Canada Ay!

We have spent the past week in Canada, which has been awesome. The weather was great most of the time so that we could hike and try to mountain bike. Unfortunately the last few days were cloudy with showers so we were not able to do everything we would have liked.

We spent the first part in the National/Provincial Parks of Banff, Jasper and Wells Gray. The scenery was beautiful in this part of Canada even though some of the lakes and trails were still covered with snow -- who would have thought they have ice and snow in Canada. The last few days were spent in Whistler and Vancouver, co-hosts for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Views from Sulphur Mountain, Banff National Park

Lake Louise, Banff National Park

Lake Annette, Jasper National Park

Pyramid Lake, Jasper National Park

Lake Maligne, Jasper National Park

Helmcken Falls, Wells Gray Provincial Park

Video from Helmcken Falls

Vancouver

Before the trip to Canada we bought a new camera, a Nikon digital SLR. As you can see in the photo below, Melissa was very protective of the camera or was she just worried about falling? Tour companies always seem to drop off bus loads of Asian tourists with everyone taking loads of photos. Since we have had this new camera, Melissa has been taking so many photos she would probably be able to sneak on these buses for a free ride.

Melissa protecting the new camera?

Don't you think Melissa would fit right in on the tour bus?!

Hiking in Canada was quite a different experience than hiking in New Zealand since this time we had to be aware of bears, cougars, wolves and elk calving. In the National Parks the wildlife are free to roam pretty much wherever they want as you can see in the photos below. It was amazing to be able to observe the animals in their natural environment. We did not run into any animals during our hikes but saw plenty of them along the side of the road.

Bighorn sheep, near Lake Minnewanka, Banff National Park (N.P.)

Deer crossing in the town of Jasper

Deer on the side of the road in Jasper N.P.

Caribou near Lake Annette, Jasper N.P.

Black Bears (2 cubs) on the road between Jasper and Clearwater

Squirrel in Stanley Park, Vancouver

Now we are in California again to spend the remainder of our U.S. and Canada trip with Melissa’s dad, Marie, Kylie and Jon.

Catching Up with Family and Friends in Houston

We have spent the last three weeks in Houston with Kylie and Jon. We always feel at home when we visit. Kylie greeted us with one year’s worth of mail – lucky for us, she had already weeded out the junk and organized it into categories so it wasn’t quite so overwhelming.

A lot of activity took place while we were there with Kylie and Jon working hard on their web sites (check out http://www.bandelle.com/ and the associated blog as well as http://www.pirettigolf.com/ to see why big sister is impressed with their creative and programming skills) while we tried to plan the rest of our travels and pack up the remainder of our belongings that we had left last year. We also did our fair share of shopping to help keep the U.S. economy going. Overall, we had nice days out, lots of quality sister time, caught up on a couple of TV shows, satisfied our Tex-Mex and Chick-fil-A cravings from the last year, and drank lots of tea and hot chocolate. I also got to meet their cute little niece, Evie (the daughter of Derek - Jon's brother - and Erin)...you have to see the pictures of her below.

Fortunately, we were able to see some friends who came to visit us in Houston - Steph from New York, Amy from Chicago, and Leo from Florida. It was so nice to spend time with them and catch up. It almost felt like we hadn’t been gone for the past year.

So now we are in Canada for the next week. Thankfully we didn’t have to say any sad good-byes to Kylie and Jon yet since they will meet us at Dad and Marie’s in a week for the Memorial Day weekend.


"Gossip Girl" evening dinner with Kylie and her friend, Kelly - I caught up on a couple of old T.V. shows and have added this show to my list of favourites


Steph visited from New York. Here she is with Kylie and Jon's princess dog, Aura.

Amy visited from Chicago - lots of good food and wine at dinner!

Derek (Jon's brother), Erin and little Evie

I had to show you another photo of Evie so you could see her better - what a cutie!

Leo visited from Florida - do you remember seeing Leo in a previous blog post? Well, we were able to meet up with him in a random town in England last July. It's lucky for us that he has to travel for work to some of the places that we have been in.

I couldn't resist posting this photo of Aura.

Back to the Beginning

This is the fiftieth post on our travel blog. I (Klas) went back to Chicago last weekend while Melissa stayed in Houston for a "girly" weekend. It was great to be back in the "windy city." I was able to catch up with a lot a friends but as usual there was not enough time to see everyone.

I stayed with Brian and Jeni who have a great place just north of the city centre. The first day I was in town, Brian had tickets to a Chicago Cubs (baseball) game. Brian and I, along with 2xChris, Bill and Scott -- all of whom I used to work with -- went to the game . The weather was pretty nice, but unfortunately the Cubs blew it in the bottom of the ninth. After the game we hung out for a few hours in the area around the stadium called Wrigleyville.

On the weekend I was able to catch up with Steph, Bart, Amy and Brian at a BBQ at Brian and Jeni's place. I had also hoped to play tennis with Karl, Mike and Rick, but that didn't work out. Fortunately we were able to catch up over dinner.




Wrigley Field



Wrigleyville with Mike, Brian, Scott and Chris


BBQ with Bart, Steph, Brian, Amy, Jeni and Brian


Architectural tour on the Chicago River


Dinner with Karl, Mike and Rick