picture post!
Why do I look so Tired??
The parents came to visit!!! I picked them up at the airport last Saturday and we went for seafood on a patio in English Bay with my friend Janice...
Sunday morning at 5am we awoke to get ready for a 4 day trip through the Rocky Mountains. Holy Moses... I don't even wake up that early for work.
Since my parents have an affinity for Chinese bus tours (we are definately a white family with kick, I knew how to use chopsticks before entering school) we had to make it to the Chinese Cultural Centre to board the bus. I haven't been to through the rockies since I went across Canada with my best friend 5 years ago...
Our first stop was Kamloops which was pretty cool for them to start. The mountains were still quite low and since it is summer and it is really hot and dry there. The earth is rather dusty, red and covered in scrub. Sometimes it is hard to think that Canada is more than just cities like Toronto or Montreal. I would recommend any Canadian to go across Canada.
That night we only made it as far as Golden. Golden is kind of like a truckstop for truckers. Mountains surround a strip of Tim Horton's, McDonalds and motels for truckers to recharge their batteries for long journeys along the Transcanada Highway 1.
The interesting part about going across Canada (well, the first time I did it I went the opposite way from the Maritimes to Vancouver) is that you can see the land change before your eyes. The mountains in Vancouver don't look so big as the land starts to get really jagged with the Rocky Mountains and my parents got to experience this as we entered the Rockies. Our first stop on the second day was Emerald Lake, in BC. The sun was beating down and it smelled so fresh. I wanted to just curl up and have a nap in the sun (especially since we had to wake at 5:45am).
Next we got to experience the lakes and rivers around Bow Lake in Banff National Park, Alberta. Please note that these pictures have not been photoshopped.... the turquoise colour comes from the reflection of the sky on the water... the water of these lakes are from years of melted glacier water...
Snow on a Mountain in the Summer? That's a Glacier baby. Ever been on a Glacier? I can now say I have as we went to the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park. We went onto the Athabasca Glacier and of course I was wearing no socks. Also, something to note, it seems that all the cute boys migrate to the mountains (something I kind of knew but somehow forgot)... it seems that I was the only one who was not an old Chinese lady so I got the star treatment as we went up on the Snocoach as we ascended the mountain to the glacier ;) Also, nothing beats drinking fresh glacier water.
The next day we headed over to Lake Louise. Lake Louise, the most popular lake in Banff National Park, is best known for it's florescent turquoise waters (cough cough, glacier water). Unfortunately it was rather cloudy but we still took a gondola up to see the mountain ranges and went down to have lunch in the Chateau Lake Louise (in which I die over the interior decor again - I love chic hotels)
Now the interior lighting of the Chateau for the IDs on my F-List.
That night we went to Salmon Arm by Shuswap Lake for nighty nights.
Our last day found us saying goodbye to the mountain peaks and bizarre chirping the woodland squirrels...
and hello to the Okanagan Valley... and the many 'fruits' it has to offer (har har...okay, it is canada's desert esentially and where all the grape harvesting for wine and fruit farming goes on..) My memories go back to when I was last in the Okanagan with my best mate and swore I was going to move there one day. It really is lovely.
I didn't take any pictures in the town of Kelowna (which has grown 10 fold since I last visited and can see myself movig to in the next 5 years) or Penticton but here is my fam and I in a vinyard in North Kelowna.
As I sit here writing, my parents are off walking the coast by my apartment getting ready for their departure to the airport in the next hour. It has been really great (and really stressful) seeing them and it was awesome for them to take me on this wonderful vacation with them and also to BUY ME A BIKE so that I am mobile even while I am poor.
It will be so quiet in my apartment without them!