O' Canada

How Beautiful You Are

Sept 8^th, 2009 ( Tuesday) Debbie and I have planned this trip to Canada for the past two years and were really looking forward to going.  We departed Birmingham very early in the morning and flew to Memphis then on to Seattle arriving about 12 noon.  We were meet by Julie Rust and her husband at the airport.  We rented a Subaru auto and went immediately to a local restaurant to have lunch.  After eating we drove downtown Seattle where we parked under Hwy 99 Freeway and boarded the Bainbridge Ferry for a 35 minute ride.  Our friends had their car on Bainbridge so we got into their car and drove ½ mile to Julie’s grooming shop.  After spending a couple of hours with them we went back to the ferry and crossed back to Seattle.  We drove from the ferry to Everett, WA where we spent the night at a LaQuinta Inn.  We had some free nights to use so we did.

(Debbie & Julie Rust) ( Julie's Grooming Shop in Bainbridge, WA) ( Seattle from the Ferry)

On Wednesday, the next morning we drove to a Wal-mart, bought a cooler and a few staples and then drove 450 miles to Valemount, BC, Canada.  I called my friend ( AC McCullers) in Atlanta that I graduated High School with to wish him happy birthday ( Sept 9^th ). It was a nice drive with many scenic views along the way.

   Debbie at Valemount,Best Western Motel in the back courtyard

Sept 10^th, 2009  Thursday we departed the Best Western Motel in Valemount and headed to Jasper along Canadian highway 16.  Within about 3 hours we were in Jasper. The temperatures there were similar to Alabama – 80 in the day and 60 at night.  It had been raining and was cloudy today but by the time we arrived in Jasper, the rain had stopped.  We walked the streets of Jasper, visited the train station, and got some lunch.  We then drove to Maligne canyon where we say a small river of crystal clear water rushing down a narrow valley with about 100 feet rock walls.  We hiked down the river for 30 minutes crossing several bridges then hiked back.  About 3 pm we drove to the Tram where we boarded and rode to the top of the mountain – it was 35 degrees on top so we dressed warm.  We took lots of pics from as many points of view we could get to without hiking to the adjacent mountain top.  After an hour stay, we rode back down and found our motel in Jasper named Mt Robson Inn – about 8 blocks from down town.  After unpacking we walked to town, shopped and ate Pizza at a local restaurant – very good.  Each night when we would get to our rooms, we would have to download our pics from the two cameras to our laptop – a 30 minute job.  Then shower and plug all our electronic devices up so they would be ready for the next day.

(Maligne Canyon) (Jasper Tram) (Jasper Train Station) (Debbie at Mt Robson Inn )

Sept 11^th, 2009  Friday we left the motel about 6:45, grabbed a biscuit from A&W and headed south on 93 called the Icefields Glacier Highway.  The Canadian Rockies are a string of 10,000 feet mountains about 50 miles wide with a valley running down the middle of it about ¼ to ½ mile wide – a very good straight part of the time 4 lane highway.  Nothing like I expected – a 2 lane winding up and down the mountains – it was nice.  We stopped to take photo after photo of the snow covered mountains with glacier after glacier on them.  After 100 miles we arrived at Lake Louise – probably one of the largest attractions of Canada.  It was simply beautiful – a lake about ½ mile long and ¼ mile wide crystal clear and calm with a reflection of the giant glacier in the background.  Canoe rentals were available to those who wanted to cruise the lake.  The famous Lake Louise Inn is located just 100 feet from the shoreline and all with such a beautiful view.  We sent a few hours there walking the shoreline and taking photo’s.  About 4pm we departed and went to our motel a few miles away from the lake next to the highway exit where the strip mall was.   Gas was $3.11 a gallon.  At home it was $2.21/gal.  Wow, what a difference.

Sept 12^th, 2009 Saturday, after packing and departing the Lake Louise motel, we drove south on Hwy 93 towards Banff.  We drove the “Two Jack” Lake where we climbed the mountain ( short hike ) and took some just beautiful pics – the lake is green blue and is used in the winter for ice skating. We continued to drive toward Banff and arrived about 5pm.  Checked into our motel and Inns of Banff – a room without air conditioner but we came to realize that by 9pm we didn’t need AC.  We took advantage of the time and spent about 2 hours touring the Banff Springs Motel – the famous on everyone seem to want to stay at and take pictures of.  It really was nice and most rooms were $350 to 750 per night.  They have their own pools, sitting on the bank of the Bow River, and own their own gold course.  We also rode this driving tour to the foot of an adjacent mountain where we hiked for 1 hour to take some really good pics of the city below.  We needed the exercise to boot. We continued to drive this scenic drive We took a scenic drive around Banff on a road named Minnewonka Loop to a beautiful lake and shoreline drive. That afternoon we rented a canoe and traveled up the Bow River to a creek inlet that we navigated up.  The creek was 30 feet wide and crystal clear but only 3 feet deep in the middle.  It was so beautiful and the 40 degree water felt so cool in 80 degree weather.  After returning to the motel and showering, Debbie and I went to town on the local Bus, we rode for free compliments of the motel, ate dinner at Boston Pizza, did a little more shopping then back to the motel to unpack, download the 300 pics taken that day and rest.

Sept 13^th, 2009 Sunday we rode the bus to a local breakfast restaurant where we ate 2 pan cakes, 2 eggs, and three silver dollar sausage patties for 10.99 plus the cost of coffee at $1.89 a cup – a basic breakfast is $25.  We went back to the room, packed, got the car and drove to the ski life to see if we could take photo’s and boy did we get some good pics.  They are my computer background scenes now.  We then drove from Banff toward Revelstoke which is a 180 mile trip on the Bow Valley Parkway ( Hwy 5) – a beautiful side road drive that paralleled the main highway 93. Once back at Lake Louise, we drove west on Highway ( Hwy 1) through the Yoho National Park – which was very beautiful with high snow caped mountains with a river adjacent to the highway and a railroad.  We were half through the park and say hundreds of folks stopped at a rest area so we stopped.  We found out that the “Rocky Mountainaineer” train was about to go through the 360 tunnel that is carved into the mountain – in other words – you could watch the front of the train go into the mountain tunnel and see it come out again before the tail entered – a sight many folks seem to want a photo of.  We got the photo’s and drove on toward Revelstoke.  We visited Emerald Lake and the Natural Bridge area on our way. As we neared the city, we found a small park where the cedar trees were super large- 4 to 5 feet thick.  We walked a ¼ mile boarded walkway that was so nice, informative and beautiful. After arriving at Revelstoke, we toured the town, got our motel, and headed up the mountain at Mount Revelstoke National Park – a 30 min drive to the top and it was well worth it.  We hiked two different trails and our second one took us to the peek of a small overlook atop Mount Revelstoke.  The views were breath taking and it is my second choice of a background on my computer. We hiked for about 45 min then drove back down the mountain to town.  We found a small sort of Dollar store open ( it was Sunday ) and did some shopping – I got two really cheap but nice shirts and Debbie got a pair of hiking pants.  We ate dinner at Shoney’s and spent the evening downloading our pics and recharging all the batteries in our cameras and cell phones.

On Monday, Sept 14^th, 2009 we drove west on highway 1 to Sicamous then truned south on highway 97 for the next 250 miles.  This is our way of taking a scenic drive back to Seattle rather than traveling the same route.

Canada is a beautiful country and very clean.  We did not see a piece of paper or a cigarette butt on the ground the entire trip.  All cities had a group of trash cans on each block with one for glass, one for aluminum, and one for general paper trash.  On the end of each bank of trash cans there were aluminum containers where everyone put their cigarette butts.  Canadians are very courteous and polite – just step off the curb in any town and even three lanes of traffic will come to a halt for you to cross.  Another observation was that once we crossed the Canadian border we NEVER saw a Mexican or a Mexican Restaurant – now that is amazing to me.  We only saw about 6 blacks while in Banff.  However, there were tons of Japanese and Australians, both working in Canada and vacationing in Canada.  The money conversion was 1$ US was equal to $92 CAD but when you purchased anything under $40, the Canadians treated the funds as equal which meant each time you spent a US dollar, you gave away 8 cents in the process and the kicker was that when you did this, the Canadians gave you change in Canadian currency which even more so took you to the cleaners.  So after one day of this, we decided to charge EVERYTHING on credit card because the credit card company would do the conversion at the current day’s exchange rate and you wouldn’t get ripped in the process.  Gas was $1.05/Liter  1 Liter = .264 gallons or 1 gal = 3.785 Liters so at $1.05 a gallon of gas costs = $3.97 US dollars per gallon.  Very high.  In Seattle gas was $3.11 on Wednesday and when we got home gas was $2.21 a gallon.  Gas was high, food was high, motels were high.  The cost of living was high compared to our standard here in Alabama.

Canada is beautiful, more laid back, clean, polite, but expensive.  And yes, I would go back given another opportunity – the Canadian Rockies are so beautiful – I would love to see them in the winter with there is snow everywhere.