Calgary

Calgary has been pretty hot. There's lots of men in Cowboy hats here (protecting themselves from the heat, or making a fashion statement? Who knows...) and it has a kind of 'Dallas' feel to it. Everywhere you turn there is another Oil Company tower. The towers, along with the shopping malls (which all like to pretend they are banks so you can't find them!) are all interconnected by 15km of bridges, 15 feet above ground. Apparently the largest system of its kind in the world. Handy for getting from mall to mall, cos once you go to street level, its back to the mall hide and seek game.

It's too tempting to stay in the hotel with the air con, but we have made it out a few times. We went up the Calgary Tower the other day, which had a great view of the city and the Rocky Mountains. It had a glass floor you could stand on and look down. After a while, Andrew decided to brave it. But notice how tight his grip on the handrail is!


One of the main reasons we are in Calgary is for the Folk Music Festival. We had an early bird 4-day weekend pass which cost us CAD$120 each. Yesterday, Ash was feeling a bit ill (he has the cold) so we decided not to go. Instead, Andrew decided to go sell that day's tickets and made $90! So we will use that to have a nice dinner out or something. That night we stayed at the hotel and rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous... well, Andrew stood next to Macy Gray in the lift! (He reports she has very nice perfume.)

Today we made it to the festival, and saw one of our favourite Singer-Songwriters, Dar Williams. She was only part of a 'workshop' and so only sang two songs, but she is on the main stage tomorrow and we are very excited about that. Only problem is, we might not be able to get near the stage - today the whole area of park in front of it was covered with people's tarpaulins and blankets, while they went off around the island. So there was nowhere for us to sit. Tomorrow might be an early start...!

Where are we?

Rocky Mountaineer

We took the Rocky Mountaineer train from Vancouver to Calgary, with an overnight stop in Kamloops. It was spectacular. It was an early start on both days (up at 5.45!) as there was a lot of ground to cover but it was worth it for the awesome views. We had breakfast and lunch on the train and they were both pretty good and our attendant Crystal was great. She gave a running commentary as we went along, pointing out the points of attraction etc. We saw different wildlife along the route, including bear, deer, eagle, osprey and elk. Unfortunately, we didn't capture any on film other than the eagle in the picture below. The track itself is interesting, inlcuding a set of spiral tunnels through several mountains which took 20 months to complete.

BC Ferry and Vancouver

Here's a pic taken on the ferry en route from Victoria to Vancouver. It was a really nice ride and the burgers in the cafe were great. We didn't see any whales but passed some seals sunning themselves on the rocks. The second pic is in Vancouver, looking back towards one of the bridges from English Bay. Vancouver is great but it has been a bit hot for our liking, especially given that we were staying in a youth hostel (with no air con!) for the first part but we know that it has been like that in the US (especially the West Coast), the UK and France as well. We are taking the Rocky Mountaineer train to Calgary (via a stopover in Kamloops) tomorrow and both really excited.  

Victoria, British Columbia

On Sunday (16th July) we went from Seattle to Victoria on the Victoria Clipper. We were fortunate enough to be met as we disembarked by Pat and Brian (the parents of our friend Phil), and they welcomed us into their home for the next few days. They were great hosts and drove us all about Vancouver Island showing us the sites. On Monday Brian drove us all around Victoria itself, so that we could get our bearings. In the afternoon we went on a tour of the parliament buildings and to the Royal BC Museum, which were both great. Behind the museum there is Thunderbird Park with a long house where they sometimes carve totem poles (they weren't the day we were there) and there are lots of totem poles standing in the park (here's a pic of one of them).

On Tuesday we went 'up island' to see the scenery and various small towns. We drove through Nanaimo, which is a large town about half-way up the east coast of the island, and stopped for lunch in Coombes at "Goats on the Roof" (its a farmers market and cafe/restaurant with goats on the roof grazing, but that day they weren't there - we think it was too hot). On Tuesday night we went to a great little restaurant for dinner called Camille's. Phil and Scott had raved about it from their recent visits, so we took Pat and Brian there to thank them for putting us up. It was really good food, in an intimate setting. Apparently it is haunted, but we didn't see anything out of the ordinary!

On our last full day in Victoria, we visited the world famous Butchart Gardens. This is a collage of a few of the pictures that Ash took (he thinks he is David Baley these days!). The flowers there were amazing (apparently they cut the heads off flowers that don't point towards the visitors!) though Andrew was a nervous wreck because of all the bees and wasps! In the evening we had another great BBQ at Pat and Brian's, with Phil's sister Michelle, her husband Fred and their daughter Hannah.

Where are we?

Seattle: space needles, revolving restaurants and underground tours

 

Here's the Space Needle. We had dinner at the top in the revolving restaurant. The food was OK and the views were great. Ash's favourite bit was finding a little note which someone had put on the window which read something like "My parents are holding me hostage - please save me" which we saw as our table revolved past that part of the window. We also rode the ducks (a tour on land and water) which was cool.

We had a good night out in Seattle on the Friday. Unfortunately, it was a bit too good, resulting in most of Saturday in bed recovering. Andrew finally got to try Jägermeister (bizarrely, when the bar closes (at 2am!) you can still order one last shot). Ashley had neat vodka (you can imagine the results).

We are taking the Victoria Clipper to Vancouver Island today but managed to squeeze in the Underground Tour this morning, which takes you round bits of original Seattle which was constructed on the mud flats. After a fire in 1889 Seattle was entirely rebuilt (using bricks and mortar, rather than wood) one storey above the old street level.

Where are we?

Coit Tower, Lombard Street and Cable Cars

Here's a picture of Coit Tower. We climbed up there on our last day in San Francisco. The views from there are amazing. Notice all the power lines above ground. They cant put them underground in case of earthquakes!


The second picture is of Lombard Street. Tourists queue up in their cars to drive down. Our friend Phil has done it. We didnt have a car, but we walked down! Look how windy it is!


Here's a cable car. They run up and down some very steep hills, pulled by underground cables. We stopped off at the cable car museum and saw the underground workings of the system. We also managed to ride holding onto the outside of one, which is harder than it looks (Ash was told off by the driver for leaning!) 

Fog and Tiburon

It's very foggy in SF in the summer (it's all about micro-climates). Suzanne drove us (in her covertible beatle - yay!) across the Golden Gate Bridge to look at some of the prime real estate in Marin County around Sausalito and Tiburon - there are some amazing houses there. The first pic is a view back to the Golden Gate Bridge but you can only just see the very top of it because of the fog and you can see the fog creeping over the nearby hills.
We stopped for lunch at Sam's in Tiburon where it was so hot (microclimates!) that Andrew had to buy the hat that you can see him wearing in the second pic to avoid catching the sun on his face. After lunch we drove back to SF in the freezing fog and drove around Russian Hill and Telegraph Hill. We all screamed as we drove down Filbert Street between Hyde and Leavenworth as it is one of the steepest streets in the city and like being on a rollercoaster. As you can imagine, our tolerance for walking up and down the hills is limited...



Where are we?

Alcatraz

On Friday we visited Alcatraz Island, and the former prison there. It was interesting to see where the (in)famous prisoners were kept and how they lived. If you go, the audio tour is excellent! You can see here the inside of the prison, with the rows of cells (which are VERY small), and also the view of the mainland from the island. It doesn't look that far, but the swim is thought to have killed any who managed to escape.

Where are we?

Ocean Beach and Haight-Ashbury

A picture of us at Ocean Beach taken by Suzanne. We stopped here en route to dinner in Haight-Ashbury with Suzanne and Peter at a cool place called EOS. Dinner was great - a kind of asian fusion menu with lots of small plates that you share tapas style.

Where are we?

We've arrived!

This is a view from our plane as we flew into San Francisco on the 4th of July. You can see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. First Class was suitably impressive. Went on 4th of July fireworks cruise - was freezing, but the fireworks were great. Thanks to Suzanne for picking us up from the airport!! 

Where are we?