Last Post of the Trip

Well, we are one day away from coming home. It has been a wonderful trip and I know that I have so many memories to last me my lifetime!
A few days ago we arrived in Shaunavon Saskatchewan and visited my friend Jesse from Carleton. Her town is very small so she knew everyone that we saw. She showed us around and then we went to her farm. She had told me that she lived on a farm, but I didn't realize it was in the middle of no where! We drove down unpaved roads and finally arrived at her cute home. Her family was so nice and we felt very welcomed. We had a great time catching up over dinner and tea later in the evening. The next day Heather took the bus back to Calgary and Celina and I hit the road for North Dakota.
Our drive was quite pleasent. The sun was shining and the weather was warm. We always seem to have an interesting time getting through the border however. The border guards never really seem to believe us that we are on a roadtrip of Canada. The man asked us if we had dead bodies in the car. I told him we didn't but he searched Kevin anyway. We drove into a little town called Kenmare, got groceries and checked into a side of the road motel. It was very clean and a great price. Our neighbour's name was Rico and he was a contractor from Texas but I was careful not to tell him too much information about ourselves.
The next day we drove to Baudette Minnesota and checked into the Baudette Motel once again. It felt just like home since we had passed through there on our way to BC.
Yesterday we drove from Baudette to Thunder Bay and stayed with my grandparents again. They greeted us with a steak dinner which was SO lovely. Celina and I watched a show about Celine Dion that my grandparents had taped and we had a lot of fun mimicking the moves that Celine makes on stage. After that we went to bed because we were really tired.
Today we drove and we drove and it felt like we would never get to Sault Ste Marie. We went to Wendy's for dinner because it was 7:30 by the time we got to the Sault. We then drove to the Howard Johnson where we had a reservation. The hotel looks like it was a former juvenile detention centre. I was afraid of getting mugged in the parking lot. The room is dirty and I can see little bits of food on the floor. I have already written an e-mail to them so hopefully I will hear back :) Well, it has been a pleasure writing about our trip and thanks so much for reading my blog. Hopefully I will keep it updated with life's daily events, but for now, good night!

Revelstoke, Jasper and Calgary

Sorry again that I haven't blogged in a while. Things have started to slow down a little bit since we are mostly driving but we have still had some eventful things happen.
We left Whistler and drove to Revelstoke BC. It was about a 6 and a half hour drive through the mountains. I was nervous again to drive through them because the highways are mostly 2 lanes and if you are trying to round a bend and a truck is doing the same it can get a little scary! Once we arrived in Revelstoke we went to the KOA and set up our tent and cooked hotdogs for dinner. The campground was nice and the owner assured me that there were no bears in the area. I was not convinced. How could there not be bears in the mountains? That night we cuddled into our sleeping bags and watched Glee and then went to bed. It was SOOOOOOO cold that night. I don't think I have ever been so cold before. None of us got much sleep.
The next day we set out for Jasper Alberta. We switched off drivers quite frequently because we were all so tired. The drive to Japser was very pretty. We stopped at Lake Louise on our way because we missed it when we drove through Banff. Lake Louise was beautiful. The water was frozen over so we couldn't see the greenish blue water which was too bad but the mountains were really something. As we were driving to Jasper we saw our first snowfall of the trip! It was inredibly cold but unfortunately, I had already booked Jasper National Park for 2 nights and none of us wanted to camp again because it was freezing. We decided to cancel the reservation, got a hotel and decided to stay for only one night in Jasper. We went out for dinner to Jasper Pizza which was DELICIOUS and then we went back to the hotel for a nice soak in the hot tub. The next morning we were planning on getting up at 7:30 but we all slept through the alarm and woke up at 8:45. I think we all needed the extra sleep! We decided to explore Jasper some more that day and went for breakfast to the Bear Paws Bakery. They had so many things to choose from and everthing I tried was wonderful. After that we thought we would drive out to the Fairmont Hotel to see what it was like. I thought it would be one of those castle looking Fairmonts, but it was just a number of wooden lodges. The scenery was gorgeous though. We stopped at a little lake surrounded by the mountains where some people were scuba diving. It was so calm and peaceful and we have some great pictures. Then we set out for Calgary.
We arrived in Calgary just before supper and we got all settled in. It was so nice to be at Heather's home and see her family again. Her parents made shish kabobs for dinner and then we were all pretty tired so we just relaxed and went to bed.
Yesterday we went to Heather's church and then we went to Starbucks. Starbucks definitely makes the BEST chai lattes. We then came home to Heather's house and had lunch and then we decided to take Kevin to get his oil changed. After that we were going to go out for cheap wings, but the place we were going to go to looked incredibly sketchy so we opted for East Side Marios instead. After that we went to Safeway for blueberries and then we went to see the Back Up Plan starring Jennifer Lopez. DON'T SEE IT. It wasn't very good and I think that J Lo should just stick to singing. Today we slept in till 11:30 and I think we are going to just have a relaxing day. We might head over to Fabric Land so Heather and I can buy some warm fabric because we want to winter-ize our racoon hats so we can wear them in the winter. I think this will consist of flaps around the ears. I will let you know how it turns out. Tomorrow we are going to see my friend Jesse in Shaunavon Saskatchewan, then we will probably be heading into the states. North Dakota has had tornadoes so I guess we will have to see what the weather is like!

Bungee Jumping

Today was a beautiful sunny day in Whistler. We started off our day making pancakes on the stove in our room and then we met Lise who is a family friend that drove from Vancouver just to see us :) We walked around Whistler village which is so beautiful and quaint, then we headed over to the gondola and went up the mountain! To get to the top of the mountain we had to first take the gondola then we had to take a chairlift. We even saw bears from the gondola. I would rather see them from afar then see them up close! Once we got to the top of the mountain we walked around but there was a lot of snow so we were walking pretty slowly. We took quite a few pictures but since it was so sunny our eyes were almost closed in a lot of them. On the way down on the chairlift we decided to do random acts of kindness, so we waved at all the people who were going up the mountain. We got lots of waves back and even a "Hello ladies" from a guy haha. It was great fun. Then we went and looked in all the different shops once we got back to the Whistler village. While we were shopping, Heather and I found these amazing racoon hats that we just had to have. For the rest of the day, we walked around with cute racoons on our heads.

At this point we were trying to figure out what to do and we brainstormed for a bit. Then I mentioned that there was a bungee jumping place nearby that might be fun to go to. I was the only one that wanted to jump so I called the phone number. As I was booking the appointment I was starting to chicken out thinking "what have I got myself into." We drove to the bungee jumping place which was just out of town and were greeted by a LONG, TALL bridge. The people there were great and really put me at ease. I signed away my life and got harnassed in and I was ready to jump. Of course, I was pretty nervous!

The man told me that he would count down from 5 and on 1 I would jump. Usually whenever someone gets to 1 I just chicken out and say "I'll go in a few minutes" but this time I just leaped!

I can't really describe the feeling of the fall. It just went by so fast. The first time that I flew back up was quite scary as well, but after that it was a nice ride. I thought to myself, if I fall now the river is right below me so I could just swim to shore. Luckily I didn't need to do that and I had the time of my life!

Our hotel room has a sauna IN IT!

Greetings from Whistler! Yesterday we had the whirlwind tour of Victoria. We got to sleep in for a bit and then we headed downtown and walked around the harbour. I think Victoria is probably tied with Banff for my most favourite Canadian city on this trip. It is so quaint and so green. I could definitely see myself living there when I retire. We looked in some clothing stores and then decided to eat lunch at the food court. The parking meters only allowed us to put in enough money for 90 mins so we decided to move the car each time in order to see a new part of the downtown core without having to walk back to our original parking space. This is when we got a bright idea: we will listen to classic Disney music with the windows rolled down. We ended up driving around listening to It's a Small World and Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirates Life For Me. It was great fun. After we parked, walked around some more and then parked again we went to Starbucks. After our downtown excursion, we went to my second cousin's house for dinner to visit with him and his family. I have never met them before but I am so glad that I did this time. They were lovely and they showed us around some more and took us to the ocean and to the neatest university campus that I had never heard of. It had an old castle and a beautiful garden. It felt like we should be wearing fancy dresses and having tea.
This morning we woke up bright and early and said goodbye sadly to Heather's grandpa and Margaret and packed up Kevin and drove to Nanaimo to go and catch the ferry back to Vancouver. Once we arrived in Vancouver we started our trek to Whistler. The drive was pretty and filled with twists and turns. We hadn't booked any accomodation so we were on the lookout for a campground. We found a nice one but the lady told me that the bears "like to hang out by the river" which was convienently near our tent site so Heather and I went on Hotwire.com and found a great deal on a hotel :) We are staying in the most AMAZING hotel ever. It is a loft suite and has 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a loft bedroom, a fireplace, 2 tvs, a stero and a SAUNA!!!!!!!!! I am pretty sure I am in heaven. I have been wearing the bathrobes they gave us around the whole evening. I didn't think we would find a reasonable hotel in Whistler, but we did and now I don't have to worry about being eaten by the bears ;)

Driving SUVs, Sweating in Vancouver, Crazy old men and THE MESSAGE

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. I apologize but we have been SO busy and have had limited internet access. Since I last updated, we arrived in Langley BC and met my friend Gerrit. We got very lost because all the streets in Langley are numbers and the GPS wasn't showing his house. After driving around for a while we found Gerrit! After we settled in for a bit Gerrit had to take his siblings to piano lessons and soccer practice and wanted us to come with him, but in BC the drivers G2 drivers licenses only allow you to drive around one person other than family members, so his parents let me drive their SUV. I was pretty nervous but I got used to it after a while. Later that night we drove to White Rock and saw the ocean and walked along the pier. It was so beautiful! We even saw some people catching crabs but they ended up throwing them back in the water. After all that walking we were pretty hungry so we went to this really great restaurant only in BC called White Spot. The food was delicious so I hope that we go back there another time.

The next day we hopped on the Sky Train and went to Vancouver for the day. We first went to China Town and tried on some fun Chinese hats. I think we looked pretty ethnic and wonderful. I wanted to buy one but I didn't want to carry it around all day. We continued to walk some more and by this time the sun was shining down and it was getting warm. It was so lovely and everything was in bloom. We went for lunch at a restaurant called the Cactus Club. I think it is also a BC thing. We went into a few stores, walked around some more and then enjoyed people watching. We walked into the ritzy part of downtown and were walking in front of these 2 clearly very rich people. They were talking about going to a party and the one man responded "If I'm on the continent." We all had a good laugh. They were also talking about their drivers. Crazy! On our way back we stopped and looked at the Olympic flame. By this time though it was 4:30 and we were going to my second cousins house for dinner at 6:00. I HATE being late but I figured that we would be about 15 mins late. We went to the sky train to head back and had a slight detour because Gerrit wanted to see his friend on the way back. By this time I was getting stressed out because I didn't want to be late for family I have met only once! Once we got back to our car we had only 10 minutes to get there and a 30 minute drive ahead of us just to get to Gerrit's house and another 15 minutes to get to my family's house. We had heavy traffic and we ended up being 40 minutes late. I was so embarrassed but luckily my family was so nice and didn't mind AT ALL! We had a great visit with them and I really hope that I can visit them again in the near future.

The day after that (yesterday) we went to Fort Langley in the morning with Gerrit and he showed us around the cute little village. There were so many neat stores and homes. I bought a teapot for my new apartment. It can't wait to have people over to use it! Later on in the afternoon we drove to Vancouver. We had quite a bit of traffic and I was pretty proud of myself for driving in Vancouver :) We went and found a grocery store because this time we were so hungry. As we were leaving the parking lot some old man walked right into Kevin! He started yelling at us and I tried to drive away from him. He walked RIGHT in front of the car and wouldn't let us leave. I gave him a nice long honk and he asked me if I had a license. I ended up dodging him and found an alternate escape from the parking lot. That was our excitement for the day! We then went to Heather's moms friends house. Her name is Yvonne and her husband's name is Ross. They have 2 kids, 2 cats and 2 dogs and they live in a beautiful house. Yvonne took us on a driving tour and showed us around UBC, some of the beaches and Granville Island. Vancouver is a gorgeous city but I'm not sure I would want to live there because it is so busy. We went back to their house for dinner and had delicious chicken and vegetables and chocolate cake for dessert. It was lovely getting to meet new people and enjoying their company.

This morning we woke up nice and early to go and catch the ferry to Victoria. We were originally going to go to Nanaimo but we didn't go there because my friend wasn't able to meet us. The ferry worked out really well! We left the house at 9:00 am and had a 45 min drive to the ferry. There was very little traffic so we got to the ferry without any issues! We were planning on sitting and waiting for the 11:00 am ferry but much to our surprise we made it on the 10:00 am ferry! The ferry ride was so much fun. We found some really comfy seats but just outside the window there were people smoking. Heather thought it might be fun to make a sign to tell the people that smoking kills so we took a piece of paper and held up THE MESSAGE. Some people read it and we had a good time laughing about it. They also had a man overboard drill on the ferry. They threw a bucket over the side of the ferry so we got to watch them rescue it. Once we got to Victoria we stopped for lunch and then drove to Heather's grandpa's and his wife Margaret's house. They are such sweet people. Heather, Celina and I had a nap and then we went for a walk and got to see the neighbourhood. They live right on a golf course and we can see the ocean from their condo. It is beautiful! Tomorrow we are planning on walking around downtown Victoria and we are going over to my other second cousin's house for dinner.

The camping stove works!!!!!!!

Today we slept in for a bit! It was nice not to get up at 7:00 am. Instead we woke up at 8:15! We ate a quick breakfast and then loaded up Kevin. We are getting really good at packing the car. Usually I just throw stuff in it, but we now have a nice system so everything is packed neatly. We hit the road soon thereafter and started making our way to BC. On the Trans Canada there is A LOT of construction so we would honk at the construction workers and give them a friendly Ontario wave. After only an hour or so of driving we arrived in BC. Driving in the mountains is quite fun because there are many hills and turns. The only thing that makes me nervous is passing trucks. We also made it into our third and final time zone change. Now we are 3 hours behind Ontario. I was told that I should say hello to Uncle Jack, so hello. Now back to the regular blog.
We have decided that since we are sitting for so long we should get out and move. It can be hard though if there aren't any walking trails so instead we just dance around Kevin. It is a great workout and we also have been honked at over 10 times by trucks and other passing cars.
We were going to drive to Revelstoke today, but upon looking at Google maps we realized that it only would have been a 3 hour drive so we decided to drive to Kamloops which was about 6 and a half hours away from Banff. Once we got to Kamloops we decided to see if we could find a cheap motel. The cheapest one we could find was $71 so we said forget it and got back on the highway. Once we arrived in Merrit BC however, the rates were slightly cheaper. We checked 4 or 5 motels and came across the Copper Valley Motel. I inquired with the man at the front desk about rates and he asked me if I had checked the going rates around the area. I told him I had and I said the going rate that I found was $60. This of course was not true, but I wanted a cheap room! The man fell for it and told me that the room has "2 BEAUTIFUL queen size beds and a plasma tv. It's like going to the Holiday Inn!" As we opened the door to the room we were greeted by the smell of cheap air freshener and decorations such as a mini christmas tree statue and a chandelier. That's right, JUST like the Holiday Inn! The beds are actually pretty comfortable and it's nice to have free internet. It was getting late so we decided that we should use the ground beef that we bought and make sloppy joes. Earlier today we went to Canadian Tire in Salmon arm and returned the cooking stove that didn't work. We thought we should make sure it worked, so we lit it in the parking lot. We STILL couldn't figure it out so we asked a young guy to help us. Of course he got it lit in 2 seconds and we all felt pretty dumb. The sloppy joes turned out great and now we are all ready for bed. Tomorrow we are heading to Langley to stay with my friend Gerrit from Carleton and I also plan on visiting some of my family that lives there!

Banff!

Today we left Calgary around 11:30 after stuffing everthing into Kevin. We made it all fit and now everyone has a place to sit. We drove for about an hour and a half and then we hit Banff. We were going to go to Lake Louise today, but we decided that we will probably just do that on our way back. We spent the day exploring Banff which is such a cute town surrounded by the mountains. I was so happy to finally see mountains and get out of the prairies!
We checked into our hotel a little early cause our room was ready. It is such a convienent location because it is right on the main street so we are within walking distance to everything. We decided to set out and explore Banff soon after eating our lunch. I couldn't believe how many neat little shops that Banff has. We shopped for a bit and then we went to Second Cup which was delicious. I found he neatest shirt today which I thought was just perfect for me. It said "Just chillin' with my gnomies" and it had a picture of 3 gnomes on the front of it. I LOVE it! We also went to the candy store, so of course I couldn't pass up buying candy! After we were done shopping we came back to the hotel and decided to make Sloppy Joes on the camping stove. It is brand new and has never been used, so we were pretty excited to try it out. Well, the bad news is is that we couldn't get it lit. The good news is, is that we went to Boston Pizza for dinner. Before dinner though we went to the Banff Hot Springs. It was so wonderful just to sit in a warm pool looking at the mountains. I don't think I will ever forget it! Tomorrow we are going to BC! If all goes according to plan, we should be in Revelstoke or Sicamous. Good night!