Camping here at Adams Lake, BC was very fun. The
lake is beautiful; surrounded by gorgeous mountains. We did have to
work hard to keep the mosquitoes away, but it was a small price to pay
for the amazing beauty and peacefulness that we were able to experience. |
On our way to Calgary we traveled through the amazing Canadian Rockies.
The majesty of the mountains was awe-inspiring. The sky looked so
close, it was almost as though I could have gotten out of the car,
reached up and touched the sky. |
Feeling a little out of place in Calgary, we decided
to take on new identities and go out for a night of fun at the local
saloon. |
Everywhere we went Matt made new friends, he is such
a likeable guy. Here he is in Calgary with Billy. |
Climbing to the top of the World's Tallest Dinosaur
was not as difficult as it may sound. We had a nice view peering
out from between his sharp teeth. |
Rachel is about to be eaten by the World's
Tallest Dinosaur. The Dinosaur is so tall that, from this
position, one can feel the dinosaur swaying in the wind. |
Unable to avoid the same fate as his wife, Matt too,
had to withstand the bite of The World's Tallest Dinosaur. |
While in Drum Heller, we did have to run for our
lives a few times, fortunately we made it out alive. |
The Museum at Drum Heller was really interesting.
Here Matt is posing with a new friend that he made. |
Not wanting to be outdone, Rachel also made a new
friend at the museum. As you can see, her friend is VERY happy to
make her acquaintance. |
Lying on the floor of a canyon. the scenery at Drum
Heller is not what one would expect, yet it was pretty.
|
The Hoo Doos in Drum Heller are very strange
rock formations that somewhat resemble giant mushrooms. |
The Hoo Doos are growing out of Matt's head! |
After our time in Calgary we went back to
enjoy Banff and Jasper for a few days. Many famous people have stayed at The Fairmont Hotel in
Banff, the well-known Hirotas were not among the posh company. |
Just standing here to make The Fairmont sad that we
won't be staying with them this time. |
Grazing along the side of the road this female elk
did not seem bothered by the people at all. Maybe she knew that if
she smiled pretty she would end up on this website. |
The Banff Hoo Doos are pretty cool (but the Drum
Heller ones were even cooler). Notice the very blue water in the
background. This is not a trick the water is really that blue.
It is amazing! |
Matt, enjoying the beauty of Banff. |
Just one of the many wild creatures that make Banff
their home. "What kind of bird is this?" you ask. I have no
idea! Dad, do you know? |
This picture does not do justice to the beauty of
Lake Louise. The water is a shade of blue that I have never before seen
in a lake. In spite, of the gorgeous surroundings, we did not stay
here long, as it was FREEZING cold! |
Speaking of freezing cold...on our way from Banff to
Jasper, we made a very fun stop at the Columbia Ice Fields. Even
in late June there is a lot of snow on the ground. Coming from
California, we were not prepared for this weather, but it was very fun
just the same. |
This is the vehicle that drove us out onto the ice
field. |
Just trying to stay warm. |
This Moose Mounty asked me to take a picture with him
by the gift shop at the Columbia Ice Fields, how could I refuse? |
I forget the name of this lake, but we had to walk
through about eight million mosquitoes to get to it. However, it was
totally worth every itchy bite, as this was an amazingly beautiful
sight. |
Canada Day in Jasper. This Beaver was passing
out Canada Day candy and taking photos with the tourist. |
In Jasper we took the Tram up to the top of a
mountain. As can be seen from this picture, the view from the top
was spectacular! And we got to see and hear the marmots whistling. |
While at the top of the tramway we had a very good
and reasonably priced lunch. If you go there, I do recommend having
lunch in their little cafeteria. |
After lunch at the Tramway Cafe, we hiked 1.2 km to
the top of the summit. Rachel, however, did not want to do this.
There is no air up there, that high in the sky. But, again, once
we got to the top, it was a breath taking view! |
We didn't stay on the summit long because some very
dark, menacing clouds rolled in and dropped a couple of rain drops on
us. We took the Tram back down and not a moment to soon.
When we reached the bottom an announcement was made that the Tram was
stopped due to weather. Whew...that was close! |
On July 1st, Canada Day, we left the Rockies and
headed for Edmonton. We saw Mountain Sheep along the roadway on
our way out of Jasper. |
We pulled our car over and took some pictures of the
Mountain Sheep. As you can see this Ram gave us his most
nonchalant pose. |
Happy Canada Day! |
We saw a fabulous fireworks show in Edmonton. |
On July 2nd we
encountered Vegreville, home of the World's largest Pysanka, or
Ukrainian
Easter Egg. The Egg is so big that the chicken who laid it would
have to be 12 stories tall. We had arrived just in time to
experience the annual Pysanka Festival |
The festivities were very fun! There were
singers... |
musicians... |
and best of all, dancers! |
The authentic costumes, language, music and food made
this stop very enjoyable. |
In Regina and Estevan we got to meet up with Lonnie,
Karen and Teegan. What's wrong with this picture? |
In Windsor we got to spend some time with Matt's
family. Here we are with Matt's cousin Susan, her husband and
their children. |
We spent the night with Matt's Uncle Ted and Aunt
Nancy. We really enjoyed seeing their beautiful backyard which
included a Japanese garden and Ted's homemade birdhouses. |
Niagara Falls was more amazing than I imagined.
Pictures do not do it justice. |
The weather was hot, but the falls create a constant
mist in the air which helped us feel a little cooler, as long as we
stayed near the falls. |
Our next stop was Canada's beautiful capital, Ottawa.
This clock tower has bells in it, on which we got to hear a musician
playing his daily bell concert. |
The Parliament building is adorned with cute little
gargoyles like this one. |
Standing in the clock tower, we were able to look
down on the other Parliament buildings. |
No trip to Canada is complete unless you get your
picture taken with Mounties. |
The Province flags are displayed at the visitors'
center near the Parliament building. |
This is the inside of a very beautiful church in New
Brunswick. |
This is Canada's longest covered bridge, also located
in New Brunswick. |
The best place we visited, and the place that Rachel would
most encourage everyone she knows to visit, was Prince Edward Island, home
of writer LM Montgomery. Boy, do they love her and her most famous
character Anne Shirley. They even have Anne on their license
plates! Rachel loves that place!! |
Here are some of the characters from Anne of Green
Gables, Marilla Cuthbert and Rachael Lynde, in the village of
Avonlea. This place is a little girl's dream come true! |
This is the girl that played Anne as she is meeting
Matthew Cuthbert for the first time. |
In Marilla's garden, Rachel stood among the Oriental
Poppies. There were about a million of them. |
Matt's favorite character in Avonlea was the
grumpy teacher, Mr. Phillips. |
Sitting in the actual school building where LM
Montgomery had her first teaching job, Rachel really felt like a part of
Anne's world. |
In the Cuthbert's barn, Matt had a taste of some very
fresh milk...he didn't care much for it. |
This is the real Green Gables, it was not used in the
filming of the movie, but it is the home where LM Montgomery spent much
of her time. While we were here, we also got to walk down the real
Lovers' Lane, which was used in the movie and which LM Montgomery walked
down hundreds of times. |
This is the room which Montgomery wrote into her Green
Gables books as Anne's room. |
The Anne of Green Gables Museum was another place
that Montgomery spent a lot of time and based other books on. The
Lake of Shining Waters is here and some of Montgomery's family still
reside here. |
This cute squirrel, giving Matt a kiss, was our
little friend while we were at our campsite on PEI. |
The one thing that Matt wanted while on PEI was a
Lobster dinner! |
All good things must come to an end, and so Rachel's
kindred spirit waves Good-bye. |
In Nova Scotia we camped right beside this graveyard
and the ocean. It was beautiful even if it was a bit creepy. |
The ferry ride from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland was
six hours. We left at 11 PM and arrived early in the morning.
We were extremely tired and there was no one around. It was very
serene. |
This one is for you Tara! The tackiest thing
that we saw on our entire trip was this yard in Newfoundland. I
knew that you would want to see it!
|
Newfoundland is darling and I hope that we can go
back there soon. |
One thing you don't want to do is fall into the very
cold water. Obviously Rachel is a little paranoid! |
Good-bye Newfoundland, we hope to see you again very
soon! |
Back to New Brunswick and our final Canadian stop,
The Bay of Fundy. |
The tide in this bay does something very unusual. |
This picture and the two preceding pictures were
taken over the course of six hours. In which time the water
dropped almost 40 feet. |
Notice the water behind us... |
This is approximately six hours later. |
We canoed around the bay and got to see the water
level drop. |
On the way out we paddled through caves. That
were no longer there less than an hour later when we were going back. |
The tide causes these strange rock formations know as
Flowerpots. |
Here is another Flowerpot that we paddled around. |
This is the Santa Claus rock. Can you find his
profile? |
This large bug bit Matt on the finger. |
While canoeing we could see our little Boler parked
so pleasantly at the campground. |
Our final stop was in Ohio, where we got to visit our
dear friends, The Hutchinsons. |
It was so nice to see Luke and Noah as it had been
about three years since the last time we had been with them. |
Saying good-bye was hard! |
That was our little trip.
We hope you enjoyed the photos! |
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