On holidays at last!!

My apologies in advance...this is a long post!

After our last couple of days in Nanaimo, we were finally ready to start our holiday - we were so excited, we were awake at 4am on Thursday morning (4th), so decided we may as well get up and head out to catch the first ferry off the island at 6.20am. We were there in lots of time!

The Departure Bay ferry terminal from the head of the line.

Heading out of Departure Bay into the sunrise.

Upper ferry deck.

Front of ferry looking towards the mainland.

Not very clear but our house is in the middle there somewhere.

The ferry ride takes about an hour and a half and at that time of the day, we were able to watch a beautiful sunrise - also caught a glimpse of our new home as we left Departure Bay - that was pretty exciting. The ferries are huge with lots of services and facilities for passengers (lounge areas, outdoor patios, food, movies, play areas, shops, computer hookups, etc). It was amazing just how smooth the ride was - likely not that way all of the time. As we were almost first on, our car had a scenic spot at the front of the ferry, although most people don't stay in their cars for the trip but go to the upper decks to enjoy the view and food, etc.

Once off the ferry in Vancouver, all calm evaporated as very quickly we were caught up in rush hour and construction traffic through Vancouver. A huge portion of the TransCanada Highway is under construction so you can imagine the mess. Anyway, an hour or so later we were into a more rural vibe and seeing the first of an endless array of magnificent mountain views. It is quite amazing and my memory held up of steep drop-offs at the side of the road which make you lean in towards the mountains - of course that helps! Since my last trip, huge sections have been redone though with divided highway and lots of passing lanes in other areas so fortunately there are only small sections of the old road left. How they do roadworks in those conditions, I don't know. One section which had been redone was hundreds of metres higher up the mountain than the old road and the bridge to span from one mountain to another was amazing (and scary!). To say the road through the Rockies its awe inspiring is an understatement. I've been through the mountains many times, but haven't done the whole drive from Vancouver to Banff for over 20 years so I had forgotten just how beautiful and extensive it is. My camera sure got a workout - hard to decide which of the images to include - at the risk of same old same old I will try to be selective.

One of many beautiful streams beside the highway.

Snow shed (to stop cars getting squished in an avalanche!)

We didn't see any animals much to my disappointment but the scenery certainly made up for it. The first day we were only going as far as Revelstoke so it made for a more leisurely trip. We stopped for an hour or so in Salmon Arm on the Shuswap Lake system - what a pretty spot. Revelstoke didn't disappoint though and we had a long walk in very hot sun (surprising eh?) to search out a patio to have a wine and dinner. Found one which had a misting system to cool us down. It also featured ski equipment in its decor with parts of skis for chairs, etc. On the way back to the motel, we discovered a band playing outdoors to a small crowd so sat and watched them for an hour or so before walking back to the motel. When we drove up to the motel, we discovered that it was in the middle of the TransCanada Highway, a very busy service station and the train line! I jokingly asked if they had a room with a view! Well, our room ended up being on the back side of the motel with a view of a mountain peak and no noise from any of the things which we had expected to be a problem. That was lucky.

Salmon Arm jetty.

How do the prices compare?

Chair lift seat in Revelstoke.

3 Valley Gap resort.

Friday took us the final leg from Revelstoke into Calgary - about 5-1/2 hrs. Again, so many magnificent sights of mountain peaks, streams and lakes, all conveniently positioned alongside the highway. I was just a bit emotional as we came across the border into Alberta - felt as though we were coming home!

We stopped in Golden for lunch, did a quick drive through Banff for old times sake and then went a bit further to Canmore and got out for a walk and shop. I of course remembered the beautiful quilt shop there and just had to go in for a look. Resisted temptation and came out empty handed.

As we left Canmore (and the mountains) and headed across the flat countryside towards Calgary, we could see huge black clouds - in that part of the country at this time of the year, that usually means a hail-storm. I was pretty nervous as we were in our still very new car. As it turned out, it did hail but the worst of it was in a different part of Calgary to where we were - we saw the effects later when we went out for dinner with  hail piled up like snow and trees shredded. A lot of the restaurants had to close their outdoor patio areas because of the mess - unfortunate because after the storm passed, the weather was beautiful.

Calgary was the first stop for a reunion with one of the "kids" - it was lovely to see Colin and give him a big hug! Later we went for dinner with Colin and his sweetie Jess. Jess was kind enough to let us use her apartment near downtown Calgary for the couple of nights we were in town. Thanks Jess!

On Saturday we started the day VERY slowly - once we were up and about, we headed out south of Calgary to see Mary and Al Weber Blatz who live on a beautiful farm with views of the Rocky Mountains. En route a stop at a farmers market got us stocked up on fresh veges for our BBQ later. It was great to see Mary and Al again and catch up on things. That night, Colin and Jess cooked us a great meal of the thickest steaks I have ever seen along with the trimmings. Yum.

Today we are catching up with them for brunch and will then head north to Edmonton to finally see the other four of our kids. Can't wait!