Where to start? We’ve had such an amazing adventure it all passed in the blink of an eye and I’ve barely had time to put podgy fingers to keyboard.
Well I hear Peter, Renae and Lauren are safely back in Bris Vegas and we miss them all dearly, especially the little munchkin whose giggles and squeaks brought us all so much joy. It was really brave of Pete and Renae to travel with a 7 month old and she seemed pretty well behaved but we did however uncover her evil plot to infect the entire world - the little one had contracted some kind of antipodean superflu from some inconsiderate fool on their flight to Canada and she was not content to be the only sufferer. Her genius went undiscovered until almost too late. With her disarming cuteness she could lure people in close enough for a well timed sneeze or a cuddly touch with her snotty fingers, most were blissfully unaware of either this airborne dispersal or the ghastly germ transference as she looked so mesmerizingly adorable. I was such a victim. Anyway…
So our journey started off on lovely Vancouver Island. During the beautiful drive across the island to the Westside town called Ucluelet (you-clue-let) we scouted four ferocious black bears, well actually they weren’t doing anything exciting but there is always potential for peril, word is bears are fast, like really fast and pretty darn clever, clever enough to open car doors for the promise of a pic-a-nic basket. We weren’t going to find out but it was so exciting I wouldn’t have guessed they’d be right by the road. We were totally ignorant of bear protocol, I’d not planned on getting out of the car and staring straight into their beady eyes but overcome by bear frenzy I did, with Aidan cowering behind me – he figured as long as he could out run me, things would be ok. Now it’s highly recommended that you keep approximately five bus lengths between you and the wild animal, we may have gotten a bit close to a Muma and baby bear. Not that any harm came to us but doing so may endanger the next hapless tourist or even the bears themselves. When they get too accustomed to our presence they might get just a little less afraid of us. Not a good thing. We need them to keep that fear apparently as they have to kill bears once they get the taste for human flesh. So anyway we stayed in a spectacular cabin on Terrace beach for my birthday. It was nestled in the forest and right on the beach with an amazing view and it fulfilled my birthday retreat criteria of possessing an outdoor hot tub. Fabulous!!! We had a pretty relaxing time, we went for a walk along a nearby trail through the forest, I got to carry Lauren in the baby bjorn, and we had an amazing dinner at the Wickaninnish Inn such a scrumptious meal with a superb view. After a few relaxing days on the Island we had to go back to Vancouver and ready ourselves for a five day adventure to Banff and back. Aidan and I slept soundly again that night we had both instituted an earplugs for bed rule at the start of this happy family reunion.
The next day we set off on what would be widely regarded as the best train trip ever! The Rocky Mountaineer. The day started early, after arriving at the marshalling area and wading through a sea of blue rinses we were branded with a red maple leaf pin which was used to reflect our restricted couch class status. We were happy with our selection though envied all who carried the glossy gold leaf. Oooh the gold leaf. Those guys got to ride in a glass domed carriage with an unobstructed view and sit in a dining cart for meals. We in the red class got to peer out dirty windows on either sides of the train and eat airplane like meals with rationed drinks. Because of Lauren were afforded a little more room on the train and occupied the last few pairs of seats at the back of our carriage. This was pretty handy as Lauren found that more often that not if you were not her mum or dad and were inclined to carry her she would prefer if you stood close to the afore mentioned parents while doing so. It didn’t take long to figure out that we totally skewed the mean age of travelers on the train, maybe people our age just don’t have the time for it but it was truly a spectacular first day. The train stayed close to the major rivers, crossing them from time to time. We were all transfixed to the windows taking many photos that just didn’t do the scenery justice and that kinda end up looking the same. Our cabin host pointed out areas of interest, telling interesting stories and everybody kept their eyes peeled for wildlife. Hosts in carriages ahead of us would sometimes radio in bear spottings or my favourite big horned sheep but I kept my ears and eyes peels for the elusive Moose call. Calls for “Eagles on the left” receded as the hunt for big game was on. All in all I think there were four Bear calls, a few big horn sheep a couple of beaver lodges…. and Zero Moose.
We stayed in a hotel in Kamloops at night and were back on the train for the second half of the journey to Banff. We were having another wonderful day enjoying the view, which was far more spectacular now that we were in the rocky mountains when we were interrupted by train staff and asked if we were the Callinans. Looking quizzically at each other I noticed a very guilty look creep into Aidan’s eyes. Moments before, Aidan had spilled his precious beer everywhere and mopped it up with a couple of company pillows. He was about to deny deny deny but too late I had replied yes, we were the Callinans. Apparently and I’m still not sure how but the president Peter Armstrong whilst surfing the web had stumbled upon our blog site. ?! I know weird. We had mentioned coming on the Rocky Mountaineer in our last post and he wondered if we would like to have lunch in Gold Leaf today. Oh boy would we ever. Before we realized that we could not take our companions with us she was off but really who would miss this chance it’s like being bumped up to first class. So the lovely lady whose name I forget had said she’d be back in a moment to take us on a little tour through the train to the Gold Leaf section. We were so excited… but I see I’ve been blathering on here for quite a few pages already so I think I’ll leave the story there... to be continued in the next post. Please check out the new photos in the Canadian Adventures album I know there's a lot but I'll try to make some comments to make it more interesting. There were really some breath taking places we went too.
Hope you are all well!
