We had a fairly long stop in Jasper, so we visited a local wine shop to stock up for our evening cocktail hour in our room, enjoying the views.
The ride into Jasper had stunning mountain views, but there were still a few more after Jasper. (Technically, still part of day 1.)
When we woke up the next morning, it was the prairies…
We are just pulling out of Soiux Lookout, and will loose cell service, so I’ll post now and continue when I can.
We flew out to Vancouver, but decided to take the train home because … well, just because it sounded like a cool thing to do.
The Canadian has several different levels of service. All the way from spending four days in a basic seat, to a private room with a double Murphy bed. We opted for something in the middle – a private room and toilet, but with seats during the day, and bunk beds at night.
It’s cosy, but in a good way. At first, the trip out of Vancouver was through miles and miles of rail yards. Not a great start, unless you are a train enthusiast.
Though even here, it does offer unique views of well known Vancouver sights. This picture is of the “Golden Ears” bridge, from an angle that you can’t usually see.
As we headed up along the Fraser river, we saw more and more of the mountains.
And the river …
And more mountains…
During dinner we were treated to stunning views of the Fraser canyon. No pictures – I was eating, and it was getting dark – so you will just have to take my word for it. After a good night’s sleep, we were treated to truly stunning views on our way into Jasper. As you will see, there are often trees along the track, but you still get wonderful views through the frequent gaps. In some ways, they even make the views better by giving some perspective. I’ll post some of the best shots from the hundreds I took this morning.
This next picture is of Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The summit was completely cloud free – something that apparently only happens about 12-15 times a year.
This next one is interesting because even though it is the end of April, the ice on the lake was just beginning to break up.
And more snow covered mountains.
We stopped in Jasper mid afternoon and had a chance to stretch our legs, and restock our supply of B.C. Pinot Noir. It is quite a picturesque little town.
Here is another picture, showing a street in Jasper with a totem pole, pride flags, and our train with the mountains in the background.
Next we head onto the prairies. I’ll try to keep you updated, but (mercifully) without quite as many pictures.
The weather has been fantastic for our visit to B.C. Until now, anyway. The last few days haven’t been quite as nice, with cloud, drizzle, and then outright rain. This picture is from our visit to Butchart Gardens, in the Japanese garden. It shows a Shishi-odoshi, designed to frighten away animals like boars. It sort of sets the mood for the rain we are currently experiencing.
We took the ferry from Vancouver Island back to Vancouver, and headed down to White Rock to visit friends (Larry and Heather) we had met on our river cruise last year. We spent the night with them and the next morning we saw a pair of (very large) raccoons in the back yard.
when the rain stopped (briefly) I went for a walk up the Coquitlam crunch. Good exercise.
We are looking forward to a quiet day before we take the train from Vancouver to Toronto. It will be our first train trip in a sleeper, so we are looking forward to seeing what it is like. I’ll provide updates as we go.
I have only one thing to say about Butchart Gardens. Go see it!
But if you think I’m going to stop after saying one thing, you obviously don’t know me vey well. I pared my pictures down to a list of the very best, and concluded that I needed to do a lot more pruning. No doubt I should have cut even more, but be assured that it could have been worse…
Tulips were a dominant theme today. All colours and kinds of tulips. I could have filled an entire blog post with pictures of tulips, but mercifully I’m not going to do that. I’ll just show you one, and assure you that this really doesn’t do it justice. But it will have to do.
I promise you there were more tulips than anything else, so the next set of pictures should give you some idea of what you are missing.
Butchart Gardens was built in an abandoned limestone quarry. Ironically, the old quarry creates an interesting backdrop for the gardens.
This next picture isn’t even a flower. It’s a tree where the leaves emerge reddish pink before they change to green.
There are so many flowers and flowering trees, that they create a broad canvas of colours.
And, of course, the different plants offer a palette of colours and textures. This picture includes a mix of tulips, flowering shrubs, flowering trees, and leaves in a range of colours. The overall effect is stunning.
We woke up this morning to a light drizzle and mist on the hills, before the sky began to clear as we headed over to Butchart Gardens. But signs of the rain were everywhere, including on here, where you can see the water drops on the flower and the grass.
It’s well worth a visit.
We headed south from Nanaimo and stopped in to visit a friend that Jan worked with – Heather and her husband Tom – for a lovely lunch. It was great to catch up, but all too soon we had to be on the road to Brentwood Bay. The ferry was just leaving when we pulled up, so while we waited for the next sailing we had a chance to chill, phone home, and … take a few pictures.
The ferry was much smaller than the one we took yesterday, but that just meant we had better views.
We checked in to the Brentwood Bay Resort and headed straight for our patio for a glass of rosé and a chance to enjoy the fabulous views.
Then it was off to a lovely dinner at the resort pub, with a Category 12 Juicy IPA. Yummy. When we got back to the room (with another Category 12 IPA in hand) the sun had just set, but the views from the patio were as stunning as before.
Tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, we are off to visit Butchart Gardens. If not, we will just have to come back again.
Blue skies, clouds, and trees in bloom.
We took the ferry to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island today and had a pleasant walk along the harbour with lovely views of the sea and the mountains.
And of course, the trees in bloom against the blue sky.
This tree was interesting, with a seemingly random mix of white and pink blooms. No idea how that happens…
We were back in Vancouver again and went for a long walk along the river in a local park. It is one of the things we always do when we visit.
The leaves are coming out and the trees are in bloom, but there are also many other signs of spring everywhere.
I also love running water – it brings out the child in me. I could watch it for hours.
This is a small stream in an area where salmon spawn every year, so there are also many quiet areas like this.
Next stop, Vancouver Island.
After a day of wine tasting yesterday, we decided it would be appropriate to enjoy the hiking trails in the Okanagan, so we headed over to the Giant’s Head Mountain Park. There are a number of well marked trails in the park, from “The Grind” (just as hard as it sounds) to the “Friendly Giant”. We were looking for exercise, but we also wanted to enjoy ourselves, so … no surprise here … we went for the Friendly Giant. It was plenty difficult enough for us, but the views, and the vegetation along the way, were stunning. I’ll start with this one, along the trail.
It was mostly clear, but there were a few clouds in the sky, and looking across Okanagan Lake, the shadows on the hills were appealing.
There were flowers…
And trees. I love how the trees in the mountains are often as rugged as the actual mountains.
Some of the trees seem to have had collisions with the mountains.
And some of them are a bit the worse for wear…
Many of the trees are covered in moss, which is beautiful.
Even in death, the trees contribute to the forest, and to the beauty of the hike.
The Friendly Giant was a (reasonably) gentle trail, but we still had stunning views of the rugged rock face of the mountain.
I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan where one of summer’s pleasures was eating fresh Saskatoon berries, straight from the trees. So seeing Saskatoon bushes here, in full bloom, brought back fond memories.
Tomorrow it’s back to Vancouver, but we will definitely be back to the Okanagan.
We had beautiful weather in Vancouver and then drove up to the Okanagan on Monday, where we were treated to snow squalls on Tuesday.
We spent the afternoon visiting relatives we hadn’t seen in years, laughing, catching up, and having a great time. The rotten weather wasn’t a problem.
Today was a much nicer day – cool, but sunny, so we headed out to enjoy the scenery and of course, the wines.
It’s still early in the season, so the vines are all bare. But that means that you get a better look at the stems. Most are the same as I’ve seen elsewhere, but we also saw one area where the were split into two rows like this.
I’m guessing this is for a certain kind of grape, but I have no idea if that is correct. If anyone knows, please let me know.
Although the vines were’t budding, the trees were beginning to flower. Perfect for allergy season…
I started this post with a view of snow squalls on the other side of Lake Okanagan. Here how it looked late this afternoon. Much nicer.
And here is one of the wineries we visited today. My kind of name.
We finished the day with dinner at Elma, a lovely Turkish restaurant in Penticton, with food to die for.
Another sunny day in Vancouver so we went for a nature walk. We were informed that it is known as “tree bathing” in Japanese culture.
The dead tree stumps add to the ambience of the forest.
Along the walk there were a number of trees that look like faces.
And a trillium flower, even though they are more associated with Ontario.
And the cherry trees were in full bloom.
Tomorrow we head up to the Okanagan.
If It Was Today... 