Its been a long time, but here is what happened after Jasper....

I've been neglecting to do this last post, maybe because it will mean it is actually over. We had an amazing trip and we have been home for over a month now and we're back to where we were before we started; working, doing this, doing that.... hhmmmphh, where do we go next?

Well, after Jasper we started to make our way towards Vancouver. We started to realize that money was getting thin so we knew we wanted to get to Vancouver and Vancouver Island. So we drove from Jasper into British Columbia and stopped outside of Kamloops for the night.

We were told before we got there, that Kamloops is a desert.... and it is!

We stayed the night at Tunkwa Provincial Park. It was cheap and beautiful. It was just little lots where you park and sleep.

This guy was up behind our wheels the next morning chewing on something....

We did another full day of driving and arrived in Vancouver! We spent six nights there and we loved it. We did a lot of really fun things! We also met up with Tom while we were there because he has property in Vancouver too! While there we: went to the Vancouver Art Gallery, visited Gastown, Chinatown, Dr. Sun-Yet Sun's Classical Chinese Garden, watched China's night of the world Firework's Festival, biked around Stanley Park, went to the Vancouver Aquarium, and a lot more.

The Vancouver Art Gallery

Gastown

Canada Place

Downtown Vancouver

Downtown

Canada Place

The Olympic Torches

Totems in Stanley Park

The view of Downtown Vancouver, from Stanley Park

David biking in Stanley Park

The trails in Stanley Park

Beautiful biking trails.....

After Vancouver we decided to spend a couple of nights on the Island. So we hopped on the ferry and stayed 1/2 hour North of Victoria for a few nights. We wanted to make sure that we got to go to the Island because Victoria was home to Emily Carr, and we are both fans. We went to the Emily Carr house, and also went to the Royal B.C Museum to see a special exhibition they were having on her life and work. We also walked around Victoria, which was gorgeous. We checked out the local area and fell in love with the island, we really want to go back and check out the rest.

Beautiful campsite!

The Emily Carr houseeeee!

Inside the house, Dave was watching a documentary...

The Royal BC Museum

Emily!

Sooooo! After the Island we literally drove 5 days home. We spent each day driving a lot, at least seven hours a day. We drove from Vancouver to Chase, BC in one day, then from Chase, through Banff to a small town 100 km east of Calgary, then from there to Brandon Manitoba (right through Saskatchewan), then from Brandon to Schreiber, Ontario, then home..... It was a crazy couple of days!

So now we are home, and we really miss our trip. We had such an amazing time and I can't believe its over. But we're both ready for whats next. We're thinking about school, saving money and even if we want to do this again!

Thank you to everyone who read our blog and commented. Love ya !!!

Jasper National Park

Jasper National Park was amazing. Dave and I had never seen the rockies before and we were both speechless when we started to see them off in the distance.

Outline starting to come into view

We camped for four nights in the Wapiti campground that is run by the National Park. The campground was in the heart of the rockies, so it was a really great stay. We were surrounded by mountains, wildlife, forest etc.

We spotted these guys on our drive in. They started to climb  up the mountain side, it was very cool.

There were so more mountain sheep there too. These guys were shedding their winter fur still.

Mt. Edith Cavell from a distance.

Our new bike rack!

Main Street in Jasper.

Jasper

Jasper National Park visitor centre.

We kept very busy during our stay there. Dave and I don’t have much time left before we need to head home so we couldn’t stay longer there. Our first full day there we drove out to Athabasca Falls. The water is a milky colour because the falls is fed by glacier water. The glacier is 100 km south, and we ended up visited that icefield the next day. Athabasca Falls is really neat because it  crashes down into a canyon that has been carved.

Later that day we did an amazing thing that you have to do if you go to Jasper. We rode a tram up a mountain. The tram brings you to the top where you can hike up to the summit. There is also a little café and gift shop at the tram station up there. It gave us an amazing view of the rockies and the village of Jasper.

Pyramid Mountain. This is my personal favourite. We got to see a great view of it  from the top of the mountain.

You can see the village of Jasper to the right.

This is what carries you up and down the mountain. It can hold 30 people at a time.

The trail to the summit.

See the light bit at the bottom? That's how far up you have to ride. Its  a seven minute tram ride.

That is Dave on the left, looking out with his binoculars.

From the summit.

Edith Cavell peaking out -Dave's favourite mountain.

On our way back down.

This is from inside the tram, looking back up at the centre on top.

On the Sunday we drove out to the Columbia Icefields. It is a very scenic drive because along the way we saw some wildlife, more mountains and started to see the glaciers overhanging the mountains in the icefields.

Our first site of a glacier. This one hangs over the edge of a mountain.

A gray jay.

Raven

Another glacier

The Athabasca Glacier

getting closer.....

At the base!

That night we drove up a winding road up Mount Edith Cavill. You can get to a certain point on the mountain where you can park and see the peak very well.

Angel Glacier, resting on top of Mt. Edith Cavell.

The Peak. We had driven a far way up the mountain.

The closest you can get.

On our final morning there we did an amazing mountain bike ride. It was a very very difficult route –Dave forgot to mention that to me before we started. It took us three hours to finish and we had to hike certain parts of it because the hills we very steep and rocky. The scenery was so beautiful too that Dave and I both crashed while looking away. The route we did was called Valley of the Five Lakes. It took us along –as you may guess, five beautiful lakes.

Jasper has so much to offer and we both know that we are definitely coming back! We are going through Banff on our way back and hope to stay there too.

We are finally in British Columbia now! We have officially been to all ten provinces.

Until next time…..

CONGRATS TO MY BEAUTIFUL COUSIN MANDY! SHE HAD A BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY ON THE WEEKEND! LOVE AND MISS YOU!