2 weeks is enough to acclimate to an area, and by now, we have our favorite meat shop, hardware store and grocery store, along with a few favorite restaurants. For home-style cooking, try Yesteryears in East Berlin.  They also have the mother-of-all-breakfast-buffet on Saturday mornings.  I highly recommend their Ham and Bean soup, you won’t regret it.  Not far from East Berlin, in Abbotstown, the Hoffbrauhaus serves authentic German cuisine, one of Bear’s favorite.

Yesteryear's Ham and Beans soup, yummmmmy!

A 1700's house in East Berlin.

Of course, the fact that we are just a few minutes from the “Mecca” of all fiber shop  was not lost on me…  “The Mannings” started about 60 years ago as a weaving school,  but since Carol and Ron Woolcox bought the business in the 1980′s, they added  knitting, crochet  and spinning to the list of the shop’s offerings.

Carol Woolcox, owner of "The Mannings" and Chicken... of course...

Carol is a knitter and a crocheter at heart, although she says about weaving “there is something about throwing a shuttle back and forth and beating the threads in place that is satisfying”.  They offer and incredible array of tools, books, patterns, kits and equipment for the fiber addict.

In need of yarns? patterns? tools?... if you need it, they have it!

Just a few of their weaving looms!

The whole set-up is gorgeous, like a typical Pennsylvania farm.

The grounds even include this old-style barn, painted "Sang de boeuf"(beef blood) color.

Check out their class schedule… wow!  It does not hurt either that Carol and Ron are RVers and we ended up having a good time chatting about traveling and motorhomes.  Their dream is to retire one day and travel full-time in their motorhome. Of course I did hurt my wallet (well… bear’s wallet huhummmm) while there (it’s hard not to) and I signed up for a “Beginning weaving class” in October, so we’ll be back in this area soon.

Our day in York didn’t go so well, it turns out that parking in York is really not for the faint of heart.  Bring a lot of change for the parking meters if you come here, that’s probably your only option, they do have parking lots, but most of them are for monthly permit holders.  Since we were short on change, we did not see much of York.

We were a bit smarter when we went to Gettysburg and brought a bunch of quarters with us.  I love downtown  Gettysburg , the square offers historical buildings, museums, shops, restaurant and bistros, everything for a good time. Of course, there is a rich history here, and you can go visit the battlefields and the museums, but we did that 2 years ago, so we just enjoyed a nice day in town and a delicious meal this time.

Downtown Gettysburg

Bear getting some pointers from Abe Lincoln himself. (Bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln called "Return Visit" by J. Seward Johnson Jr.)

The Wills House. Now a museum, Abraham Lincoln slept there on November 18 and 19, 1863, the nights before his immortal Gettysburg Address.

Since I am into weaving these days… I really enjoyed finding the American Crafts shop which displayed fine examples of handweaving, lots of good stuff for inspiration!

Handwoven blankets for sale at the American Crafts Shop.

We also took time to do a bit of maintenance on the coach, and I finished a project I had been working on FOREVER!  It took me nearly a year to complete the afghan I had promised to knit for my aunt Thérèse!    Whewwww…. it was about time!

My aunt's afghan, finished and drying on a picnic table.

Instead, we decided on a 2 hour narrated cruise in Norfolk’s very busy harbor, which turned out to be the perfect choice since we had a nice breeze the whole time.  So, from Williamsburg, we made our way to Norfolk to find the Nauticus , departure point of our cruise.   Driving there turned out to be quite an adventure in itself since our TomTom GPS  loves to send us through small streets, alleys and one ways (usually the wrong way) and gets very annoyed with us when we do not follow her exact directions (commands would be more of an appropriated word), so after a very colorful exchange between yours truly and a GPS, where the words “idiot” and “stupid” were spoken a number of times,  we finally made it in time for the cruise! My GPS and I have a love-hate relationship and I affectionately nicknamed her, “the freaking idiot”.

We boarded the Victory Rover  and away we went.

The Victory Rover

The cruise was narrated by a very knowledgeable staff, the Navy ships were a sight to behold and we learned a lot along the way.   Even if Bear  calls me a “sponge” and even if he keeps praising my memory, there is no way I could ever remember everything we saw and learned that day, but here are the highlights

USS Bainbridge

The Destroyer USS Bainbridge is well known because of its participation in saving Capt Phillips from Somalian pirates on April 12, 2009.  This was the first incident involving pirates and a US ship, the Maersk Alabama .  You can read the entire story here.  The USS Bainbridge is an  Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.  According to our tour guide, the ship cost just under 2 billion dollars to build.  She can identify over 100 targets at a time, and differentiate between friends and foes.  She can fire a missile every 1 1/2 second.

USS George H. W. Bush

The USS George H. W. Bush has the distinction of being the most expensive ship in the Navy, with a cost of 6.2 billion dollars.  It is an aircraft carrier and was named for the 41st US President, George H. W. Bush who was a naval aviator during World War II.  The ship’s nickname is Avenger after the TBM Avenger aircraft flown by Lieutenant G. Bush during WW II.

We were tickled pink when we saw our first submarine!  A Los Angeles class.

Los Angeles class nuclear submarine

USS Nicholas (frigate)

Hiding in the back was the USS Nicholas, which on April 1st, 2010 came under fire from Somali pirates near the coast of Kenya.  The Nicholas seized 5 pirates, sank their skiff and captured the pirate’s mother ship.

USS Wisconsin's big guns... and Chicken

Back at the Nauticus, we strolled through the museum and then went to visit the USS Wisconsin.  This ship has the biggest guns ever installed on a battleship.  16 inch guns, 60 feet long, they can fire as far as 27 nautical miles.    She served in the Pacific during WW II.  She was launched in December 1943.  She is now a museum ship at Nauticus, the National Maritime Center in Norfolk, VA.

Whatever you do, do not eat at the cafeteria in Nauticus, unless you enjoy bad food… ask us how we know…

Speaking of food though, we went back to the Carrot Tree in Yorktown for a nice lunch, something we had truly enjoyed the last time we were in the Williamsburg area.

Of course, I went yarn shopping, especially since my niece Maude just had a new baby, “Mademoiselle Béatrice”, a 5 1/2 pound bundle of joy who could not wait to see the world, so she was born a month early.  I bought some wonderful yarn at Coordinated Colors in Yorktown and had a lot of fun knitting this Norwegian style sweater for Miss Béatrice.

Sweater for Béatrice

Parked next to the French Broad river, we were very close all the activities.  The first day we decided to take a Red Trolley tour, to acquaint ourselves with the town and decide what we wanted to see.  Of course, the first thing you think about when you go to Asheville, is the Biltmore Estate.  And what an Estate it is!

Biltmore house

The house, designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt,  boasts 4 acres of floor space!  The 250 room mansion features 33 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens, even an indoor swimming pool and a bowling alley!  It was equipped with the latest amenities; running water, electricity, refrigerators! We take this for granted today, but back then? Wow! Keep in mind this house first opened its doors to family and friends, after 6 years of construction work, on Christmas Eve 1895!

Stone carvers were the highest paid employees during the construction and are responsible for the house ornate decorations.

This limestone castle sat on 125,000 acres of forests, including a farm and a dairy, a 250 acres wooded park designed by Frederick Law Olsmted, the man who designed Central Park in New York city and is known as the founding father of American landscape architecture!  The grounds also included 5 pleasure gardens and 30 miles of macadamized roadway.

view of the gardens

In the conservatory, plants and flowers are being grown to supply the house.

This house was the brainchild of George Washington Vanderbilt, and he was 33 years old and still unmarried when he opened Biltmore.  He was the grandchild of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt who quit school at age 11 to go work in the shipping business.  At age 16, he borrowed $100 from his mother and started a ferry service across New York Bay, which eventually became a fleet of more than 100 steamboats that traveled as far as Central America and Europe.  50 years later, the Commodore earned his second fortune investing in railroads.  Patriarch of a sizable family; his wife of 53 years Sophia, 13 children, 37 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren.  He left the bulk of his fortune of $100 millions to his eldest son, William Henry.  Even if his father had deemed him unsuited for business, William Henry took over the family fortune and doubled it.  George was Henry’s youngest child and inherited 10 millions upon his death.

The conservatory

He married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in June 1898 in Paris and the couple came to live at the Estate that fall after honeymooning.  They were attended by a large staff and were known as kind and generous employers.  George realized his dream of a productive estate.  The farms yielded fruits, vegetables and grain crops, dairy products and honey.  The forest produced 100s of cords of firewood annually which were sold along with lumber process in Biltmore’s own mill.  Today, a million visitors a year visit the estate, which is still owned and managed by his descendants.

There were no pictures allowed inside the house, but I can vouch for the fact that it has been wonderfully restored and maintained, and contains a lot of the original furnishing and treasures original to the house.

12 bones

A visit to Asheville would be incomplete without a meal at” 12 Bones”.  This famous BBQ place has won the title of “Best Bite” on Good Morning America.  President Obama ate there a few months ago.  The restaurant is open from 11 to 4 on weekdays only.  There is always a line at the door, even at 11 in the morning.

12 bones restaurant in Asheville NC

Chicken found a comfortable place to sit while waiting, and dreamed of tender butts and sweet racks!

We ate delicious dry rub ribs with corn pudding and collard greens, Bear also had jalapeno grits.  Sorry, no pictures of the food, I forgot….

No comments....

The last day, we drove along the famous Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoyed the vistas.

Yup, he just had to get in the picture again...

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Last year, I met Lisa while taking classes at Stitches South in Atlanta.  We kept in contact on Ravelry (for those who do not know, that’s an online community for fiber crazies like me), and we made sure to meet again at this year’s Stitches.  Lisa lives in Alabama and we decided to go visit her for our trip’s first stop.

We had a wonderful time, Lisa turned out to be a wonderful cook, she prepared some smoked pork with a home made BBQ sauce made with peach preserves. Yum!  This year, Lisa became the “grand-mother” of a brand new baby Pygora goat, her name is Shadow and she is the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Shadow

We had quite a time trying to catch her so we could pet her. Her mom and Dad were keeping a watchful eye on her, but we finally managed to do it and Chicken made a brand new friend. 

Chicken, Shadow and Lisa

Two fiber addicts just had to go shopping, and Lisa is a very savvy shopper, she knows where to get stuff for the right price, she took me to a wonderful thread factory and I bought cones and cones of weaving yarn!  YUM!

The next day, we visited the Lyman Ward Military Academy, in Camp Hill, where Bear went to school in 1957.  It was quite a trip back in time for him.  The school was first known as the Southern Industrial Institute, and held its first class in 1898.  Bear’s uncle, John L. Sullivan Woodall attended the Institute, year unknown though.

Tallapoosa Hall erected in 1930

It was founded by Reverend Lyman Ward and his wife Mary.  The area, was still suffering from the aftermath of the civil war, and their dreams was to have a school for underprivileged children, regardless of colors where they could receive a pragmatic education.  The goal was to teach the children reading and mathematics and to prepare them to find work.  The children had to contribute labor.  It was a nondenominational school, which did cause problems with funding.  These same funding problems eventually would lead the school to change into a school for poor white children only (boys and girls), and then, around 1955, to become a military academy.  There were 54 students enrolled in 1957 when Bear went to school there, by January 1958, there were only 34 students.     The students no longer enrolled had been asked to leave, due to the school’s limited staff or the student’s serious misconduct.  Bear left on his own…

Inside Tallapoosa hall

Today although the school is still struggling with finance the students receive a lot of attention in small classes and the emphasis of the program is to build the childrens character. The enrollment for the coming fall of 2010 stands at approximately 100 students.

The rest of the time we spent relaxing in our campground,  on the shores of Lake Martin.

Lake Martin

I finished weaving my mom’s scarf.  It is made of a wonderful blend of 50% silk and 50% wool, hand dyed by Mountain Colors,  the structure is a waffle weave and it was woven on a simple rigid heddle loom.  I hope she likes it. We’ll know in September.

Mom's scarf

Congratulations Nicolas!

For you Muggles, you the uninitiated, the non-knitters, this whole post will make no sense at all.  You have my permission to  move on with your life and return another day when I have something for you to read that you can really appreciate , unless a descent into the mind of a fiber-crazy knitter interests you.  But for us, the knitters, the passionate yarn addicts, the sock-a-holics, the ones who understand the appeal and the pure joy of creating something wonderful, wearable, out of a piece of string and two needles, the Sock Summit was the epitomy of coolness, the event you wanted to attend so much, you would have given your first yarn skein to do it.

Registration didn’t go as planned, the number of knitters interested in the 1800 spaces available at the Summit was  underestimated,  and in the first minute after the registration opened, 30,000 knitters tried their luck at getting one of these spaces.  The server crashed, it was  pure chaos, but!  Yours truly, the lucky one, actually got in!  I didn’t get the class I wanted with Lucy Neatby, but I did get to register for two very interesting classes.  It was official!  I was going to be an attendee at the Sock Summit 2009!  The first one ever!  I was doing the happy dance!

Sock Summit, Day 1

Chicken is keeping my spot at the registration desk

Registration for attendees of the summit were opening on August the 5th at 1:30.  We boarded the MAX train (the very cool public transportation system in Portland) and in less than 20 minutes, we were at the Convention Center.  It was 11:20 AM.  We realized that we were a little early.  There would be some waiting time, but not to worry, Bear had a book, and I had plenty of knitting.   There were other knitters around, waiting, like me, incredibly, we were not the earliest ones.  After loading up on Starbucks, we sat down, and watched as Tina and Stephanie (the two organizers) were running around with their 2-way radios glued to their mouths, trying to get everything ready on time.

Tina, owner of Blue Moon Fiber Art and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, New-York Times best selling author with a very star-struck Chicken

What does a knitter do when she waits?  yeah, you got it, she knits….

Can you identify the knitters in that picture?

I was the second one to register!  wooohooooooooo!  Armed with my badge and my tickets for the events, I was ready to conquer the Summit!

Day 2

I was registered for a 6 hours class on day 2.  The class was “Sock Heels” with Heather Ordorver .  I was sitting in class waiting for it to start, when I saw someone who looked very familiar to me.  She came and sat 2 seats from me, and I kept wondering where I had seen her before…so I worked up the nerve to ask her.  I took the plunge, and asked:  “Why do you look so familiar to me?”  answer:  huh, maybe because I started Ravelry?  Yup I answered, that would totally do it! Secretly I wanted to kick myself in the butt for not knowing that from the start, but hey, when I see famous people, I tend to become a total idiot.  All the neurones in my brain freeze like if they were back in Canadian winterland…

She was cute as a button and gladly posed with Chicken and her own mascot of BOB,   the Ravelry dog.

Jessica from Ravelry, Bob and Chicken

We had lots of fun in that class,but of course, being my crazy-self, I somehow managed to knit a sock heel that looked strangely, humm.. well… kind of…. hmm  obscene?  Really… not kidding here, I kept knitting and knitting and looking at it, the more I was knitting the worst it was getting.  I tried to dismiss it at first, then I thought maybe I was seeing things because I am French you know…but Dude!  At one point I just had to crack up! (no pun intended), I laughed so loud the teacher wondered what was happening, so between giggles and tears, I showed her my sock heel,and she just lost it!

Huh, the red one is the culprit... do you see it?

At lunch, I had a very pleasant conversation with Jessica (of Ravelry)  and Sandi Wiseheart, former editor of Knitting Daily, now writing What’s on Sandi’s needles for Interweave and also a personal blog called Wiseheart Knits .

Sandi really missed her husband and found some comfort with Chicken

We returned to class and things started getting really strange!  My neighbour at the table decided that you couldn’t knit that many heels in one day without the help of some Whiskey… Chicken totally agreed and appropriated the shot glass.

Chicken keeping an eye on his shot glass

As if that was not enough, Kay the Woollie Mammoth decided she wanted some whiskey also… Chicken in his haste to keep her from drinking his booze jumped on her!

Chicken, totally drunk riding Kay the Woollie Mammoth while she drinks out of his glass

Well.. This mascot party was just too loud, BOB the Ravelry dog noticed and joined the party, the three friends celebrated merrily…

Party! Party! Party! Party!

OK. OK, I admit, this is a bit bizarre, but not as bizarre as you think, things like that tend to happen a lot when you put a bunch of knitters in the same room, it is called imagination, and knitters do not lack in that department!

At the end of the class, Chicken, having calmed down, was allowed to pose with Heather Ordover for another “knitting celebrity picture”.

Heather really enjoyed having her picture taken with Chicken

That night, at the opening reception, Tina and Stephanie gave us an hysterical account of how the Sock Summit came to be.

Day 3:

Friday!! Market Day! Shopping Day! Wooooooohoooooooo!  What’s better for a yarn-addict than a room filled with 150 vendors of yarn?  The largest collection of hand-painted yarn ever assembled?  Tools for the trade?  We arrived early (Bear and I).  The doors to the market opened at 8:30, there was a line in front of the door at 8, which shows that I am not the only fiber-nut out there, I am in good company.

I bought some gorgeous stuff, and some useful stuff, a good mix I think, and I am very very pleased.

Gorgeous yarn, tools and souvenirs, a good mix.

Then, around noon, I headed to the Oregon Ball Room for the “Guinness Book of World Record” attempt for the “Biggest amount of knitters knitting simultaneously in one room”.  A group in Autralia owned the last record, at 256 knitters.  I don’t have the official numbers, but we packed over 940 knitters in that room and we beat their records hands down!  Well, not really, we had to knit for 15 minutes so there was actually no hands down, just busy hands, but you catch my drift there…

We passed the time while waiting for everybody to come in, by doing "needle waves".

Half the room during the World Record Attempt.

Then we had lunch with Erica, from Tallahassee, she was there shopping for yarn, with Mercy June, who was wearing a very fashionable “Dragon Skin Wrap” knitted by yours truely!

Mercy June and Erica

After lunch, we went to the “Book Signing event” where we had the chance to talk with our favorite knitting book authors.

Chicken was lucky, he scored a lot of pictures with very famous knitters.

My Hero! Colorful Lucy Neatby was so glad she found a friend for her chicken purse "Hernest"

Cat Bordhi, the engineer of the sock knitting world

Cookie A. the reformed mathematician who saw the light and now uses her skills to write beautiful sock patterns

Charlene Schurch thought that taking a picture with Chicken was extremely funny

Day 4

I had a class Saturday morning, with Clara Parkes, called “Finding your true sock yarn happiness”.  It was a very interesting class, Clara Parkes is a fiber expert and she is very entertaining while she shares her knowledge.

I sat in class with another celebrity, Deb Robson, better known in the spinning world, former editor of Interweave’s Spin Off magazine.

She thought Chicken made a very pretty hat

Deb Robson wearing Chicken proudly!

Sweet Clara Parkes, author of “The book of Yarn” and “Knitter’s Review” e-newsletter.

Clara Parkes and Chicken

After another little shopping trip in the market place, we headed home and rested that evening.

Day 5

Was the day of the Luminary panel conference

Cat Bordhi, Nancy Bush, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Judith MacKenzie-McCuin, Lucy Neatby, Deborah Robson, Meg Swansen, Barbara Walker and Anna Zilboorg talked about their experience as authors, business owners, and women, and the changes in the knitting world.  We also celebrated Elizabeth Zimmerman 99th Birthday.

Yup, someone's head got in the way of the picture!

The Sock Summit ended on that sweet note, with a piece of Birthday cake.  All was well in the sock knitting world.

Taken at Waterfowl Lake, in Banff National Park

Another view of Waterfowl Lake, along the Icefield Parkway

The first day of our visit, we went to Canmore AB, a little town about 20 minutes from Banff, but outside of Banff National Park.  My cousin Joe-Anne, who lives in Calgary, has a condo there, and we went to see her.  By pure luck, my cousin Andrée (Joe-Anne’s sister) and my aunt Thérese (her mother and my  mom’s sister) had arrived the day before from Montréal.  We met at her condo where we took this family picture

My aunt Thérèse, my cousin Andrée, Joe-Anne and me, in the condo's backyard

After going to lunch we went downtown Canmore for an ice cream.

A child's dream as far as school buses are concerned

And that my friends, is  how I keep my round figure…

We had a great time with the family, but Joe-Anne had to go back to Calgary, she was busy preparing a big party for her son’s graduation.  We still had a lot of things to do in Banff NP, so we parted and promised to meet again soon.

The next day, we took road 1A and we slowly drove to Lake Louise.  On the way we saw some wildlife

Big Horn Sheep

Deer

In Jonhston Canyon, I took a picture of Bear leaning against a very flexible tree!…

Just Kidding!

We passed by Castle Cliffs, a landmark for travelers, it appeared on  maps as early as in 1858.  There was an attempt after World War II  to rename this mountain “Mount Eisenhower”, but there was an outcry from locals and travelers alike, the decision was then made to restore the original name, but the tower at the South-East end, popular with climbers,  was named “Eisenhower Peak”.

Castle Cliffs

We made it to Lake Louise around lunch time

View of Lake Louise from the dining room in Château Lake Louise

We had lunch in the dining room of  Château Lake Louise.

Château Lake Louise

They serve the most delicious sauce to eat with french fries, it is called “Black pepper Truffle Aioli” sauce.  Dude! we wanted to eat it with a spoon it was so good!  Everything else was also great, but that sauce… man!  It was as good as the view!

After lunch, we took a stroll along the edge of the lake, and someone graciously offered to take our picture

Just us... blocking a beautiful view

Stomachs full, we left Lake Louise and went to neary Lake Moraine.

Lake Moraine

Another view of Lake Moraine

The turquoise color of the glacier-fed lakes is due to the “rock flour” brought in by melting waters.  The heavy particles which turn the water milky in rivers, sink to the bottom, and leave the lighter particles suspended.  These  particles  absorb all light, except for blue and green which are reflected to us.  In the winter, there is less melt, the water is more blue, in the summer, more turquoise.

I finally proved one of my “theories” at Moraine Lake.  You see, I am convinced that modern kids do not feel pain or cold the way we did.  This is based on the fact that kids seem to enjoy piercing just about every sensitive part of their bodies, on top of that, they do not dress warmly when it is cold outside.  I do have a proof now! The water in Moraine Lake and other glacier-fed lakes in the Canadian Rockies never goes above 7 degree Celsius (about 40 F).  And what is that kid doing in that 40 degree water?

Yup! that's the proof, right there friends!

Swimming…. he was swimming… a recipe for hypothermia for any normal grown-up human being!

Finally, I have another bird for you to identify, you are doing a good job so far.

My mystery bird in Lake Louise

And, another “Only in Canada” shot

How about urinals with individual TV screens? Gotta entertain the boys...

Last picture courtesy of Bear or course….;)

P.S.  Chicken is part of this post also, you just have to look carefully if you want to find him this time.  After his scary encounter with the Bear Mountie, he decided to stay out of trouble for a little while.

Taken while going down the road, nice view, complete with squashed bugs

We followed the North Thompson River going up on Hwy 5  and then the Frazier on Hwy 16, that’s where we found a pull-out right next to the river, with a wonderful view of Mount Robson, the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies at 12,972 ft,   and decided that would be a good place for a light lunch.

Mount Robson, with its head in the clouds

Parked for lunch next to the Frazier

We arrived in Jasper early afternoon. I was a little apprehensive at the thought of camping with no “hook-ups” for 4 nights. Although the motorhome is self-contained and we can camp without being connected to services, I am not particularly found of it. My idea of “roughing it” is camping with full services, being able to use my washer-dryer and of course, satellite TV and having a Wi-Fi connection make things even sweeter. Turns out, we were fine. Totally disconnected from the world, off the grid, we explored the area all day, and returned, tired but happy. We read a book and then watched a pre-recorded movie before turning in early so we would be in shape for another day of exploration. Jasper turned out to be our favorite part of the Canadian Rockies. Every curve of every road brought a new amazing vista. Turquoise lakes surrounded by snowy peaks, meadows of wild flowers rushing milky-water rivers leading to waterfalls were plentiful.

Athabasca pass viewed from the Icefield Parkway

The first day we took the Icefield Parkway, which offers a stunning view of over 100 glaciers on the way to the Columbia Icefield

One of the many glaciers visible from the Icefield Parkway

When snow falls year after year on high mountain peaks and plateaus, there is very little summer melt so it accumulates. When the snow is about 100 ft deep, the bottom layer is so pressurized it turns into ice. When more snow falls on top, the ice becomes thicker and thicker, eventually it overflows into the surroundings, flowing downhill. That is how a glacier is born. The intense pressure at the bottom of a glacier causes the ice to become “plastic”. It conforms to the bedrock irregularities without breaking or cracking, but the upper layers are brittle, they crack open into giant crevasses when subjected to stress.

Giant cracks and crevasses on the Athabasca glacier

The Columbia Icefield is 130 square miles, which makes it the largest body of ice in the Rocky Mountains. Its average elevation is 10,000 ft and it is estimated that its greatest depth is about 1,200 feet. It drains into 3 oceans, the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Artic. In order to view it, one would have to take a helicopter tour.

So, we settled on visiting the Athabasca glacier which is easily accessible.

Athabasca Glacier

One of the many glaciers fed by the Columbia Icefield it is he only one where you can take an excursion on the surface in a massive Ice Explorer.

Ice Explorer on the glacier

Only 23 of these beasts were ever built, and Brewster, our tour company, owns 22, the other one belongs to  US government  and is used in Antarctica to transport scientists. Cool huh? Bear was really impressed when he learned that each tire of this monster-machine costs $5,000 and there are 6 per vehicle… you do the math.

Marianne, our chauffeur, was tickled pink at getting her picture taken with Chicken

Marianne, our Ice-Explorer driver just completed a Pedagogy Degree at the University of Sherbrooke in Québec. She went on a trip with her girlfriend and fell in love with the area. She also thought it would be really cool to drive the big monster-buses, so she applied and she is now happily teaching everything about the Athabasca glacier to tourists while she drives some of the biggest vehicles in existence today.

After going down a moraine with a 32° slope and driving up the glacier, she let us out. There we were, walking on about a thousand feet deep of ice, some people were drinking the melting waters, we just concentrated on walking without falling on our butt or into a crevasse, but it was one of the coolest things we ever did!

Hanging on, scared of falling!

The first Ice-Explorers were giant snowmobiles, without any suspension or opening windows, thus the nickname; “Shake & Bake”.

Shake & Bake

Chicken got in trouble again!  This time with a Bear/Mountie who thought he looked delicious!

OOOPS!

The road follows the Athabasca River, its waters milky from all the silt or “rock flour” coming from the melting glacier. It flows north and eventually, the water from the Athabaska finds its way to the Arctic Ocean

Milky waters of the Athabasca river

The rushing water carved its way into very pretty falls along the way.

The second day we took Maligne rd, which took us all the way to Maligne Lake, where one of the most famous pictures of the Rockies was taken.

On the way, we passed by Medecine Lake.

Medecine lake

This lake was considered “magic” or “big medecine”  by the Indians because around October, it vanishes being replaced by a shallow stream and a few small pools. The depth of the lake can vary by 20m (65 feet). The lake does not appear to have any visible outlet, so the Indians feared it. The truth is,  this part of the Maligne Valley was severely fractured during the uplift. The water seeped into the cracks and slowly dissolved a network of underground passages. When the cool weather comes, there is less meltwater, the inflow is less than the drainage into the caves, and the lake disappears.

That’s where we were lucky enough to catch a picture of the elusive Pika.

Cute Pika

This cute animal, the size of a hamster, not a rodent, he is herbivore. He is also called “Rock Rabbit”.  He is quick and blends very well with his surroundings, which makes him very hard to spot. Quickly disappearing, the Pika is being considered for protection under the “Endangered Species Act”.

And then we saw this bird in a tree, I had never seen one like it.

Anybody knows what kind of bird this is?

Then we had lunch at Maligne Lake, our destination for the day.

Maligne lake on a cloudy day

We took a cruise to Spirit Island, where in 1930, a photographer took a black and white picture of the lake and won the Kodak Picture contest that year.  He named the picture Spirit Island because he thought it captured the “spirit” of the Rockies.  He waited 3 days for the perfect conditions for his picture, unfortunately, we had a cloudy day and could not wait that long.

Taken from Spirit Island

On our way back, we spotted Yogi Bear in his quest for lunch!

Yogi

On  our last day in Jasper NP, we took small roads, had lunch at the Pocahontas Lodge which claims to serve the “best liver and onions dinner in Alberta”.  The Miette rd leads to a Hot Spring, but along the way, there is a lot of wildlife….

Elk

A crazy goat trying to lick the underside of the car!

and amazing wild flowers!  The license plate of Alberta reads “Wild Rose Country”.  They grow all over the place.

Wild Rose

Other gorgeous wild flowers seen along the way

A patch of "Paintbrush"

Paintbrush up close

A beautiful wild Lilly

Tiny burst of color

Unknown specie, but I thought it was kinda cute!

Alas, we had to leave, but we were going to Banff National Park, which promised to be as beautiful and grand as Jasper.   It was a perfect day when we took the road, and we captured some of the best looking pictures so far.

Blue sky and no wind, perfect for pictures

A feast for the eyes along the Icefield Parkway

Cultus Lake

We camped there for 8 days, and despite the fact that we had quite a few rainy days, we had a very good time.  We finally met  Sharry and Al, from Texas.  Bear had been corresponding with them online for a little while and we found out we were going to be in Cultus Lake at the same time!  We spent evenings chatting around a campfire, it was fun and we feel we have made friends for life.

Sharry and Al really enjoyed Chicken's company

A break in the weather meant going on an excursion and see what we can see.  The first day, we found Minter Gardens in Rosedale.  In 1977, on a family outing, Brian and Faye Minter discovered a unique and picturesque site and decided to create one of the most beautiful gardens in the world.  Their dream became a reality and we can now admire this 32 acres garden set against a magnificient mountain backdrop.

Entrance, Minter Gardens

A daisy with a bad hair day!

Serene beauty

Chicken found a friend hiding in a little garden shed.  They had a good time together.

Chicken and his friend the garden gnome

Alas, it was time for chicken to say goodbye to his new friend, and we left Rosedale and made our way to Hope BC.

Bear and Chicken having fun in Hope BC

Hope is the capital of chainsaw woodcarving in BC.  It is also where the movie Rambo “First Blood” with Sylvester Stallone was filmed.  Director Ted Kotcheff, a canadian, really liked the rain forest around Hope, the curious mixture of coniferous and almost southern savannah where everything is covered by moss because it rains all the time.  To him, it looked damp and uncomfortable, and that is what he wanted for the movie.  The misty weather of the small town and the imposing mountains and canyon scenery contributed to the success of the film.  The buildings that were blown up in town during the movie were actually built for the sole purpose of being destroyed, no real building were damaged

The bridge where Rambo was escorted out of town

The Coquihalla Canyon near hope was also featured in the film.  The 150 foot fall from a helicopter in a narrow canyon was filmed there.  The stunt man received $14.000 to perform the stunt, he reportedly had agreed to do it for half that amount, but after seeing the helicopter repeatedly blew over the airbags he was set to land on, he doubled his price!  The scene took 6 hours to complete.

Coquihalla Canyon

Rushing water in Coquihalla gorge

This is also the site of the Othello tunnel.  The 5 tunnels are amazingly perfectly aligned.    Long thought impossible, Andrew McCullough figured out the way to make a passage for the Kettle Valley Railway.  He and his men were lowered in woven baskets from the top with their tools and survey instruments, an from this precarious position, developed the plan for a series of tunnels and bridges.

The tunnels are perfectly aligned

The tunnels were accessible by an easy walking trail along the gorge.

Bear in one of the tunnels

On a cloudy but NOT rainy day, we went to Harrison Springs.

The Village of Harrison Hot Springs has been a small resort community since 1886.  The hot springs are a major atraction and people come to stay at the Spa-resort. The village is situated at the southern-end of Harrison lake.  We took a 2 hour cruise on the lake.

The crew was happy to let Chicken drive the boat

The lake is fed by a glacier on top of Mount Breakenridge

It is said that there is a Tsunami risk here, some geologist believe that an unstable rock face at Mount Breakenridge at the north end of the lake could collapse into the lake and generate a large wave that would destroy the town of Harrison Hot Springs.

A quiet place, with no electricity or services, only accessible by boat. For those who want to be away from it all.

Snow peaks magically appear on top of the clouds

Rainbow falls are 2300ft high, on a sunny day,  a rainbow appears in the mist at the bottom of the falls.

Upper part of Rainbow Falls

Canadians only enjoy a few months of summer, and they make the most of it.  Even though this lake is fed by glacier water, and the temperature was on the cold side the day we took the cruise, it did not keep them from enjoying the lake!

Tubing with winter coats on?

Only in Canada….

Canadian-style high-tech camping!

Birch Bay is a pretty “beach town”, the beaches are not extraordinary, no white sand here ,just lots of pebbles but they say that it has the warmest sea waters North of San Diego.  The tide goes out about a mile and the sun heats the pebbles, which in turn warm the water as it comes back in.  We are not really “beach bunnies” but the beaches were popular and many people were swimming.

Hard to go boating when the tide is out!

We did manage to go on two short excursion, one to Vancouver BC, which is  about 45 minutes from where we were camping.  Bear was so thrilled to go over the beautiful “Lions Gate Bridge”, between Vancouver and Vancouver North.

This bridge features two sculpted lions at the entrance. (not in the picture)

That was after the excitement of driving right through downtown Vancouver, with its high rise buildings, shops and traffic.  I thought it was so cool, Bear didn’t particularly agree, of course, I was not the one driving….   life is good with a chauffeur…. 

We finally made it to our destination for the day, the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Chicken and Bear arriving at the Capilano Suspension Bridge

The old-style suspension bridge hangs 230 feet above the canyon floor and spans 450 feet.

In 1889, George Grant Mackay, with the help of August Jack Khahtsahlano built the first suspension bridge across the Capilano River.  It was made of hemp rope and cedar planks.  The ropes were dragged down the canyon and a team of horses swam the ropes across the river.  Then the ropes were pulled up the other side and anchored to huge buried cedar logs.  August Jack was only 12 when he helped build the bridge.

Nowadays, the hemp ropes have been replaced by steel cables, but that did not improve the stability.  Crossing the bridge still remains a thrilling very shaky experience.

So, I crossed the bridge and Bear stayed back on firm land.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Once you cross the bridge, another adventure awaits you.  The treetop boardwalk takes you high above the forest floor and gives you a squirrel’s eye view of a Pacific rainforest.  The 650 foot long walk is made of a series of cable bridges suspended in between platforms, some as high as 10 stories.

View of part of the Tree Top Adventure

The Douglas Fir trees found here were about 250 high but they can grow as high as 400 feet, and were there before Columbus discovered America.

Chicken is getting ambitious... two at a time?

Another day, we decided to got to a small place called Point Roberts. (Click on link to see a map).   What is so special about this place is that, it is part of the State of Washington, but the only way to get to it is by going through Canada.  This 4.9 square miles area was cut from the mainland in 1846 when the treaty of Washington drew the international boundary between Canada and the US at the 49th parallel.   From then on, Point Roberts was separated from the rest of Washington State by 23 miles of driving through British Columbia.

Border Marker no. 1

This obelisk was made in Scotland and placed on this spot in 1865 to mark the start of the longest undefended border in the world.

We really did get a kick out of taking this next picture.  The house you see in the picture is actually in Canada, and this Canadian construction worker was a good sport and accepted to pose for a picture with Bear, who was on the US side of the cedar tree edge separating the two countries.

In this picture, Bear stands in the USA while his new Canadian buddy stands across the border, in Canada

Last but not least, I just have to post a picture of the cutest cow I have ever seen. She was minding her own business and happily grazing on some succulent Point Roberts’grass when I happened to see it.  The poor cow sensing my excitement, had to stop eating and pose for this picture.  Bear then, had to track down the farmer and ask what breed of cow she was… as you can see, I am easily amazed and very easy to entertain, because that was the highlight of my day at Point Roberts…  A Scottish Highland cow.  Enjoy!

No but, really, isn't she the cutest cow ever?

Only in Canada...