http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Lok-and-Catherine/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Lok and Catherine en-us Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:35:40 +0000 Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:35:40 +0000 After spending a bit of time in Quebec City we jumped on the VIA Rail destined for Moncton. You just have to love the special discount section of the VIA Rail website because we managed to snag another deal and get a sleeper cabin for the same price as the budget seats. We jumped off the train in Moncton New Brunswick a few hours later than scheduled and hopped straight onto the bus destined f http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Newfoundland---Labrador/blog-387246.html Before crossing the border from Englishspeaking Canada to French Canadian Quebec we had heard so many stories and opinions about the province of Quebec and the French Canadians that inhabit it. Some people spoke glowingly about beauty of the province and itrsquos distinct culture others were tired of the rhetoric about Quebec being different from the rest of Canada and the desire to seek sov http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Quebec/blog-381844.html We came to Ottawa with a bit of a soft spot for national capitals. After spending so much time in our own nationrsquos home of politics we are used to the taunts that are afflicted on such cities expensive sterile full of civil servants boring. We didnrsquot find Ottawa to be a cheap city and there were a lot of government buildings and civil servants around but boring...No not all. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Ottawa/blog-375217.html Take me to the April sun in Cuba oh oh ohTake me where the April sunGunna treat me so right so right so right April Sun in Cuba DragonWell it wasnrsquot quite April but after surviving part of a Winnipeg winter and then getting a bit more of the same in Toronto the best cure we could think of for our chronic Vitamin D deficiency was a couple of http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Cuba/blog-374063.html With a tinge of sadness we left Winnipeg and jumped on Via Rail for a 39 hour rail trip to Toronto. While this might sound ghastly it was made all the better by being able to be in sleeper class. A bed made for you every night a shower and three cooked meals a day. All we had to do was read sleep and the proverbial. And we were the youngest there by around 20 years. Travelling by land does http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Niagara-Falls/blog-370173.html What would possess two Australians to spend an Australian summer in a Winnipeg winter And there starts the conversation with pretty much everyone we encounter in Winnipeg a cityrsquos whose weather seems to define it and probably for good reason. Winnipeg is the coldest city in the world with a population greater than 600000 people. Thatrsquos a record that doesnrsquot seem to appear http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Manitoba/Winnipeg/blog-355408.html There is something very cool sounding about the name Saskatchewan. This is one of the low profile provinces sparsely populated known for its extensive flat prairies on which vast quantities of wheat are grown a growing oil and gas industry and increasing mineral extraction particularly uranium. The province even has a city called Uranium City. On Canadian Thanksgiving we jumped on the Gre http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Saskatchewan/blog-337856.html Edmonton doesnrsquot have a reputation as being the most happening city and well that is a fair enough point. We had booked into the hostel for 5 nights and after the second day we were scouring the tourist magazines and the Lonely Planet for things to do over the rest of our time there. The hostel was near Whyte Avenue a rather funky part of town and as such has the requisite funky shops http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Edmonton/blog-336750.html In order to take advantage of some very unseasonal warm weather we decided to hire a car for a couple of days and check out some of the sites of Southern Alberta Drumheller is about 130km out of Calgary and is almost certainly the Dinosaur capital of world. The town has a bit of an obsession with these prehistoric beings and is home to the Royal Tyrell Museum one of the worldrsquos largest di http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Drumheller/blog-333611.html Okay so the blog has taken a back seat for a couple months while we were out trying to save the world one day at a time. The world is still here so itrsquos safe to say mission accomplishedItrsquos been a crazy few months. Catherine took an unexpected holiday back to Melbourne for a couple of weeks to help out with some family errands so Lok saw fit to do manly things like white water http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Calgary/blog-324761.html We havenrsquot put anything up for a few weeks now mainly because we have been working a fair bit and have been essentially living the lives of shift workers. Wersquore keeping the bar staff at our local wondering why we are so weird rolling in at about midnight dressed from head to toe in black our work uniform requirements carrying backpacks dark bags under our eyes ordering a coup http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver-Island/Victoria/blog-301110.html Therersquos that joke when yoursquore a kid that when all else fails there is always the option of running away from home and joining the circus. Funnily enough in our late 20s that is exactly what we have ended up doing. Not long after we arrived in Vancouver we saw an ad in the paper for jobs with Cirque Du Soleilrsquos Vancouver run of Corteo so we threw in applications and both lan http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver/blog-288278.html The first few days of June saw us move into our apartment and saw the first day of summer roll into Vancouver bringing along its good friends cloud and rain. Wersquove been pretty lucky on the weather front so far and we were always expecting some wet weather in this part of the world so it was fitting that it came with the advent of summer. People keep telling us that Vancouver is a city wi http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver/blog-284189.html Itrsquos been a big week for us and in many respects a week that has seemed like itrsquos taken a month. We jumped on a bus from Seattle to Vancouver last Monday. It was a pretty cruisy trip and we had the honour of holding up the entire bus at the border crossing. Whilst everyone else got off the bus and moved quickly through immigration we answered questions and went through the proces http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver/blog-280547.html We couldnrsquot have asked for much more from the Seattle weather serving up both ends of the spectrum in a week. Wersquove had whole days of black skies and dreary rain which is what we were expecting followed by four consecutive days of fine clear and warm days including one day of 30 degrees. Everyone we spoke to couldnrsquot wait to tell us how good this weather was and how very http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/blog-277652.html ldquoHello Passengers we have now come to a complete stop. Sorry for the short delay. The train has hit a boulder and a hose has detached from the front engine. Once we reattach the hose in about 10 minutes we should be on our way.rdquoThe wait was a little longer than 10 minutes and after about an hour and no success the driver called ahead and asked that a spare carriage from a nearby http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Oregon/Portland/blog-275237.html We booked five nights in Yosemite not because itrsquos somewhere that wersquove always wanted to go or that we love bears but because we keep hearing from people and TV shows that itrsquos a beautiful place. On that basis we showed up with no expectations and no idea how we were going to entertain ourselves for just under a week. For starters we checked into our accommodation at Curry V http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Yosemite-National-Park/blog-272967.html The accommodation we have in SF the Edwardian Hotel is a pleasant and quaint little place on Market Street. The hotel staff came down and checked us in when we arrived late after our flight issues despite the fact that the front office had closed half an hour earlier so they get a huge tick for that. The cable cars although a little San Francisco clich are really pretty cool. Itrsquos http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Francisco/blog-271077.html The saying goes that the journey is more important than the destination and there is a lot of truth to that but I think the journey really starts once you leave the airport. Lines Customs cramped seats US airports with their lack of space poor signage lost bags and absence of friendly faces are all just annoying hurdles that stand between you and the journey. With that out of the way our http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/blog-270094.html