Towering towers of Toronto

Landing in Toronto from Calgary we caught a taxi (first taxi of the hols....) to our shared accommodation with the Brooks and Smith families. Tom was meeting up with us at the apartment after our Maple Leafs hockey game to watch the Eagles v Collingwood...starting at midnight. We were on the 48th floor of 67 floor new high rise tower. Being the last in the 'First in best dressed stakes' meant that we got the bedroom with the clear glass doors looking into the lounge room.....perfect spot to relax and view the footy.....Judy suggested we could tape a sheet to the glass for privacy omitting the word DUCT not to traumatize Paul....he is still recovering from his loss.

If you are not into hockey/footy I would suggest you skip this paragraph and move onto the next. The hockey was brilliant, fast paced, amazing skills on the ice, and fans galore. This game and atmosphere was the pre match warm up we needed to keep us awake for the AFL. With Tom and Tash now joining us on the 48th we cracked a few tinnies (Toronto is known for its breweries) and filled out MB's bread paper form guide....guessing who would be best on ground, first blood rule, margin at half time and who would win and by how much. If you know Paul then you don't need reminding how he swaps from team to team depending on which team is winning.....the first blood rule might have taken place on the  48th and with no DUCT tape to strap him to the chair or tape up his mouth to quieten the noise permenating out of the room I was expecting and looking forward to a knock on the door from a "Mountie"......no such luck! . Thank the lucky stars the Eagles won as Tom, Judy, Mike, Kevin and Emily had all cheered them on into the early hours of the morning.....Paul screamed them on......Paul says he was reserved on the night.

A quiet start the next day to walk the streets of downtown Toronto and then a family gathering at Medieval  Times organised by Tash. A fun night filled with lots of laughs, brave knights and elegant equines. Our knight the red and yellow knight emulated the eagles by winning the championship.

Sunday we said our goodbyes to Kevin and Emily who were flying back to Portland with a hat trick and we were also off to stay with Tom and Tash in East York, with Judy and Mike heading on to Niagara. Tom helped us navigate the subway system which has 3 lines very small compared to London but a great way of transport and peak hour like every where can be a little daunting. Paul and I were looking forward to living in Toronto for the next 2 weeks......Tash is an amazing cook and we would experience our first Thanksgiving with the Stocks family.

Winners are grinners

Partying on the 48th floor

Glaciers galore ~ Driving the Icefield Parkway

Paul and I had prebooked our Icefield Parkway tour (thanks Chelsea) before leaving Australia and we were both unsure of what we were embarking on come Wednesday morning when we had an early start. Should we wear our thermals, how many layers do we wear so in the end we decided to fall back on the scouts philosophy of always being prepared. Picked up at our accommodation by the best ever bus/tour guide Ed from Galway Ireland we continued on until we had a bus load of scouts and headed towards our destination.

The drive through the Rocky Mountains  Continental Divide saw us sweeping through peak after peak of snow capped formations was unbelievable. Paul was not sure what to photograph as it was so visually stunning your eyes and brain were overwhelmed to the point of no return. I can't even imagine how it would be in winter here other than being cold. We had some stops along the way at various lakes which were all beautiful in their own way but I guess we were excited about the thought of walking on an actual glacier.

Arriving at the base camp a three storey purpose built interprative building we had a quick lunch break before being ferried out to the base of the glacier to hop into a 6WD monster bus with 2m high tyres - reportedly worth 1.2 million each with a total of 26 of these vehicles world wide with the only 2 outside the icefields being purchased by the AUS and the USA governments for their use in Antarctica.

The short 6WD trip felt like you were driving through a snow covered open cut mine site in Australia which culminated in a 30 minute walk around the glacier for some stunning photographs. We also had a  chat with the 2IC from the local National Parks body who was out of his office for the day. It was most disconcerting to hear that this particular glacier is shrinking 5M vertically and 15M horizontally each year - and people are still sceptical about global warming.

Following our walk on the glacier we travelled 15mins on another bus to experience the recently constructed skywalk,  a man made steel structure on the edge of a steep 80m ravine. The skywalk culminated in a circular glass floor deck hanging out over the valley which proved impossible for some people to take the giant step for mountainside views. One lonely mountain goat was visible through the glass laying around catching up on some sun and sleep.

After this we headed home with a stop off at Lake Peyto, another watery icon.....it's getting hard to expand my vocab to do the visual wonders justice. Back to Banff we met up with the Brooks family for a meal a notable pizza evening at the Bear Street tavern.

Our bus appropriately named after me.

Looking out to the glacier

The greenie in front of of our vehicle

Scouts

Lot of big busses for lots of tourists

I too can be green

Hanging out on the deck

Beautiful colours of Lake Peyto

Banff above and beyond

Judy, Mike and Emily caught up with us in Banff with Judy being braver than Paul and I put together as she drove a hired car from Calgary. Paul and I couldn't even walk on the right side of the road let alone drive on that side. How could Paul ever get to look at his maps if he was driving?

Tuesday saw us head towards Sulphur Mountain to ride the Banff Gondala with promised views of the Bow Valley including the Bow river. The gondala starts at 1583m above sea level and the upper terminal is 2281 m above sea level.   Norman Sanson who was a pioneering meteorologist first started recording the weather conditions in 1903. He would hike to the top of the mountain and had done this over a thousand times. His last climb was in 1945 at the age of 84! The views were spectacular and the boardwalk climb to the weather station was very easy....a little cold and windy however very refreshing.

Our next adventure for the day saw us at the Bow river paddling a canoe. Another canoest who had just arrived back mentioned there were some elk grazing by the river bank upstream so we were absolutely delighted when we saw them.

Riding the gondola

Nothing like having a ciggie in the fresh air. 

At least people can butt out in this contraption 

rather than littering the mountain.

Surrounded by views

Boardwalk to the summit

The Sanson weather station

Paul alive with the sounds of ........

Looking down on Banff

Who was the olympic rower who threw in the towel?

The beautiful Bow river

The Elk feeding

A celebratory drink.....I knew I wasn't driving!

Highway to Happiness

Since returning from way up there in Alaska we caught up with Judy, Mike and Em in Vancouver who were still on a high from the Eagles win to make it to the big grandfinal. Paul and I were now en route to Calgary home of the big white hats. One night stay before venturing out on the highway to Banff via Brewsters a company established back in 1892. With a luxurious coach ride through the prairie towards the mountains I had a feeling of deja-vue as we got closer to the Rocky Mountains.....I then remembered it was like a scene out of West World......too perfect and the beauty surrounding us seemed to good to be true!

We found our little cabin and Paul's description of it being a gnomes house we settled in and walked around Banff and the outskirts of the town. We rested at the Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel a heritage building open to the public as well as it's paying guests.

Everyone talks about Lake Louise as being beautiful and there is no doubt that it is and it's more than a picnic stop....however, I think it is being ruined by its reputation. I would find it hard to be one of the visitors in peak season time. Its mind boggling thinking of how many people this place keeps in employment which is a great thing of course.....bus drivers by the hundreds who take charge of the shuttle busses when the carparks are full and they move onto the overflow car parks. The tour operators, the traffic wardens, the National Park staff who are there on ground level and also those on the trails keeping track of us and the wildlife. We were told not to expect to see any wildlife and so we were very excited to see a duck.....doing what ducks do. As we progressed further along the trail we were informed that there was a grizzly bear with her two cubs up in the undergrowth but we didn't see them. We did see a family of mountain goats on our way back down the trail so that was a bonus. Not wildlife but the number of pooches out walking was a surprise and people riding horses. Paul did ask if there were spare horses for us at one stage......the dejavu feeling started to come back.

The trail to the top was quite extreme and I should have got hike fit along with the bike fit but with lots of rests in between photos and indescribable views I made it to the top.......egged on by the fact there was a Teahouse where we could grab a bite of lunch and a cuppa. Not wanting to descend on the same trail we chose a longer one and a little more harder on my netball knees. We arrived back in time for the return trip into Banff with our heads full of how beautiful it is up here in the Rockies.

Off the beaten track in Ketchikan

Setting sail during the night for Ketchikan our last port of call before Vancouver we were met once again with the sun greeting us and hanging around for the whole day. After our laps around the deck we were ready to rock and roll into down town Ketchican "Rain Capital of Alaska" with a population around 14,000 and not an umbrella to be seen. Average annual rainfall 200 inches which according to Paulapedia is 5,000mm with Geraldton's being 442mm!

Founded in 1885 as a salmon cannery site with a creek located near Creek Street you can see evidence of salmon heading upstream. This creek had lots of dead salmon floating and also lying dead on the exposed rocks. A little smelly mainly I think because it was hot. The lifecycle of the salmon truly on display here. After returning to their place of birth to spawn which always entails a strenuous upstream physical feat resulting in death. One of the bonuses was that there were seals entertaining the tourists playing around in the water and nibbling on some salmon. I thought there would be seagulls scavenging for a share of the salmon but very few around. You could also purchase salmon jerky ..... too close to the salmon cemetery for my liking!

After leaving the historic boardwalk area of Creek Street we hopped on a bus that took us to the Jeep warehouse where we joined 12 other rev heads looking for adventure on the logging trails in the mountains. The first part of the drive was a road trip to a lake where we all paddled in an oversize canoe to the opposite side of the lake. The paddling was pretty easy and the rewards were a chowder broth (best one by far) and a short rainforest tour. Tongass Forest is the largest forest in the United States and covers most of Southeast Alaska. We then changed gears to 4 wheel drive leaving the sealed road for rocky terrain.....Paul jokingly told a couple from Spain that all the roads in Australia were like that and everyone had 4 wheel drives! Driving was easy as we were following the vehicle in front but it still felt weird being on the opposite side of the road.

No need to say anything about this photo except it was sunny

Heading out to the rainforest soon

Good luck to the Eagles

I could work here

During the rainy season?

Skagway, Haines and Aussie Assist.

With the ship sailing on during the night we awoke to a view of a granite rock with numerous painted signs which we were told later on in the day were names of all the ships that come and go from the port of Skagway. Population of 800 which certainly explodes when the cruise ships come to town. As our tour was at 1:00pm we had plenty of time to take a leisurely stroll into the town. The town itself is like a Hollywood movie set where at times you collide with the history of the gold rush up in the Yukon. Wide streets, wooden sidewalks, bars and saloons and of course the many tourist shops. Most of the touristy shops close up and head down south around this time of year and  we were one of the last cruise ships to be here.

Paul and I opted for an "Eagle Preserve" tour (where the eagles are protected in the National park ....preserve to me means something that might be pickled in a jar!) The tour took our fancy as we would be sailing on a catamaran over to Haines, floating downstream on a river raft and then returning once again via the catamaran. Catamaran conjours up visions of sailing on a twin hulled vessel with a champagne glass in one hand.....not a twin hulled ferry (probably made in Western Australia) full of 200  passengers. Ferry ride over, we jumped aboard an old school bus (like you see in the movies) that transported us to where we would take the raft once we had our wellies and lifejackets on. This is the part where you hoped at the end of the rafting trip you ended up with your own shoes as they were all placed inside a crate.....Yikes my new merrills might find other feet inside them!

Raft chosen we quietly slipped into the middle of the river and our tour guide Zac expertly steered the raft with two oars from the centre of the craft.  We spotted lots of unpreserved bald eagles along the river bank, some salmon moving upstream and only the paw prints of bears. No guarantees to see any wildlife printed on your ticket plus the mention of bringing a spare pair of socks.

 The leisurely 2 hour float nearly ended in disaster when 4 of the people from the last raft alighted in knee deep water and were firmly  trapped in the sticky mud the consistency of wet cement. I was so looking forward to my hot drink and sanga when all of sudden it was mayhem. With the majority of the tour staff jumping into the water to rescue the trapped tourists who were slowly sinking past the top of their wellie boots into the muddy river bank. .... Paul couldn't stand by and watch with out lending a hand and he was soon knee deep in the mud with the rest of them. After much grunting and groaning and careful placement of available oars all were pulled to safety in a frantic scenario that lasted about 30 minutes. With the mud wrestling incident over this is where the spare pair of socks made a debut and a change of dacks kindly donated by the main leader of the tour.  People were feeling a little distraught about the delay, however,  a hasty bus ride back to Haines with the ferry waiting for us we were able to arrive back in Skagway in time to board our departing ship.

The day was full of unexpected delights and surprises ....we saw a moose and her calf. .....Paul without glasses thought it was a grizzly bear.  Paul with a new dry pair of trackie dacks with the letters AMG printed on the backside donated to him by the tour leader. We are still trying to work out what AMG stands for....
Aussie Massive Glutes.....A Muddy Goat.....Average Man Gear.....
Adrenalin Mighty Gogetter....Alaskan Mountain God......happy for your take on AMG.

Getting ready to be rafted

Zac our tour guide from Michigan 

Paul bringing home half of the river

Skagway buildings

Unusual name....might make you cry (LOL)

Rock graffiti 

AMG....Alaskan Mountain God

Jumping for Joy at Juneau.....Leader of the pack NOT

We awoke to glorious sunshine at Juneau Alaska which continued throughout the day. From our balcony (a liitle too fresh at times) the view of the coastline was picturesque with mountains populated with trees right to the waters edge. I'm very happy to report whales are dime a dozen up in this hood. You can't help but be in awe of these magnicent mammals as you see them popping up all over the place. I am waiting to see one breach style other than just tails and spouts.

Paul and I opted for a Bike and Brew tour once we had docked and off the ship. 24 of us bikers and drinkers jumped into a wagon that took us to base camp where we were fitted with a bike and helmet (not yet bike fit..drink fit) and we were ready to start our ride to Auke Lake to view Mendenhall Glacier. As I rode my bike I noticed that the back wheel was wobbling (a different sort of wobbling than my legs) and I had visions of my dentist going around the world on the money I would pay him to fix my teeth if I fell off going down a hill. Paul being the good husband as he is insisted on swapping bikes and we were on our way. One tour leader at the front riding, with one riding at the back to look for bears and to add words of encouragement to fit drinkers like me. Riding through forests and up to the interpretation centre and then a lift back to Juneau was certainly a great day of fun. On the way back to the port we saw two black bears scampering around the outskirts of suburbia and had apparently been raiding unlocked rubbish bins the night before. Yogi and Boo Boo were obviously looking for picnic baskets! Beer tasting and then a cablecar to Mt Robert (1800 feet high) before heading to the ship for a well deserved rest.

"North to the future" is the motto here in Juneau Alaska, the dragonfly is their insect emblem, the moose their animal and the Forget me Nots their flower emblem. Population around 32,000 similar to Geraldton but with no roads leading out. Air or water the only means of entering or exiting the capital of Alaska. The people of Juneau must feel the benefits in their purses when 4 cruise ships are docked at the one time. I can't imagine this occurrence in 6530.

Onwards and upwards to Skagway.

Me and my dentist's dream bike

Auke lake with view of the glacier.

Spirits captured floating around me!