After our cruises we disembarked in Vancouver, British Columbia and spent five days there taking up the offer of an upgrade to penthouse accommodation with our friends Bryan and Liz for just $50 extra per night between the four of us. We did lots of site seeing using the hop on and hop off bus and visited Gastown, Yaletown and beautiful Stanley Park. Best of all was the food market on Granville Island which was just three blocks away from our hotel plus a short ride across the water on the False Creek ferry. Fresh supplies meant we were able to enjoy home cooking again! We had a final lunch with Phil and three of his friends and he then went home to Australia for a brief one week break before his next contract started in Hollywood, Florida. He's back here now (spoke with him last night) and hard at work rehearsing.
From Vancouver, Bryan and Liz headed off on their Rocky Mountaineer tour and we'll catch up with them in Los Angeles next weekend. We hired a car and drove out towards the Rocky Mountains staying overnight in Kelowna before heading on to the first part of our home exchange -a three night stay at Fairmont Hot Springs in the Rockies. What a drive......snow covered mountains, beautiful lakes and streams - the camera was hard at work. Our accommodation villa was very comfortable and thankfully very warm. Natural wildlife was everywhere - deer outside our door.
We soaked in the natural hot springs until we were prunes - it was so warm (water 39 degrees) and relaxing, with the snow covered Rockies to gaze at. I kept a card that shows the mineral composition of the water - all these people go there to soak away their aches and pains and then shower and wrap themselves up in warm clothes to go home. While we were at Fairmont we drove off-road (nearly forgetting we weren't in a 4WD) and followed gravel tracks around lakes, up back roads etc and hardly saw a soul. It was truly beautiful.
On Monday we drove from Fairmont to the second stage of our home exchange at High River in the neighbouring province of Alberta. This involved driving over the other side of the Rockies. Wow....I just can't describe the extraordinary scenery. I was thrilled to see a black mother bear with two cubs on the side of the road and I have never seen so many motor homes and 5th wheelers as those we passed on the Trans-Canada highway.
We stopped at Banff on the way and took the gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain where it was snowing. I caught my first ever snowflake with all the bits jutting out of it. From there we drove on to High River on the prairie. High River is a town of about 2,000 people and we are 10 minutes out of town on a 5 acre block surrounded by ranches. From the back half of the house, we gaze over the prairie with cattle grazing to the snow capped Rocky Mountains. It gets very cold here and now that it's officially "summer" I can report that it was 13 degrees yesterday morning with a wind chill factor of -1. However last night we were able to get into the outdoor hot tub at 11:00 p.m. (still with the last of daylight on the horizon) and I really enjoyed it.
In British Columbia on the other side of the Rockies there are trees everywhere but way back when white man first arrived here, there were no trees - just flat land for miles and miles. We've enjoyed sleeping in for the last two mornings and driving into town yesterday and into Nanton today to spend some time in the Bomber Command Museum of Canada learning all about the bomber offensive in the 2nd World War. I now know a lot more about the Avro Lancaster and Canada's role with Bomber Command.
What's been especially good about this home exchange has been the ability to see and experience how Canadians holiday in the mountain and lake areas and how country Canadians live on the prairie. Friday night we're going to watch ice hockey - one of Canada's most popular sports.
I hope all family members and friends are well and happy. No photos accompany this post but hopefully next time. Holiday is drawing to a close - we are due home on Wednesday 9 June.
Love to all and can someone from the family please read this to my Mum. Ta
Hugs
Lyn
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