Venturing Into The Great Unknown

Our morning started around seven with us having a breakfast of leftovers. Because of the distance from the closest Tim Hortons, we had to wait until we got underway before we could get our morning coffee. We headed to Cosmopolitan Park as previously planned, but found that the path wasn’t the easiest to walk on. We decided, instead, to walk along the sidewalk beside the park. We were able to get a great view of the Hotel Bessborough, which is a CN hotel in the Château-style.

I’m not sure where in the park all of the birds were hiding though, because we didn’t see a single one. We did, however, see a flower that was new to both me and Mum. It was a purple prairie-clover. Thanks to my good friend E, I now have an app to help me identify flowers. And, thanks to using the Live feature on my iPhone camera, I was able to get the bee in the exact place I wanted it in the picture. (I’ve never used either before.)

After our walk, we headed to U Sask and drove through the campus on our way out of town. Although it was still mid-morning, the temperature was already in the mid-20’s and creeping up. We were both glad for the air conditioning in the car as we drove along the flat, open countryside. There was, as there always is in Saskatchewan, a wind blowing across the fields. The crops of grain and bullrushes in the sloughs, bowed slightly in the breeze.

Just before we reached the Quill Lake area, we passed flooded fields/sloughs on either side of the road and the wind was blowing so strongly that there were waves with whitecaps. We both found it quite interesting and I would have loved a picture, but with narrow shoulders and that much wind, it didn’t seem like a good idea to stop on the side of a 100-km/h highway.

About a kilometre past that we came upon another pottery place. We stopped, of course, and Mum grabbed a blue/green bowl to complement the one she had bought in Valemount. We talked to the potter for a few minutes and Mum mentioned that she liked the house that the potter owned. It turns out that it was built in the style of an Eaton house and it was turning 100 next year. We had never heard of Eaton houses and we were told that they were houses that could be ordered from the Eaton’s Catalogue and the kits were shipped out from Winnipeg on the train to wherever the homestead was.

We continued east, searching for a way to get close to the shores of Big Quill Lake. We thought we had a chance in Kandahar, but what we thought was a road, turned out to be a person’s driveway. It is hard to tell with some of the roads in Saskatchewan – they are all narrow, gravel roads that should only be used by trucks (in my opinion). We continued on to Wynyard where we saw a sign for the Quill Lake Area Interpretive Centre – our luck was looking up. We parked the car, only to find out that ithe centre was closed. A sign on the door stated that if we went to the town hall, they would open it for us. We asked at the town hall if they knew of any way to get close to the lake and we were told we could take the next Grid Road north for about 20 km until you get to where the lake has flooded the road. Grid roads in Saskatchewan are like Range roads in Alberta – gravel cow paths. Since that was out of the question, we asked where we could find a picnic table in town so we could have lunch. We were given a map of the ‘town’ that showed all the parks, and were told that they weren’t sure which one had tables. We finally found one at Pelepian Park, but it was being used, so we decided to just sit on a bench in the shade and eat some leftovers. Once done, we were off again, heading east.

Our next stop was in Theodore, where I saw a grain elevator beside the highway. I love the old-style elevators and try to get a picture whenever I can. Normally there are obstacles in my way such as trains, hydro wires etc., but this one was perfect. Some of you may notice that this is a Centennial Elevator, witness the 1967 Maple Leaf on the top of the building. I also got my annual random cat picture which I used as the featured photo for today’s post.

By this time, we were less than an hour from Yorkton, and I still needed to get a good shot of the prairie landscape. Driving along highways at 100 km/h, does not make it easy when you are trying to find a place to pull over and get a good shot – by the time you see the shot, you are several hundred metres past it. I ended up pulling over just before Yorkton and took some pics, but I think I will try to get some better ones when I am on the return journey on quieter roads. I have posted a couple below, but they really don’t do the beauty of the Prairies justice.

We arrived at the hotel, and chilled in the room for an hour or so before we headed to dinner. Mum and I both were craving steak so we walked a couple of blocks to Mr. Mikes. It is a chain of restaurants that I have gone to before on the Island, but it appears that the menu is different, or has changed since my last visit. Not only were the prices a good 15% higher – making a steak out of the question – my go-to Black & Blue Burger wasn’t on the menu. We shared a spinach dip to start and Mum had the Perogies and I had the Bacon Cheeseburger.

After walking back to the hotel, we did our wiki-research and Mum turned in for the night. Once I finish this post, I will be doing the same.

Tomorrow we head to Winnipeg, with a stop at 100°W to get a picture of me with my Hip shirt on.

Thank you for reading and sharing our adventures.

Talk to you soon.

L

We awoke before eight and took a look outside to see what we had in store for the day. The parking lot that had been full of firefighters last night was empty except for two cars – one being mine. I walked next door to Timmy’s for our morning coffee, while Mum got out our leftovers for breakfast. We ate quickly and again headed north up the highway.

Our first stop was the entrance to Mount Robson Park. Thankfully, the mountain was visible and as gorgeous as I remembered her to be when I camped there with my daughter on our trip. For those who don’t know, Mount Robson is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies and is part of the Rainbow Range. We continued on to the Visitor Centre of the park and I took some more pictures of both Mount Robson and Cinnamon Peak.

Next on our route was Jasper National Park. I didn’t bother getting a park pass as we were just passing through this year – I figured I would be able to quickly pullover and take pictures of any wildlife we saw without getting caught by park staff. I’m not sure if was bad karma for not getting a pass, or just bad luck but we saw no wildlife. Well, unless you consider the two ravens that we saw next to the road. Hopefully this means that we are in store for a lot of wildlife in the prairies.

The drive from the eastern edge of the park, which also is the end of the mountains, to Edmonton was uneventful. We stopped in Hinton for coffee and a snack at Timmy’s and then for gas in Edson. Other than that, we just drove.

We arrived in Edmonton just before 5, but luckily were going the opposite way of the rush hour traffic. Yet again, there was construction near our hotel, but it IS summer and it IS a big city – we really can’t expect much else.

We looked at our choices for dinner and decided on Urban Diner, which was the first restaurant in Edmonton to be featured on You Gotta Eat Here. Mum and I both started with the Pea Soup. It wasn’t French-Canadian style, but man it was good – and I don’t like peas. Mum followed with the Bruschetta and I had a Porchetta sandwich that was topped with arugula, havarti and truffle aioli. Tonight was a definite “outside the box” experience for me as I am also not a huge fan of arugula and I definitely don’t like truffles. I found it absolutely divine and I am so glad I went outside my comfort zone.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and watched So You Think You Can Dance before Mum went to bed and I started working on my blog.

As soon as I post, I will be hitting the hay. Tomorrow we are off to Saskatoon. I have never been, so I am quite excited.

Thank you for sharing our adventure and I will talk to you tomorrow.

L

At just after 6 a.m. this morning, I picked up my mum from my sister’s house and we headed to the ferry. We made it there in plenty of time and just after 7:45, we were on our way across the Strait to the mainland. It was a fairly uneventful ride and we sat at the back of the ferry, watching the Island get farther and farther away.

We arrived in Tsawwassen just before ten and headed towards Maple Ridge, where we had planned to grab lunch. We arrived just after 11 and we’re able to find a parking spot not far away. Big Feast Bistro was featured on You Gotta Eat Here and is our 76th Food Network restaurant. Although we had quite a long wait for food, we were lucky enough to not have to wait for a table and we were able to enjoy some much-needed coffee. For our lunch, Mum had the Apple Bacon Grilled Cheese with a Napa Salad and I had the Bacon Benny with Breakfast Potatoes. It was absolutely delicious and I finished everything but a few of my potatoes. Mum saved half of her sandwich for a later snack.

We left Maple Ridge and continued on the north side of the Fraser River. Just past Agassiz, we saw some helicopters that were water-bombing a fire. It was so close to the road that they had flaggers directly alternating traffic. Below was the best I could do for a picture from the safety of my car.

We travelled up the Coquihalla Hwy from Hope. It was shrouded in smoke and at some points, we had less than a kilometre of visibility. Between Merritt and Kamloops, the smoke was so bad that my eyes started watering.

Thankfully, we arrived in Kamloops, just before 4 and we were able to go inside our hotel room to get some relief. There was an eerie colour to the sky as the sun was out in full force, but it was more of a orangey-pink colour than the blinding orb it normally is.

We relaxed at the hotel for an hour or so before heading to dinner. We decided on The Noble Pig which was also featured on You Gotta Eat Here. Thankfully, we found a great parking spot and arrived early enough to beat the rush.

Even though we had a large lunch, we were both hungry and we started eating before I was able to get pictures of our appys, as delivered.  Mum and I had trouble deciding on what we wanted to eat, so we picked two appys and two shareables and we both picked at all of it. We started with Pretzels and Crispy Pickles, then followed with Chicken Karaage and Roasted Cauliflower and Guyere Dip. I also had a flight of three of their house brews.

Although it’s hard to see, in the picture of the outside of the restaurant, in the top left, you can see a tiny pink dot that is the sun through the smoke.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to turn in early after our long day.

Thank you for reading and I am sorry that it was such a short post today. Hopefully, I will catch up on some much needed sleep tonight.

I will post tomorrow from Valemount.

L

This morning we awoke to a beautiful, yet cool, day. After having breakfast at the hotel, I moved the car closer to our room and started packing everything back into the car. We grabbed some gas and a coffee and were on our way. The drive between Salmon Arm and Kamloops was fairly uneventful, and before we knew it, we were through Kamloops (without getting lost) and heading towards Cache Creek.This was the first time that I have driven this direction along the Thompson River since we came out in 1982. The only other time I have driven this road was when K and I went to Edmonton almost a decade ago. I will have to admit that I was quite glad that I wasn’t taking the Coq again.

The traffic was remarkedly light, which allowed us to have a leisurely drive – something I enjoyed after traveling the Trans-Canada east of Kamloops. We stopped a couple of times to stretch our legs and take some pictures (that weren’t through the windshield).

In Cache Creek, the road turns south and heads down the Thompson Canyon. There has been a major fire near Ashcroft, just south of Cache Creek, that has been burning since July 6th and has burned almost 193,000 hectares (475,000 acres). Although we could see some areas that were burned, the full extent of the Elephant Hill fire can’t easily be seen from the highway. There was also very little smoke in the area, which surprised us.

We pulled over about ten minutes outside of Lytton and took a couple of pictures of the Thompson River which is narrower and has whitewater rapids by this point. We ended up talking to a couple from Calgary who were heading to the Island to visit family on Denman Island. They had stopped to get a picture of kayakers that were about to shoot a set of rapids and we decided to stay and watch. After about ten minutes, we determined that they weren’t going to ride the rapids for a while so we continued on our way. We found a pull-off close to Lytton and pulled over to have a picnic lunch in the car. By this time, the temperature was in the mid-20’s and I was glad that I had worn my shorts.

After lunch, we continued down the highway into the Fraser Canyon. I had hoped to get a picture of the confluence of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers but it wasn’t easily visible from the highway and I had missed the turn-off into the village of Lytton. Oh well, there’s always next time.

The Fraser Canyon is much hillier and the road is curvier that it is in the Thompson Canyon, and I found myself wondering why the speed limit was still 100 km/h. I kept my speed between 80 and 90 km/h, pulling over to let people pass when needed. This was also about the time that we started to notice some smoke hanging in the area. There were no fires that we could see, other than a small wisp of smoke on the other side of the Fraser River. It turns out that it was a new fire that started today but is not considered to be a fire of any significance. The only thing that we were able to deduce is that the smoke was from the other fires that are burning in BC and the smoke has gotten trapped in the canyon. We have had a couple of weeks of smoky weather on the Island caused by the fires, so it was our best, educated guess.

We continued down the highway through Boston Bar, Spuzzum and Yale until we reached the outskirts of Hope. Since we had planned an early morning departure from Hope, we decided to visit Farm House Cheeses in Agassiz today. Mum and I both grabbed some more cheese, petted the goats, and headed back to Hope just in time for check-in.

While Mum rested in the room, I set out to explore downtown Hope. I love Hope as it has a beautiful park filled with Sitka Spruce and also wood carvings scattered throughout the downtown core. There were also signs all over town commemorating the 35th anniversary of Rambo First Blood – I didn’t get the reasoning behind it, until I found out that the movie had been filmed in and around Hope. I also stopped into a souvenir shop to pick up a couple of last-minute gifts. After talking to the person working in the store, I was given a recommendation for dinner. We had planned on going to Home Restaurant, but after losing our good parking spot last night, I was leery of driving anywhere and it was just a bit too far to walk. She recommended 293 Wallace, which was kitty-corner from her store.

When I got back to the motel, we pulled up the menu to see if there was anything that tickled our fancy. We were quite shocked at the prices but were able to find something small for each of us on their lunch menu that they supposedly served all day.

Mum and I decided to have a short walk around the park before going to eat so we could work up an appetite. It was a beautiful evening and the temperature was still quite warm which made for a wonderful stroll. We arrived at the restaurant and were able to get a table, even though we didn’t have reservations. When we took a look at the menu, we noticed that neither of the things we had wanted was on the list. We queried the waitress about the difference between the online menu and the one we were given and were told that lunch was no longer available all day and regardless, the item that Mum wanted was no longer available. After much hemming and hawing, I decided on the chicken bites and Mum chose the pork loin. When I ordered my chicken, I was told the sauce that I wanted was also no longer available – needless to say, I was getting frustrated at this point. We had already ordered our drinks so it was too late to get up and leave. I changed the sauce that I wanted and chalked it up to experience.

When our meal eventually came, we quite enjoyed it, although Mum found her vegetables to be very under-cooked. We decided to save the veggies for a snack tomorrow, and put them in a Ziploc bag. There just wasn’t enough for us to ask for a doggie bag. Due to our disappointment about the difference in menus and lack of sauce that I wanted, the manager gave us a free dessert. We chose a deconstructed lemon cheesecake with raspberry sauce. It also, was quite good, but still way overpriced for a small town.

We walked back to the motel and Mum did her cryptics while I spent almost an hour talking to hubby on the phone. Today was our 17th anniversary and for the second year in a row, we were separated by a body of water. I am definitely looking forward to seeing him tomorrow when I get home.

I want to thank you for sharing our adventure and I will talk to you tomorrow.

I am leaving you with a collage of the pictures I took along the way today.

L

We awoke to the sound of rain but after the near freezing temperatures last night, we were happy it wasn’t snow. We had a quick bite to eat at the hotel while we waited for rush hour to settle down. We left the hotel just before 10 and our first stop was an oil change. Luckily there was a Jiffy Lube on our way and we were able to get it done quickly and were on our way before we knew it.

For most of the drive to Banff we experienced rain, drizzle and the occasional clear patch. It was definitely not conducive to stopping and taking pictures of the mountains. We were both slightly bummed that we weren’t able to see how impressive the mountains are, rising up from the prairies. We have driven this route before so we had to settle for living vicariously through our memories.

By the time we arrived in Banff, the rain had stopped but it was still quite overcast and the mountains were shrouded in low-lying clouds. We drove around for a few minutes looking for parking and I was able to snag a great spot not too far from our intended destination. I was quite impressed with my ability to parallel park as it definitely isn’t one of my strong suits.

Lunch for today was The Bear Street Tavern, which was featured on You Gotta Eat Here. Although it was right at lunch time, we were able to be seated right away. Mum had the Turkey, Bacon & Brie sandwich with Mexican Vegetable Soup and I had a half Caesar Salad with a cup of the same soup. The Caesar was topped with smoked bison instead of bacon bits and, although I am a staunch believer in bacon bits on a Caesar, I was pleasantly surprised.

After lunch, we walked around downtown briefly and stopped in a couple souvenir shops before getting back on the road. Since the weather was still quite dreary, we opted against taking the Bow Valley Parkway and just stayed on the Trans Canada. I also had to make do with getting my pictures through the windshield as we weren’t able to stop along the highway.

We arrived in Golden just in time to check in and decided to relax in the room for a while before we headed downtown to explore. We visited a couple of souvenir shops and also took a walk across the Kicking Horse River on a pedestrian walkway. I, of course, decided that I had to put my feet in the water to see if it was as cold as Sunwapta Lake. I made my way down to the water, rolled up my jeans and walked in enough to have the water up to my ankles. The glacial silt was quite slippery, as it had been at the Athabasca Glacier, but there was much more of it here and my feet got coated in mud. I carried my shoes in my hand as I carefully walked along the gravel path back to the bridge and back across the river to the car. Luckily Mum had some kleenex and I was able to get most of the mud off my feet before getting into my somewhat clean car.

We had hoped to grab a coffee in one of the coffee shops but they were all closed by that time so we headed back to the hotel for a dinner of leftovers. Mum decided to have a bath while I called hubby. By just after 9, Mum was ready for bed and I started doing my blog.

I decided to group all of my scenery pictures together at the bottom of my blog tonight for ease of viewing. Tomorrow we are heading to Salmon Arm and will finally be back in Pacific Time. Thank you for sharing our adventure and I will talk to you tomorrow.

L