Road Trip Part Trois (Canada)

Another terrible nights sleep thanks to the cold and loud snoring (Dan’s not mine). He is thinking he now has a cold but he gave it me in the first place I am sure!!  I had hoped on this last morning in Vancouver to get out for a walk over to Stanley Park to see the Totem Poles as we didn’t get there last time. But the weather had other ideas. It was lashing down.. By all accounts Vancouver is actually known is Raincouver!  As we were a little time limited given we had to check out at 11.30 and this was a 1.5-2hour round trip, I couldn’t really afford to wait for the rain to subside a little either..I needed time for drying off and getting changed when I got back. So we just vegged around the room, sorted all the cases out and Dan went and got us breakfast. Checked out and left our cases with the hotel and headed out for a bit of a wander. It was still raining… I’d said I’d buy a friend some particular crisps that you can only seem to find in N America and also I wanted to bri...

 (Friday 10th) Well my cold well and truly kicked in during the night and I woke up feeling pretty rough and not a lot of sleep.  Part of me couldn’t face being on a train for the full day with pumped through air whilst feeling rough and struggling to breathe. The other part thought that aside from being on my own sofa, where else could be better than THIS particular train. We were the last to get on the coach despite being a couple of minutes early. The sea of faces staring out at us from the dark on the coach made me feel like a naughty schoolgirl!  Back in the same seats on the train and the day was looking lovely and crisp and sunny.  The people near us were already at 80% of max volume and also hogged the seats that were now empty, asking for them to be turned round to create a group of 4. The couple they wanted to join them said they were fine where they were so they said ‘…no problem, we’ll sit in these 4 in case you want to join us but keep our original seats...

 *note. There were a few missing details, factual errors and typos in my last post so it has now been updated!* So the day has finally arrived! I mean we’ve had such an amazing, once in a lifetime type trip here and yet we still have this amazing ride on the Rocky Mountaineer to happen. I just can’t believe how lucky we are to be able to experience all this. Slept fairly well but I have now come down with a flipping cold (must be the virus that Dan started with and then fought off). It’s far from a bad one but is one that means I get instantly all bunged up in bed so I keep waking up needing drinks. If that’s the worst of it, I’ll take that We were up nice and early - I’ve never know Dan set an alarm for a time so far in advance of our pick up time!  Pick up time was 7.30am but we got a call at 7.15am from reception telling us they were there already! Thankfully we were only minutes from being fully ready so we just carried on gathering our final stuff and headed out. Ooh it w...

  Such comfortable beds here at Tonquin Inn so it was very difficult to get up today! Plus I knew I couldn’t go the gym here as it doesn’t open until 9am and we’re being picked up at 9.15. Ahh well, snooze button it is.   Quick buffet breakfast at the restaurant on the corner of our hotel and before we knew it our minibus awaited! We then found out that due to fog and imminent SNOW further up, the lake cruise as part of our ‘wildlife tour and Maligne lake cruise incl Spirit Island’ was happening. All boats were cancelled for the day. We were offered a full refund and cancel or continue on with the tour and a hike with a partial refund. We took the latter as did everyone else on the bus. The weather was pretty miserable tbh - grey and rainy but animals don’t care about that so we were hopeful.  Our guide was called Jake and he was really informative and good fun. It did feel weird handing over our day to someone else and not being the driver but a great weird. I could kick...

 Well that might have been a great last night OUT in and but not a great last night for wellness! Dan was up half the night coughing and spluttering feeling like his chest was really tight.  I was awake with bad stomach and back pain.  Hey ho, the journey must continue.  Given the night we’d had we slowed down our morning escape and accepted not everything could be achieved.  I pootled off for my favourite breakfast wrap from ‘Downtown Sally’ whilst Dan attempted to get himself in shape and cough up a partial lung!  Packing was already mostly sorted so it was fairly quick after our assorted painkillers kicked in and we felt fit to go. But still at least an hour later than intended. We went to top up the car which ended up taking nearly 25 minutes as there was an issue with their card readers so all cards were being declined at the pump which caused a right queue at the till..  Finally on our way to do the full Icefields Parkway and land in Jasper. Seem...