Canada – A Traveling Fool

July 7, 2019

The Rocky Mountaineer, Vancouver and Vancouver Island

In my determination not to miss anything or have any regrets on my 2011 fall tour to the Canadian Rockies, I not only upgraded my hotel rooms at Chateau Lake Louise and Banff Springs Hotel to have the best views, and took my first ever helicopter ride over the mountains at Banff, but booked the Gold Leaf package on the Rocky Mountaineer for a two day train ridge through the Canadian Rockies from Banff to Vancouver.

The Gold Leaf package included a special car with a glass domed observation section upstairs and a dining room and kitchen downstairs. It also included having ones luggage delivered to the hotel in Kamloops for the overnight there. In Red Leaf, one would be in a regular train car where sandwiches would be served and everyone needed to take their own hand luggage to their hotel in Kamloops with their larger case remaining on the train. I really liked the idea of the glass domed observation car and of getting my larger case for the overnight, so I splurged again. I was very thankful I could afford the splurges on this trip (there were many earlier trips when I could not) and viewed the whole thing as a very special trip that would give me great memories for the rest of my life. So Gold Leaf package it was.

The group from the Florida retirement community went Red Leaf, so I didn’t see them at all for the entire train ride. There were two other couples in my group who also went Gold Leaf and were in my same car. I was up towards the front of the car with one of the couples a short distance away (just a couple rows back on the other side of the car) and the other couple further back in the car, near the stairs to the lower part, which not only had the dining room and kitchen, but restrooms and an outdoor observation deck.

We were given mimosas when we arrived, then the 1^st seating group went down for breakfast. I was in the 2^nd seating group, so we had some pastries and another mimosa while waiting. For both breakfast and lunch, we had menus from which we could order what we wanted. The food was delicious.

Our first day we traveled over the Continental Divide and along the Kicking Horse River and Shushwap Lake. We also went through the corkscrew tunnels with part of the train coming out one tunnel while another part was going in another tunnel. The Gold Leaf cars were at the back of the train, so we could see the rest of the train well ahead of us.

Due to delays along the way, we arrived at Kamloops three hours past when we should have. Because of this, we were served dinner on the train instead of at the hotel and had an open bar until we arrived in Kamloops. Once we arrived at the hotel, I found that my larger case was waiting for me in my room.

The next day we were returned to the train, where I was in the 1^st seating for breakfast and lunch. We traveled through the Thompson Valley and Fraser Canyon, arriving in Vancouver around 5:00pm (which was on time). We were staying at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel on Canada Place, just across the road from the Olympic Cauldron from the 2010 Olympics. All of the cruise ships dock at Canada Place.

There was a representative from the tour company at the hotel waiting to sign us up for day trips for the next couple of days. For the first day, I chose a trip to Vancouver Island. The entire group from Florida signed up for the same trip and filled out the coach for the first time slot, so I went on the next coach. I met a lovely couple with whom I had lunch and then some gelato later.

After taking the ferry across to the island, we went straight to Butchart Gardens where we had a couple of hours to explore the place. The gardens were absolutely gorgeous. Originally a limestone quarry used for the making of Portland Cement, once the quarry was played out, Missus Butchart turned the quarry into a sunken garden. An Italian garden, a rose garden and a Japanese garden were added over time. When the Butcharts turned the gardens over to their grandson, he added a fountain. The gardens are still run by the family.

On the way back to Victoria, we were given a general tour of the island. Then we were dropped off at the Empress Hotel with a time and place established to be back on the coach. I explored the hotel first. Opened in 1908, the hotel was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It is a very elegant hotel in the Chateauesque style. Their afternoon tea is legendary.

I took photos of the Parliament and of the bay before heading for Miniature World. I’m very interested in dollhouse miniatures and gravitate to dollhouses and miniature exhibits. Miniature World had several dollhouses (once called “baby houses”) and lots of historic scenes in miniature. They had 85 exhibits in all from Olde London (Tudor London) to World War II to outer space. They also had some scenes of the western US and Canada with a miniature version of what a Native American village in the upper western coastal area would have looked like.

I had some time before I needed to get back to the coach, so I had an old-fashioned shake at a nearby soda shop. This fortified me until I got back to the hotel in Vancouver and had dinner.

On my final day in Canada, I had a late flight home. So I checked my bags at the hotel when I needed to check out of the room and took off for a Hop On Hop Off trolley tour. This covered such locations as Stanley Park, False Creek, Granville Island, the Art Museum, the Library, Gastown (the original settlement), the Lions Gate Bridge, and the Olympic Stadium. There was also the hotel in which Howard Hughes lived the final years of his life.

The day I was flying back home was the 10^th anniversary of 9/11. I have to admit that I was a little uncomfortable about being on a plane on that date. The security person at the airport in Vancouver rather cheerily reminded me of the date, which didn’t help. But all went well and I arrived home safely in the early hours of 9/12.

In the Gold Leaf car
View from Rocky Mountaineer
One reason why I wanted to ride in the domed observation car
Along the route
Another part of the route
Some rapids along the way
The ferry to Vancouver Island
Sunken gardens at Butchart
More of the sunken gardens
A totem pole at Butchart Gardens
The Japanese garden
The Italian garden
The Empress Hotel in Victoria
The bay in Victoria
The Parliament in Victoria
Model of Pacific Coast Native American village
Canada Place in Vancouver
Vancouver as seen from Stanley Park
The Olympic Stadium in Vancouver

June 30, 2019

Banff & Helicopter Ride

While still in Jasper National Park, we started off our day with a visit to the Athabasca Falls. This is a waterfall with a large force of water carving out a gorge through quartzite and limestone. It was quite beautiful. I took loads of photos and had difficulty selecting just a couple for this post.

Entering Yoho National Park we could see the corkscrew tunnels that the Rocky Mountaineer would go through when we rode it a couple days later. Also in the Yoho National Park, the Kicking Horse River has three waterfalls, one of which has carved through a rock formation, creating a natural bridge. Once again, I had some difficulty narrowing the number of photos to share down to just two.

The river, and our tour, continued on to Emerald Lake. It is a gorgeous turquoise blue (caused by powdered limestone) and its high elevation means that it is usually frozen from November to June. There was a high end lodge on a small island in the lake, reached by a long bridge. The island included a conference center and a cluster of buildings with shops and places to eat. It seemed like the perfect place to have a relaxing vacation (in late summer or early fall).

We drove to Lake Louise Village to have lunch. There was a cluster of places to eat there as well as some shops. I got a small (two glass) bottle of wine and a very small bottle of Bailey’s (a single glass) at the liquor store. I got some cheese, fruit and nuts at the grocers and some bread at the bakery. We didn’t have an included dinner that evening at the Banff Springs Hotel and I planned to stay in the room, have a bubble bath and have dinner while looking at the view from the hotel. I had splurged there too for a room with a view.

The hotel was built in 1888 in the Scottish Baronial style. It had a large number of rooms and suites, plus restaurants and shops in the building. It also had a golf course.

The room was at the top floor with a magnificent view of the Bow and Spray rivers and the mountains. I relaxed with a glass of wine while taking the bubble bath and ate dinner seated at a built-in window seat while watching the changes in the light as the sun set. Here too, the splurge was worth it.

The bathroom was tiny. It had a claw foot tub that I needed to climb into from the end. The toilet was next to it, so I could close the lid and use it as a side table for my glass of wine.

After breakfast, we started our day with a ride in the Banff Gondola up Sulphur Mountain. Fortunately, the gondola was an enclosed four seater. Not being a fan of heights, I don’t like open gondolas. We had great views from up at the top of the mountain.

Once we came down from Sulphur Mountain, we drove to a spot called “Surprise Corner” where we could get the postcard view of the hotel. Despite its name, Tunnel Mountain had no tunnels. But it gave us some great views of the hoodoos and of Bow River. Hoodoos are kind of needle-like rock formations.

At the Bow River, we dropped off several members of our group for them to take a float trip on the Bow River. Loving water as I do, I would normally have joined them. However, I had other plans for that same time.

The rest of us drove around in the area for a while and took some more photos. There was a clothing optional beach. We could see some topless women, but everyone we could see had something on their bottom half.

We dropped several more people off at our hotel. The remainder of us were taken into town and dropped off there. I had lunch at a restaurant specializing in home cooking which was across the street from the Banff Park Lodge Resort Hotel. I was joining another group there after lunch to take a helicopter flight over the Rockies. This was because I was the only one from my group who wanted to do it.

Back when I was a teenager in Texas, I had an opportunity to take a short helicopter ride as part of a small fair. The helicopter was a two-seater with open sides. So I chickened out. In Banff, the helicopter was five-passenger plus pilot and enclosed. We were strapped in around the waist and over our shoulders. We also wore headphones and microphones to communicate with one another and the pilot. This also wasn’t a fairground group, but the people who performed rescue operations by helicopter in the area. They knew what they were doing. For my first helicopter ride, I felt I was very much in safe hands.

We were about 8,500 feet up for a 30 minute flight. We flew over mountains and valleys, lakes and rivers that were in areas not all that accessible. There were no roads, so the only way in or out would have been by hiking. We hovered right next to a glacier. I waited until we pulled back a bit before taking a photo, as it just would have been of a lot of snow so close. I loved it! I definitely did feel safe inside the helicopter and so delighted in the views from up there. The ride was very smooth, not jumpy or rocky.

Once we returned to terra firma, the other group’s bus driver dropped me off at my hotel before taking the rest of their group back to theirs. They were a very nice group of people who welcomed me with open arms. I enjoyed spending time with them.

That night our group had a farewell dinner in the Conservatory at the hotel. Not everyone in the group was going on the two-day Rocky Mountaineer trip to Vancouver. It was mainly the group from the Florida retirement community and just two more couples in addition to me. The others were all heading back to Calgary the next day to catch flights to their homes.

While having dinner, we had a young deer venture over close to the building to eat some of the vegetation just outside the Conservatory. We were all careful to be quiet and not move too quickly so he/she wouldn’t be spooked.

Next time – the Rocky Mountaineer, Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

Athabasca Falls
The gorge of Athabasca Falls
Kicking Horse River
Natural Bridge at Kicking Horse River
Emerald Lake
Bridge to Emerald Lake Lodge
Banff Springs Hotel
Banff Springs Hotel side entrance
Lobby of Banff Springs Hotel
View from hotel room at Banff Springs Hotel
Banff gondola up Sulphur Mountain
View from Sulphur Mountain
View of Banff Springs Hotel from “Surprise Corner”
The Hoodoos
The helicopter in Banff
View from helicopter
Glacier seen from helicopter
Another view from helicopter
The Conservatory in Banff Springs Hotel

June 24, 2019June 24, 2019

Canadian Rockies: Calgary, Lake Louise & Jasper

Although a large number of my trips involve visiting other civilizations to explore their history, culture, art, etcetera, I do take purely scenic trips upon occasion too. In the fall of 2011, I took one of those trips to the Canadian Rockies. This particular tour appealed to me not only because of all of the gorgeous scenery and wildlife, but because I would also be able to experience some river rafting, a helicopter ride over the mountains, riding on an ice explorer over a glacier, and a scenic train trip on the Rocky Mountaineer. Then there were the overnight stays at Chateau Lake Louise, the Jasper Park Lodge and the Banff Springs Hotel. It all seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime experience to me.

My experience started early with my alarm clock going off at 2:30am for me to get up to get to the airport on time for my flight to Toronto. For some reason, from Minneapolis, I had to fly east to Toronto and then catch a flight west to Calgary (in Alberta). I arrived in Calgary by lunchtime and went out to explore the area around the hotel, which was downtown.

That evening, we had a meet-and-greet with wine and cheese. There were 34 people on the trip other than me, mostly from the US (which is not the usual when I’m on a tour). They were all couples except for four women who were traveling together. There was a group of 16 who were traveling together from a retirement community in Florida. They and the four women weren’t too interested in mixing with others, but I had 14 others who were. As usual, I met some very nice people.

We just stayed the one night in Calgary. Before leaving town the next day, we did a short tour of the city, including the Saddle Dome, the Calgary Stampede grounds, and the 1988 Winter Olympic site just out of town. Then we headed off towards Lake Louise, where we had lunch.

One of the cool things that I noticed as soon as we were out in the area of the Rockies was the number of land bridges that existed for the animals to be able to get safely across the highway. They were nice and wide with grass, trees and other vegetation planted on the top and tunnels for the highway traffic underneath. Although I’m sure there are other places in the world that have them, they were the first that I had ever seen.

After lunch at the Chateau Lake Louise, we hopped back onto the tour coach to visit Moraine Lake. There were some large piles of rocks which afforded some lovely views when climbed. There were also signs saying that people needed to be in groups of four or more by law due to grizzly bears. Our Tour Director, Tyler, made a few jokes about people on bicycles being “meals on wheels” and on a motorcycle “fast food” and such. I figured he was just trying to make certain we understood how dangerous it was to go off on one’s own.

At dinner, back at Chateau Lake Louise, instead of having us all in a group together in one room, we were disbursed throughout the seven hotel restaurants with varying dining times. We could sign up for the style of restaurant and the time we wanted to dine, giving 1^st and 2^nd choices. Then Tyler grouped people together accordingly. I was paired with a couple from South Carolina and another from Florida (but not part of the big group from the retirement community). They were all quite nice and dinner was enjoyable.

I had splurged a bit by paying a little extra for a room facing the lake. We were only going to be there one night and I just didn’t want to be facing the road. I was in the oldest wing that was built in 1913. The room was elegant with dark wood, a chandelier and a very fancy bathroom. The bed was comfy, but I woke up early so I could see what the sunrise looked like. This was why I had paid the extra money, so I was not going to miss it. The view was gorgeous! I have included a photo here.

On our way to Peyto Lake, we passed by Bow Lake. Both lakes are glacial fed (as are Moraine Lake and Lake Louise) and line the Icefields Parkway. Peyto Lake is a beautiful turquoise blue and is down in a valley, so we viewed it from above. After passing the North Saskatchewan River, while going through the area known as the Great Bend, we saw Battleship Mountain (which indeed looked like a battleship) and Bridal Veil Falls.

At the Columbia Ice Field, we boarded an Ice Explorer to drive out onto the glacier itself. The vehicle had enormous tires and quite a long ladder to climb to get inside. Once on the glacier, we were taken to an area that was roped off as being safe for us to get out of the vehicle and walk around a bit. That part of the glacier was as thick as the Eiffel Tower is tall. Most of the trip I was in summer clothing, but here I was bundle up for winter. The ice dome was a triple continental divide.

We had lunch in the town of Jasper and did some exploring while the luggage was dropped off at the Jasper Park Lodge. For dinner that night, I opted for something a little less formal, but still a fairly early seating. Apparently the couple from South Carolina felt the same. We ended up dining together again. Lydia had fallen on the way to the dining room. Her husband wanted to walk back, so I rode with her on one of the little carts used to ferry guests around in order to help her to her room.

My room was a short distance from theirs and up one level. I climbed the stairs near Fred and Lydia’s room and walked around to my own on the deck. I heard a rustling below and looked over the railing to see a female elk looking back at me. A young elk was nearby. Then I saw a large male. I backed up quietly and slowly to go into my room to get my cameras (I didn’t have a camera on my phone yet). I was glad I had come up a different staircase as I would have encountered the elks directly to get to the one closest to my room.

I came out with both cameras and took some video first. Some people walked by not quite far enough away and the male elk bucked and bellowed. I was tickled to have it on video. By the time I got around to the other camera, it was starting to get a little dark. The one photo in which I managed to get all three of the elk family, was slightly fuzzy.

The next morning, we passed Medicine Lake on our way to Maligne Lake. There we took a short cruise to Spirit Island. The views from Spirit Island were breathtaking. Medicine Lake is not really a lake, but part of a river that backs up and suddenly goes underground and disappears (coming out in a canyon about nine miles away), depending upon the time of the year. So, sometimes it’s a lake and sometimes it’s a river. It was transitioning from lake to river when we saw it.

We had lunch at the lodge at Maligne Lake before continuing on to the Athabasca River. On the way, we saw a couple of grizzly bears, which I managed to film. At the Athabasca River, we went river rafting. We saw a black bear from the raft shortly after we began the ride when we weren’t going very fast.

I loved the rafting trip. It was wild enough to be fun without being terrifying. I got soaked. Being that it was a hot day, it felt great. We had ropes to hold onto so we wouldn’t be tossed from the raft. We also were wearing life jackets.

On the way back to the Jasper Park Lodge, we encountered the same male elk that had been by my room the night before. I knew it was him because he had some barbed wire caught in his rack. We found out the next morning that the park rangers tranquilized him to free him from the barbed wire.

Next time – Banff and a helicopter ride over the Rockies.