Island bound

On our return trip to Vancouver Island last Friday, we decided to take an alternative route for the first section - from Edmonton to Jasper and then down to link up with the TransCanada Highway around Kamloops, BC. Of course, this route is just as picturesque as the other one - it is hard to believe just how vast these magnificent mountains are - everyone should have a trip through the Canadian Rockies on their bucket list. I'm going to bore you with yet more mountain shots.

We stopped in Jasper for a few hours to revisit some sights and wander around the shops. Brian and I came to Jasper in 1994 for our honeymoon.

Jasper Visitor Information Centre.

Jasper t-shirt.

Totem pole in Jasper.

Mt Robson.

We overnighted at Valemount, about an hour further on from Jasper. We saw signs saying that they had a creek where the salmon come up to spawn (and then die) so after we checked into the hotel, we wandered down to the creek to check it out. As we walked, we came across a fellow who had a professional camera and asked him if there were more salmon further on - as we had only seen a couple so far. He directed us through a fence, onto private property and said we should wade across the first section of a creek and onto a sand bar and from there we would have a good view of them! But first he asked if he could film us walking along the creek as he was filming for a promotional video for the town. We agreed but suggested that he could surely do better for models.

After we had completed our modelling duties, we walked further along the creek and met up with a couple of young German girls who were travelling around Canada - had a great chat with them and then proceeded to do the creek crossing - in knee deep, fast moving frigid water and on very hard rocks. We were barefoot so there were lots of exclamations as we made our way across. Safely over, we did see more salmon making their way upstream - it seems such a huge effort for them and they rest often - partly I think because at this point they had been at it for many many weeks and were slowly dying. Actually, it was a pretty sad thing to see. I think I'd rather view this phenomena right at the beginning when they leave the ocean.

Valemount town sign and entrance.

Salmon viewing spot.

Not very good picture of some salmon.

Had a nice walk around the town and came across a lovely little quilt shop - of course, that required a small detour, a great chat and a few more metres of fabric to add to the stash!

Next day, we just beat the busload of young travellers into the small breakfast room at the hotel - ate a healthy breakfast and were on the road before 7am. Lots of oohing and aaahing at the scenery along the way.

Some central BC farmland.

Arrived at Kamloops hungry and Brian noticed a sign for Cora Restaurant - he hadn't been with me in Edmonton when I went so it was a must stop. The food is amazing - focus on serving lots of fruit and a different take on the usual breakfast meals served in North America. We took our time enjoying our meal and then piled back in the car for the final stretch to Vancouver and the ferry.

French toast, Cora style

Eggs Benedict, Cora style.

For all of the miles we have travelled, we only saw one deer off in the distance (not really exciting considering the dozens of deer which roam Nanaimo front gardens) and the legs of what I am going to swear was a moose strolling behind some trees in the distance! Very disappointing. Lots of signs on the highways to say watch for bears, moose, elk and deer but not for us on this trip.

As we entered Vancouver, we hit traffic jams because of the highway roadworks and, despite Brian's best efforts, we missed the ferry back to Vancouver Island by 10 minutes! That meant a two hour wait for the next one at 5.30pm - fortunately the Horseshoe Bay terminal is in a very beautiful area of north Vancouver with a marina, shops and lots of spots to eat...so, we found ourselves a restaurant table on a deck with a view of the bay and enjoyed early dinner. Not a bad way to fill in a bit of time. There was a fruit stall selling fresh BC berries etc. so we loaded up on corn, blueberries & strawberries.

The ferry we just missed.

View of ferry area from restaurant deck.

The trip home on the ferry was gorgeous with the sun starting to set and a cruise ship passing in front of us on its way up to Alaska (this photo is for you Joan & Horst).

Alaska bound cruise ship.

View of some of the Gulf Islands from the ferry.

It was nice sailing into Departure Bay in Nanaimo and seeing our soon to be home waiting for us up on the hillside. Finally got "home" around 7pm (via a detour to check out our new home) and into the same spot we had stayed in before so it felt like coming home. Only 5 sleeps to go. The next post will be written from the deck of our house later this week.

Charming farmhouses and zillions of lakes

We left Windsor early on a beautiful day (16th August) and decided to stay off the crazy 401 highway and take the road (somewhat) less travelled to Uxbridge which is northeast of Toronto. It ended up taking us about 7 hours instead of 4 but it was really interesting seeing again miles and miles of cornfields (as high as an elephant's eye of course) and the very charming Ontario farmhouses. Most are two storey brick - I didn't manage any good photos of them unfortunately but what impresses is that most of the farms are so well groomed and maintained. We stopped halfway at a very cute village called Erin and did a quick wander of the main street. The market gardens then gave way to dairies, then horse stud farms. Because we had the top down on the little yellow car, I sported a Kathryn Hepburn style with big sunglasses and scarf on head - missing a bit of her glamour unfortunately but it did help. 

Town of Erin, Ontario

We arrived at niece Kelly's house and Kelly, husband Ivan and Kelly's sister Erin, all worked hard to feed us an incredibly delicious pasta & corn dinner. After a fun evening of catch up, we headed out with Erin to spend the night at a B&B she is staying in for a while. It was a two bedroom unit over the garage of a large home on an acreage outside Uxbridge. It was so peaceful and pretty we could easily have settled in for a while but there were places to go and things to do! We were up and about fairly early next morning to visit friends of Erin who run an amazing bakery nearby, and then back to Kelly & Ivan's for another huge breakfast/brunch. Finally got back in the car for the final two hours to the "cottage". 

The gang at dinner in Uxbridge (Ivan, James, Maddie, Erin, Kelly & Brian)

Ontario countryside from B&B window.

As we headed north, the countryside changed dramatically to the very distinctive look of the Canadian Shield which is a large geographic area in eastern and central Canada composed of bare rock dating to the Precambrian era (between 4.5 billion and 540 million years ago). In total it covers approximately 8 million square kilometres and is made up of some of the planet's oldest rock, largely granite and gneiss. The shield is mostly thin soil lying on top of bedrock, with many bare outcrops and thousands of lakes. This was caused during the last ice age, when glaciers covered the area and scraped the rock clean as they moved. A few million years of advancing and retreating glaciers have actually carried pieces of the shield into southern Ontario and the northern United States. And this folks explains why there are so many incredibly beautiful lakes in this part of Canada, one of which we were to visit for a week. Was interesting along the way to see a sign for "guided bear hunts"! 

Lots of exposed Canadian Shield rock along road.

Ontario roadside lake - one of zillions.

As we travelled, we stopped a few times to load up on more fresh vegetables and wine. Because of the small confines of the BMW, it meant all of this was piled on top of and around me in the passenger seat. I couldn't get out of the car until all of our purchases were unloaded on arrival at Paint Lake.


It was lovely to pull into the driveway of the cottage and see all of the work which Gary (Brian's brother) and Diane have done over the past year or so. They have doubled the size of the cottage and are making it a year round dwelling so they can spend more time up there. Gary has also built a couple of "bunkies" which are basically very small cabins to accommodate overflow of visitors. 

Back of cottage undergoing extension and new garage on right.

Freshly painted trim on bunkie.

Gary & Di's cottage from lake - new extension on left.

Side of cottage towards lake.

View of dock and Paint Lake from cottage.

The perfect chair.

We spent a wonderful week at the lake - the first night was a bit scary as a severe thunderstorm hit right around the cottage - the thunder was the loudest I have ever heard and I got dressed ready to evacuate should one of the nearby trees fall!! Brian thought that was pretty funny. We were concerned because Kelly & Ivan and nephew Tyler were off on a canoeing and camping weekend in famous Algonquin Park. They were paddling to the end of a 20km long lake and setting up camp - not much fun with so much rain that came with the storm. 


During the week, Brian and I helped out with renovations jobs wherever we could - Brian helping Gary with siding the house and me painting and doing some clearing of the forest around the cottage plus cleanup duties. Diane and I spent a great afternoon shopping in Huntsville but because of our luggage restrictions, my purchases were severely curtailed. 

Huntsville flowers.

Brian and Gary took an afternoon off to golf at Bigwin Island - a very exclusive private golf club in nearby Lake of Bays. Di and I (and niece Kathryn) met them afterwards for dinner - the island has a private boat which comes back and forth to pick up guests to take them over. It was a memorable evening with more great food in a spectacular setting.

Guest pickup dock for Bigwin Island.

Some poor person's boathouse on Lake of Bays.

Enjoying the good life!

Dock at Bigwin Island golf course.

We were allowed a bit of time off occasionally for R&R and it was lovely to enjoy sitting on the dock or on the verandah with a book and glass of wine. On our last evening, Gary took us all for a slow boat tour on the lake to enjoy the scenery and look at all of the other cottages - it was a beautiful night and so peaceful.

Covered pedestrian bridge on Paint Lake.

Another cottage on Paint Lake.

And another...

Misty morning on the lake.

The time at the cottage went by far too quickly and next day (23rd August) Gary & Di drove us into Toronto airport to catch the plane back to Edmonton. We had a bumpy flight and Brian and I agree we are totally over airports and plane trips! We learned on arrival in Edmonton that while we were in the air, Toronto had felt tremors from an earthquake down in the States somewhere!


We were happy to get back to Edmonton - Brendan & Telly picked us up - dropped me back at Heidi's and then headed to golf! The next couple of days passed really quickly - it was nice to have more time getting to know Antoine and we enjoyed a dinner out with he and Heidi. Heidi also introduced me to a breakfast/lunch restaurant chain called "Cora" - they have over a hundred locations in eastern Canada and have only very recently come to Alberta and British Columbia. Tyler was off on a holiday to California so we didn't see him this time around. Brendan & Telly hosted a BBQ for us at their place one evening (again, an amazing array of food to choose from...thanks guys) and yet more faces from the past showed up - along with some new family additions for Cory & Crystal - the very charming Dillon and brother Lucas. I had a fun time playing with them and Casey, Brendan & Telly's multi-coloured dog!

Edmonton sunset.

Heidi & Antoine.

Telly's amazing potato salad.

Telly & Brendan's dog Casey - her body is coloured pale green and paws are bright yellow!

Shopping is a must in Alberta and many hours were dedicated to that activity! The range of consumer goods is overwhelming - I knew I'd be happy back shopping in Canada but I'd forgotten just how much fun it is and how huge those stores are. Of course, this time with a car to fill, I wasn't so constrained with purchases so more than a few bags were added to our stuff.


After a fabulous few weeks catching up with family, friends and scenery and covering many many miles by car and plane, Friday, 26th August, saw us back in our lovely new car and heading west for Jasper - the car was packed to the rafters with our newly acquired possessions and also borrowed things to help us through our first month in the house with no furniture. We are now island bound and on final countdown for house possession on 1st September!

More hugs, a broken leg and some great family time

Last Sunday we drove from Calgary to Edmonton to continue with our reunions with the kids. We had planned a coffee date halfway in Red Deer with long time friend Maggie Paterson (aka Margaret Hough). I phoned to set up a place and time only to find out that Maggie had broken her leg in two places the day before and was in Red Deer already...but at the hospital waiting for surgery! So, that's where our visit took place. It was a harsh reminder to watch where your feet are at all times. Not fun.

The traffic was crazy - the road between Calgary and Edmonton is a bit like the F3 - it's a 3 hour drive and full on. Being summer holidays, there were an incredible number of huge motorhomes as well.

Finally arrived in Edmonton and had a great evening with the kids and their partners just catching up. It was wonderful. The next two days were spent in the same way - one evening Heidi had planned a welcome back BBQ which was lots of fun. She and her partner Antoine were great hosts and we also got to meet Antoine's family. Our crazy schedule meant getting up the next morning very early to get to the airport (sorry Heidi & Antoine) to catch a flight to eastern Canada (Windsor, Ontario) to visit Brian's family. Have to say I wasn't thrilled at the thought of sitting on a plane again but at least it was only 4 hours and not 14.

We were picked up from Windsor airport by nephew Tyler Thompson - dropped our bags and drove the 45 minutes out to see Brian's mum who is in a nursing home in Leamington. That has been our daily routine while we are here (about a week) to make sure we get lots of visiting in with her. Also briefly saw Jack who lives in the same place and who is a computer savvy 90 year old who had facilitated Skype sessions with himself and Brian's mum when we were still in Australia! We are staying in Brian's brother's (Gary) house in Windsor - Gary and Diane are up at their cottage in Dorset, north of Toronto. We'll head up there tomorrow (Tuesday) for a week or so. They are hard at work doing huge renovations to their cottage and so I'm sure we will be pressed into service - looking forward to seeing all of the changes.

While we are in Windsor, Gary and Diane have very kindly loaned us their very cute bright yellow BMW convertible. It's a great car and so we are privileged to be driving in style - will also drive up to the cottage in it so that will be fun. I learned today that Windsor is home to Windsor Salt - product of apparently a huge area of underground salt mines.

Nephew Tyler has been a great host. He and his girlfriend took us to a Rib Festival the other night where we enjoyed tasting from several different stalls - all in the interest of voting for the best ones! Not a hard task. Entertainment was an amazing country band and followed by a heavy metal band. We followed all of that by a walk along the riverfront to see all of the big sculptures which have recently been placed there. The city of Windsor looks directly across the Detroit River to, well, Detroit of course. The view across is really interesting and somewhat strange having a front row seat to view the United States.

I vote for a Rib Festival for the Central Coast  :)

Check out this guy's amazing balance!

One of the 30 or so sculptures.

Detroit from Windsor riverfront.

And again...

And again.

Ambassador Bridge which links Canada and the US (there is also a tunnel under the river nearby.  Approx. 10,000 trucks cross this bridge every day carrying a huge percentage of all goods coming into Canada.

Last Saturday our friends Shirley & Ken Moore drove the 3 hours here from Midland, Michigan. They were originally from Edmonton but moved here just after we first moved to Australia. I used to babysit Shirley's kids when they were pre-schoolers so we've known each other a very long time. The guys all went golfing in the afternoon while Shirley and I did a spot of shopping. Once everyone regrouped, we headed to a great restaurant on the canal and were entertained by a brilliant thunderstorm at sunset. Shirley & Ken stayed overnight and after many hours of chit chat, they headed home.

Marina on the canal which feeds out to Lake St Clair, a small lake linking Lake Erie (via Detroit River) & Lake Huron

Today is our last day in Windsor - tomorrow we endeavour to squeeze all of our luggage into the very tiny boot of the BMW - along with a few (small) purchases I made over the weekend! We also have to stop today at some of the produce stalls to pick up fresh vegetables to take up to the cottage with us. Southern Ontario is primarily a vegetable and plant growing region so everywhere you go, there are acres and acres of fields of corn etc. interspersed with huge greenhouses (which also cover many acres each) and lots of roadside stalls selling their produce. Leamington is home to Heinz because of the huge local tomato production. It's very flat   and this year we have seen the introduction of dozens of wind turbines dotted throughout the landscape - quite a change.

Next update will be from Muskoka, aka Cottage Country - an area which I absolutely love going to.