And in summation (Victoria, Seattle, the Kootenay Rockies)...

Okay, okay - it's almost November and I realize I need to finish summing up our road trip! I can't believe that we arrived home more than six weeks ago. So here it is, the last week:

DAYS 16-17:
From Tofino, we headed southeast to Victoria, considered Canada's most British city. This small, charming town offered up idyllic streets for wandering, shopping, flea-marketing and more. Our hostel was by far the coolest hostel I've ever stayed in - in the middle of town, it had a teeny bar and restaurant that offered $5 dinners (veggie-friendly!), and was walking distance to everything.

Another favorite destination was Beacon Hill Park, where we were treated to expansive views of the coastline and the Olympic National Forest across the way in Washington state. In our day and a half in Victoria, we also managed to fit in a trip to Butchart Gardens, which were spectacularly lit up at night, and included a live concert by a fun local Celtic band. Hello, beer-drinking songs!

Another highlight of Victoria was high tea, which I had reserved six weeks in advance at a very popular local establishment, White Heather Tea Room. We felt quite British as we sipped the place's signature "Mad Hatter" tea blend and noshed on scones and jam, tea sandwiches and pastries. This was another fabulous stop along our gluttonous tour of western Canada!

DAYS 18-21:
Following our whirlwind tour of Victoria, we caught an early ferry to Seattle. After close to perfect weather for most of our trip, we were not too surprised to be met with a downpour for the majority of our three days in Seattle. However it did nothing to hinder our enjoyment of the fabulous city. Within a day, Ben and I were entertaining notions of how to move there.

We stayed in Capitol Hill, the quirky yet chic gay district close to downtown. We rented an amazing condo with a large balcony (if we craned our necks a bit and squinted, we could see the downtown skyline and even a bit of the bay), a fab kitchen and modern decor.

One of the things that excited me most about visiting Seattle was the potential for good veggie food paired with yummy microbrews. It did not disappoint - I was in foodie heaven! For our first evening, we wandered around and ended up at a funky little spot called Honey Hole, where I pigged out on a vegan BLT and a top-notch margarita (or two), and Ben got a beef brisket sandwich - yes, the place achieved that rare combination of great veggie AND carnivorous options!

Our next day in Seattle we covered many of the typical tourist spots and some of the not-so-typical, like a rain-drenched flea market in the oh-so-funky Freemont neighborhood! Ben found some cool vintage cuff links and I drooled over supple, handmade leather purses that were way out of our price range! Freemont is also home to the Theo Choclate Factory, which we dedicated a not insignificant amount of time to exploring (err ... sampling!) What better way to warm up than with a thick, fudgey sip of chipotle hot chocolate? Apparently tours needed to be booked weeks in advance, but it was fun to visit nonetheless! Next we tracked down the Freemont Troll, a huge sculpture under a bridge - the troll is crushing a real VW bug in one of its hands.

Our next stop was the Experience Music Project, a super fun rock'n'roll museum, followed by a trip up the Space Needle for a sunset view, complete with a rainbow. Lucky us!

Another day meant another chance to eat and explore - and drink coffee, of course! (We of sampled as many different coffee spots as we could squeeze in.) It was downtown and to the harbor, but to get there we took a meandering walk through various parts of town. I found a great vintage leather purse (this one I could afford!) at a girly boutique in Capitol Hill, and we warmed up with a hot, spicy lunch at a vegetarian noodle house, my first noodle house experience. Then, once again, foodie heaven at the Pike Place Farmer's Market!! We hopped into the massive line at Piroshky Piroshky (not sure if this is the same as a pirogi?) and boy was it worth the wait! Just the smells coming out of the tiny bakery had me drooling before we got inside.

And we could not skip a coffee from the original Starbucks. We tried food samples galore, sipped a beer overlooking the water, then walked along the coast through the Olympic Sculpture Park. We learned the hard way that the next part of town we wanted to explore was not exactly walking distance - after about 30 minutes into an industrial section of town, we lucked out and found a taxi to tote us to the up-and-coming Ballard neighborhood. We started at a beloved local cupcake shop for espressos, then found a true gastro-pub and sampled some unusual beers. After walking around for a while longer, we found space in our bellies for pizza from another cozy local spot, Snoose Junction Pizzeria. Then it was home to rest our overloaded tummies before meeting Ben's cousin and her husband for a few more beers (sheesh, I promise there was more to this trip and beer-drinking!)

On our last morning, we had coffee and breakfast at Cafe Presse, which had been voted one of the best new coffee spots, and was touted as a very French-style cafe. We sat in front of the window and for a moment convinced ourselves we were actually back in Paris with baguettes and Americanos. Yum! We walked off the carbs at Volunteer Park, also in Capitol Hill, where we could view some great angles of the city, as well as the Asian Art Museum, home of the Black Sun sculpture that inspired Soundgarden's 'Black Hole Sun' song! Also in the park was a wonderful greenhouse - a nice place to spend a rainy morning! We took a quick jaunt downtown to visit the architectural wonder that is the Seattle Public Library, and just as we were getting ready to leave town, remembered that there was one more restaurant Ben had been dying to try after seeing it on the Food Network: Salumi, a cured-meat shop owned and run by Mario Battali's father. We literally got there just as they were running out of food for the day - Ben got the second to last sandwich - and it was a good thing, because he was definitely in sandwich heaven with that salami, Gorgonzola and artisan bread combo.

Phew, so that was Seattle - it was our sort of town, we felt right at home there!!

DAY 22 - 23:
As some may know, we stopped in Spokane, as I had considered it as a possible place to live eventually. Ruled it out quickly - enough said! We left quite early with plans to drive straight back to Calgary in a day.

We stopped in an adorable town - Bonners Ferry - in Idaho of all places, for lunch. Much to our surprise, we tried wines from local vineyards that were quite tasty. It was a wonderful break from our hours of driving. After crossing the Canadian border, we quickly made it back into the Alberta Rocky Mountains, which felt strangely familiar and warm to me after being away for several weeks. Bad weather began rolling in, it was getting dark out, and I was not yet ready for our adventure to be over.

Again, luck was on our side and we stumbled onto some adorable cabins in Kootenay National Park. The woodsy, rustic restaurant was just closing down, but the owner and chef could not have been more gracious, offering to prepare dinner for us anyway and hooking us up with exactly the kind of cozy cabin I had imagined holing up in in the Rocky Mountains! Though it got chilly at night, Ben started up a fire and I couldn't have been happier or thought of a better way to spend the last night of our trip.

Before hitting the road in the morning, we did one final mountain hike on a glorious sunny day, then headed on to our brand new rental home back in Calgary.

Road Trip: Days 13 - 15 (Tofino & Ucluelet)

DAYS 13 & 14:
After our super exciting day of whale watching, we got up early the next morning, packed up the campsite and started southward again, back along the same (and only) island road that had carried us to Telegraph Cove. We cut due west across Vancouver Island for another gorgeous drive through parks and small towns, although I was feeling a bit too tired of driving at this point to appreciate the views as much as I probably should have!

A little over four hours later, we had arrived at Greenpoint Campground in the Pacific Rim National Reserve, a protected temperate, old-growth rainforest. The very first place I had booked, exactly three months earlier on the first day reservations opened up, this campground was the crowning glory of our trip. Our site was huge and private, surrounded by proud, ancient hemlock trees dripping in soft green lichen. A five-minute walk took us out of the green-hued forest and onto a wide-open, wind-blown, white-sand beach thrashed by the Pacific Ocean. We had three nights in this magical place.

After night's sleep in our trusty tent, Alicia and I enjoyed a morning run on the beach (well, Alicia ran and I mostly lagged behind dong my own version of power-walking interspersed with light jogging); then spent much of our day relaxing around the campground. I don't think any of us were quite sure what to do or how to begin to take everything in!

We eventually decided to join a ranger-led rainforest walk, and then drove to the nearby town of Ucluelet where we paid $5 to take showers, and next bought mounds of fresh seafood from a fish market to prepare over the campfire for dinner.

DAY 15:
One of the big things you must do while in the Pacific Rim towns of Tofino and/or Ucluelet is kayak. So we headed out early for a guided kayak tour around Tofino. Though the morning was overcast for the first half of our trip, the waters were calm and Ben and I enjoyed the tranquility in our two-person kayak, constantly falling behind the rest of the group! We paddled for about one hour, to Meares Island, home of 800- to 1300-year-old trees, and the staging ground for one of Canada's first environmental movements, when protesters stopped loggers from destroying the island.

Sadly, the battle is still going on between lumber companies and the natives who inhabited the island centuries ago, with many people (pessimistically) predicting that lumber companies will eventually name a price high enough that it will be chopped to bits. Actually, lots of the area around here was being logged until portions became protected. This fact is evident as you drive into the rainforest through decimated, stump-covered hillsides.

After our kayak trip, Alicia and Ben bravely rented a surfboard and wetsuits, since Tofino is a huge surfing destination! I opted for beach-laying and journal-writing, producing the following:

"Sunshine, finally! Today is our second full day in Tofino, and it's been tough to warm up here, between the wind, clouds and constant dampness in the air. But now the sun is bright and I'm enjoying a seemingly endless view of the Pacific Ocean - due west is Australia, across those wild waters!

This area is fascinating - it's all a temperate rainforest, so things are lush and green. The rugged landscape of cedars, hemlocks and pines, creating dense, dark forests, never ceases to surprise when suddenly you emerge on a windswept beach with the softest sand I think I've ever felt under foot. It's such an odd contrast to the wild and windy shore, but then again, all of this area seems to be a study in contrasts: loggers versus environmentalists; First-Nations people versus Canadians; high-end tourism versus hippies and surfers who populate the cheap campgrounds and hostels.

Tonight is our third and final night to camp here. It is also our last night of camping for the trip, which in my mind is a blessing, as I feel I've reached my camping quota after seven nights in a row ... and a running total of 11 nights for this trip. But how else would we have afforded all the fabulous food and activities we've indulged in?!

Last night we found a wonderful fish market in Ucluelet, a smaller, more mellow (if that's possible) town south of Tofino, and bought dungeness crab, chinook salmon and scallops, all caught locally that very day. Sadly, the crab lost its life while we were standing in the next room. Though I almost cried at that moment, I thoroughly enjoyed the crab legs a few hours later after Ben steamed them over the campfire and served them up with lemon butter sauce! The whole meal was one I won't soon forget - fresh veggies roasted over the fire, alongside piles of the freshest and most amazing seafood, even accompanied by a delicious local wine, Quail's Gate chenin blanc. I was in heaven!

The simple things are always the best - you don't need a fancy restaurant when a campfire, good people and good ingredients will do the job instead.

This trip has been amazing so far - not exactly the warm, beachy summer vacation I'm accustomed to, but no less inspiring and joy-inducing! I am beyond thrilled to finally have the motivation to write for myself again. Perhaps because I was writing for a living for years, I got burned out. Perhaps I just hadn't seen the right things to inspire me - I almost feel as though my creativity froze up right along with the icy Calgary winter, and now it's thawing back out. Hooray! My mind feels free, curious and excited once more, now that my pen is hitting paper with wreckless abandon."

Road Trip: Days 9-12 (Hornby Island & Telegraph Cove)

Sorry for the huge lapse in my trip report - I hope I haven't left anybody hanging in total suspense for too long! I have been busy settling into our new house, job hunting, volunteering and enjoying the last few weeks of amazing weather we had here in Calgary. During the week of my birthday, September 24, we actually had highs in the 80s and lots of sunshine. Quite UNLIKE today, which finds us with snow on the ground and a temperature hovering around the freezing point. Sigh, how quickly things change...

I figured I better finish writing about our trip before I forget what it felt like to be outside in nice weather!! So here goes, picking up at day nine I will try to speed up my summary to catch us back up to present time...

DAY 9:
We were up early today to catch our ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island. The first of many ferry rides, we were treated to absolutely gorgeous, sunny weather with crystal clear views not only of the Vancouver skyline to the east, but also of the small mountain ranges of Vancouver Island to our west. After a quick ride to the main part of Vancouver Island, we drove an hour north and caught another ferry, this one much smaller, to the tiny Denman Island just off the coast. From there, one last little ferry took us to our home for the following two nights, Hornby Island.

Many Canadians we had spoken to before our trip had no idea what or where Hornby Island was; I selected it based on a TV show I'd seen that painted Hornby Island as an idyllic, hippie-haven not yet discovered by tourists. At 8.85 square miles, and with a population of just over 1,000, we felt we'd discovered a hidden treasure as we drove into our campsite located on a peaceful bay off the Pacific Ocean.


DAY 10:
I woke up uncharacteristically early the next morning, feeling invigorated, and headed down to the beach with a towel to do some yoga, and a crisp new journal I had purchased on Granville Island in Vancouver, and wrote the following, my first attempt at poetry in quite some time:



Happy Hippie on Hornby Island:

I want to take a photograph with words, express the peace here-
the solemnity of the Pacific as it reaches this remote bay,
the happy way it laps at the shore,
playful yet serene as it takes a break from its usual toil
of churning waves and doing battle with storms.

Here things are quiet.

Purple starfish spread out in the sun on shallow rocks,
untainted by the hands of humans;
Sea animals call out at night, safe in these natural harbors;
Trees shiver off their bark, rustling gently
as they stretch out and up to enjoy the view.

And me?
I sit, try to be still.
__________________________________












__________________________________

Here's more from my journal, if you're not yet tired of my ramblings about Hornby Island!

"Hornby Island is just a happy place! It feels instantly peaceful, perhaps because of the remoteness of it. Life is slower here - people seem to take everything in, to appreciate their natural surroundings, and to really live off the land.

On our first stop for the ferry, we found a seafood shop and sampled local smoked wild sockeye salmon. Yum! On Denman Island, waiting for our next ferry, the snack of choice was ice cream sold from an old VW van painted yellow. It was clearly home-made and very creative: I tried cherry-plum-chocolate. The tart fresh plum and cherry chunks mixed with rich chocolate made for one of the best ice creams I have ever had! Ben had chocolate rhubarb, another unique and delicious flavor.

Once on the quiet Island, we set up camp and got down to the hard business of laying on the beach with a book. The beach by our campground is actually comprised of hard sandstone rocks and the sea life seems very healthy. We immediately noticed a plethora of purple starfish, scuttling crabs and jellyfish among other things. We heard some strange, bellowing sounds arise from the bay waters and wondered if there might be porpoises - or even whales - in our midst.

After a decent night's sleep, I made my way to the beach for some yoga - bliss! - and to enjoy a solitude that is rarely found in life, away from the sounds of lots of people, or electricity, or music, or sirens, or any of that hubbub that becomes so normal in our lives. Now I only hear water lapping against rocks, the occasional kayaker paddling by, or maybe a lone boat way off in the distance. What a way to start the day!"

After a great morning, we whiled away our day with a slow-paced, 5k hike that took us through old-growth forests and along a stunning cliffs that jutted over the bay. We went into the tiny town, which seems to be mostly based on a barter system, with a co-op forming the commercial center, eventually returned to our campground where we bought a pizza, toted along a cooler with inexpensive local beers and planted ourselves on the waterfront to take in a spectacular sunset.

It was tough to leave this little sliver of paradise the next morning, but we knew the next leg of our trip, set aside for whale watching in Telegraph Cove on the Northern tip of Vancouver Island, would be equally wonderful!

DAYS 11 & 12:
(from the travel journal)
"Luck was on our side in Telegraph Cove! As we drive out right now, on bumpy gravel and barely-paved roads that were until recently used strictly by logging trucks, the sky is gray - a sort of whitish-gray cloud cover that promises nothing. Not the threat of rain nor hope of sun, but simply hanging in the damp air, stating its presence.

Yesterday's whale-watching tour, though, was nothing but clear skies and crystal blue waters. The whales were so active that our enthusiastic guide extended the trip by two hours! We first spotted a lone, transient male Orca, and soon after that cruised in amid two clans of resident Orcas. Apparently it was rare to see them all out socializing together - maybe even mating. Our wonderful guide Bill dropped a microphone into the water so we could listen to them talk. We could distinctly hear the different calls of the two clans - the "eeh-aww" sound of one, versus a high-pitched, cat-like sound of another.

We watched as they played, napped, fished and swam right beside our boat - what magnificent creatures! I am even more in awe of them, these intelligent, human-like sea-dwellers.

As if seeing at least 10-15 Orcas frolicking in their natural habitat was't enough, we moved on to a gorgeous, remote part of the straight and found a Humpback whale - as well as a young Humpback calf.

At one moment, everybody on the boat was looking toward a flock of birds on the water, where our guide expected to Humpback to emerge to feed ... suddenly it surfaced immediately beside our boat, its huge mass as long as the boat, giving us a total scare - with a few passengers getting sprayed by the blowhole! It was magical to see its gray, bumpy hulk up close and in action. After giving us a show, the humpback went on to hunt for about ten minutes. We watched it surface several more times, mouth open, trying to catch birds for lunch.

Not only did we see these really lively whale interactions, but we also saw several bald eagles, northern sea lions and harbor seals, and to top it off, two Minke whales on our way back to the harbor.

The mossy, old-growth forests of Telegraph Cove were different than anything I'd seen before - our campground was covered in a canopy of old, twisted, gnarly pines that blocked out any sliver of sunlight, leaving us shrouded in an eerie green light the whole time - very interesting!"

Click Below for More Photos:
Roadtrip Part 3 Photo Album

Roadtrip: Days 5-8 (Whistler & Vancouver)

DAY 5:
We woke up in Whistler on a brisk morning to sound of a bubbling stream that ran right behind our campsite. Not a bad way to start the day! We had made reservations to do a zipline tour at Ziptrek Ecotours - after a slight wardrobe malfunction (the zipper on my pants broke!), for which I ran back to our car to change pants, we got started, flying through the air on five separate lines that gave us a birds-eye view of the streams and forests of Whistler mountain, not to mention a good dose of adrenaline!

Here's a travel journal entry about Whistler:

"In spite of the cold overnights, I’m so happy we added Whistler to the itinerary - what a fun city. Like Disney World for adults! We ziplined, hiked, road some crazy-high gondolas, explored some fun bars and cooked an awesome meal at the campfire. Our campfire meal included lots of fresh summer squash and zucchini straight from the farm, purchased a day earlier at the Penticton Farmer’s Market."

DAY 6:
We spent our next morning hiking around the top of Whistler Mountain, scoping out future winter Olympics sites, then taking the new, world's longest gondola over to Blackcombe Mountain before hitting the road for Vancouver.

The drive, of course, was spectacular as we made our way from mountains to coast driving south along the Pacific Ocean on the Sea to Sky Highway. After checking into our hotels in downtown, we walked around the oh-so-swanky neighborhood of Yaletown and stopped for an al fresco dinner at a fabulous restaurant, Simply Thai.

DAY 7:
(From my journal, still in Vancouver)
"Woke up still feeling pretty groggy, but trooped on anyway, exploring all of downtown on foot. We started at Canada Place, a huge convention center made to look like a ship with sails, built over the water. From there, we wandered into historic Gastown, a really neat old part of the city, and then into Chinatown - the walk was not without some cheap thrills. Without realizing it, we took the dodgy, druggie street as a through-way to get from Gastown to Chinatown. In broad daylight - literally a few feet from me - two derelict men were exchanging money for a syringe of god knows what. Eek! We quickly walked along that street and luckily Chinatown was a much friendlier environment.

Wandered around a bit before settling on a dim-sum restaurant, something Alicia loved and wanted us to experience. Not knowing how dim-sum worked, Ben and I ordered tons of food at the beginning, instead of in stages like you’re supposed to! There was lots of deep-fried goodness; Chinese comfort-food, if you will, and we thoroughly enjoyed it: Steamed veggie wraps, shrimp-stuffed eggplant, pork-stickers for the carnivores, salt and pepper fried squid (I actually liked this!!), shrimp eggrolls and fried tofu. I’ve definitely had my fill of Asian food now, but glad I tried it here, where it’s some of the best!

We continued to walk along the harbor for quite a ways until we reached the West End, Vancouver’s hip gay district. Loved this area! It was charming and bustling with young people, pastry shops, flower shops, produce markets, and all right along the harbor with views down the street of water. We ended up grabbing a table at a British-style pub and I’m pretty sure we had the best view in the city, watching the sun set on the water over several pitchers of beer from a local micro-brewery."

DAY 8:
For our second day in Vancouver, we rented bikes and rode the 5.5-mile trail through Stanley Park, a gorgeous urban park that affords not only stunning skyline views, but also breathtaking vistas of the Pacific Ocean, small beaches and the many bays surrounding the city. After getting our exercise, we caught a water taxi to the famous Granville Island, a funky little island that's been transformed from an industrial district to an artsy haven of craft shops, bookstores and restaurants. A local had told us the best place for fish & chips was a small shack on the far side of the island, Go Fish.

Tracking the place down was hard work, and it proved to be a great success but also our downfall! The tiny establishment is on the harbor and brings fish in fresh from the boats each day. We waited patiently in a line full of locals, and watched hungrily as people chowed down on baskets piled with battered halibut and cod with crisp fries. We were hungry - and I mean hungry - so each ordered the largest size available, and, to our eventual detriment, ate pretty much all of it! It was one of our best meals of the trip, and highly anticipated, but the rest of the day was spent bemoaning the fact that we could barely move we were so full! Nonetheless, Ben and I made it out much later that night to get sushi with a friend of his who lives in Vancouver. Ah well, only on vacation can you justify eating so much!

From my journal, some final impressions of Vancouver:
"Am loving the laid-back, west-coast vibe of Vancouver. Feels more natural to me than Calgary. It’s just a really nice city - aside from the dodgy street, seems to be very clean with friendly people - I don’t have the sense that locals are putting on airs, or trying to show off what they have, as can be the case sometimes in Calgary. Quite the opposite, actually - everybody wants to be easy-going!"

See more pics on facebook; just click below:
Road Trip Photos Part 2

Roadtrip: Days 1-4 (Revelstoke & Kelowna)

If you read the below posts about the planning of our road trip, cheers! If not, no worries - this is my first actual post reviewing the trip in detail - sorry it got so long, but once I started writing I found there were many details I just couldn't leave out! :)

DAY 1:
Left Calgary on Wednesday, August 19 - I can't believe it was almost a month ago. We made the drive westward through the Rocky Mountains (Banff National Park, Lake Louise). Although we've been through this portion of the mountains many times now, they never get old. And just when you expect the scenery to wane (I couldn't imagine how mountains could look more impressive than what I'd already seen), they become beautiful in an entirely different way.

The peaks further west, beyond Alberta and on into British Columbia, are not as huge, but are equally majestic - green and fluid rather than craggy and gray - less foreboding than the Rocky Mountains I had grown accustomed to. One of the highlights of the drive was our pit stop in Golden, BC, a mountain town that looks industrial on the surface, but once you get into the downtown core, is very charming. We took our time buying groceries and local microbrews and enjoying a gorgeous sunny day before continuing on.

Our first night was spent in a KOA cabin in Revelstoke, BC, about four hours west of Calgary. Though the KOA was not much to speak of (a disco van playing techno music circled around for an hour advertising the KOA's ice cream social), the setting was gorgeous and our cabin was a nice place to rest after a hectic previous week of moving!

DAY 2:
We continued westward to Kelowna, BC, the heart of Canada's wine country. As the mountains got smaller, the lakes got bigger and we were yet again stunned by the sheer size of things in western Canada! Everything is larger than life - we drove for miles and miles along one huge lake before arriving at our campground, Bear Creek Provincial Park, which is situated on the Okanagan Lake, yet another massive body of water.

Canada's wine country, the Okanagan Valley, is beautiful. Though we only had time to visit one winery (Quail's Gate) in between lounging on the lake-front beach, picking cherries, attending Greg and Angie's wedding and sampling the culinary offerings of the region's bakeries and farmer's markets, I think the wines on offer could stand up to international scrutiny.

The best way to sum up this leg of the trip is probably to quote my travel journal:

"Okanagan is heaven! A bounty of fresh fruit everywhere, local wines, lush rolling hills and teal blue lakes that stretch as far as the eye can see. And how little the rest of the world knows of this treasure is shocking - perhaps this is on purpose. Perhaps Canadians prefer to keep the Thompson-Okanagan their own little secret!

We departed Revelstoke at 10:30 am after a relaxing coffee and breakfast in the fresh morning light. Finally feeling refreshed and full of energy, almost as if this is the first real day of our trip.

Driving out of the Rockies, the mountains get proggressively smaller but more lush, so are equally mesmerizing but in a different way from the craggy, grand Alberta Rockies. After about 1 1/2 hours, we split toward Kelowna and interior BC farm and lake country begins - friendly people, small towns on the side of the highway and signs for fruit stands abound.

In Vernon, we follow a handmade sign two kilometers off the main road to a U-Pick cherry farm. The sweet smell of the cherry orchards could lift the spirits of McScrooge the way it scents the air all around. Happiness! We spend about 20 minutes plucking ripe cherries from branches overhead, then pay a whopping $1.50 for our pound and a half of cherries - a little boy of probably 10 or 11, accompanied by friends, puts on his best professional face as he tallies our bill and we add a bag of freshly dried apricots to our loot. We immediately wash our cherries in a sink behind the barn and start digging in.

It may be the combination of this scenery, my husband and I on the open road, and just being on vacation, but I'm pretty sure these are the best cherries I've ever eaten!"

DAY 3:
(from travel journal)
"Had a gorgeous evening last night at the Quail's Gate Winery in Kelowna, after an afternoon of sunbathing and swimming at the Okanagan Lake, which our campground backed up to. Looked almost as if we were in the Spanish or Italian countryside ... but this is Canada, full of surprises!

After a somewhat lazy morning at the campground, we packed up the car (I hope we are never in a huge hurry to do this after camping, as it's an elaborate process to get everything back in, like a lifesize puzzle), we picked up Alicia at the Greyhound station and went for a brief exploration of downtown Kelowna, which is much more charming and character-filled than the suburbs we drove through to get there. The exploration sent us off toward Greg and Angie's Penticton (a town south of Kelowna) wedding with fresh-baked goodies and the desire to sit down for a beer at one of the town's cute pubs - but onward we went, for more stunning driving along the Okanagan Lake.

Greg and Angie's wedding feels like it's in a secret garden - the colors of the flowers everywhere are breathtaking! Bushy green and white hydrangeas (my favorite), spiky yellow and purple flowers, pinks, reds - if only I knew the names of more of them!

Greg's best friend played acoustic guitar for the intimate ceremony, and I felt honored to be let into this magical moment in the lives of two wonderful people. This was my type of wedding - small, heartfelt, outdoors, relaxed!

As souviniers, we were each given handmade fruit preserves assembled by Angie's family members. Ben and I made off with cherry and strawberry rhubarb - yum, can't wait to dig in!"

DAY 4:
(from travel journal)
"Alicia is a fun and lively addition to our roadtrip! I'm pretty groggy after last night's wedding festivities, but couldn't sleep knowing that today is gorgeous and sunny outside. I'm sitting in our folding Canada-flag chair in the parking lot of the pink motel we stayed at last night - El Rancho! Cheap but clean, it's a great retro find, all the way down to the old-fashioned staff that greeted us with a smile and held our reservation without a credit card - just my name, the old-fashioned way. I like that."

My early morning in Pentiction was followed by a great day of shopping the best farmer's market I've experienced, then a leisurely breakfast and a quick drop-in to an after-wedding celebration at Angie's childhood home, which sits atop a lovely hill overlooking orchards. Her Italian family made sure to send us on the road with heaping plate-fulls of delicious food!

Then it was on to our next stop, Whistler. The drive was gorgeous, if stressful - through narrow, windy mountain roads for almost all six hours of it! We hit some very deserted patches, including a huge, somewhat eerie First Nations (Canada's term for Native Americans) reservation. The area seemed uninhabitable, with weathered red and gray boulders and jagged terrain as far as the eye could see. As I was in the midst of capturing the wild geography on video, we were starteld by a loud crash against metal...

Ben pulled the car to the side of the road and we examined everything - all we could figure was that a large rock had rolled down one of the road-side hills and sailed right under the car, where it struck with lots of noise but luckily no damage that we could see. Which was good, considering we had no cell phone reception in this no-man's land, hours from any civilization!

Sobered, we continued on cautiously and the boulders turned to mountains as we entered the Rocky Mountains once more, where they continue on along the west coast. This is the last time I will rely on Google maps, which clearly sent us on the most round-about, least-used mountain roads possible! I took over driving for the remainder of the trip, racing against the sun to get through the mountains. Avalanche warnings were everywhere, including on the narrow, one-way section of road that seemed it could barely fit even one car, nestled up against a cliff with a sheer drop to the left. The road looked as though it had been roughly rebuilt in previous days. Now, I know that I harbor an irrational fear of driving along steep drop-offs (or even not-so-steep ones), but this would scare even the bravest person!

Just when we thought we'd gotten through the worst of it, road construction began and we had lost our battle with the sun. So in the darkness, I was forced to navigate through one-way lanes and bridges, blasting zones, and rocky sections of road that should have required an off-road vehicle. When we finally arrived at our campground in Whistler, it was as though all three of us let out a collective breath that we had been holding for the past few hours!

Here's a quick blurb from my travel log about the experience:

"The drive from Kelowna to Whistler is something else I should mention ... beautiful but terrifying at times, going on windy mountain roads that looked as though they had recently been destroyed by an avalanche, then hastily rebuilt on the side of a cliff. There was lots of avalanche debris and at times I wondered how the road could even be considered a real road.

We watched the sun set over the Rockies, and to my surprise, they erupted back up out of the ground not far beyond the hilly Okanagen region. There was truly never a dull moment on our drive - especially when a giant rock rolled off a hill and under our car, making us fear the worst: that maybe the car had been badly damaged in the middle of nowhere, BC. Amazingly, the sound was way worse than the reality, and we found no problem with the car and continued trucking along.

Some of the tiny mountain fishing towns we went through seemed surreal, as if they were from an old movie where everything is faded and a bit hazy, and things just move slower."

Anyway, after the driving ordeal, we set up our tent in the dark, bundled up and enjoyed the relief that comes with not fearing that you'll drive off the side of a mountain :)

Check out photos of this portion of the trip on my facebook photo album, by clicking below:
Facebook Album Part 1

The Plan

It took Ben and I months of organizing and planning to decide where we wanted to go for our road trip and what activities we most wanted to do. We were amazed to discover that we could easily have spent twice as long in this part of the world, camping our way through all the mountains and parks, exploring further south into Oregon and northern California - but three weeks turned out to be perfect - by the end, we were pretty tired and looking forward to the comfort of our own home!

Anyway, here's a rough outline of our itinerary:

1) Revelstoke, BC (in the western part of the Rocky Mountains): camp one night as it's a half-way point between Calgary and our next stop...
2) Okanagen Valley, British Columbia: camp & attend friends' wedding
3) Whistler, BC: camp for two nights
4) Vancouver, BC: three nights in a downtown hotel
5) Hornby Island, BC (on Vancouver Island): camp two nights
6) Telegraph Cove, BC (on Vancouver Island): camp two nights
7) Tofino, BC (Vancouver Island): camp three nights
8) Victoria, BC (Vancouver Island): two nights in a downtown hostel
9) Seattle, WA: three nights in a rented condo near downtown
10) Spokane, WA: one night in a hotel
11) Kootenay National Park, Britsh Columbia: one night in a cabin

And back to Calgary, full circle. Here's a general idea of what our route looked like ... we estimate that we covered more than 2,500 miles!

Trip Report and a New Place!

I've been procrastinating on updating the blog, as I know this will be a long one! Ben and I returned a few days ago from our amazing three-week road trip across western Canada and the US, and are still trying to re-adjust to normal life. Luckily, the gorgeous weather in Calgary is making this task much easier! It also doesn't hurt that Ben has this week off of work so there's time to recuperate and finish sorting out our new house.

In a bold move, we switched from our apartment downtown into the main floor of a house about a five minutes' drive west of town ... the day before leaving for our trip. We came home to a mess and have been slowly unpacking boxes, in addition to sorting through the rubble that results from three weeks of living out of a car!

I'm glad to say that we are still very happy with our choice to move. The quiet neighborhood provides the best night's sleep I've had in a while, Bosco loves the small backyard, and Ben and I have already discovered that we're a short 15-minute walk from the city's biggest and best park, a two minute walk from another smaller park, and 1/2-mile from the grocery store, liquor store and everything else we could need, not to mention how great it is to wake up on the ground floor to the sounds of birds, not jackhammers, and to have a kitchen that Ben and I can both fit in at the same time!

Now that I've elaborated on our new place, time to move on to the good stuff ... our trip! I've decided to break it into several different blog entries, to make it a bit easier to scan through - I will warn you that this will probably be long, so read what you want, ignore whatever I seem to blab on about, and hopefully enjoy!! It was the trip of a lifetime, and I wouldn't hesitate to encourage everybody to visit any of the sites we were lucky enough to see :)

I would suggest starting at the bottom and working your way up, as I'll try to post everything in the order that it happened... please be patient, as it may take me some time!

We Might Be Crazy...

So Ben and I made a bit of an impulsive decision ... we are moving into a new rental unit!! We had been casually looking, since our current lease ends in October, and were surprised to stumble onto a really, really great house. We are taking the main floor, and there's a basement unit below us with only a single lady living there, so we'll have so much more privacy.

The house has absolutely everything we're looking for: quieter residential neighborhood but close to town (a five minute express bus will get us there!); walking distance to the best park in the city, and in turn the fabulous Bow River; hardwood floors; two bedrooms; a spacious kitchen and back deck; a garage; and a petite fenced-in back yard with a nice big tree. As an added bonus, our pals Greg and Angie live on the same street - I hope they don't get tired of us!

Now we have our fingers crossed that our current place will rent out by September 1st so we don't have double rent ... please send good vibes our way! The crazy part of all this is that we signed the lease exactly one week before we need to move. We'll move on Monday and Tuesday of this week, then leave Wednesday for our three-week road trip, so it's a lot to cram in. But I think moving is like pulling a band-aid: it's going to be a pain no matter what, so you may as well just do it fast and get it over with!

Although Ben and I should be doing tons of packing and organizing this weekend, I am happy to report that instead we spent our Saturday morning eating chocolate chip pancakes, sipping coffee and listening to Jack Johnson while enjoying our city view for one of the last times. I will definitely miss this apartment! Things I will NOT miss? Panhandlers, drunk people shouting in the street at all hours of the night, sirens, riding an elevator every single time I want to step outside onto solid ground, and not being able to do laundry in my pajamas :)

Family!

In the midst of our hectic summer, I've not had a chance to write about the amazing visit from my family two weeks ago! It was so different to have the opportunity to host my parents and show them around a place where they had not been before (there are not many!)

Liz arrived a night earlier than the parents, so I got to take her to a few of my favorite hang-outs (Melrose, Molly Malone's and Farm) and a walk around our lively neighborhood. In spite of weeks of rain, the weather could not have been more perfect by the time she arrived! Luckily, the sunshine and warmth stuck around all week; on one occasion it was actually warmer in Calgary than in Nashville! I never expected Liz and I to be sunbathing way up in the Rocky Mountains during our trip!

The quick rundown: After two nights in Calgary and a quickie tour of the city's sights (there are not too many!), we hit the road and spent the better part of a day driving through the mountains and into the tiny but beautiful town of Jasper. Some highlights of our drive along the Icefields Parkway were Liz and my dad drinking pure glacier water from a stream on the side of the road (it gave them an energy surge!); possibly the most beautiful picnic spot in the world (at a mountain overlook); and Athabasca Glacier - burrr!

Once in Jasper, we grilled out at our adorable cabin and checked out Athabasca Falls, Mount Edith Cavell and the massive Angel Glacier - which included a live avalanche in front of our eyes, Maligne Lake, which we saw from the vantage point of canoes, Maligne Canyon, with mossy, old-growth forests and deep-carved canyons, a horseback ride and wildlife sightings galore.

After a whirlwind two days, we drove back toward the town of Banff, whose upscale charm and liveliness is a total contrast to the laid-back, peaceful feel of Jasper. Both spots are wonderful in different ways. On the way, we stopped at Lake Louise and my parents said they finally understood what all the fuss was about!

From our Banff homebase, we took the Lake Louise gondola for an amazing view, hiked around Morraine Lake (an even more spectacular turqoise color than Lake Louise!), relaxed in the Banff natural Hot Springs, and enjoyed the culinary offerings and charm of the town of Banff before heading back to Calgary. It was sad to see the family go, but we had a great week!

Prairies, Lakes and Friends, oh my!

I'm writing this entry in a very tired but content state of mind - just returned from a long weekend at the lake. Yes, there are lake houses in Canada, and the lakes do melt in the summertime (albeit not until May)!

Today (Monday) is a holiday here, although I'm not sure what for - from what I can gather, many locals don't really know, either. Ben and I only learned of the holiday last week, which meant that our well-intentioned camping trip could not come to pass: every last campsite within driving distance was already booked up! Luckily our friend Angie has a fabulous cousin who invited us all to her family's lake house about 2 1/2 hours north of Calgary. So on Friday night, we packed up and headed north, through prairies and out into the middle of nowhere, until suddenly we were upon an enormous, beautiful lake in a sleepy but oh-so-charming Alberta town.

This was a lake trip in the very best way: not overly touristy with swanky rentals everywhere, but instead with families who have likely passed cabins down for generations, with just the right amount of kitsch to make you feel totally at home. Angie and our hostess are linked through the Italian side of their families, and therefore we enjoyed amazing cooking (and lots of it!) and the best hospitality I could imagine. What a treat to escape the city, enjoy good food and friends, and not look at a television or computer for three days. Bosco came along, too, and I'm pretty sure it was his idea of heaven!

We took a few speed boat trips around the water, laid in 80+ degree sunshine and at night watched a booming thunder and lightning storm, complete with hail, over the lake. Amazingly, we woke up to another warm and lovely day afterward. The weather was so ideal that it was tough to believe our hostess, Meaghan, when she described the winter ice fishing that takes place on the lake. The ice gets so thick that trucks can drive across. I was just in love with the flowers and gardens in the area, too - probably because they reminded me of Danish gardens, which made me very happy :)

I'm constantly surprised by Canada - the multitude of ways to enjoy the outdoors continues to impress me, from hiking, skiing or camping in the mountains, to sitting by a lake in the middle of the prairies, to tubing on a river through the city (which we hope to try next weekend!). Ben and I are now a mere two weeks away from our great road trip of 2009, and I can't wait to see what else is in store for us.

Stampede Has Come and Gone

Before moving here, we had heard so much about Stampede, the ten-day festival that Calgary is famous for - ten days of partying, concert-going, rodeo watching, pancake eating and general mayhem! It arrived before we even knew what had hit us.

Ben and I did our best to jump right into the mix - I think we made it to at least one Stampede-related event every day. The city really came to life more than I've ever seen it. For the first time, there were lots of tourists around, and the streets and restaurants were overflowing. I hope the festive spirit carries into the rest of the summer! Here's the crew enjoying our $3 pancake breakfast on Stephen's Ave. downtown - for some reason pancakes are a major theme of Stampede!

Ironically, after essentially nine months of drought, the thunderstorms all rolled in over the Stampede celebrations. They still have not left entirely but are at least slowing down.

And as most of you probably would have guessed, the actual Rodeo was my least favorite part of Stampede. In spite of reassurance from people in the know that rodeo animals are happy and very well cared for, I still found elements of the show pretty horrible. The calf roping was one event that I had hoped never to witness.

And then there was the calf wrestling, which I had never known even existed: basically a 200 (often more) pound man rides out on a horse alongside a calf, then dives off the horse, tackles the calf and throws it to the ground by its neck. All I could think about was how those poor unsuspecting animals had no idea what was happening to them! And then they ran out of the ring with their tails between their legs, looking so traumatized. Poor cows have a bad lot in life, even though they're docile, sweet, and proven to be as smart as dogs! I later heard that one of the cows that had been wrestled at Stampede never got up, and had to be euthanized. Does it make you feel like a man to tackle an unsuspecting baby animal? Really?? But anyway, the photo below is from the Chuckwagon Races, for which we were up front and center and I actually DID enjoy :)

We also had a great time at the fairgrounds (imagine the biggest state fair you've seen in your life); at "Nashville North," a stage where various country music artists play throughout Stampede; and at the Grandstand Show, which was a massive Cirque du Soleil-type evening show that included acrobatics, singing, dancing, comedy and motorcycle tricks, and culminated in fireworks.

Phew! Now Ben and I are both just trying to recuperate. I'm so excited for my family to come in town this weekend, so am saving up my energy to party down with them. Calgary better watch out, the Kiilerichs are coming!!

Outdoors, Outdoors and More Outdoors

Once again, I have to apologize for being SO behind on my posts! It is not that I have nothing to blog about - quite the opposite, actually. Summertime in Calgary has transformed this city. We have gone from bundling up and drinking hot chocolate and brandy to stay warm, to the most spectacular weather imaginable for enjoying the bountiful outdoors all around us!

Since returning from our trip to Nashville, Calgary's days have been long (light until around 10pm), sunny and pleasant, with temperatures in the 70s during the day and the 50s and 60s at night. The climate is ideal for camping and all sorts of active pursuits, and we have spent every free moment this past month taking advantage of this fact.

I have to admit that I also feel a sense of urgency about the summer - I'm nervous about cramming everything in that we want to do before winter visits again!! I think the looming winter has stayed in the back of my mind all along, reminding me to get all I possibly can from these warm months.

Our first trip was a 14 km hike at Lake Louise. For the first time, we saw the lake in its element: the most indescribable glacial turquoise color.
We went as early as we could in the season, as this hike is popular and we wanted to avoid mass crowds. Luckily the trail was not crowded and we made the uphill hike to a tea house at the top of the mountain, where we sat and enjoyed killer scenery. Being the cashless wonders that we are, Ben and I realized after sitting for ten minutes that the tea house had no electricity, and therefore could not take credit cards. Our waiter was so kind - he snuck us a huge rice crispie treat, and when I asked to refill my water bottle, he ushered me quickly into a small kitchen. Turning on the tap, he joked, "We never saw you here!" Apparently they are not supposed to give out water, so I felt honored - especially since he told me it was fresh glacier water, simply the best. We hiked a bit further beyond the tea house, where we were able to see several glaciers and even tromp through a bit of left-over snow.

The following weekend we headed with Almudena to Dinosaur Provincial Park. Ben and I have often discussed how we both loved dinos as children, although I think Ben was a bit more fanatical than me! With Bosco in tow, we drove 2 1/2 hours east of Calgary through the Alberta prairies and canola farms and set up camp for a night in a shaded but flat grassland area (thanks, Chris and Marian, for the awesome tent!!).
So this is what the rest of Alberta looks like! Bosco had a field day chasing the numerous gophers all around the campground. They literally popped up from their holes every couple of minutes, just like the arcade game - Bop-It, I think it was called? I don't think I'd ever seen gophers in person before!

Dinosaur Park was amazing - the dry, rocky, wind-carved badlands seemed to go on forever, all in place of a former tropical oasis that was once filled with dinos. There used to be a huge straight of water that cut through the western part of North America, which is why it was so full of life. Now, this is as close as you can get to the desert in Canada, with cacti growing and harsh sun beating down. This area is the largest site for dinosaur bones in the world! And we saw plenty of them, sometimes just scattered on the ground.

So now we're almost caught up...

This past week was Canada Day (July 1st), and Ben had half the week off, so again Ben, Almu, Bosco and I took off for a camping trip, this time at Jasper National Park. I will not give too many details away, since my family is coming very soon to see for themselves, but I will say that it is easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We camped for two nights, drove around to view the scenery, and took a nine km mountain hike. I was in heaven!

We are now in the midst of Stampede, and the city has come to life more than ever before. Everybody wears their cowboy gear to work, bars and restaurants put out bales of hay and saloon signs and play country music, and nobody seems to go to work!

So far we've attended the Rodeo (fun but a bit traumatic for me at times - the poor little calfs that get roped and wrestled), enjoyed one of the pancake breafkasts that are all over the city, and attended a show at Nashville North, the "country" stage where some of the big concerts take place. I say "country" in quotes because it felt a bit forced to me, and the singer we saw mostly covered classic rock songs! It was fun nonetheless :) Tonight Ben's company has reserved space at a club downtown, so we'll be going there for dinner and drinks. Though I was skeptical, there are actually some pretty big country names performing, including Taylor Swift, Kelly Pickler, Kenny Chesney and Reba MacIntyre. If I'd known earlier, I might have actually tried to buy tickets!

Anyway, I hope everybody is having a fabulous summer and making the most of it!! Much Love :)

Refreshed

I feel I've returned to Calgary with a rejuvenated sense of self. Going home to the people who have known me the longest and the best always seems to remind me who I am. I hadn't exactly lost that knowledge in Calgary, but I was feeling off somehow, like something was missing, a piece of my confidence lacking perhaps. I'm not sure if it's the comfort of a hometown, the unconditional love and support of family or the way longtime friends just understand, without me saying a word - or most likely all of the above - but somehow life feels more clear again. I feel more aware and present in my own life and less worried about the future knowing that I have so much good around me.

Some highlights of the trip:

- Lingering, muggy nights by the pool at my parents' house, drinking good wine and chatting about life
- Mom's spaghetti and Daddy's grilled corn on the cob, red peppers and shrimp
- Relaxed hours on the back deck of Ben's parents' home, goofing off and watching the birds and squirrels fight over the bird feeders
- Riding the carousel in downtown Chattanooga with the whole Reeves family and seeing their brand new beautiful house in progress
- Laughing my way through the Nash Trash tour and cooking an impressive dinner with my sis
- Hunkering down in the Oak Bar for dirty martinis with Campbell
- Las Palmas with Ally & Conor, in our grand tradition of eating Mexican at every possible chance :)
- Hot, hot, hot afternoons laying by the pool - the best way to spend a June afternoon in Nashville, in my opinion
- Honky-tonkin' in Nashville with friends old and new

And of course there's Bonnaroo, sweet Bonnaroo ... which I'll elaborate on in my next post ;)

While you wait eagerly for that one, here are a few photos of the rest of our trip: