Almost there

(dont forget to read the post just below this first)
We were told by a million people just how perfect the southern Rockies are, so we loaded the car and headed in. The town of Penticton came up over and over which helped us decide to make it our first stop.

Eh. It was okay. Holiday town really. Pretty hanging flowers were the visual highlight, and the most scrumptious ribs in the world were the culinary highlight. It was just Claire, Chef K, his wife, and me in the restaurant.


We stayed one night and went on to Kelowna. We liked it a lot more. Bigger and decidedly prettier. We watched the Oilers win a game (finally - sheesh!) to remain in the Stanley Cup. Another hotel and another "ultra pack". By now, it was a routine that included unpacking all the
shoes, blades and skates, packing the cases, and then repacking all the shoes etc back on top.

Nice shoes hey? Got them in Vancouver.

Back on the road, we saw this dude:


Now thats strange, but whats even stranger is that it was the second car of its sort we'd seen that day. Wee-e-i-r-d.

Our next planned stop was Lake Louise, but things changed. We stopped and drove around a cute little town before Lake Louise called Field, and almost stayed over. The only trouble is that you stay in people's houses. Odd, and we were in the mood for a room of our own, so we headed on. We arrived in Lake Louise and were disappointed. It might have been the rain and clouds, but it seemed lack-lustre. Also, the hotels wanted too much for the night. Again, we headed on. Banff was much kinder to us as we found a nice clean, cheap(ish) motel. A nice meal, an ice cream, and a good hard sleep.

Calgary. Again. We stayed in the Fairmont Palliser which is the hotel of choice of the royal family when they are in Calgary. We phoned ahead, and they wanted $400 per night. CRAZY! So we did our standard trick and looked online, ending up with a special of just over 100 for THE SAME ROOM! Thats as cheap as an off season budget (think Holiday Inn) hotel. This country is mad.

We still rank Calgary as one of our fav cities here so far. Its so pretty at night.


So that was the last of the big cities, as the next day we headed through Moose Jaw and home. We are now in a new house (massive) and Claire is working in yet another new office. In two weeks we'll be back with the Donkey. I miss her.

That is all.