Time to say goodbye

After another walk in Stanley Park and a little time to do some shopping it was time to go to the airport.



Time to say goodbye to Mattie, before the long flight home. We had a wonderful holiday and I hope we will go back again some time!

Queen Elizabeth Gardens

We had another very hot day and in the morning we went up to the Queen Elizabeth Gardens. Whilst we were waiting for a cab we peered through the Windows of a small museum that houses one of Canada's famous Locomotives. CPR374 Was the first Locomotive to make the Journey over the Rockies. The Museum was closed but we managed to get a photo through the window.
The Gardens have wonderful views over the City and although parts were closed because of the Council workers strike we had a pleasant stroll around them.

Granville Island

Well we made it back to Vancouver and we have a couple more days of our holiday left. The temperatures soared this last weekend and it was very hot. Granville Island is a medley of small shops, art galleries, food markets and museums. On every corner there are street artistes. it is packed with Vancouverites and holiday makers especially on a Saturday , which is when we visited. We sampled a Canadian specialty here, Buttertarts, they are like a very rich treacletart! There are two ways to get to the Island one my road crossing the Granville bridge and we came this way, but after several hours we returned by water ferry.
Granville Island was originally reclaimed from swampland in 1917 and used as a site for an iron and ship building works. By the 1960s it was a derelict wasteland and rubbish dump.In the early 1970s work began to restore the Island and it is now a thriving market place

heron

Afghan Hounds




Relaxing on Granville Island


Street Artistes


Cement transporters

Brackendale

Our final stop was at Brackendale

Every winter, thousands of bald eagles congregate on the shores of the rivers surrounding Brackendale to feed on the abundant spawning salmon. Hundreds of eagles at a time can be seen from the river dikes, feeding along sandbars or roosting in nearby cottonwood trees. Two dozen or more in a single tree is not uncommon. Eagle season in Brackendale is from mid- November to mid- February, with prime viewing in December and January.

No eagles for us , but we did sea a couple of seals in the river and watched them for a while

Finally after a long drive we reached an RV site just outside Vancouver, tomorrow we return the RV which did manage to get us there and back in one piece albeit with several problems. We now have a couple of days in Vancouver before flying home.

Whistler

Past valley lake and onto Pemberton

Our next stop was at Valley lake, there was a huge log jam here.


We continued driving along Highway 99 towards Pemberton. Once agin the sun has come out and the scenery is very pretty, we are passing lakes and mountains all the time as the road climbs up and down.

We still have about 200 miles before we get back to the outskirts of Vancouver.

From Cache Creek to Lillooet (Sept 7)

We were up early and on our way, we still have a long way to go. We stopped briefly at Skye Blue Lake, but the early morning weather was dull and the Lake had none of the blue colour we remembered from our last visit. However we did catch this wood pecker drumming away.

On our previous trip we had camped at Lillooet on our second night out and we decided to stop for breakfast in the little town.. Most of the land around here is Reservation land and many of the First nations Peoples look for jade to make souvenirs from.
The Rocky landscape and fast flowing streams are good for rock hunting.

Lillooet itself is a very small settlement . But we managed to find a nice cafe serving breakfast.

Several posts in the town had large lumps of jade on them and you know you are in rock country. Mattie bought me a small Jade bear here and we chatted with the carver for a while, Just as we were leaving he came over to us and gave Mattie a small piece of unworked jade for his rock collection.
Now we are making our way towards Whistler.

(Canadian Hols start on Aug 24th)

"Meadows in the Sky"

This was one of the highlights of our trip and we so very nearly missed it. We had found the entrance the previous evening , when we were looking for our campsite. We still had a long way to drive back to Vancouver and the road up to the meadows is 26km. That may not sound far but it is all up hill and had many bends, the maximum speed limit for much of the road is 20km. I knew it was late in the season for the mountain flowers, but I Just really wanted to go.
At 9am we were waiting at the gate for the road to open and up we went.We were only going to stay a short while before getting on our way.But it was just so beautiful.....there were still plenty of flowers and it must look really spectacular at the height of the flowering season. One of the guides told us that although the flowers are more spectacular early August, the midges and horseflies are very active as well! We went up after the first frosts which had been enough to kill the bugs but not the flowers.
Mount Revelstoke is a very small national Park and it was created in 1916 mainly to protect these meadows.
During WW1 Ukrainian Internees were lodged here from Sept to December in the hope that they could finish building the road, but the weather was so bad they spent all their time shovelling snow and chopping firewood. In the end the camp was closed and the Internees sent to the other camps in Banff national Park.
The whole road to the summit is only open for a very short season Usually from Mid July when the snow finally clears, until late September when the snows force them to start closing the road. (There are several gates on the road up)
We ended up spending the whole morning here , just enjoying the views, flowers and birds.

Indian Paintbrush and Mountain daisies

"Meadows in the Sky"

Silky Blue Lupin

Indian Paintbrush

The Summit

Looking down on Revelstoke

The Road to the "Meadows in the Sky"

from the car park

A yellow -bellied marmot

The Track to the Summit

Fireweed blooming on the rocks