Canada to USA

Thursday 26th May Canada to USA   Today we left Vernon early (7.15am) to head down to Seattle. Again we had beautiful scenery for this journey of mountains and lakes. It was a long day in the coach but it was very interesting crossing the border to the USA. We all got off the coach and went in to a building where officers checked our passports. All 51 of us were allowed to enter the USA without any questions.... Our tour guide said that many of the officers who work on the Canada USA border once worked on the USA Mexico border which is extremely difficult. Apparently  they “burn out”  and are then sent to the Canadian USA  border to “recover” so  they can be sent back. Anyway, we were just happy that they smiled at us. Driving into Seattle, the traffic was extremely busy but  we finally made it to our accommodation. We had a very enjoyable dinner at the nearby restaurant where the boys (Rob and Paul) stayed on and chatted to locals and others over a few extra drinks.
Sorry no photos today.

Beautiful Banff and beyond

Wednesday 25th May. Beautiful Banff and beyond.  Banff is a beautiful town. It is a tourist town all year round. Winter all the ski and snow people gather there  and in Summer the tourists who are here to see the amazing  Rockies (like us). We had another early start and headed out for a drive around Banff after breakfast. First we saw the beautiful old famous Fairmont Banff Hotel. A lovely building, built in the 1880s for the tourists. From here we visited Bow Falls which was apparently famous for a Marilyn Munro film. We drove on to a beautiful lake called Lake Moraine and then the famous Lake Louise which is an iconic lake in the Rockies. Again there was a beautiful Fairmont Chateaux Hotel here that we popped in and had a look at. Very fancy! Our lunch stop was at 3 Valley Gap. Again it is too hard to describe so I hope the photos give people some idea. We drove on to a fruit barn which had  some very entertaining goats and many interesting things for kids. It also had beautiful flower baskets everywhere.   Banff is a beautiful town. It is a tourist town all year round. Winter all the ski and snow people gather there  and in Summer the tourists who are here to see the amazing  Rockies (like us). We had another early start and headed out for a drive around Banff after breakfast. First we saw the beautiful old famous Fairmont Banff Hotel. A lovely building, built in the 1880s for the tourists. From here we visited Bow Falls which was apparently famous for a Marilyn Munro film. We drove on to a beautiful lake called Lake Moraine and then the famous Lake Louise which is an iconic lake in the Rockies. Again there was a beautiful Fairmont Chateaux Hotel here that we popped in and had a look at. Very fancy! Our lunch stop was at 3 Valley Gap. Again it is too hard to describe so I hope the photos give people some idea. We drove on to a fruit barn which had  some very entertaining goats and many interesting things for kids. It also had beautiful flower baskets everywhere.

SORRY NO PHOTOS TODAY, TECH ISSUES (Rob) Now have photos!!!

Day 3 Athabasca

Tuesday 24th May Up early again and we left Golden at 6.30am. Today we experienced the majestic scenery of the Canadian Rockies, first traveling through Kicking Horse Pass and stopping at township of Lake Louise. We continued on to the Columbia Ice fields in Jasper National Park, enjoying a ride on the Ice Explorer onto the stunning Athabasca Glacier. We had a wonderful time enjoying a Canadian whiskey and glacial water while on the glacier. From here we visited an unbelievably beautiful turquoise blue lake called Lake Peyto.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peyto_Lake From here we visited more lakes and saw more stunning scenery on our way to Banff. Once settled in to the Banff Inn we had a beautiful dinner at Tony Remanos.

Day 2 Rockies

Monday  23rd May After a brilliant sleep we were up early and went down to a delicious breakfast. We loaded our suitcases onto the coach and were soon on our way. We have 51 people on the bus and all are from Australia. Our tour guide is a lovely woman from a town close to Seattle, called J. Yes J, that’s how you say and spell her name. Over the course of the day we drove through some amazingly beautiful scenery. I won’t try to describe the sights we saw but hopefully the photos will do it justice. We had a coffee break at a cute little town called Hope. This town is famous for it’s woodcarvings done by chainsaws. They were on  all the streets. We followed the Coquihalla Highway which is famous for having a reality show about massive rescue tow trucks that frequently are called in to rescue trucks that have left the road due to ice and snow. We travelled through the towering snow-capped Cascade Mountains to finish the day in Golden, a tiny town at the base of some of these mountains. A great meal was had at the one and only pub in the town followed by a hot spa back at our Hotel.

Day 1, flying 13500 kms to Vancouver

Sunday 22nd May. (The longest day of our lives) We were up at 3.15am because we had to be at Adelaide Airport by 4am. We left Adelaide for Sydney at 6am. From Sydney we flew for 12 and ½ hours to arrive in Los Angeles at 6.05 am on Sun 22/5/16. That would have to be the longest 5 minutes of our lives of course all due to the fact we crossed the international dateline. From LA we flew to Vancouver and reached here around 11.30am....and it’s still Sunday. We think we  managed a couple of hours sleep on the planes but it is now early evening Vancouver time and we are struggling to keep our eyes open. From what we saw flying into Vancouver, it seems to be a very pretty city. We were picked up from the airport in a small bus and taken to our hotel which was only about a five minute drive. Our hotel is lovely and it overlooks a mariner and the main river that flows through the city. We walked to the hotel’s restaurant which was on the riverfront and had a meal. It was a sort of a lunch/dinner. We have spent the rest of the afternoon taking things easy. Tomorrow we are off on the tour, with a long driving day to reach Golden.

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