Boston

I only had 2 days to explore Boston, I spent the first day walking the freedom trail which takes you on a self guided walk around the city taking in the main points of interest. During this walk I also took in a free tour of the Massachusetts State House. I arrived in North End just as the rain started to pour so dived into one of many Italian cafes in North End for some lunch. The rain wasn’t easing so saw that as a good excuse to spend the afternoon in the shops!

Fairly exhausted due to a lack of sleep and lots of walking I had an early night.

I started my second day by walking to Cambridge and taking a free historical tour of Harvard University led by Sam, a Harvard student. I had a walk around Cambridge before walking to Charlestown to finish off the Freedom Trail which got stopped short due to rain. I saw the Bunker Hill Monument and the USS Constitution before walking back into the city centre.

With very sore feet I returned to the hostel to pack and prepare for my trip to NYC in the morning!

Montreal to Boston

I spent my last couple of days in Montreal sampling some good Chinese food, chilling with Mark whilst Jen was busy cleaning up our mess at the cottage (Thankyou!) and stressing about the fact that my visa expires before I am due to go home.

After much research I finally found a phone number, albeit an expensive one, that I could call for advice from the US embassy. They told me to mail my visa and all supporting documents to their office in Kentucky, take all copies of everything including proof of postage to the border and hope they issue me a new one. Apparently this is still at the discretion of the border officials so needless to say I was still stressed!

Mark took me to the bus station and I departed Montreal at 2315, we got to the border at about 0100 and I took a deep breath! The first border official was annoyed and disbelieving of my explanation and sent me ‘out the back’! Shaking slightly I met Border Official number 2, who thankfully didn’t give a damn and issued me a new visa and sent me on my way, phew!

I arrived in Boston at 0630, fairly tired but still managed to fathom out the 2 subway trains I needed to catch to get to the hostel.

Montreal part 2

So we loaded the car full of groceries, booze and Aidan’s toys and headed off to Lake Louisa.

For some background information, the cottage we were staying in used to be owned by Jens granny and has been the venue for family holidays for 3 generations until it was sold 9 years ago. As Granny is 96 and may not be up to a long trip in the future, and as it was Richard’s 70th birthday, a family vacation to the cottage was planned. 

The clan included Granny, Elizabeth and Richard (Jens Mum and Step-Dad) Phyllis, Clare and Alex (Aunt, cousin and cousin’s boyfriend), Walter (Uncle), Dan, Susan, Simon and Alistair (Brother, Sister-in-law and nephews), Jen, Mark, Aidan and myself! 

We were there for 4 days, the location was perfect, a typical country cottage on the edge of Lake Louisa. The family talked about a lot of fond memories, there was swimming in the lake, Mark and I went kayaking, we enjoyed good food, wine and great company. On Sunday we had joint birthday celebrations for Richards 70th, my 30th and Alex’s 27th.

Today we came home via Elizabeth and Richard’s house to see the work they had done to the gardens and to have a small early birthday party for Simon’s 4th birthday.

I feel privileged to have been part of such a special family trip and am very grateful to Jen and her family for making me feel so welcome.

Montreal

So after a relatively short (9 hours) bus ride I arrived in Montreal and was picked up by Mark, which made a nice change to having to drag all my bags through a city to find my accommodation.

It was great to see Jen and Aidan, Aidan is now 2 and a half years old, so has obviously changed so much in the last 18 months since I last saw him.

On my first evening Mark and Jen also introduced me to the delights of sushi which was surprisingly good.

Mark had the first 4 days of my visit off work so we took Aidan to the park, spent an afternoon in St Anne where Aidan had his first pony ride, had breakfast at Eggspectations and Mark and I went into the city and saw Hancock at the cinema.

On Monday I walked with Mark into the city and left him to go to work with a plan to meet for lunch. After another great breakfast at Eggspectations I walked to the Plateau area and browsed the shops, stopped for a drink and checked my emails to find that Mark was now working from home so with that in mind I walked back through the city and out to Westmount, had some lunch and walked back to the house.

On Tuesday Jen, Aidan and I all went to Ikea, picked up some bits that Jen wanted and returned home. Tuesday night is Marks gaming night with the boys so while they were busy playing Jen and I drank lots of wine and put the world to rights!

On Wednesday we were all a little tired! So apart from grocery shopping and starting to plan for our weekend in the country not a great deal went on! Although I did cook a curry for dinner, the first time I’ve made one from scratch and it seemed to go down well.

Today we are getting ready for our trip and will be leaving this afternoon for 4 days in the country to help celebrate Richard’s 70th birthday.

Toronto

So after a nice long sleep, I headed out to explore the city of Toronto. After a walk along the harbour and up through Chinatown to Yorkville, an upmarket shopping area! After spending a couple of hours browsing the very nice boutiques I found a dress for my 30th. I tried it on and thought it was amusing how the sales lady obviously thought I was a time waster as I was dressed in my usual backpacking attire! It was even more amusing to see the look of surprise in her face when I said I’d take it! So a successful day shopping!

The next day I took a bus trip to Niagara Falls, stopping for some wine tasting at Birchwood Winery, apparently part owned by Dan Ackroyd. Then it was on to the falls, which I’m pleased to say seems to have improved greatly since the last time I visited. I took the trip on the Maid of the Mist before walking along the front to get views of the American Falls, Bride Veil Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. Then it was onto Niagara-on-the-Lake, a small historic town full of some lovely, independent shops selling all sorts of treats.

I spent my final day in Toronto taking in a few of the art studios and soaking up the warm weather before packing everything up for my journey to Montreal and getting increasingly excited about seeing Mark, Jen and Aidan.

Canada Day and Calgary

The main event during my stay in Calgary was Canada Day on July 1st. During the day there was lots of family orientated stuff which was later replaced by live music. After dinner and a few glasses of wine we headed to Olympic Plaza to watch the last couple of hours of live music and then watch the fireworks.

The following day Hanna left for Nelson and I had a day exploring the city and preparing for the bus journey from hell!

I departed Calgary at 0830 on July 3rd and arrived in Toronto at 1530 on July 5th! We had a few coffee stops and meal breaks of about 40 minutes but apart from that it was non-stop. The second night I resorted to a few Advil to kill the pain in my back (must be an age thing!) and managed to get a few hours sleep.

Needless to say I arrived in Toronto somewhat weary and ready for a long nights sleep.

Banff National Park

After our long day hiking in Lake Louise we decided a day of rest was in order so we spent the morning window shopping before driving out to Johnson Lake to soak up the 32o of sunshine. We had heard that the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel is the place to get cocktails so after dressing up (everything is relative when you’re backpacking!) we walked to the hotel, located Rundle Lounge, ordered strawberry daiquiris and took in the stunning views of Rundle and Sulphur Mountains. After sampling several of the cocktails we went back into town and enjoyed some live music at the Rose and Crown!

After our night out, Sunday also turned into a day of rest! It was even hotter today which shelved our plans to do much hiking anyway so we returned to the lake for more sunshine and relaxation!

On our final day in Banff we headed out early to avoid the heat and hiked to the top of Sulphur mountain, a tough hike up a steep incline, but once again we were rewarded with great views. We drove out to Lake Minnewanka, apparently its not pronounced in the way I was suggesting! We then had to drive along the Trans-Canada Highway to Calgary. Driving in the city proved more challenging, even scary when we ended up on a tramline by accident!

Lake Louise

So the 3 of us set off early to see Peyto Lake before the bus loads of tourists arrived. The glacial lake is a stunning blue set off perfectly by the clear blue skies today. We drove back to Lake Louise via Bow Lake.

Parking by the Lake with thousands of other tourists we were initially disappointed by the scene, unfortunately a monster of a hotel has been built at one end of the lake. We decided to walk one of the trails to try and escape the hoards, 6 kms later and at an elevation gain of 400m we found a tea house! Supplied by a helicopter once a year and the staff and horses taking other essentials, they served tea, coffee and homemade scones, perfect! Re-energised by our morning tea we continued up to the Plain of six glaciers. The views stunned us into a few moments of silence. We continued on our way and took a second trail over the Beehive to Lake Agnes, a further 7kms and another elevation gain of over 500m. The views from the top made Lake Louise look tiny and certainly took us away from the crowds! A final 7km hike took us back to Lake Louise, we were tired and hungry but very pleased with ourselves. 

The other advantage of staying in the hostel in Lake Louise is that on our return we could make use of the sauna, perfect after our long day hiking. That, a big bowl of chili and a glass of wine made the perfect end to a perfect day.

Icefields Parkway

We drove south, leaving Jasper National Park and entering the Icefields Parkway. After a quick tea stop we found the trail head for the Wilcox Trail. It was a 2 hour steep climb but worth it to have the views of the Athabasca Glacier and also get above the tree line to the ice and snow. We took great delight in building a snowman which we like to think amused other tourists for a few hours! After hiking back down we drove to Rampart Creek hostel, the drive took us through the dramatic scenery that the Icefields offer, we also saw another as well as several mountain sheep blocking the road!

We settled in the hostel, made another great meal of caesar salad and got a much better nights sleep.

The following day, we were booked to hike along the Athabasca Glacier. Some of you might remember that following my experience on the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand, I said I would never set foot on another glacier, I was wrong! Hanna really wanted to experience it and it was a much easier hike here than in NZ. So we set off at 1100 in a group of ten. Within 5 minutes of leaving the carpark the snow was falling! Within an hour we could barely see for the blizzard! So much for a nice easy walk! That said, the snow made it a memorable experience and earned us a nice cup of tea and lunch on our return.

We decided we were in need of a hostel that had the luxury of hot running water so drove south into Banff National Park and stayed at the Lake Louise Hostel. We met Mags from Ireland in our room who took us up on the offer of transport around the Lake Louise area tomorrow.

Jasper National Park part 1

So our first task was to locate Avis Car Rental and pick up our Chrysler Sebring, oh and then figure out how to drive an automatic, and remember to drive on the wrong side of the road!

With these tasks complete, give or take a few minor details, we set off to Maligne Canyon. We walked the trail along Maligne River up to the Canyon and back to the trail head, it was a gorgeous day and the scenery definitely gave us a taster of what was to come. Back in the car we drove to Maligne Lake but didn’t hang around too long as it had started to rain, however we did see what we thought was a Moose, but now think was a big male Elk. We were heading to Mount Edith Cavell next but as Hanna hadn’t seen much of Jasper we stopped in town for a couple of hours to pick up supplies and some essentials, come on jewelry is essential!

Mount Edith Cavell is home to glaciers and a glacial lake. We walked the trail down to the lake where we found huge chunks of ice, we heard what sounded like thunder but turned around to see ice falling off the side of the mountain!! It was amazing to see such different landscapes all in one day. After I declared that the lake was ‘pretty cold’ much to Hanna’s amusement, we walked back along the rest of the trail to the car. 

We had decided to stay over night at the wilderness hostel in Athabasca Falls. This meant driving along a windy road only accessible in summer. It was along this road that I drove straight into the path of a bear. There was a moment of hysteria in the car as I tried reversing away from the bear and Hanna frantically took photos! I tried sounding the horn to scare the bear away, he gave us a ‘whatever’ look and continues towards the car. With little room, we decided to stay put and take our chances, thankfully the bear walked past the passenger door without a second look, probably mumbling something about bloody tourists!!! 

We arrived at the hostel to find that ‘wilderness’ means ‘basic’! No running water although this hostel did have electric. We settled in, cooked a fab stir-fry and drunk our weeks supply of red wine, needless to say by the end of the evening our encounter with the bear was somewhat exaggerated! 

After an awful nights sleep due to the lack of heat in our cabin, we headed off to see Athabasca Falls and Sunwapta Falls before driving to Beauty Creek. There was an excellent trail along Beauty Creek to Stoney Falls, it took us a total of about 3 hours to hike the trail, there were several waterfalls and stunning views.