thomases.org

Today we travelled to Lake Louise.

Incredibly beautiful with a lake view that changed by the minute!  Graham and I enjoyed a walk along this beautiful lake and saw/heard a rockfall which caused a tree to come crashing down the cliff face not far from where we stood.

We also heard this excited chattering and finally located the squirell on some rocks – think it was telling us off for not having any food!  Although the native animals are not supposed to be fed by tourists this one seemed quite friendly.  Another came racing up to Graham’s shoes and sniffed him and took off again.

Click on the image below to see what I saw.

The road from Kelowna to Banff was breathtaking. I can’t even begin to tell you how beautiful this country is. We have passed hundreds of waterfalls and rapids along the side of the road. I look at the abundant water here and think of our home Melbourne which is experiencing water restrictions due to a long-term drought.  What a contrast between the two places!

The photos I show you will give just a small insight to the beauty we are witnessing. Even the views from our hotel rooms have been amazing.

Last night we watched the rain sweep across the mountains nearby from our room and then it cleared and a rainbow appeared.  We had dinner at a German restaurant which was amazing in itself.  As we stepped out from our hotel and gazed at the scenery around us, we could have been in Germany or anywhere in Europe really – the architecture and scenery certainly made it seem that way.

This morning we did a very steep 2.4km hike up Tunnel Mountain and back – one of the smaller mountains here and saw some wildlife and heard stories about the area from our tour guide and learned about the native flora as well.  Graham had to help me up and down some of the slopes as I don’t feel as surefooted as he does and didn’t want to slip on the slopes.  I need to get more exercise too – I got easily out of breath. Although the guide did say that it’s not always due to lack of exercise but because of the height and the thinning of the air some managed much better than others.  I was relieved to find that I wasn’t the only person who felt that way – short of breath.

This afternoon Graham took out a hire mountain bike to ride around the mountains here at Banff and I joined our tour group to ride the gondola to the top of one of the mountains to take in the views and more wildlife.

We are beginning to see some of the wildlife too. So far, in order as we’ve seen them: Moose, Black Bear, Least Chipmunk, Golden Malted Squirrel, Elk.  Also some birds, one of which I know is a Gray Jay but think another is a Firecracker Jack. And then another with a bronze head I still need to identify.

These photos are hosted at Facebook so you’lll need to leave comments here is you don’t have access at Facebook – I hope you enjoy viewing them.  Just click on the photo below to see many more.

We travelled by bus to the ferry at top of  Victoria Island and then over to the mainland to go into the Coast Mountain Range and reach Whistler which was very picturesque.  We stopped at a beautiful waterfall and stretched our legs and wandered around.  The scenery along the road was beautiful. We got to Whistler late afternoon and wandered the small town, checking out the new mountain biking track being built and exploring some of the shops.

My husband is busy packing his suitcase for our trip and he called me into our bedroom, saying ‘you must see this’.  I knew it would be a photo opportunity and grabbed my camera.

Obviously Smokey doesn’t want us leaving him and he wants to come too but don’t think we’ll really have room for him!  Isn’t he cute?

Over the next few weeks Graham and I will be visiting various places in Canada.  I’m speaking at a conference for Virtual Assistants in Niagara Falls and after that a tour with APT.

If you drop in here now and then over the next few weeks I’ll post updates on our trip with some photos for you to view.

We’re looking forward to our break – it’s been nearly 2 years since our last holiday overseas and we are definitely in need of a holiday.