With a second job interview on the other side of the country still a week away, we had some time to play with. Taking the decision to make the most of the urban Vancouver area, we decided to decamp from Vancouver itself, and head across Burrard Inlet to North Vancouver and its selection of outdoor focussed activities for a few days. For this we hired … Continue reading Dodging fog on Dog Mountain
Monday was our 3-months-in-Canada anniversary, and along the way we have made a few observations of things that are different with back home in the UK. Given that Canada was once part of the British Empire and all that, some things are similar to the UK, but given the economic and cultural strength of the USA to the south, there are many things that are different … Continue reading 10 differences between Canada and the UK
Given that it’s not that far from Vancouver, Seattle typically experiences similar weather e.g. lots of rain! However, during our stay, and in particular on our second day, we were fortunate to be blessed with excellent weather. Seattle reminds me a bit of San Francisco. It has a similar west coast vibe, the coastal location plays a large part in its identity, and the wider … Continue reading Our weekend in Seattle: Part 2
Well Vancouver certainly lived up to its wet reputation; it rained 3 out of the 5 days we were there! Fortunately for us, we were travelling to/from the city for 2 of those days and also really needed a day where we didn’t do very much to catch up on emails and have a bit of a rest. The forecast for our first full day … Continue reading Vancouver aka Raincouver
After the luxurious accommodation which Stewart booked us into in Salmon Arm, I decided we needed a reality check and booked the next night’s accommodation in Kamloops from the other end of the market. We were a bit confused when Google told us it was next to the 4 lane highway and assumed that it had got it slightly wrong. Unfortunately not! But hey, it … Continue reading Making our way to Vancouver – Kamloops, Hope and avoiding Rambo
When researching the best way to get from Banff to Vancouver we discovered the salmon run. Every October you can see lots of red sockeye salmon returning to their place of birth, to spawn and die. It just so happened that 2014 is a dominant year so millions of salmon are expected to make the journey. As a comparison, had we come in 2016 (a … Continue reading Run salmon run
After our adventure in the clouds and rainforest of Mount Revelstoke National Park, we drove to Salmon Arm for that evening’s accommodation. Salmon Arm is a small ‘city’ on the shores of the Shuswap Lake. The lake and surrounding rivers are known for the annual migration of spawning salmon every October. The prevalence of salmon here is where the name Salmon Arm originates, given that … Continue reading Salmon Arm and a dislike for tea and coffee
Now in British Columbia, our time in the town of Revelstoke and the adjacent Mount Revelstoke National Park started in fog and rain! However, with waffles for breakfast at our hotel, it wasn’t all bad! Revelstoke is one of those classic towns – clearly only there because it grew up around the railway industry. In fact, carrying on from the train theme from previous blog … Continue reading Mount Revelstoke National Park
After our visit to Banff, we began to journey west towards Vancouver. Our first port of call on the way was Yoho National Park, which borders Jasper and Banff National Parks to the west. Yoho features much of the same landscape as Jasper and Banff, but probably doesn’t receive quite the same acclaim given the lack of a major settlement, thus making it a bit … Continue reading Yoho National Park (and Glacier National Park)
Despite being located in Banff National Park, we felt that Lake Louise and the neighbouring Moraine Lake deserved their own blog post, as their location is very much distinct from that of the town of Banff. Lake Louise is supposedly that stereotypical Canadian Rockies view – a blue lake hemmed in by snow capped mountains and forests of pine, and is therefore a very popular … Continue reading Lake Louise and Moraine Lake
Brown Bear Travels 