Geez Louise! Lake Louise

11 Wednesday Jul 2018

A peaceful night’s sleep with the fan blowing and the window open. The early morning bird calls were a delight as we generally don’t get to hear them when on the road. We packed up, loaded some of the car, and hit breakfast. Breakfast was described as a “light affair” when we checked in. That definitely described it. Three kinds of dry cereal, various bread and bagels for toast, hard boiled eggs, thin sliced Canadian bacon (may have been ham), and two kinds of thin sliced cheese. Coffee was watery, but did the trick. We loaded the rest of the car and struck out for Banff National Park and Lake Louise.

It was a cloudy day that turned into a gray and overcast day, but the mountains were still glorious. Fortunately there were more opportunities for photos today. We crossed through Robert’s Pass between Revelstoke and Vernon. It’s interesting that the highest peaks in the Canadian Rockies are shorter than the US Rocky Mountains. They seem so much larger, but I think the vastness of the space between them makes them appear taller. The hairpin turns through Canada are much easier to drive than those in Colorado.

Mom got to see a few trains along the way today as they paralleled the road, as did several rivers. We fortunately stopped to purchase our day pass for the park before we arrived which made entry much easier. The area is well marked for the most part. Lake Louise Village is the first thing you see, and it looked more like shopping and dining than an actual parking area for the lake. As we continued up the mountain, gut instinct said I should have continued straight rather than going right. A quick U-turn, and we were face-to-face with a wooly marmot. I thought it was kind of him to stand up and pose for me to get a few pictures!

We parked the car, found the rest rooms, then followed the crowd along the pathway. It truly is more glorious in person than in photos. (Aren’t most places, though?) Despite the crowds jockeying for position for photos and selfies, there was a palpable serenity to the place. The vast expanse of mountains and glacier, and the calm green of the lake . Even the canoes on the lake seemed to float as they paddled along.

We walked the pathway around to the Fairmont Lake Louise Chateau, and checked out the shops inside. We admired the flower gardens in front of the hotel and took a last look at the lake.

Just as we began our walk back to the car, it began to sprinkle. By the time we reached the car, it was a pretty steady rain. We couldn’t have timed it any better!

We drove through the town of Banff, but didn’t get a chance for photos. The sky was threatening more rain, there was no parking anywhere nearby, and it was very crowded. A cute little town, though.

The terrain flattened quickly, and we were back in rolling hills and farms. About an 75 minutes later or so we were checking into tonight’s lodging in Calgary. On our way in to town we passed the Calgary Flames stadium and the Olympic ski jumps. Reminded me of watching the ski jumpers practice in Trondheim, Norway just over 2 years ago.

We lost an hour today as we crossed into mountain time zone. Waiting for dinner to be delivered, then calling it a night. Tomorrow we are off to Medicine Hat. I think we will both be a bit glad to be out of the mountains for a while!

Posted by andreapw | Filed under Alberta, British Columbia, Canada, Canadian Rockies, Columbia River, Exploring, Lake Louise, National Parks

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Welcome to Canada!

10 Tuesday Jul 2018

Sunday dawned earlier than I might have liked, given the fun of the night before. Packed up, and breakfast in the hotel restaurant. (My review would be “meh.” There’s a reason it only has 2.5 – 3 stars. But it fit the bill for all of us.) Car brought down, loaded, goodbyes said, and momma and I hit the road.

Our first stop was Chateau Ste. Michele Winery. It was about 25 minutes from the hotel, and on our route. As we’d enjoyed many good beers over the past 2 days, a wine tasting seemed appropriate to start our return trip. The grounds are beautiful and picturesque. Manicured lawns, gorgeous architecture, families enjoying picnics…clearly a place to be on a Sunday afternoon in the summer. I wish my impression of the tasting room were as good as the outside. While the staff were helpful, they did not have time to, or did not want to, give us more than the basic description of the wines and move on to the next. At $15 a tasting (we did opt to share one), and only having 5 wines on the tasting list, we could have bought 2 bottles at the grocery store and enjoyed it as much, possibly better. But we can say we have been.

Perhaps if we’d done one of the bigger tours and tasting the experience would have been different. But the Canadian border was calling us, and we had about a 4 hour drive to our destination.

We had about a 30 minute wait at the border crossing in Sumas, WA and drove into Canada about 4:08PM. A bit of traffic along Trans-Canadian Route 1 as we started, but it soon opened up. Fortunately I remembered to set the speedometer to KPH before we crossed the border. The mountains soon loomed ahead of us, and I tried to keep at least one eye on the road as I turned my head from side to side and watched the beauty unfold before us. Unfortunately, not a lot of places to stop and take photos. I managed to get a few at a rest stop near Coquihalla. The Coquihalla Summit was 1244 M (4081 feet). It seemed much higher, but will be nothing once we hit the Canadian Rockies!

We checked into our hotel about 7:15PM in West Kelowna, BC. They had a restaurant attached, so we grabbed a sandwich and called it a night.

Today (Monday) was a short drive day, roughly 2 1/2 hours from last night’s lodging to today’s. I didn’t realize when setting the return route I was taking us right through the heart of British Columbia wine region. (Those of you who know me personally may find that hard to believe! But seriously, I didn’t until I picked up the brochure last night.) Anyway, when you have a short drive day, why not stop and see how the wine is, right? We stopped first at Sandhill Winery in Kelowna. The staff were friendly, knowledgeable, warm and made us feel right at home. The wine was far better than I had expected. One of the labels at Sandhill is Wayne Gretzky’s. We passed his winery near Toronto last October but didn’t stop. I couldn’t pass this by without at least a photo or two!

If we were staying one more night in the area, we would have bought a bottle and sat on the couch for a few hours! Such an inviting tasting room and staff.

Our next stop was Blind Tiger Winery. They are situated on a ridge overlooking one of the many mountain lakes in the area. Absolutely beautiful views, and some pretty good wine there, too.

Such fun to pass apple and cherry orchards on our way down to the highway!

We left this area and began our trek north and east. There were a few scenic overlooks today where I was able to stop and snap a few photos of the majesty around us. When we have criss-crossed the US, we can usually say “this reminds me of…” and fill in the blank. The past two days have left us at an absolute loss. Mountain lakes that are fed by waterfalls of varying size, pastures that seem to be among the clouds, and the vast expanse of space. Rivers, creeks and streams that flow alongside the road, what seem to be rolling hills but are just smaller mountains. The photos will not do its beauty and majesty justice, but it’s better than nothing.

Tonight we are staying in Revelstoke, BC. Rather quiet in the summer months compared to the winter. In winter this is home to snowmobiling and heli-skiing. Not sure that being dropped off at the top of a mountain by helicopter and skiing my way down would be my idea of fun, but it seems very popular in the area. Summer is mostly mountain biking, canoeing and hiking. Certainly a picturesque area to do any or all of it!

We are staying at the Glacier House Resort, set off from town in the quiet of the forest. We have brought all food in from the car as there were bear sightings earlier. All rooms are on the 2nd floor, so we are safe. The view from the room and the peacefulness of the surroundings should make for a restful night’s sleep.

View from the hotel restaurant patio

View from our room.

Tomorrow, Banff.

Posted by andreapw | Filed under Apple Orchards, Blind Tiger Winery, British Columbia, Canada, Columbia River, Kelowna, Lake Okanagan, Mountains, Revelstoke, Sandhill Winery, Travel, waterfalls, wine, Wine Tasting

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Eastern Washington to Seattle

06 Friday Jul 2018

Our adventure hasn’t ended yet – we’ve just been enjoying time with family in Seattle, and then recovering a bit from all the fun. There should be daily updates from now until we return home a week from today. (I am so blessed to work for the company I do. 3 weeks of vacation is an absolute joy, and it should keep me going until at least September!)

We had an absolutely wonderful view of roughly 27 fireworks shows from our hotel window on Wednesday night – everything from neighborhood displays to the 3 professional displays over Red Mountain. I realized all that was missing was the patriotic music. Phone to the rescue – patriotic songs pulled up on a music app. A few card games after the fireworks ended, and we called it a night. We had a relatively short drive to Seattle, but we were both anxious to get there and see family.

We enjoyed fireworks displays in every direction!

No time machine, just using up the stash of left over napkins Mom had. At least they had fireworks on them! 🙂

We opted for the state highway 243 over the interstate for the beginning of the drive. Right on past the Hanford Nuclear Waste site. Fortunately the road didn’t go directly by it. As we wended our way through the Columbia River Valley, we passed miles of apple orchards, sprinkled with the occasional vineyard. We stopped briefly at Wanapum Dam for a pit stop.

Model of the wind turbine that powers the dam

As we started on I-90, we passed another “Little Brown Sign” for the Petrified Ginko Forest. I didn’t have to ask twice if we should check it out. The forest itself would have required a bit of a climb up a steep hill, and it was rather warm. We opted to pass on that for this trip, and headed back toward the museum and gift shop instead. Interesting information sprinkled throughout what is mostly a gift shop for rock and gem collectors.

We made a second pit-stop at Thorp Market for fresh off the tree Ranier and Washington cherries and a few gift items. By this point, we were both anxious to get to Seattle and out of the car. The drive over the Cascades was beautiful, and relatively easy compared to the Rockies. Traffic into Seattle was light (at least in comparison with Atlanta area traffic!) We found the hotel easily, unloaded the car (well, technically the bellhop unloaded the car), and had parked it for the next three days.

We met my brother briefly for a beverage and snack before he had to head to a pre-wedding function. We were joined shortly thereafter by my daughter, and eventually my husband. We found a great Italian restaurant around the corner from the hotel which was open late. A bottle of wine, some amazing pasta, and a cannoli for dessert. A perfect end to the first half of the roadtrip! And the view for the next 3 days was pretty amazing.