Fredericton, New Brunswick

The hardest thing about Newfoundland was getting off it! It’s out of season so the ferries don’t run as regularly and there are only a couple of buses! When I asked at a tourist information centre, how I go about getting to New Brunswick without flying, she said, her exact words were, “Your Screwed!” So, I ended up flying to Halifax and catching the bus to Fredericton!

It was their Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in Fredericton when I was there, which was good timing on my part and not even planned! I went to a couple of the free performances that were on in the park, the weather was gorgeous, just like summer!

Fredericton has a pretty small downtown area on the banks of the St. John River, were the Historic Garrison district is. I visited their famous Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the York-Sunbury Historical Society Museum.

St. John’s, Newfoundland

Made it to St. John’s with all the luggage and no delays.

There was an Open Doors weekend on while we were in St. John’s, which means you can visit all the attractions for free.

We visited Signal Hill, which is where the first wireless communication was made from in 1901 and there are some fantastic views of St. John’s from the Cabot Tower. We went to a little village called Quidi Vidi and viewed the battery there, which was built by the French in 1762. We walked to Port Amherst, which is across the narrows from Signal Hill and has the first lighthouse in Newfoundland.

We had dinner in a couple of Irish pub’s on George Street, which is famous for it’s night life and pub’s, we went in search of some local music, which we eventually found on our second last night. The music was great, very like home.

We drove the North Avalon Peninsula, along Conception and Trinity Bay coasts and to Cape Spear, which is the most easterly point in Canada, the closest I have been to Scotland since I came here!

The scenery here is very pretty, lots of colourful houses perched on cliff edges! The accent is almost Irish and sometimes impossible to understand…

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Charlottetown, PEI & New Brunswick

After a few delayed flights, I finally arrived in Halifax and met my Aunt, but Air Canada managed to loose my bag… I got it back the next morning, but I was quite worried.

We spent a day in Halifax and went to the Farmers Market at the brewery, which was so quaint, lots of stalls selling fruit, vegetables, baking and crafts. We then took a tour of the Halifax Citadel, which is a historical fort on the hill in the middle of Halifax overlooking the harbour and we saw the changing of the guard and the 78th Highlanders marching in their Nova Scotian tartan kilts.

We had a car so we could drive round Nova Scotia, so we headed off on our road trip. We stopped at Peggy’s Cove, which is a very picturesque little fishing community with a lighthouse, it only has a population of 40 people, they are way outnumbered by tourists! We carried on our drive along the coastal road through lots of very small villages to one called Lunenburg, were we stopped for the night.

Lunenburg harbour was full of tall sailboats and fishing boats and all the houses in the harbour are painted in bright colours.
We visited a place called Halls Harbour, when the tide is out at Halls Harbour the boats are completely grounded till the tide comes in again, we arrived when the tide was out and while we had lobster for lunch, we watched the tide come back in and the boats all started to float again, it was quite cool.

We drove along the Fundy coast where all the earth and cliffs are red in colour and the scenery is very pretty. We ended up staying over night in New Brunswick, before heading to Prince Edward Island the next day. We spent a day on PEI, it’s so pretty and all the gardens are so well kept. We explored Charlottetown the capital and visited the oldest lighthouse on PEI before heading to the ferry back to Nova Scotia.

The next day we headed for Cape Breton Highlands National Park and the Cabot Trail, again we passed through towns and villages and a few Acadian communities, the views on the Cabot Trail were pretty amazing and well worth the drive!

On our way back to Halifax we stopped at Sherbrooke Village, which is a working reconstruction of a typical Nova Scotian village in the 19th century. It was very interesting and all the people who worked there were dressed in clothes from the era.

On our last day in Halifax we visited Pier 21, which is Canada’s last surviving ocean immigration shed and from 1928 to 1971 one million people entered Canada through it!

Winnipeg, Manitoba

I got the overnight bus to Winnipeg, from Regina to save on money, I slept most of the way! The hostel I am staying in is a renovated hotel and each dorm has it’s own bathroom, with a bath! Because they are still completing the renovations you get a free breakfast each morning, which is great! More money saved!

Winnipeg is has lots of districts, I took a walk round the Exchange District were you can see architecture and historic buildings from early 1900`s Winnipeg.

I visited the Forks, known as the “Gateway to the Canadian West”, the Forks is the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers and it was a gathering place for fur traders.

From the Forks, I walked over the Esplanade Riel pedestrian bridge to Old Saint Boniface, Winnipeg’s French Quarter and home to the largest French Quarter west of Quebec. I took a walking tour here which took me round all the historic sites, Saint Boniface Cathedral – Basilica which burnt down in 1818 and where the new cathedral was built within the remains of the walls and in the cemetery there, is the grave of Louis Riel, who was the founder of the province of Manitoba.

I visited the Royal Canadian Mint and took their tour to see how Canada’s money is made. The mint makes 15 million coins a day, 40% for Canada and 60% for other countries, like the Bahamas and Panama. They had on show a gold bouillon coin made from 99.99% pure gold, with a face value of $1 million, only a few were made and some of them sold for $2.5 million to coin collectors in the US!

Regina, Saskatchewan

I got the overnight Greyhound bus from Edmonton to Regina, it wasn’t a bad trip, just very long 14 hours…

I visited the training depot and visitors centre for the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), every Mountie in Canada is trained here for 6 months, they also accommodate police forces from around the world, who train there, like LAPD! It was very interesting and I was able to see cadets training in the drill hall and I also got to see the Sergeant Majors Parade, with the band! Horsemanship is no longer part of the cadets` training since 1966, and you do not see Mounties in their full red jacket uniform at the depot, as they only get the red jacket when they are fully qualified.

The 50th Canadian National Arabian and Half Arabian Championship Horse Show AKA “The Royal Red” was in Regina when I was there. I went to see 2 shows, which were both great, I saw English Pleasure Driving, Ladies Side Saddle, Stallion’s, English Pleasure, Western Pleasure, Hunting Pleasure and Native Arabian Costume!

I walked round Wascana Lake and took a tour of the Legislator Buildings, I am becoming overloaded with history!

I went to see a film called “The Alps” on an Imax screen, which was amazing! The screen was 4 or 5 storeys high and because the screen was sooo big it really brought the mountains to life!

Edmonton, Alberta

I spent a week in Edmonton with my cousin Glen and John, we did all the tourist things and it has been great fun and I had a really nice time with them!

We visited West Edmonton Mall, which is the biggest mall in North America! We drove to Elk Island where we saw lots and lots of Bison at very close quarters (not by any choice of our own…) and a Coyote, but funnily enough no Elk… We took a couple of walks there along the lakeshores.

We went to the Edmonton International Fringe Festival and saw a play called Pop Tart, it was very funny! Fringes around the world have come from the Edinburgh Fringe, Edmonton Fringe is the second largest behind Edinburgh. The Edmonton Fringe presents over 1000 performances from 146 groups from noon to midnight over its ten-and-a-half-day run!

We visited Fort Edmonton, which was really good, it has most of the original Fort buildings, which were moved from their original site at the present day Legislator Buildings. There are exact replica streets from 1885, 1905 and 1920, with fully functional houses, a bakery and a sweet shop.

Now it’s onwards and east to Regina!

Me, Myself and I

Well, this is the first part of my trip that I have been on my own, without family or friends around. At first I got home sick, but after a few phone calls home to Fort William and Naramata and meeting new people and making some friends, the homesickness was gone!

I have been in Banff for over three weeks, I got myself a volunteering job in the HI Hostel, 4 hours work a day and I got a free bed for the night, worked out perfectly for me! Banff is a beautiful place and has lots of nature trails and forestry tracks, so I spent my days walking in the hills and my evenings working. I had a couple of evenings off so I went to see Harry Potter and Hairspray at the cinema with friends from the hostel and had a boozy night in the hostel pub with the rest of the volunteers! It was Banff’s Summer Arts Festival while I was there, so I went to see lots of plays, theatre performances and bands playing in the park!

I got a loan of a mountain bike and took a ride to The Cascade Ponds, Minnewanka Lake, Two Jack Lake and Johnston Lake! It took me four hours to complete this bike ride, I must have covered 15 – 20 kames and my butt was so sore the next day… I did however manage to avoid any bears that may have been roaming about, which I am very happy about! There have been lots of bear warnings up in Banff and the surrounding areas, and there have been a couple of bear attacks, on the same trails I have been walking and riding on… So I am very bear aware!

I took a day trip to Lake Louise and walked up to the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea Hut at a height of 2090 meters, it was built in 1927 by two Swiss Guides for the Canadian Pacific Rail. At the beginning of the summer season a helicopter flies in as many supplies as they can and that is the only time the helicopter does this, the rest of the season they rely on the staff to carry in more supplies! To this day the tea hut has no electricity and the people who work at the tea hut, work for 5 days in a row and live around the tea hut in little wooden cabins, they hike in and out on their days off, it is a 10.6 km roundtrip and when they leave the cabin they take rubbish with them and when they return to the cabin the take food and supplies with them.

I went to the famous Banff Hot Springs to relax and ease my sore muscles after my hike at Lake Louise, it is more like a very hot (40c) swimming pool as it has been modernised.

My Auntie Carolyn, Glen and John all came to Banff for Frobisher at we all stayed at the Banff Centre, Frobisher is an opera that John composed. We spent a few days together in Banff before I headed to Edmonton with Glen and John.

Banff and Calgary, Alberta

I had my last day of work at the Inn and was given some lovely gifts from the staff and owners before leaving!

We went to Sumac Ridge and took their winery tour and tasting, before going out for lunch on the lakeshore in Summerland! The weather was perfect, 37 degrees and beautiful!

I headed to Banff for a couple of days, did some hikes, canoed on the Bow River and took the gondola up Sulphur Mountain, the views were amazing, Banff is such a beautiful place, it reminds me of the French/Swiss Alps!

Then I headed to Calgary for the stampede, Yea Har! I stayed in the HI hostel downtown, my first hostel stay of many to come on this trip! I went up the Calgary Tower, which gave a fantastically clear view of Calgary, all the way out to the Rockies. I explored downtown where there were lots of festivities and street parties on for the Stampede. The Rodeo was so much fun and the evening show was amazing!

Parties ans BBQ’s

We had our ball tournament to mark the end of the league, we played 5 games over the course of the weekend, we didn’t win the tournament but we had a great weekend, playing and drinking! The same weekend we went to a fundraiser BBQ in aid of Naramata Wildfire, the local girls fast-ball team, who have made it into the Provincials in Victoria, which is a great achievement for such a small place like Naramata!

We were invited to a Bocci Tournament Party, if you lost you were out, we lost our first game… we stayed to see friends of ours get into the final, only to be beaten by a team of kids (they were very good players), it was a great night and the house were the party was held had the most amazing views over Penticton and Skaha Lake!

It was our turn to have a party last weekend, so on Canada Day July 1st, we had a Scottish themed night! We cooked Scottish food, we even cooked haggis, which everyone tried! We taught everyone how to dance, Strip The Willow and The Gay Gordons, it was so much fun and such a laugh! By the end of the night the die hard partygoers were sitting round drinking whisky and getting even more drunk! A fantastic night was had by all!

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Soul2Soul Concert in Vancouver

We drove to Vancouver on for a couple of days, we crammed in as many tourist thing’s as we could.

We went on a two-hour sea safari from Horseshoe Bay up the Howe Sound, It was great fun, we saw loads of Harbour Seals just lazing about on the rocks and we saw two Bald Eagles. The trip took us around Bowen Island and along Vancouver’s North Shore were all the expensive houses are!

Then we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge which was so much fun, It spans 450 feet across and 230 feet above the banks of the Capilano River and It sways as you walk across it! Then we went to the Vancouver Aquarium.

In the evening we went to GM Place to see Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Soul2Soul Tour 2007, It was amazing! GM Place was packed full and what a noise, the music was great and so was the atmosphere, It was the best concert I’ve been to!

Sunday wasn’t as much of a rush, we went up the Vancouver lookout Tower in Downtown, Which gives you a 360-degree birds eye view of the whole of Vancouver. Then we went to the Vancouver Art Gallery to see the Monet to Dali, Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art Exhibition, I am not a huge art lover but it was interesting to see.

Then we went to see Dr. Sun Yat-Sen`s Classical Chinese Gardens, They were very pretty and in contrast with the high rises just over the road it was interesting.

We were running out of energy by this point so we took a horse drawn tour around Stanley Park for an hour, We saw the damage that had been caused by the storms last December, Just after I had visited the park in November.

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