The Bow River begins in the Rocky Mountains flowing through hills, prairies, and eventually running through Calgary, a city in the Canadian Province of Alberta. The river is an important source of water, providing drinking and irrigation. It’s water source is from the Bow Glacier. Continue reading
Grotto Canyon is located about 10-15 minutes from Canmore. We booked the Grotto Canyon Ice Walk with Discover Banff and to our delight, we had Anik as our guide again. The views are amazing while you walk on a frozen creek. You’ll be given cleats or spikes to walk. One of the coolest things about this walk is getting to see Hopi pictographs up-close. Continue reading
Beneath the streets of Pioneer Square lies the remnants of ‘Old Seattle’, where you can get a glimpse of the city’s early days. The Underground is a network of basements, tunnels, and passageways underneath Pioneer Square in downtown. On June 6, 1889, a cabinet maker accidentally lit up and overturned a glue pot. What ensued was the Great Fire of Seattle. Continue reading
We didn’t want our Canadian half of the trip to end because Seattle meant we would be flying home in 2 days. But Seattle also meant meeting a new friend, blogger Travel Gourmand. We tried to link up with a handful of other bloggers but it just didn’t work out (there’s always next time:) ). Our 2 days in Seattle were a pleasant surprise and a lot easier to fly back to NYC. Flying home from Victoria would require making a transfer but we found a new way – Seattle. We will take the ferry to Seattle, stay a couple nights, and fly non-stop home from now on. Continue reading
We were sad for our outdoor adventures to come to and end. We stopped in Sooke on our way back to Victoria hoping to see the resident bald eagles since wildlife was a bit scarce on this trip.
Sooke is about an hour drive from Victoria. They have a thriving arts community and are known for outdoor recreation. Sooke has been a destination for a long time and has become more popular due to people visiting the West Coast and the Juan de Fuca Trails. There’s a lot of back country recreation like ATVs, 4x4s, dirt bikes, etc. Recently, Sooke has become a destination for mountain biking. For a better look at Sooke click here to view last years post, we didn’t take pics of the surrounding area this time around. Continue reading
Lower Avatar Grove was our favorite of the two, it seemed greener and quieter. Avatar Grove can be visited all year long, we were here in early October. The trails can be steep but it consists mostly of boardwalk so it’s not that bad. Someone with bad knees won’t be so happy. I didn’t mention the roads in the Upper Avatar post. You will need a 4 wheel drive, the roads can be really bumpy and uneven. It would be best to get a vehicle with high clearance from the ground. Continue reading
Avatar Grove is located around Port Renfew. It has Canada’s gnarlist tree and big red cedars. The trees are 500-1000 years in some areas. There are two portions to Avatar Grove: Upper and Lower. We chose the Upper Trail to explore this rainforest. Continue reading
Botanical Beach and it’s tide pools are one of our favorite hikes. It was relaxing compared to Parkinson Creek Trail which we were all hurting from the day before. By the tide pools, we rock scrambled a little to get to the other beach that connects to the trail. It was a nice change of pace climbing along the shore. Continue reading
If you want to see Vancouver off the beaten path, go to Port Renfew, this was home for 3 nights. Last year we stayed in Victoria and Toni picked us up from our hotel. This trick snagged us an extra 3-4 hours on the trails. She doesn’t usually book stay and play tours but we became friends with her (we feel special). It was nice having this as our home for a few days. Continue reading
Yes it was, we bumped into Beau and his family eating lunch while we were nature walking with Toni from Rainforest Tours. I thought Toni was walking over to a group of friends (Vic recognized him), turns out she was walking over to the the other guide in her company and the group she passed over for us because we reserved her months in advance. We are touched we were priority since we booked forever ago but it’s Beau Bridges. We told her she has to frame his disclaimer form and that she should have brought them to Port Renfew with us. We really wish we could have asked for a picture but you know, respect the privacy of celebrities, at least we got to meet them. Continue reading
Jebus Mews & Andrea 