A day at the Zoo

We all went to the Calgary zoo which is a very nice zoo.   We had fun with Aubreah making the sounds of all the animals.  She enjoyed herself immensely and we enjoyed watching her watch the animals.  

Grantie and Aubreah both were sporting hats!

I don't want to sit on that lion!

Anita and the pink flamingos.

She loves to pick flowers.

A ride along the Bow River!

         Look here to see the trail map http://www.mtbguru.com/trip/show_static/1209-calgary-west-hillhurst-to-chinatown-via-bow-river-bikepaths

This is what the trail should look like!  We enjoyed it last time we came in the summer and expected it to be a breeze.

The trail used to go under this bridge but as you can see, the trail was being swallowed up by the river!

There were places where the trail was overgrown but it was very ride-able and summer like. The second page shows Angela Portaging over part of the trail that was washed over up to my calves.  I know that because I barreled through it to the other side of the trail!  She was more prudent than me!

Angela coming out from under the bridge where the trail had been washed out.

Angela was our navigator since we were not using my phone or Harriet our GPS!  We only got turned around due to detours four times!

It is a beautiful park and trail system-Ride it if you can!

Calgary

 We have had a great time getting to Calgary.  The mountains have been beautiful and with wonderful traveling companions to share the road with, life is pretty darn good!   Our purpose of heading this way has been to see Aaron (our second son), Jen (his lovely Canadian wife) and our first granddaughter, Aubreah.  We see too little of them so we make every effort to swing by no matter the season and enjoy their company.

She likes to play games with her Grantie!

She loves to cuddle between Anita and me.

She likes her books and she likes to read them in the lap of her bear!

She enjoys dancing with Grantie.

Aubreah loves to climb.

Happy family!

What a cuddly cutie!

I am trying to teach her Office 2010!

More! More!

The word for the day from Revelstoke to Calgary along Highway 1 was "MORE!"  


Every corner we turned, we felt compelled to stop and get out to get more pictures of the massive peaks that surrounded us.  Covered in snow at the tops, they seemed to just jut out of the ground in front of us.  Clouds seemed to be born from their very peaks. 

 

I understand why men climb mountains because they fill one with awe and compel you to come hither.   Like a lover that beckons on, the mountains with their beauty call you to try and be as close as you can get, ignoring the cautions and forgetting where you have to be or what you have to do.  The mountains and the mountains alone are all that matter.

We stopped for lunch at Lake Louise and to see if the hotel and lake were still there.  We were not surprised to find it intact and as lovely as ever.  

Angela and Anita posing at the front of the lake.

Notice how the snow is hanging over that ridge!

Angela without her glasses on a hike around the west side of the lake.

They lost our reservation so we had to press on to Calgary!

And here we were driving through them as fast as we could go.  We ignored their sirens call and sped on our way to a smaller and more compact form of beauty and loveliness that captured our heart almost two years ago.  "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"

Kicking Horse and prayer or How I came to survive the second day of our trip.

Okay, we wanted to go to Kicking Horse outside of Golden because our friends Nanci and Ray told us that it was the best Gondola ride that they had ever been on.  And oh, by the way, you can ride bikes down the mountain and don't forget the wonderful last supper, er lunch you can have before you go over and down, down and down some more!   I know that Ray thinks he is going to inherit my tools and Nanci has been eying my cook book collection but really guys! 


The big guy was looking out for us though because we pulled up and found out that the resort and gondola does not open up till the weekend after we were going to be there.  After talking to the bike rental guy, I realized what a massive bullet had just whizzed past my head!  They don't allow you up there unless you have double suspension on your bike AND COMPLETE BODY ARMOUR!  They give classes and rent special sturdily build mountain bikes just to be able to go down the thing.  I was disappointed but there was a certain amount of "Thank you, God!" prayers being said on the way down from the resort.

The mountains were incredible though.  I could see how those two spiders (Nanci and Ray) could have sucked us into going up just on the basis of the scenery. I will have to rethink this experience as I mature on this trip across country.


The views though are still incredible!  More on this later!

Revelstoke, BC

We made it easily to Revelstoke which is located in the midst of the Canadian Rockies.  We are surrounded by mountains on all sides.  We had a longer than expected walk from our hotel to dinner at Emos and then ice cream cones at a little hole in the wall by the gazebo.  Angela has discovered a new favorite ice cream, liquorice and orange which frankly creeps me out but did not seem to bother her!

 We had lunch in Kamloops after getting gas and some lunch stuff at Costco!  We all had a good time roaming a new Costco and showed considerable restraint in what we had to buy......

The rivers are very swollen here in BC as they have had a lot of rain.  Parts of the river front park in Kamloops were blocked off because of the high level of water. 

We were going to go swimming in the hotel pool but as I sit here in the dark tapping away at the keys, my fellow road warriors are fast asleep!  Now I have to find my Kindle and read in the dark!   What a great day and fantastic start to this grand adventure, eh?

On the road

We are off. Bathroom in Everett!  Gas in Burlington and then the border!