Summary of our Alaska and Canada Trip

Good Afternoon. We have been home almost a month now and after finishing up adding these pictures I am ready to go back.  And not because it is 96 degrees here.  It was a wonderful trip and I can't begin to explain or describe how beautiful Canada and Alaska are.  I have tried to update the pages with pictures,  so if you want to bore yourself some more feel free to check it out.  I must say we learned a few things about blogging and traveling and the most important is to bring a laptop.  The Ipad just isn't as easy to use when you want to edit and add pictures.    We also learned that road trips are not any not cheaper than a cruise.  So we will continue to do most of our travel by ship.

If you are looking for a road trip I highly recommend Western Canada and Alaska.  We put on over 7100 miles on the rental car and the 23 days flew by.  I am sure we could have easily spent another 2 weeks and still not seen all there is to see.  If you are a hiker and a camper this country would be heaven.

I highly recommend using the internet and TripAdvisor.  We spent about 3 months prior to the trip planning and researching.  We sent away for numerous brochures and maps that proved to be extremely helpful.  Invest in a copy of the Milepost and put in your planning before the trip.  We made reservations in every city prior to leaving the states and only changed one of our reservations due to a change of plans.  Hotels are few and far between in the Yukon and in some cities you only have one choice.

Prior planning made the trip exciting as well as we had something new to look forward to each day,  Our next big trip is a cruise to South America and then on the Fort Lauderdale ( a repositioning cruise)  Happy Traveling!!!!

Radium Hot Springs to Calgary

Today is our last day of driving and viewing Canada and Alaska.  It has been a wonderful trip and in a way I hate to see it end.  But all good things must come to an end.  We have learned that the blog is a great way to share our adventure but next time we will bring a laptop.  We talked last night at dinner that we have enjoyed this trip but still prefer cruising.  Enough lamenting  and on to the final day.

We had a nice breaakfast at the motel and then headed into Kootney National Park.  Beautiful - just as beautiful as Banff and Jasper.  Within a mile or two of the entrance this what greeted us.

We proceed on into the park and the falls and sights were just gorgeous.  Here are just a few of the many pictures of Kootney.

After leaving Kootney we were back in Alberta and headed back into Banff.  What a difference 3 weeks can make.  When we were her the first time there was no one here..  Now the streets are crowded.  We walked around alittle and had a late lunch,

Then it was on to Calgory.  Unfortunately for us we arrived at rush hour traffic time.  Oh my goodness.  At least we were going the other way.

We fly home in the am - a 6:30 am flight.  I can't begin to tell how beautiful it is up here.  I know I have said that before but it is.  Add this to your bucket list.

Revelstoke to Radium Hot Springs

Well we did well again tonight.  We are at another lodge (Hillcrest Coast lodge) and again it is beautiful. Set up away from the city with great mountain view, a great restaurant, a great hot tub, and nice room with a balcony.  I can understand why people love it up here.  It is just so beautiful and refreshing, at least until winter arrives.   I highly recommend using Trip Advisor. It has not been wrong yet

We finally sampled poutine, a Canadian dish of French fries, cheese curds and gravy.  Not bad.

We drove into Revelstoke and had breakfast at wonderful Tim Hortons after searching the town for a little local cafe.  We then visited the large hydro electric dam in the area. What a sight.  We got to tour the facility's and ride up to the top of the dam in an elevator to view it from there.

Headed out of town to Radium Hot Springs at the foot of the Kooteney Mountains.  The drive was beautiful as we approached Canada's Glacier National Park.   I still marvel at the majesty of the mountains.  The crest of the mountains is called Rogers Pass.

Apparently this area was very difficult to build the road in and many lives were lost due avalanches

We will head out on our final day tomorrow.   Staying at a little inn tonight called Crystal Springs. We had a great dinner at a German restaurant tonight -very good even if the wait was long.  We then drove around and saw the most unusual house as featured on TV, mountain goats along the road (Must have been about 10 to 15 of them).

Wineries and Drive to Revelstoke.

The started early again as we boarded the ferry back to the mainland.

We drove across southern BC and then arrived in Kelowna about 3 so we stopped at Visitors center to get our map of the wine country.  We stopped at a tasting room for hard cider.  Great tasting.  Reminded me of our trip to London.  The only bad thing is I can't bring it back with us and they don't ship to the US.  Yuck!!!  We then traveled south out of Kelowna and visited two wineries. Oh my so beautiful and very good wines.  There is a big lake here and the wineries are along side of it.  Tempers the weather for the vines.

Checked into the hotel and had dinner.  Its amazing how tired we are and not really doing anything.  In the morning we will do some wineries.  We  visited The Jammery where local fruit is used to make all kinds of jellies and jams.  Sampled and then bought.  We traveled back across the Lake and visited more wineries.  We have sampled some great wines.  I am really bummed that we can't ship them home.  We have bought several bottles and will take them homein our suitcase.  Hopefully they will make it.

We then drove further north in the Lake Country and visited two more wineries and attemped to find another cidery but no luck.

Finished up our day driving up to Revelstoke.  Here we are at another beautiful lodge Coastal View Lodge.  Being off season you can get some really good rates.  The drive up her put us in the Kootney Rockies. 

Tomorrow we head to the Radium Hot Springs.

Vancouver Island and Pacific Rim National Park

The next morning we traveled out to Pacific Rim National Park, Tofino and Uculett.  The road out to Tofino was beautiful.  We visited Cathedral Grove - fantastic.

 The coast along the Park was very rocky and full of surfers in wet suits.  Couldn't believe how many were there.  Tofino was an interesting city out on the very end of a point. Had sort of a hippy, art and craft type feel.   Lots of little gift shops and restaurants.  Then we travel back to the other end to Uculett which was totally different than Tofino.  Walked out to the coast line there.

Surfers