Canada Day

It wasn't raining when we packed up camp. For that we were grateful. We had no definite plans except that we had found a campsite around McLeod Lake that looked nice and that was our plans. Go past Prince George. 

First we stopped at the really nice information place because we wanted to see what was going on for Canada Day and mom needed to use the wifi because there was no cell service. There was also a nice play ground and we crossed paths with Kerry and Candace Lamb (not intended). 

It was a climbing thing. Almost everyone took a turn. 

Evander found a puddle. Mom has a picture of him lying down and drinking from it. (I was climbing right then). 

Then we drove to Prince George. The kids are getting to be super travellers. They think three hours is nothing now. Going to Regina now will be easy. We stopped in Prince George at the Wal-Mart because we needed cookies and flip flops and all the children had grown a shoe size since we left. 

We ended our day at Whiskers Point, a BC park. There are no pictures. Picture a camp ground, with trees and nice picnic tables. We got two sites together and hung some laundry hoping to dry it. ( Spoiler, it didn't). One day we are hoping for water at our site so we don't have to carry it everywhere but on the positive side we are very good at cleaning for bear safe camping now. 

Out of the Park

The entire reason to go to Lake Louise was to go on the chairlift and have breakfast. We did it the last time we went to Alaska (21 years ago) and dad still talks about it. Really it was a good time. So since we had scoured the information place the day before we had the coupon to go. You don't need a coupon to go but it is $5.00 off per person and that adds up quickly. For our family it was $82.00. That was for six lift tickets and five breakfasts (Evander still just eats off everyone's plate. Mostly sausages). 

Breakfast first so we didn't have rush. With everyone sufficiently baconed we headed up to the lifts. First we watched the safety video about bears and then we could get on the lift. Patience did not want an open chair, and really I didn't trust Evander so we went in the gondola while the boys went in the chair lift. 

The boys are just in front of us there .

Once at the top we stopped to get a picture, 

And then we went to the interpretative centre. Not a lot of places to walk seeing that we were surrounded by safety electric fencing but there was a nice movie about the over and under passes for the animals. I also found out a Kodiak skull is very large and if a bear attacks you out of curiosity it should be over in two minutes. 

There is amazing cell reception up there. We all got phone calls and text messages. Then we headed back. Same grouping on the way down. Boys first and girls and Evander next. Rob saw a bear. He got a picture. If he shares it with me I might edit it in. 

We went from Lake Louise to the Columbia Ice Fields. 

On the way there Evander and Xavier napped. 

There were informational animals to climb on and rocks to look at. 

It was the craziest place we visited. I think 10 busses pulled up and everyone was going on the tour. The line of people walking up to the glacier was huge. We did not do that. We used the very nice, large, very large, no waiting bathrooms, had lunch in the giant parking lot, played a little pass the ball while Rob fixed our roof vent and got out of there. 

We headed up toward Jasper and after grabbing a couple groceries at AG market ( a nice store, I didn't feel ripped off or anything) we left the national park and went into BC. 

We camped at a nice BC provincial park, Mount Robson Meadows. Very nice. Unfortunately it started raining when we got there and not reception means I left my phone in the van and didn't take pictures. Imagine trees and a picnic table, a very stable picnic table. There you have it. All in all a good day. 

Relief at Lake Louise

The day started out grey and rainy. It was a blessing. After the last two days of 35C weather it was nice not to be hot and sweaty. It was just a short hop day, Banff to Lake Louise because the day before would have been rushed to see anything.  After packing up the parking lot camp we headed back to Banff to see things. 

Evander helps by blowing bubbles in the washing water. 

We found the visitor information centre so we grabbed the pamphlets we wanted and then followed the signs to the walking paths. There are lots of walking paths right in Banff. We did the fairway trail. Rob stayed back because Evander had just fallen asleep and he really needed the nap. 

Pretty and the mosquitoes weren't that bad, you just had to keep moving. Rob and Evander met us just as we were finishing the path and then we went back to the campers to make lunch. Banff is really set up for tourists. They had 12 hours RV parking and a handout to show RV parking, and lots of public bathrooms. (I know,I'm old). 

We moved kids into different vehicles after lunch and started to Lake Louise. It is about 20 minutes away. 

We got to the campsite just after 2:00 when it opened so we were pretty much the first people there. Evander, Patience and Niles were content to explore for a bit and then we all got showers! I got to shower the toddler, an adventure in itself. When we got back mom had started soup so I started a dessert, stewed rhubarb and raspberry, and people disappeared. Patience was helping a lot but there were no boys to be found. 

It was good because they really needed a nap. Niles woke up in time for supper. We woke Evander up after supper, and despite repeated attempts we could not wake up Xavier. We left his supper for him and went to see Lake Louise. 

Mom says she did 22000 steps yesterday. 

When we got back Xavier had just woken up so fed him and got ready for bed. Bedtime cereal was eaten and we cleaned up because we planned an early start in the morning. Everyone went to bed easily. 

Dinosaur Roar and Paved Paradise

Day 2:

Since we had made the effort to get to Drumheller we needed to do Drumheller things so we packed up our stuff and headed to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the dinosaur museum. 

Really for a family of six it is not too expensive. Now a museum, especially a very scientific museum, with a lot of writing is not always super fun for a toddler. No fault of the museum. I blame toddlers. Why don't they have a longer attention span?  Why can't they read?  

Fortunately the Royal Tyrrell Museum is super well done. There are some interactive exhibits and the giant bug things are creepy. Patience liked the time

tunnel and Niles liked watching the world change through time. Xavier is fourteen and so has no opinion at this time. Evander really liked the dinosaurs. We would walk along and I would hear, "Where the saur? Oh! There he is!", over and over again. 

After we saw mostly everything we headed out to the walking paths. We agreed that because it was 35C outside we would not do the entire loop. The last time I had been there it was with Joyce and we didn't do the loop either but it was so cold and windy that day instead. 

I have a picture of Xavier and Niles on the same slope from the last trip. They are a little older this time. 

This time I doubled the children. 

After lunch and a quick change up of the car seats, the air flow in our van is terrible making the children sweat to death, we headed out to Banff to camp.  I didn't take pictures. It is like camping in a parking lot that I had to pay for. It was alright but I will remember to skip it the next time. On the positive side the pop-up canopy that mom got is working great. 

I did take a picture of scenery. 

 

Our Alaska Adventure

WIWe started thinking about this trip one year ago when Rob reminded me that our fifteen anniversary was coming up and we try to do something big one the five years. After a discussion with Rob we thought that a big family vacation was in order because Xavier is getting older and who knows when we would have another chance to do this. Some plans were made. I took a part time position at work so I could be ensured a long stretch of time off and we started acquiring campers. We finally decided on a Boler. Early on we invited my parents to come too because when travelling with a number of children more grownups are helpful. This also meant we would be travelling in a Boler convoy (all two of us). We didn't make many plans beyond that because we didn't know how well the toddler would travel. So this is the account of our Alaska adventure. 

Day 1 

We began with a bang, quickly packing up everything that was left and heading out to Drumheller. Following Google maps we headed out. It was a lovely drive, quiet, with little traffic. Great, except where were the gas stations? No gas stations.... Nope.  None at all. We started looking when we were on a third of a tank. Kept looking at a quarter tank and as we were pulling into the valley near Drumheller mom texts me, "our low fuel light just came on".  At that moment I was looking at our low fuel light so I knew how they were feeling. But there were  no gas stations so we just kept going, and going. Somewhere in there we turned off the air conditioner to increase fuel mileage. It was 35C by our thermometer but we just needed to get somewhere that had gas. Finally we drove into a town called Rosedale  Pretty sounding and at that time the van was starting to audible alarms about low fuel so when we saw an open store I hopped out and stopped to ask if there was any place nearby. 

Nope. We had to get to Drumheller, only seven kilometres away. (Side note, if we wanted there to be a gas station in Rosedale we would have to travel there more than in the summer. I made polite noises to that comment). As a bonus I bought ice cream cones because it was almost 7:00 and everything is better with ice cream. 

In the end we made it to Drumheller and found the Co-op. Boy were we excited. So excited that each van bought a large jerrycan and filled it. When we worked it out each vehicle had just over a litre of fuel remaining. Small excitement for the day. Then we went back to Rosedale to the campground we were going to, Pinters Campground. A small, rustic campground with lots of running around room for Evander and hills for Xavier,Niles and Patience. 

The kids started asking to climb the hill before supper but we made them eat first, and clean up. 

We made it to the top but Nancy waited on the trail. She thought it was too high. I just tried not to look down. 

The view of our campers before going up to the top. See the tiny Boler blobs. 

Then we went down and tried to put the small children to bed. That is the first day, in a nutshell.