Another damp and misty day. This morning we travelled close to islands and in the afternoon, it was mostly open sea travel. The seas are relatively smooth with only the occasional swell. We went to a lecture conducted by a marine ecologist Bruce Bauerle who included a slide show about whales, orca and dolphins. He said we should see whales tomorrow night and later on in near Juneau. We had a game of shuffleboard this afternoon, Maur’s form was good in the warm up and got better at gametime defeating me reasonably easily. Met our remaining dinner table guests tonight, George & Edith Brown from NE Ohio - George is the local fire chief and said 80% of callouts are now medical emergencies only. Tonight’s “showtime” in the theatre was pretty good, called The Piano Man, ... read more

This day was long..... alarm woke us at 7am and up and off to Vancouver Island via the BC ferry. Straight to Butchart Gardens. We were blown away. This surely, is one of the best man made wonders of the world. from an old limestone quarry was born maybe 15 acres of planted gardens, landscapes, designs you name it. We arrived ion spring so had tulips every which way, long and short interspersed with smaller flowers; myriads of colours, pastels and shades, all done beautifully. Even the apple trees were majestic. Most flowering trees were trimmed below leaving only the top cover for a semi circle of flowers. There was a sunken garden we did not want to walk out of, a Japanese garden, tall redwoods, private gardens, all over gently rolling land. We never ... read more

Today we had a very unexpected train ride..... We called down to the Kamloops rail station and found the heritage rail group, had a special first day of summer run for their 1912 steam engine and had invited the local church groups for a ride..... we joined them !!! We fitted in pretty well.... we were a little younger than most. We had a great one and a half hour trip....... lots of fun ! We left Kamloops at about 12.30 expecting a 4 hour trip to Vancouver..... boy.... were we wrong ! all went well ....until 50ks out of Vancouver, we came to a standstill on the freeway.... at 7.15 we arrived in Nth Vancouver at our hotel. One good thing came out of this.... we saw lots of Vancouver ! A very pretty ... read more

Today was the day…….. we found a bear !!!! A black bear. All rugged up for the cold we left Lake Louise early….. we were on a mission…. To see as much of Yoho, Banff and Jasper National parks. It would be an understatement to say, we have travelled down the most amazing and scenic roads today… we even had light snow fall. The Columbia Icefield in Jasper National park, was awe inspiring, this is the largest glacier in Nth America. Along the way we found wild life, longhorn sheep, mule deer, elk and of course BEAR. We have lost count of how many frozen lakes, glaciers and waterfalls we have passed today….. we have the photos to prove it. ... read more

It wasn’t far out of Calgary on the way to Banff…. we saw our first snow! Just beside the road… and then everywhere. The scenery got more beautiful the closer we got to the mountains. The first stop was at Canmore, a pretty little town at the base of the Rockies, we stopped for a coffee and sat in the sun, the air was cool, but the sun was shinning brightly. Banff was only a short drive on from there. Spectacular Banff… a real tourist town, we took a gondola ride up to the top of Sulphur Mountain…. It was breathe taking. We were lucky to find a herd of elk grazing along the Bow River on the golf course. We did notice something very strange here…..every shop and every business had an Aussie employee ... read more