Calgary and Victoria

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It was a pleasant drive to Calgary. The weather forecasts continue to be wrong: they call for rain and thunderstorms and I get clear, sunny, and warm.

Day 2 and I headed out with Ivan to meet Susan and her kids: Jane, Sam and Andrew. We continued out to the ski resort of Sunshne near Banff to hike the trails of Sunshine Meadows. An old school bus runs you up the 5 kilometres and the majority of the elevation to the base village where most of the trails flow into. From there you get to head out on a network of many kilometres of hiking trails. All have good footing and rest benches along the way. We did the hike to Rock Isle Lake and onwards to the look off of Monarch, and finally a circuit around Larix Lake. If you are interested in gorgeous hiking read on at http://sunshinemeadowsbanff.com/sunshine_meadows/sunshine_meadows.htm

Next I met Jeanne to celebrate her birthday with lunch at The Broken Plate Greek restaurant. From there we continued on to wine tasting and shopping at the Willow Park Wine store.

Ivan 'signed' me up to help fell a big tree in Susan's father's backyard. It was bordered by a trellis fence, hedgerow and was partially overhanging the house. Ivan climbed it to tie on a guide rope, delimed a back hanging branch (falling exactly as it should). Then the big event.... a bit of a crack on a backward lean but then she too fell exactly where it was needed to. 3 hours later branches were cut and piled and the logs neatly stacked. Long day! Followed by a very nice dinner with Susan and her kids.

Then off to Victoria, BC with Sister-in-law Sharon (for the first 3 days). Blue skies and a max of 24c on arrival carried on for the remainder of my stay. Great weather! This was my first visit to the city since I was 16 so nothing was familiar. What I found was a wonderfully walkable city with tons of coastline, mountain views, active citizens pursuing land and water based sports, and super friendly people. Very much a city I can live in and that's a good thing as I bought a condo while I as here!

There is so much to see and do that I ran out of time on as I searched for a condo, so I look forward to possession date and then furnishing to give me a base to explore from. I did go whale watching and saw an orca breach but the camera was not ready! Did not get to Butchard Gardens, or to the Great Pacfic coastal drive - I will next time.

I left Victoria under a few clouds and landed to rain in Calgary. A few days here and then Mom and I are off on our Ye,lowstone, Grand Canyon, USA 3 week road trip.

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