Canada 2015

Following our time in Montana, we were thrilled to take our kids on their first trip out of the U.S. My sister and her family live just outside of Calgary, but we’ve never visited them yet. So we pointed the truck North and crossed the border into Alberta.

Calgary

The border crossing into Alberta was uneventful. “Firewood?” No. “Firearms?” No. “Fireworks?” No. “Alcohol?” No. “Have a nice day.” The rolling hills of Southern Alberta were beautifully covered with yellow feeds of mustard plants. We arrived at my sister’s home in the outskirts of Calgary and were thrilled to let the kids out to play with their cousins. We relaxed at their home for a few days, then ventured into downtown Calgary to attend the “Calgary Stampede”: a huge fair and rodeo. The kids loved the dog show, the kiddie rides, and the mini donuts.

It was great to get a little down time, have some babysitters, and sleep in a real bed, but pretty soon it was time to move along. Thankfully, my sister and her family would come along with us! They decided to take a 10 day vacation and join us on the road.

Banff

My brother-in-law arrived Monday morning back from the trailer rental place with a 22’ travel trailer. They loaded up and we drove West towards Banff. The drive up from Calgary was pretty easy and the campground at Tunnel Mountain was nice. It was the first time I’d been to a campground where we parallel parked the trailer, but it worked. We spent our usualy 20 minutes or so setting up, only to realize we had parked in the wrong numbered spot. Hah! Thankfully, the other site was closer to my sister. Because of our short time with them (10 days), we didn’t stay in Banff long, but we managed a trip up to Lake Louise, which was gorgeous. We tried to do another hike closer to Banff, but the trail was closed after a tree had fallen and injured a young boy.

Kelowna

While the drive up to Banff was a piece of cake, the drive West to British Columbia was much harder. It was about a 5 hour drive from Banff to Lumby, BC, which started out with a long uphill drive to the Western edge of the Colorado Rockies. Then a windy, narrow drive down into BC. We stopped for lunch (and some work wifi) in Revelstoke. It looked like a pretty fun town, but we had to keep driving to make it to Lumby. We stayed at the Lumby Lions Campground because a) every Provincial Park in the Kelowna area was booked and b) it had a somewhat decent review. It was cheap and no-frills, but there was a great park nearby that the kids could walk to. I’m still amazed at how easy it is to keep the kids entertained. Erin and I still think we have to spend 100’s of dollars on crazy adventures, but they’re overjoyed with the simple pleasures of a swing set and slide.

After a few nights in Lumby, we decided to try out our Harvest Host membership and stayed at a winery in Peachland, BC just West of Kelowna. Well, the “winery” turned out to be a “tasting room” and the “gravel parking lot” out back turned out to be a “gravel parking lot on the side of a steep hill”. :) But we loved the town of Peachland. They had an awesome lake-side swimming area with diving boards, a zip line, and rope swing. We finished out the weekend with a trip to two different wineries. The kids were marginally interested, but Henry spent most of his time spilling the juice he was given all over the tasting room floor. More stress than enjoyment for us parents.

Squamish

Onward to the coast! The RV parks near Vancouver looked pretty scary, so we decided to look elsewhere. Up the coast is Squamish and Whistler. There’s some incredible rock climbing in Squamish, so we decided to stay there. We tried to head to Vancouver one day to do some whale watching, but our cruise was cancelled due to high winds. So we enjoyed some lunch in downtown Vancouver, then drove around enjoying the town.

The kids shed some tears once it was time to say goodbye to their cousins. It was great to spend some quality time with them and we loved watching our kids play together.

After they left, we settled back into our normal rhythm of work and exploring. Our final few days in Squamish were spent searching for blackberries (which were almost everywhere we looked in Squamish) and enjoying the great rock climbing only 5 minutes from our campground.

We’ll definitely be back to Squamish!

Pictures from this leg of the journey are here on Facebook.