Day 12 - July 31 - Arrived In Vancouver

Today did not start off too well. Marg lost another filling, making it two fillings in 12 days. Needless to say she is very upset, but fortunately she is not in pain. Tomorrow she has an appointment to see the dentist.

We shipped our wine to St. Thomas and they will make a great addition to our growing collection.

We arrived in the suburbs of Vancouver at 3pm and did not arrive at Kari's until 6pm. Traffic in Vancouver I believe is the worst of any city in Canada. Of course it was raining.

It was great to see everyone and Liam and Mckenna we're especially excited to see us. This is the best feeling in the world. We got an autographed first edition of Liam's "Know Magazine" publications.




















McKenna is dancing to "So You Think You Can Dance" and Liam has asked me to play Webkinz with him, so this won't be a long post.

Day 11 July 30/08 Wine Touring & Visiting with Family

We started off to- day driving to Kelowna. The road between Penticton and Kelowna is under construction. It will make it a four lane highway through the west side, but it makes for long waits.

First we visited the wineries at St Bouchiere, Quails Gate, and Mission Hills. Mission Hills is a beautiful winery has a lovely rose garden and is set up on a hill over looking the Okanagan Lake.

















We met with my sister-in-law Pauline and my niece Candi, these gals look great. We had a great lunch at Earls roof top patio overlooking Okanagan Lake and mountains. We had a fun time and caught up on all the news for the past 2 years. These gals have promised to come and visit us in Port Stanley.

Next we traveled back to Penticton to do some more wine touring. We went to our favorite winery Red Rooster, their wine still tastes great! I was talking to my cousin’s wife Sandy and she asked if we seen the nude statue of Fred? I saw the back of a statue of a man carrying a suitcase but I missed the front part of statue Fred!

We went to La Frenz winery they have lots of medals for award winning wines. Now we have a case of Okanagan wines to send home.

We went out for dinner with my cousin Dick and his wife Sandy to a wonderful restaurant in Summerland call Zeatas. The food was delicious and large portions with lots of veggies. Of couse we ate too much! We had a good time and they promised to come and visit us in Port Stanley too!















Tomorrow we are on to Vancouver to visit with Kari, Jonah, and our grand children Liam and Mckenna!!

Day 10 -July 29/08 Traveled to Penticton BC

We went to the Banff Maple Leaf Restaurant for dinner last night and Brian ordered the Elk steak special. We got a big surprise when the bill came, his entree cost $48.00. We shopped for a couple of hours in Banff .

We left Banff Alberta at 10:30AM. and stopped at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden BC for lunch and to see the 6 years old grizzly bear Boo in the Grizzly Bear Refuge. Boo weighs 540 lbs. He was out and about in his den and Brian got some great pictures of Boo. Boo has a small black bear that got into his compound and he loves to chase the small bear around.
















We took the gondola up Kicking Horse Mountain for delicious lunch with a great view of the mountains.

Boomer you would love it here! There were lots of kids taking the gondolas up with their dirt bikes then riding the bikes down the mountain. They would just fly down the mountain, but it looked pretty dangerous to me, there were some deep cliffs beside the trail.

















We started our wine tasting at the Gray Monk winery north of Kelowna. We had a wonderful dinner in the dinning room overlooking the Okanagan Lake

More Wine Touring planned for tomorrow

July 28 - Banff

To-day is my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday Donna!!

I started to put in the date in the title, so we know what day it is. Being retired one day runs into another.

One more story about the Road to the Sun. The motel owner in Fort Macleod said whenever he and his wife take that road, his wife gets in the back seat of their car with a pillow and puts a towel over her face for the whole trip!!

Today we left Fort Macleod Alberta at 11AM and arrived in Banff Alberta at 2PM. We still think that Banff is the prettiest city in Canada, because every where you look there is a wonderful view. We are staying at the Inns of Banff, a great room with a beautiful view of the mountains and a wide variety of wild life

We had lunch in downtown Banff. We came back to the hotel and went to the hot tub. The largest hot tub we have ever seen, even bigger than The Sea Mist hot tub were Brian & I met 20 years ago. The view from the hot tub here is an amazing view of the mountains.

Tonight we plan on going shopping in all the little shops along the main street.. Brian is just thrilled.

Tomorrow we are off to Penticton British Columbia to do some wine touring.

July 27 - Took road to the Sun!

First we want to Thank Diane and Leo for giving the ideal of doing a blog of our trip. We are getting a lot of good feedback that everyone is enjoying the blog.

We left Missoula Montana at 11AM. Drove to Glacier National Park which has 27 glaciers and 762 lakes. Thanks to the suggestion of John & Heather we drove the Road to the Sun. For the first half hour, we enjoyed the drive because we were on the mountain side.
For the next hour and half, it was the worst ride of my life, I hate roller coasters and heights. Some of the way there was a 2 foot rock wall and then no guard rails. At the highest point we were 6,642 feet in the air with no guard rail next to a very steep drop. I was a white knuckle passenger, very tense my shoulders and hands hurt.


Before we took this trip-Brian checked on the internet and he said for people who are afraid of heights should take the West to East trip. Wrong!! We talked with the hotel owner here in Fort Macleod and he said these people should go East to West. The trip in this direction is a lot nicer.


Well don’t worry I will never take that road again. When I was up at the top I was just so nervous about coming down. I couldn’t enjoy the scenery!! So John & Heather, please excuse us if we pass on your next suggestion.


We arrived safely in Fort Macleod at 6PM. Tomorrow we are on to Banff.
Every where we go there are motorcycles-we went through Sturgis Wyoming. and they are having a bikers week this week. Then I was talking to Ken, he said are you close to Sturgis ? That is the biggest biker get together in the world.

July 26 - Yellowstone Park

Today we visited Yellowstone National Park. Although we did not see Yogi Bear, we did see a wide variety of wildlife and many interesting sites.

Starting off as we entered the park, we came upon a large crowd of people. It turned out that a bear had just killed a deer and was in the process of chowing down, when we arrived. Among the other animals we saw were a buffalo, deer, ravens and moose.



We then drove through the park to Old Faithful, the world renowned geyser. We lucked out as it came to life 15 minutes after we arrived! The water under the ground heats up to 199F-204F/93C then the water constricts and blows causing the geyser.

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We then travelled around the park and saw some wonderful scenery.
















At the end of trip we climbed the Mammoth Hot Springs Mountain below-very strenous climb! So we got our exercise to-day! Only to find that it had been dormant for about 20 years and was now a sulpher flats. And that we could have drove the car up to the top!!!

















After leaving the park we traveled Missoula Montana where we are staying before heading to Fort McCloud Canada tomorrow.

July 25 Traveling through the Laramee Mountains

To-day was a traveling day! The scenary was very beautiful although when we started out the land was very flat and boring. Then we started through the foothilsl and the mountains. Took the scenic, safest route through the Larime mountains. It took longer but was well worth it. It was very beautiful and we got lots of pictures.


I really think I did meet my perfect match -we both enjoy having our asses on the road-love to travel!!!!



Animals sighted so far on our trip-lots of cattle and horses, a black bear in the woods, a mountain goat along side the road, herd of deers, and buffalos.

We arrived in Cody Wyoming at 6PM. Went downtown Cody and got to see another gunfight in the street. We ate at Irma Hotel built in 1902 by Buffalo Bill Cody. The hotel had a $100,000.00 bar huge solid wood and mirrors given to Buffalo Bill by Queen Victoria for his entertaining Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.



I had my picture taken with Buffalo Bill Cody (the actor) He ask me if Brian was my father HA! Ha!



After dinner we walked the main street in Cody and stopped for dessert and a drink in a little side walk bar.

Tomorrow on to Yellowstone National Park to see Old Faithful we will be watching for animals again-there are lots of grizzly bears, black bears, deer,elk, moose, buffalos, and wolves in the park roaming wildly.

Then on to Massoula Montana for overnight.

Some information I forgot to tell you about Mount Rushmore-behind Abram Lincoln's head is a room 100 feet by 80 feet used to store archives.

July 24 - Driving in Circles!

We left Rapid City by 11AM traveled to Mount Rushmore. We did the hike at the bottom of mountain-going up and down stairs-got our exercise. Took lots of photos.

The presidential heads are just like you see on TV. They are amazing-it took the sculpture and a team of 26 men 15 years to complete-they sat on seats hooked to small cables and hung over the mountain with jack hammers weighing 50 lbs. There was actually one of the men that had worked on the sculpture present yesterday-sculptures were completed in 1944.

Drove on to Deadwood-Can't believe that Brian would book a hotel close to Deadwood-everyplace here has a casino-I did gamble-lost $40.00! We did a tour of Deadwood and Boot Hill where Wild Bill Hickcock and Clammity Jane are buried.



Saw a gunfight on Main Street and had our picture taken in the saloon. We had a drink to our Friends Anita and the late Irv Moodie. They had planned on doing a similar trip in Sept and Oct meeting us in Las Vegas.

Traveled on to Spearfish South Dakota overnight at the Holiday Inn. Realized we lost our battery charger for our camera. All the stores were closed in Spearfish and no large towns on our route. We ended up traveling back to Rapid City.

On to Cody Wyoming - Close to Yellowstone National Park.

July 23 - Blackhills

Well another day on the road has been completed. We traveled from Minneapolis to Rapid City. It took close to 10 hrs with stops for lunch and other pit stops.
For most of the trip we traveled through the prairies but as we entered South Dakota it became a rolling grassland called the Badlands.




For a portion of the trip, the time Marg was driving there was a heavy rainstorm. One thing about the prairies, is that with the wide expanse you can see the storm coming for a quiet a period of time before it hits.



We are staying in Rapid City, just outside of Mount Rushmore. They call themselves the Presidential City and most of the corners on the downtown have brass statues of the presidents. Here you can see Marg with Kennedy and his son.


Tomorrow we are going to visit to Mount Rushmore and Deadwood with its multiple casinos.

July 22- Minneapolis

This is our first non-travel day. We are in Burnsville, MN. Today we went to the Mall of America and 'shopped till we dropped'. Brian thought that it was a bit of a let down. Image 4 normal urban malls that encircle an amusement park. The West Edmonton Mall had more variety. In the entire 500 shops Brian was only able to find one major book store and one computer store. I enjoyed shopping bought some bargain clothes for the grandchildren. My best buy of the day was a bathing suit for myself for $20.00.

There was a 4 story Lego store with many fantastic models/structures.



The amusement park, which is aimed for children of the Nickelodeon age group, had several roller coasters and I'm not sure that I would ride on them and know Marg wouldn't. The kids seemed to enjoy the rides though.

Tomorrow we're on the road again and hope to make it to Rapid City, South Dakota.

July 21 - Minneapolis

Our second day has been completed. We've gone from Chicago to Minneapolis. This day took longer than was expected. Again there was road construction that backed up traffic on main interstate between Chicago and Madison. We ended up taking some secondary highways (Illinois 213 and Wisconsin 14), which was OK because we got to see some of the country side that you won't see on from the main Interstate. Hey Anita, Brian let me drive for 1 1/2 hours!

Thank goodness we have a GPS as it has saved us several times from getting lost. It is not without it's fault though. At one point it had us getting off the expressway to a collector lane and then getting back on the express route at the same exit. It really is amazing how the GPS knows the name of the street or road before we get to it.

Marg was able to see a working cowboy, roping his horses along this route. We were surprised how hilly Wisconsin was, as we expected that it would be flat like the Prairies.

We saw some interesting stone work along the highway. They appear to be similar to castle walls and they towered over the highway but they are the result of natural erosion on the rocks.

At the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota we stopped and took in the scenic views of the Mississippi River. In a few weeks time we'll hope to cross the river again only this time at the Mississippi delta. We had a Cowboy take the picture of us!

We're staying at the Holiday Inn in Burnsville and to-day we're off to the Mall Of America to see how it compares to the Edmonton Mall. Going to shop till we drop!!

July 20 - Finally Started Our Retirement Trip!!!

Hello Everyone From Chicago

We arrived in Chicago at 9:45 PM yesterday July 20, 2008. We are staying at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare-what a beautiful hotel and a great rate of $64.00 taxes included-Thanks to DebZ telling me how to book Priceline.

We had a late start yesterday-finally have the house liveable -YES finally moved in-but have lots of boxes to go thro in the Fall. We are so happy we don't have to pack or unpack or look at a box for 2 1/2 months. We made a trip back to Port to pick Brian's Passport. I made chicken sandwiches to save some time on our trip -while eating my sandwich, I lost a tooth filling -my luck whenever we travel I usually have some dental problems. (Kari will you make a dental appointment for me in Vancouver for August 2.) We also ran into some road construction which delayed us 2 hours. Joys of a road trip!

We want to Thank our Kanata Best Neighbours in the World for looking after our house in Kanata until Aug 20-We did sell it!

Also Thanks to Ken and my brother Bill and especially my sister Donna and Ron for helping us move into our new home. Thanks to our house sitters in Port Stanley-Ken, Melanie, Jase, Cooper, Pops, Donna and Ron.

Well to-day we are off to Minneapolis and the largest mall in the world -we'll be able to shop till we drop! But can't buy anything for our new home-because we have too much stuff-guess we'll have a garage sell in the fall!! HA! HA!