BY THE NUMBERS FOR 2020 ROAD TRIP

 We travelled from Toronto to Vancouver Island leaving August 24 and arriving back in Ottawa September 30. An excellent trip with 3 stops to visit friends and family. 

37            Nights away

10            Dinners at restaurants

1               Flat tire

5              lunches out

17            destinations

11,219      kilometers travelled

4               rainy days (3 in Sault Ste. Marie)

2,480       km to just get out of Ontario    

2              non-scenic ferry rides to/from Vancouver Island 

0               speeding tickets 

1                Warning from the RCMP (in Cowichan Bay, Paul)

Highlights:

Best Restaurant Meal: at Cordo Resto + Bar in Kamloops, B.C., but Cuckoo lunch meal at Coombs on Vancouver Island was great too.

Osoyoos, B.C. was so beautiful, we stayed an extra night.

Best Hikes: Banff and Jasper with Moraine Lake better than Lake Louise.

Bears? No, but one nearby on our trail in Fernie, B.C. Bear Spray is back with us, did not use.

Highway 99 is the most beautiful highway from Kamloops to Whistler but one must be brave looking down.

Rain... when we left Thunder Bay heading west and 3 days of rain in Sault Ste Marie while waiting for tire replacement.

WHEN WE DO THIS AGAIN..... We will be renting a car in Calgary and travel to Banff, Jasper, Kamloops, then Whistler, Vancouver,  (squeeze in time for Vancouver Island), Osoyoos, Fernie then back to Calgary. This could be completed on a 2 week vacation. 

Off to our boat Time Out in November, check out that blog if interested on our time there. 

www.shannonandpaul.blogspot.com

WHAT HOTELS DID WE STAY IN?

I updated family where we were staying each night and thought I should post in a blog for any future travels or just a reference as to where we stayed. 

TORONTO

Westin Harbour Castle (downtown, 3 nights)

SAULT ST MARIE

Holiday Inn Express (1 night)

THUNDER BAY

Delta (1 night)

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA

Holiday Inn (1 night)

1 night

2 nights

Banff, Alberta

3 nights

3 nights

2 nights

Whistler, British Columbia

5 nights

BEST WESTERN PLUS,

DUNCAN, B.C.

We stayed 3 nights

2 nights

3 nights

1 night

3 nights (VRBO/HOMEAWAY)

1 night

1 night

1 night (a repeat stay as our way out, great place)

3 nights (because of a flat tire)

 My last post will be

 "By The Numbers" coming soon!

 

WINE AND WALKS

 Our time in Osoyoos was fantastic. This is the wine capital of Canada and I haven't heard of it? Osoyoos is surrounded by desert, vineyards and mountains. Beautiful. With over 50 wineries how does one choose which one to visit. Most of them needed a reservation but we managed to visit three without.

We had smoke every day while visiting Osoyoos but the last day it cleared up and I was able to see and get an excellent picture of the town and lake.

A winery and a bakery? Whaaat? Yes, Platinum Bench pairs their wines with home baked bread baked right on the premises. These breads are so delicious. We bought these two loaves to have for the evening's spaghetti dinner.

One winery even had a Weinery! These are gourmet hot dogs that are super popular, we did not have one but we heard awesome things.

There are so many fruit orchards and their outdoor markets everywhere. The above syrups are for gifts for family at home (sshhh).

After Osoyoos and stops in Rossland and Cranbrook to visit people, we stayed at a VRBO right at Fernie Alpine Resort. This was a townhome with a full kitchen as we like to cook most meals.

One can buy a lot for around $300,000 and put a home like this at the ski hill. Look at these beautiful, tremendous timbers! Wow.

We are loving our hikes. We did three in Fernie but one will be memorable! After about one hour or so on Montane Trail we headed back but took a different path than the one we took in. This path had silty sand and not the usual pebbles and gravel. We saw the stroller marks of two moms we saw earlier. However...... after we saw two bear Scats (sh&%), I was getting nervous. Well, I GOT REAL NERVOUS, WHEN we saw bear tracks right on top of the tracks of the stroller. Fresh tracks! We have bear spray but Paul has one in pocket and mine is on my back pack. Well, no longer. Paul had his bear spray in his hand along with the mini horn and I took my bear spray out and put directly in my hand. We started talking louder, clapping hands and hope the bear will get off the path if ahead. It turns out the tracks actually back tracked along the path at a certain point and went into the forest. I was so glad to see a paved road. Not near our car unfortunately, another 2 km away, but I did not mind.

Montane Trail

While on the Montane Trail up high we looked across and saw Fernie's Ski Hill which was where our townhome was. A nice day for a hike.

Bear Tracks, I did not post pictures of the Scat

Fairy Falls Trail, real nice (no bears)

This is a picture of thousands of pieces of slate falling down on our pathway. I only took a few pieces as it was a good 45 minutes back. I would have taken buckets full for my rock painting, hahaha. 

This is a sign in a window in downtown Fernie, a Ski paradise!

Crowsnest Highway 3 is 841 km long, very beautiful

EATON'S CATALOGUE HOMES!

 As we are travelling we are learning (or being reminded) of our history. In Banff, there was a T. Eaton House in the courtyard of our hotel at Moose Hotel and Suites. This Corner House was moved a couple of times to its present location, however in the lobby is a catalogue of the house plans that Eaton's was promoting, then shipping on our railways. In the early 1900's the railways were setting up towns and villages along its routes. With a small team of construction workers/labourers, these homes could be put up in no time. Here is a quote 

"after the First World War, Eaton's Catalogue offered a complete farm- everything but the horses - to returning veterans taking up land offered in the prairie provinces. No assembly instructions for these houses, barns, milk-sheds or pig pens has yet been dug up.."

This house plan book is set up in the lobby of Moose Hotel and Suites in Banff. I loved looking through the book and seeing many house plans. I was thinking about the married couple browsing and picking out their first home and their excitement when it arrived on the railway a few weeks later. The lumber came by boxcar from British Columbia and the millwork came from Winnipeg. Hundreds of Eaton's Houses dot the landscape in Western Canada. 

Nest to the catalogue of the all those amazing house plans was a normal Eaton's Catalogue. One could order clothes to furniture to farm equipment! Sears Catalogue was not as popular in Canada at that time.

This specific T. Eaton Catalogue on display and being handled in the lobby was reprinted in 1970's. Not an original but a treasure!

SEAFOOD, SALT AND SMOKE

 We enjoyed our time on Vancouver Island. We were there to visit family. The smoke did put a damper on the the nice scenery we would normally see. However, we have been on the island before and will go again in the future. Both ferry rides were boring as zero visibility!

We had three meals out and this one was on the water at Cowichan Bay, unfortunately, no mountain in the background and can't see the ships usually anchored out in the distance.

We used to own a Three Buoys Houseboat but not with the cool siding on the side. This is down in Victoria where all the awesome floating cottages are. 

A cool name for a whale watching boat in Victoria!

The lights on the Provincial Parliament Buildings here in Victoria are so lovely. There are over 3,000 lights.

If you don't need your car on a ferry, this one takes passengers from Victoria to Vancouver (and back). Such a beautiful ferry. 

We ate two seafood dinners here in Victoria but wish the smoke would have left before we left, but that did not happen. Vancouver and Portland were both in the news as the air quality was so bad that it was worse than India. 

We have now left Vancouver Island and Victoria. We are slowly travelling back to Ontario. We have many more places to see and family/friends to visit.