managed to get a glimpse of their backside as they were disappearing into the forest.

This area of Canada in truly majestic. There is no way of describing the beauty and power of the Rockies except to just be here and see them. They stand so tall and so bold, they are awe inspiring. I am so very glad to have had the opportunity to come here and see them.  Another majestic sight has been the Takakkaw waterfall. Yesterday we walk right up to it and had a picnic lunch as we sat and stared at its beautiful water thundering down what seems like eternity.  Today we visited Lake Louise, yet another beautiful icon of this country and now I know why. I have never seen water this colour before and certainly never, not even in Norway have I seen such a beautiful sight of lake, mountains, trees and glaciers all in one exquisite frame.  If you are a nature lover, the Rockies are a must see and visit. I am so glad we decided to spend a few days here to venture around and see as much of the area as possible. Alas, we run out of time tonight and we will have to leave a few things unseen, but not forever as I very surely see myself coming back here again.

Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park 

Tomorrow is off to Calgary where we will be staying with a very generous friend of mine for a couple of days. We have postponed our Calgary visit to now because we did not want to be in Banff during the Canada day long weekend craziness.  Now we realise that this has put us in Calgary during the 100 Anniversary Stampede craziness! Needless to say it was impossible to find hotel accommodation in town for anything less than $300 a night.  If it was not for my friend Joanne who very generously invited us to stay with her, we were going to alter our route to skip Calgary all together in favour of Edmonton. So thank you Joanne for giving Calgary a chance! J

Haifa