Category Archives: Travels

I spent a lot of time last night posting photos on Flikr.  I wrote an entry to go with them.  Then I did not submit the entry to post.  I guess I was too tired.

Earlier in the day I wrote an entry using Word.  I came home after shopping and Leo told me he thought he had erased my entry.  He had.  I don’t know why I didn’t save it.  I don’t know why he didn’t either.  But there you go.

Trouble is, my mind erases the thoughts just about as permenantly as the computer.  But the pictures are on Flikr!  I will make a set of the vacation ones a bit later today. 

There is no sense prolonging a camping trip in the rain.  Yesterday through the mountains – pouring rain.  It was 0 C up at the continental divide and there was snow on the mountains.  Rained most of the day and poured all night.  I was safe and dry at my sister’s. 

This morning I left Calgary in the rain.  It rained all the way till I got back to Sask.  Then the sun shone through the clouds. 

It is always good to come home.

I guess technically this is not strictly about Vancouver.  But how can you tell the difference when one town blends into the next with only a slight alteration in flavour undetectable to those of us from small town Saskatchewan.  We put space between our cities.  Space that lets you drive 110K’s on our 100 K per hour roads.  Here there is no space.  Hardly a car length between your car and the next going 110 K’s on the 90 K per hour roads.  Here I had so little space that there was nowhere to even pull over to check the map.  Getting off to a side street may mean a half hour delay since you then have to find a way to get back on this “freeway” and get locked back into the flow of traffic again.   

But I did it.  I drove in Vancouver – downtown.  And tonight out to Cocquitlam and back.  Found my way back to my hotel in the night and avoided getting off the freeeway on East Hastings.  Now tomorrow am – I hear there is a huge funeral for the last vetran to receive the Victoria Cross in WWII.  Streets will be closed.  I wonder if I will make it to a parking garage closer to the conference centre? 

I guess if you don’t hear from me again – well I didn’t.  But I think I can try a few blocks in the centre of this city in the early morning in the light of day.

I spent Monday night in the little town of Erickson with a friend.  It’s 45 years or so since I lived there.  The roads haven’t changed too much but the houses all along them that I knew then are gone.  The church has moved, the store across the street is no more – just the tell tale slab of concrete – and the elementary school where I began grade one is totally brand new.

The big cliff where we played as kids is not quite as tall as my memories made it and not at all off in the forest any more.  But it is still there.  My friend and I drove around in the evening revisiting places I should have remembered and discovering new ones.

Tuesday, I headed up the 3A towards Nelson.  The road is every bit as winding as I remember.  And the glass house is still there but, since no longer lived in it is open for tours.  So I did.  All the exterior walls are constructed of embalming fluid bottles. 

The trip was beautiful along the eastern edge of Kootney Lake.  Those mountain lakes are long, very long and extremely beautiful. 

The road ends at the ferry pier.  Waiting the two hours to catch the ferry wasn’t too great but at least we could sit by the lake while waiting. 

I was going to drop in on some of the Covenant churches along the way.  I drove by two but they were closed and I don’t know the pastors well enough to disturb them.  Besides, I needed to get on the way by then  I hadn’t counted on the wait for the ferry being so long. 

The back roads in the interior of BC must hold some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the world.  I would come over the crest of a rise and there before me was a mountain peak , a stream or gorge or mountain lake.  Later I will put some pictures up on my Flikr site.  I would love to return this way if time permits on the return trip.

Tomorrow night I should be in Vancouver.  Driving there will be my biggest challenge.  I have to find my hotel in the middle of downtown!

This holiday is partly about being in and enjoying the beautiful world God has created and partly about getting to know and reconnecting with people.

Being a part of the blogging world has opened a whole new set of friendships up for me but it is so much more fun actually meeting the people.  It gives a whole new level of understanding to the words they write.  So Thursday I took one family out for supper and had the privilege of staying in their home.  I met the kids and dog and it was good. 

Yesterday, I made my way down to Strathmore – after being lured in to a Chapters store before leaving Edmonton.  It didn’t take much.  It was visible in the distance in a mall along the street where I was driving. 
That killed an hour and a half and I didn’t resist temptation well either. 

I had a wonderful visit with the friend and her daughter I am staying with and with other friends we shared a meal with last night.  We did some discussion on women in ministry, since she is one.  (I have this strange feeling of being drawn this way myself but am not sure at all about what that means for me.  I am not young anymore – God let me retire!)  She lives in a neighborhood that has many open windows into the internet world so it is letting me blog and catch up on my e-mail.

Today I move on again to visit my sister in Cochrane – just a shot hop away from here.

I spent today up at Waskesiu in Prince Albert National Park.  On the drive up last night I was surprised at the number of deer that I saw.  I think I would be very cautious driving that road after dark.  I was on it at dusk – about 9:30 pm and the deer blended too well with the foliage even then.  On the way back this afternoon, I saw more.  They are looking a bit scruffy still, not having completely lost their winter coats. 

Today was not a nice lake day, unless like me you prefer walking over sunbathing.  There was no sun.

There were also no mosquitos.  That enhanced the pleasure of the walk in the drizzle.

After lunch, I had good intentions to read.  And I started out well.  But maybe choosing to read on the bed under the covers with just a bit of heat turned on was not the choice of a serious reader.  After a few minutes I woke up and the afternoon was gone!

in the gallery.  Look and enjoy.  God has created some beautiful places on this earth.  It was an experience to visit this part of the world.  I would go back in a minute especially if I got to do more snorkeling.

The best way I can describe the snorkeling was like floating into one of those 3-D I Max theatres but actually being there in the water.  The fish, brilliant, blue, grey or yellow just out of arms reach.  Down below is coral – heaps and mounds of it, providing an endless number of fish hideouts.  The water just about clear as air and me floating in it.  There has got to be snorkeling in heaven.  And no need for the special breathing apparatus and no big red mask ring on the face after.

Today was business as usual.  No more lazy days in the sun.  It sure was fun while it lasted though.  And I really did get a tan – just a slightly darker shade of pale for me though.

We got home at about 2 am this morning.  Drove the last bit of the way in snowy rain.  What a change.

The last day at sea we experienced something that not many cruisers get to see.  The ship we were on did a rescue.  We came upon a sailboat that was drifting.  Apparently the pilot of the small boat, who was alone, had hurt himself had been drifting for three days and was without food, water and fuel.  Our cruise ship stopped, a tender boat was sent out to help and he received medical care, technical assistance and fuel, food and water.  Word was that he had broken his leg and with it splinted, he was able to continue.  I guess he didn’t want to lose his boat.  He still had about a four days journey back to San Diego. 

It must have been a very lonely place out there on that big sea as his supplies run out.  I wonder how he has done as he headed back home.  That night we had the roughest weather we had the whole trip – huge swells like small hills.  Up and down and up and down.  Leo’s stomach did not like it one bit.  I think I could make a passable sailor.  It is a blessing not to be bothered by seasickness.

The cruise will provide us with many memories.  For me the snorkeling was the best – next to just being on the ocean.  I would stand out on the balcony and soak up the sounds of water rushing by.  There was just the sky and the sea and us on this huge ship that was really only a speck upon the ocean.

We got into port in Acapulco at about 11 am.  This is a very beautiful place.  I guess we couldn’t have wished for nicer weather – the sky is clear and the temperature is somewhere in the 30 degree range C and a bit humid but not unbearable. 

The white sand of the beaches transition into huge rocky hills quickly.  We went and saw the famous cliff divers this afternoon.  Tonight on ship we saw a fantastic show of folkloric dances.  I got pictures but they will have to wait till we are home again to upload.

Last night we had a special treat.  We were invited to supper by one of the sponsors of the course Leo is taking.  They grew up in Saskatchewan and like too many have moved to Alberta.  His wife happens to be the daughter of the professor who taught me radiology.  It was a treat to share stories of Saskatoon, share family stuff and catch up on how her father is. 

During the night we travel northward up the coast to Ixtapa.  We’ll do another shore excursion tomorrow – visiting some island. 

I will get to go snorkeling – a first for me – in a couple of days at Cabo San Lucas.  That will be a first for me and I am looking forward to that.

We left Saskatoon Thursday night.  Yesterday we arrived in LA.  We arrived in LA in the early part of the day. 

Do you know that as one approaches LAX all the windows in the cars parked along the way shine and twinkle like mirrors.  In an urban sprawl kind of way it was beautiful.

The whole flight was nice – except being crammed into a small seat next to a big man.  At least I had the window and could look out.  As we flew I wrote down some of my impressions.  So here you are – flying along with me from Minneapolis to LA.

The sky above is intensely blue.  One can see only the soft blue on the horizon all around deepening to a more intense deep colour overhead.  Below the layer of clouds is grey looking like thick drier lint.  We are somewhere over Nebraska.

We leave the cloud covered land and emerge over strangely arranged farmland.  What on earth is cultivated in the fields drawn out on the land below in large circles.  They touch each other but don’t overlap.  It looks as if a school child were given the task of drawing as many complete circles as possible on the paper. 

Another aircraft passes in the sky far off to the right.  It leaves a dark grey stream behind the bank of clouds  that lay just below my horizon where the white rim stops and the rest of the sky begins.  one would at first think that the grey was just a tiny aberration in the wall of cloud.  Then the eye focuses on the moving sliver at the eastern end that carries a tiny blinking light.

The terrain changes and becomes rugged – maybe Colorado.  There are the beginnings of mountains below, rugged, brown and barren.  Further north are real snow topped peaks. 

Then the pilot points our Death Valley.  Flatness, brown.  Rocks break the flatness.  And then suddenly, more of the mysterious circles green this time.  They have to have something to do with irrigation. 

As we pass over San Bernardino the valley is taken over by blocks and blocks of houses.  And this continues till we approach the airport.  How dense this population is compared to our cities which arise out of vast expanses of prairie.

Now we are on board. And we have moved out to sea.  There is a slow but not uncomfortable rocking from side to side.  Sea legs will come later.  What a fascinating place a ship like this is.  Like a town unto itself.  We have the luxury of a balcony and we will use it.