Day 42 - United States Of America

We've made it through western Canada and are now back in the US. Today we left Canada and entered Washington. We're staying in Blaine (I've never heard of it either but it's right on the border just south of Vancouver).

Day 41 - Side Note - Vancouver, BC

While walking along the water in Vancouver we came on these boats sitting in the marina. The one on the left has to be called a houseboat. What else could you call it? We just thought they were funny looking boats and wanted to share them with you.

Day 41 - Stanley Park - Vancouver, BC

Stanley Park is a 1000 acre park in downtown Vancouver. It's considered one of the finest natural parks on the continent. Janie liked this picture of me with the totems and wanted to share it. As you can see, our weather has been absolutely wonderful for the whole trip so far. I think we had one partial day of rain and that's it.

Day 41 - Vancouver, British Columbia

We spent the day seeing Vancouver. We walked all over the downtown area after riding the SkyTrain to get down there from Surrey (the suburb where we are staying). We visited Stanley Park, Gastown, Chinatown and just walked all over. If you've never been to Vancouver, you're missing a very beautiful city. There are about 1.8 million living here.

Day 39 - Kelowna, British Columbia

Kelowna is a beautiful area. The city of about 75,000 is on a huge lake surrounded by hills. The area is famous for it's many wine vineyards. We had a wonderful lunch at one of the local vineyards called Quails' Gate and then toured the vineyard and the bottling plant. It was fun to actually see how they bottle the wine. Unfortunately, this vineyard and most of the vineyards in the area don't export to the US because they are small and don't have enough production. Their wine is excellent.

Day 38 - Vernon, British Columbia

Today we stopped in a city called Vernon. This area is well known for their apple orchards. We went to the Davidson orchards and went on a tour of the orchard in the pictured train, pulled by a old classic tractor. Only Janie and I were on our particular tour and the driver was the owner of the orchard. Of course, this is not the season for apples but it was very interesting and fun. We also stopped at a store that specialized in honey and had an actual live bee hive on display. Also very interesting.

Day 37 - British Columbia

Nothing special today. We left Cochrane and started our drive to Vancouver. We drove through Banff Provincial Park, Yoho Provincial Park and Glacier National Park (The Canadian one). Some really beautiful scenery. We're now in British Columbia.

Day 36 - Calgary Stampede Rodeo

Today we went to the rodeo. We enjoyed it but, to me, if you've seen one rodeo you've seen them all. I guess we're just not cowboys. Don't misunderstand...the rodeo was excellent. In any case, this was our last day at the Stampede. Tomorrow we head west toward Vancouver, British Columbia. I liked this picture of the Stampede midway with the city skyline in the background. Notice how busy the midway is?

Day 35 - Calgary Stampede

After the chuckwagon races they bring in a huge stage and put on a tremendous stage show with over 350 singers & dancers, acrobats, trick motorcycle riders and more fireworks than we have ever seen in our lives. It's all simply unbelievable and wonderful. The whole evening lasted from 8 until 12:30 and was worth every minute of it.

Day 35 - Calgary Stampede

The evening show starts at 8 with the Chuckwagon races. There are 9 races with 4 chuckwagons in each race around a mile and 1/4 track. Each race is extremely exciting and these guys can win some pretty big money over the 10 day event. It's hard to visualize the race from this starting picture but it's the best I can do. The audience is about 35,000.

Day 35 - Calgary Stampede

First of all, the Stampede is far bigger than we had thought. Imagine your normal State Fair and then double it. It's simply huge! There's everything you would expect from a fair, plus many bars with live music and, of course, the rodeo and stage show. The Budweiser clydesdales are here for the entire show and you can get up close and personal with them. Is it a surprise that Bud is the official beer of the Stampede?. We loved it all!

Day 35 - Calgary Stampede Pancake Breakfasts

The Stampede lasts from July 4th to July 13th, with a kickoff on July 3rd and it seems to be a celebration every single day. There is always a FREE pancake breakfast somewhere and most have entertainment to go along with breakfast. It's all a lot of fun but not very good on the waistline. This one was in the parking lot of a grocery store near where we're staying. We've been to a couple and have already eaten more pancakes this week than we have in the last 10 years.

Day 34 - Calgary Stampede Parade

WOW, what fun and what a show! This is the largest parade we've ever seen and it was great fun. We were there at 6:30am for the 9:00am start. The parade then lasted over 3 hours. There were many marching bands from all over Canada and the US. There were over 1500 horses in the parade, including the Budweiser Clydesdale's (shown). We heard there were over 300,000 people watching the parade and over 2000 volunteers. Some locals go to the parade every year and even sit in the same location. We had front row seats, in our own chairs, and thought the whole thing was fantastic. The Calgary Stampede has now officially started!

Day 33 - Calgary, Alberta

Spent a very leisurely day today, not doing much at all. We did go to the Canadian Olympics Center, which was the location of the 1988 winter Olympics. It was interesting, if you're into that sort of thing. You've got to be crazy to jump off of one of these things without a parachute! The picture doesn't do the jumps justice. The big one is 90 metres (that's almost 300 feet). Scary!

Day 32 - Cochrane Wall Mural

This mural is made of of over 166 separate tiles, each drawn by a different artist. Each tile is a picture by itself but when put together they makeup the larger picture. Its really unbelievable the way they did it but it looks great. If you can, open the picture and then zoom in on some of the tiles to better understand the efforts it must have taken to coordinate this. The mural is located in the Cochrane City Hall.

Day 32 - Cochrane, Alberta

We've settled in to this very nice RV park in Cochrane for our Calgary Stampede stay. The Stampede starts on Friday, July 4th, with a big parade in downtown Calgary. It's supposed to be a tremendous parade and we're looking foward to it.

Day 31, Canmore, Alberta

Just "roughing it" on our last night in Canmore while we're waiting for the fireworks display at 11pm. A beautiful place and a wonderful stay! Notice that we are flying both the American and Canadian flags. Must be patriotic!

Day 31 - July 1st, Canada Day - Banff, Alberta

Canada Day is much similar to our Independence Day. Pancake breakfast, displays and entertainment in the park, fireworks at night (not until 11pm here because that’s when it gets dark). This is a picture of me, just before the Mounties took me away for being an American in Canada on Canada Day (Just kidding). They were very nice guys. This holiday is the first day of rain we have had since we left. We're hoping it clears up before the fireworks tonight.

Day 30 - Lake Louise - Banff Provential Park, Alberta

Lake Louise is absolutely beautiful! This picture doesn’t really do it justice but it’s the best one I took. The lake is very touristy with people from all over the world wanting to see it and hike it’s shores. At the end where I took the picture is the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise hotel. What a beautiful site to wake up to in the morning if you were staying there.

Day 30 - Columbia Icefields - Jasper Provential Park, Alberta

The Columbia Icefields are huge, covering over 200 square miles. It consists of a number of different glaciers. This picture shows one small glacier, called Athabasca. This is the most visited glacier in the world. To get some idea of it’s size, notice the people in the lower right walking to and on the glacier. Also notice the bus in the middle left. Remember, this is one of the smaller glaciers in the field. To see the balance of the Icefields you would have to go by helicopter.