Bye-bye Canada... *sniff, sniff* but... *Arnie voice* we'll be back!

We spent our last few days in Canada just chilling out in Comox. I really liked the place. Back when I was single, I thought I'd die in a place that didn't have at least 5 shopping malls and a big modern bookstore. But now that I'm married and am expecting a little boy, my priorities have changed when it comes to picking a place to live. I'm thinking more of education and prospects for my little one, I'm thinking of how safe the place can be and whether he'll be able to get out on his bike and go riding for fun as I did as a child. Comox is a small town and when I see tons of kids out playing footie, riding bikes or skateboarding and looking healthy and bright, I thought it would be a great place to raise our little one. Plus, Mt Washington is just half an hour away and we can take him snowboarding in the winter. Dear Hubby enjoys snowboarding, I've already declared I want to learn and if we're doing it, the little one's coming along!

We stayed in a friend's family cabin just along the beach. It's so cool to have the beach as your backyard! (Click here for a view of the backyard) The only disadvantage is that in the winter, the waves crashing up on the beach erodes your property and I saw many people who've had to reinforce their backyards with stone walls to stop the erosion.

We visited all of Dear Hubby's old friends and caught up on the news. At the Everetts, we got to sample grilled elk! God, it was delicious!!! Len is a hunter and the family doesn't buy any meat because he hunts enough to feed them all year long. His freezer is like a safari - it has elk, deer, moose, wild salmon... stuff you don't exactly find at the butcher's. I thought Len was just fascinating, he's so skillful that he goes hunting for deer with bow and arrow and at the same time, he sits on the board of some Canadian animal conservation programme. Len is no killer. He clearly respects nature and his skill is used just to feed his family, just as generations of men before him did.

It was summertime, so everyone had their barbies out and I thoroughly enjoyed it. At the McMahons', hummingbirds joined us... not on the barbie! They had a bird feeder out and we enjoyed seeing those speedy birds zoom in and out. They're highly territorial, one red bird was fiercely fighting everyone else away. It was great just sitting outdoors where it's not too hot/cold and sipping drinks, the barbie's on and the view is of Mt Washington.

We spent quite a bit of time at the McMahons'. You see, the cabin had no satellite tv and we were desperate to catch the Euro 2008 matches which were usually on at 11am. LOL So we'd turn up, watch perhaps one half and then say our goodbyes. Dear Hubby took me up to Mt Washington but we couldn't go up to the summit before the ski rides weren't functioning yet. Still, I had a lot of fun because there was snow on the ground and I jumped right in to play. Hey... I don't know when's the next time I get to see snow as our trips tend to be in the summer/spring, so I'd better make the most of it while I can!

We took walks down to Comox Harbour where I stupidly dropped one of Dear Hubby's precious filters down to the rocks and he had to climb down and get it. I clutched the camera very tightly to my chest after that. We also made day trips to Courtenay, a neighbouring town where we bought yet another bag of cherries for me and other groceries. Dear Hubby was very stern this time, strictly rationing my daily intake of cherries saying that I would be sick on cherries if he didn't do it. I hate it when he's right.

What a beautiful part of the world this is. BC has a pretty mild climate compared with the interiors of Canada, so it's a lot easier to live in. I really like Canadians too, they're friendly, they're open, they're polite and they're really nice! Plus Canadian lads are really good-looking! (Canadian lasses are just as smashing!) Most of them were tall, lean and looked like they'd benefited from a lifetime of hiking and climbing. When I think about most of the UK lads I saw (white, pasty, with a defensive, dour look from under their hoodies like they'd been grumpy from standing too long in the dole line), I think I'd rather raise my little boy as a Canuck.

It was with deep regret that we packed up and left Comox on Sunday morning. Sigh... But then, there's the promise of a Bill Frisell concert that night in Vancouver for us, so I was pretty excited. But guess what??? He cancelled!!! I was so depressed, I'd been really looking forward to seeing him and we'd actually extended our trip by a day to catch him. Poop. So instead of enjoying his concert, we took a drive through Stanley Park . The more I see of healthy Canadians biking and jogging in parks, the more I want to live here.

Anyway, our last day in Vancouver wasn't all spoiled. We got to spend the afternoon going up Grouse Mt. Here I go again, going up cable cars to mountains! But this cable car was pretty big and stable and I had no problems at all. Up at the summit, there was.. yep.. snow. LOL I've never seen this stuff in my life and in the past two weeks, I've seen more than I ever thought I would. Grouse Mt is also home to two grizzly bears who were rescued by the park rangers. I think one was injured and the other was orphaned, so the park raised them and now they're the star attractions. Up close, you realise what a big powerful animal this is, just look at those claws! Yikes. Don't wanna be meeting one in the campsite.

The next day, we packed everything up and said our reluctant goodbyes. The good news is, there's every indication Dear Hubby wants to return, perhaps in the winter when Little Monkey is old enough to walk and be strapped onto a snowboard. Hehe.

The 18hr flight back to Singapore wasn't too bad and we sat next to a volunteer teacher who was on her way to Uganda for a 10-month voluntary stint at a school there. She told us that she picked the cheapest flight she could find and has another 22 hours more of flight time before she reaches Uganda. Made me feel small for whining about my 18-hr flight!

Bye Canada... I really enjoyed it. It was a pretty expensive holiday but I have to say, we had so much fun and now we've got lots of great memories. I'm really looking forward to bringing my little boy back there!

Our thanks to: the MacDonald family, the Everett family, the McMahon family, the Clement family, the Martin family and all the kind Canadians who made our stay so enjoyable, especially those two skateboarders who stopped for me at the traffic light in downtown Vancouver even though they had right of way, thanks guys!

Me at 21 weeks preggers on Comox Beach:


Me in front of Douglas firs in Cathedral Grove, Vancouver Island. We stopped here on our way to Comox. Behind me is an 800-year-old fir that's still standing and growing. I'm 5'4", so I think the diameter of the trunk must have been at least 60ft. Don't ask me how high it was, I have no idea.. my neck couldn't crane enough for me to see!

Day 7-9 in Canada: Travelling back to British Columbia

It's time to say goodbye to Alberta and we packed up this morning and waved goodbye to the Martins. The longer I'm in this country, the more I realise how much I enjoy it. It's civilised, people are friendly and polite and drivers don't try to knock you down. Okay, so there is a risk you'll be mauled by a bear sometimes.

We decided to break up our drive into two days especially as we were going to detour to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake first. Both these lakes have a strange torquoise colour, a result of what is known as rock flour. Glaciers grind the rocks into a very fine dust that is then deposited in the lakes. The refraction of the light off the rock flour gives the lakes its beautiful colour. See, I was never any good at geography/geology before I came to Canada but I sure learnt a lot from all the info the Parks put up on their trails. And you remember the facts that you read because you see the stuff right in front of you, it's not just a dry textbook.

After about 4 hours on the road, we stopped for the night in Salmon Arm. As you may have guessed, there's a lot of salmon to be caught there! The next morning, we woke up bright and early and set out for White Rock. White Rock is a little seaside resort town on the US-Canada border. We arrived about 2pm and went for a wander along the main seaside drive, sharing an ice-cream cone on the way. It cost C$2.50 and had two ginormous scoops of ice-cream balanced on an equally ginormous cone. I love N. American portions when it comes to stuff like ice-creams!

White Rock was really postcard-pretty. If Patong Beach were run by Canadians, it'd probably look like the main drive in White Rock. We walked from one end of the promenade to the other on the beach and passed by lots of people just out enjoying the summer sun. At the end is a white rock. It's put there by the city council so that graduating high school seniors get to leave their mark there for a year. Then they re-spray the whole thing for the next year's students. While we were there, some kids were climbing the rock. One little boy shouted down, "Dad! There's a lot of dirty words up here! There's the... uh... S-H word and the, uh... F-U word!" All the adults close by just cracked up at that.

We spent the night with some friends who live just a street behind the main promenade. This was also the first time I'd eaten fresh cherries. Dear Hubby bought me a bagful and it only cost C$5! I think the bag must have contained 1lb of cherries. They were all gone by next morning, happily digesting in my tum. We left early to catch the 1030am ferry across to Vancouver Island. The trip is about an hour as we were going to get off at Victoria and spend the night there.

The ferry was large, comfy and served great meals in the cafeteria. We spent most of our trip out on the deck, enjoying the sun and the scenery. I could tell Dear Hubby was getting really excited because he so loves Vancouver Island, he always says it's like coming home. I didn't know I would share his sentiments by the time we had to leave for Asia again.

Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, a seaside town brimming with music, arts and lots of cool, good-looking Canucks. We spent the day walking about town. Dear Hubby pointed out an arbutus tree to me. It's very pretty but very strange... it has very little bark and its trunk is in shades of red!

We stopped by the harbour to watch a street performer doing her stripping and disappearing act and then wandered on to another street where we stopped again to appreciate a student band playing under the trees. Lovely, lovely place.
Dinner that night was at a seafood restaurant near the harbour. Our waiter was a good-looking, articulate Canadian lad in his mid 20's who was in his last year of his Maths course and was thinking of going on to do law. I don't know why exactly but all the wait staff we've seen in this trip were pretty good-looking! After dinner, about 9+pm, we took a walk around the harbour and Dear Hubby got this shot.

The next morning, we woke up early and had our breakfast in... Tim's! Yes! Bagels and coffee! I love their bagels, they were of the right size and they were generous with their cream cheese. After filling up, we set out on our drive to Tofino. Tofino is on the west coast of the island and faces the Pacific Ocean. It was absolutely freezing on the beach but I guess it's just me because there were people out there with their surfboards. God. They're crazy. Granted, they were in wetsuits but did they have any idea how cold it was??? We spent the night in Tofino in a cedar cabin (pic here) and bought a roast chicken and salad for our dinner. Oh... and earlier in the day, we stopped by Roy Henry Vickers art gallery and picked up an art piece for our new home in Jakarta. Vickers is a famous Canadian artist of mixed British-First Nations ancestry and Dear Hubby has been a long admirer. As we were leaving, I saw a piece that instantly reminded me of Little Monkey - this one! Dear Hubby came over, took a look at it, asked me if I liked it and when I nodded, he bought it for me. Awww... so sweet, thanks baby!

The next morning would be a drive to Comox Valley on the east side of the island. That would be the last leg of our holiday and our plan was to spend about 5 days there just lazing about and doing nothing.

It's been the awesome-est holiday we've ever had together.

Day 6 in Canada: Banff, Mt Sulphur and steaks in Cochrane

We'd arrived in Cochrane, Alberta about 6pm the night before. Dear Hubby has an old friend living in Cochrane and they offered to put us up for two nights. Thank you to the Martin family! Their house was GORGEOUS. It was two-storey unit with a basement suite. When I saw the basement suite, I thought it made a lot of sense. It had a bathroom, bedroom and a living area. Guests could come and go quietly without waking the rest of the family.

I could barely crawl out of bed this morning because I was just exhausted. The main reason for my tiredness was that the bed wasn't really big enough for us two. Or let me put it this way - it was big enough but wasn't big enough to contain a 6ft 2in guy who insists on sleeping in a diagonal position and a 5ft 4in lass who was trying her best all night to push him over and not fall out of the bed at the same time.

All the same, the mention of climbing mountains was enough to wake me up. We hopped into the car and headed for Banff which is an hour away. I kept a sharp eye out for wildlife as our hosts had told us how they'd seen coyotes walking at the lake just outside their house and how bears would sometimes raid the bins in town.


We saw three bears during the entire Canada trip. The last bear encounter was the funniest. We were on some highway and when we spotted the usual mass of cars parked by the roadside, we knew there was a wild animal sighting. And lucky us! Even though we were at the end of the queue of cars, the bear started heading our way! So Dear Hubby hurriedly fixed up the zoom lens on his big DSLR and handed it to me, telling me to get a shot since the bear was on my side of the road. I stuck my head out of the window and peered through the lens. There's the bear! His head was down and he was munching away at some grasses. Clickclickclickclick! went the shutter loudly in quick succession and to my horror, the bear heard it, lifted his head and looked right at me. I froze in terror, "Oh god.. he's going to charge! I'm dead meat!" Looking through the zoom lens, the bear looked about five inches away from my nose (WAH LIAO EH!!!!!! SO CLOSE!!! YIKES!!!!!!!!!!) and my immediate reaction was to duck my head back into the car where I then discovered the bear was... a good 20ft away at least in reality. Silly me. As for the bear, he had already gone back to his munching and had forgotten all about this amateur in the car.

When we arrived at Banff, Dear Hubby drove straight through the town to the gondola terminal. He promised we would take a wander through the town later. The most important bit was to get to the summit of Mt Sulphur while the weather was good. As we paid up, I looked doubtfully up at the mountain. It seemed rather... high? Like Rocky Mountain High high? What am I doing going up mountains and bridges when I'm terrified of heights anyway???



The ride up to the summit took about 8 minutes I think. It was a very LONG 8 minutes. It didn't help that Dear Hubby kept moving about in the gondola as he tried to get the best shots of the valley below. This made the gondola sway gently and had me clutching the rails in terror. The gondola terminal at the top displayed flags of all its international visitors. Of course I looked for our flag and there it is! Jalur Gemilang! Hello, my flag! Apa khabar?



The mountain has a walkway leading to the very pinnacle of the mountain. If you're going, be sure to dress warm. When we got there, it was bright and sunny. By the time we descended, it was snowing! Wear a cap or something, it's very windy up there and you don't want your hair obscuring your view. Bring a camera and keep an eye out for the wildlife. We saw plenty of birds (I could only identify the raven) and alpine squirrels.



There was snow everywhere. Snow on the trees, snow on the ground, snow on the walkway and when we looked up, we were surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking. Even though there were plenty of people up there, it was pretty quiet. I guess everyone was like me - awed into silence. I looked at those mountains and I felt... humbled. Humbled by the power of Nature. Man has built some pretty impressive structures but they all pale in comparison to what Nature can do.



We took a leisurely walk, stopping to read the various info plaques along the way. We even stopped to say hello to a little snowman that someone had built on a bench!

Quite close to the top, a little alpine squirrel ran out from the rocks and guess what? He came to me! I was so excited! "Ooh, you love me! You really, really love me!" I stood very still so as not to scare him off as he scampered about near me for a bit and finally went off to search for some food.

When we reached the peak, I really wanted to yodel. Really. Just to see what it was like and if it would echo back. But I didn't. We could see the clouds moving in and decided it was time to get a move on. Lightning always strikes at the highest point and up on the peak, I couldn't see anything else higher than us, so er... better get going!

As we came down, the weather swiftly turned from sunny to cold and grey and something started falling out of the sky. What was it? Dear Hubby had to tell me gently, "It's snow, babe." WOOHOO! Snow! On me! In June! I was sooooo excited I nearly fell on me bum. Behind me was an equally excited (or naive) lad who shouted out to his pals, "Guys, it's SNOWING!!!" Guess who sang Jingle Bells as we walked back towards the gondola terminal?

The gondola ride down wasn't as bad as going up. I found it helped to focus on Dear Hubby's face and just keep chatting away about anything in my mind. We drove back into town and took a walk about. As Banff is a tourist town, most of the shops sold souvenirs. It's very clean and well laid out and so very colourful! We popped into a shop for some lunch. We've learnt now that a single Canadian portion is enough to feed two of us, so we ordered ONE spag meatball, ONE garlic bread and two drinks. And it still was too much! So we went for a walk along the lake to work off the excess calories.

I fell asleep on the drive back. Not a good idea because the sun was shining in one direction so when we got back, I looked like Harvey Twoface from Batman. One side of my face was redder than the other. Sigh. We took the Martins out for dinner at a steak place to say thank you for their hospitality. Alberta steak is supposed to be excellent and mine certainly was!

The next day, we hopped back into our car, said our goodbyes and started the long journey back towards Vancouver. That's half of our holiday gone liao... I really don't want it to end so quickly! I love Canada!

More pics from Canada

LMAO Look at the expression on my face. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the expression of something who knows that she has just made the biggest bloody mistake of her life because...



...despite her fear of heights, she's going to have to walk across this bridge. TWICE!!! (Capilano Suspension Bridge, Capilano Park, North Van)



Is this what enlightenment looks like? If memory serves me correctly, this shot was taken while we were driving towards Tofino, Vancouver Island. Dear Hubby spotted it and hurriedly pulled over before rushing out with his camera.
EDIT, 04 JULY: Guess my memory's failing. This shot was actually taken while we were on our way to Salmon Arm.



Chairs in the back garden of the cabin in Comox, Vancouver Island. This cabin belongs to a friend and it's used as a holiday home by the family. It's got a log fire and if you walk out to the back garden and go down some stone steps, you're right on the beach where you can pick up some driftwood for your fire. Since no one was using it, he very kindly offered us a place to stay in Comox. We spent about 4-5 days just lazing about in the cabin and that was really nice, many thanks to the MacDonald family. Dear Hubby used to live in Comox and he took me around to introduce me (and Little Monkey) to his old friends. Comox was the place where I finally got to sample some REAL Canadian cuisine - a friend served us grilled elk for dinner and it was delicious!



Me craning my neck trying to see past the Douglas firs and hemlocks in the forest. (Capilano Park, North Van)

Some pictures from Canada

Sorry for the wrongly spaced pics. I've tried and tried to fix it but Blogger won't let me.



Tofino, Vancouver Island

We decided to splurge out on this cabin because we fell in love with it when we saw it. It was a one-bedroom cabin made entirely out of cedar and looked out to the Pacific Ocean. It cost C$150 for one night but we decided it would be worth it and it was!

View of the Canadian Rockies from the road. The drive was long and hard but the scenery made up for it.




Capilano Suspension Bridge, North Vancouver


This is one of the funniest pics of the whole holiday. This is me just about to get started on walking across the bridge and I'm trying to get a pic. But I can't because I'm swaying and shaking so much! Haha!
















Columbia Icefield

Pic taken at the start of the hike up to the glacier. It was BLOODY worth all the huffing and puffing!





















Jasper, Alberta

View of street in Jasper. Wouldn't you like to live in this town with the Canadian Rockies as your backyard?

Day 5 in Canada: I'm on a glacier!!!

This morning, we got up early and walked around Jasper for a bit. It was crisp and cold, the skies were a bright blue and I couldn't stop gawking at the Rockies. Jasper is really a very small resort town, I found it absolutely charming myself.

We grabbed a quick breakfast at Subway's. A sub at Subway's is our standard fare during our travels. They're much cheaper than a full meal at a restaurant, they're quite nutritious and they can be very filling.
During this trip, I was introduced to a Canadian institution - Tim Hortons. It's a Canadian chain which started out by selling donuts and coffee to the morning crowd. Started by an ex-NHL player, the chain grew and grew and now it offers a lovely soup and bagel breakfast as well. I suppose it is to Canucks what mamak stalls are to us Malaysians. There is a Timmie in every town and village and I loved our meals there. I told Dear Hubby that if I should moan "Tim.... Tim..." in my sleep from now on, he shouldn't get too worked up because I'm just lusting for the donuts.

After breakfast, we hopped back into our car. Destination Cochrane, Alberta. But before that... the glacier! We drove down south on the Icefields Parkway. Yes, it's as cold as the name sounds. But did I care? No! I'd been checking out brochures before we left and was pretty disappointed to find out that it would cost something like C$95 for a ride out onto the glacier in a erm... I dunno what you call it.. snow explorer truck? Oh well, the website calls it a Snocoach. Wow. That's pretty expensive.

But Dear Hubby obviously knew other ways of getting out onto the glacier. We drove up to this bit where you could actually walk up to the foot of the glacier! Awesome or what! I was out of the car the moment we parked, all excited and ready to go. It didn't matter that I was dead close to freezing my fingers off. I pulled my toque tighter on my head, zipped up my jacket and took Dear Hubby's hand as we headed up the gentle hill before the glacier.

The walk was mostly up gravel and rock. There were streams everywhere and I dipped my fingers into one. Brrr... cold! No wonder, it was water from the melting glacier. Some bits of the trail were snow and me, being a tropical baby, had no idea that snow can just give way under your weight. I sank up to my calves in snow in some bits and I thought, Hmm... just like ais kacang!

I had to take a wee break to catch my breath. Hey, if you had to lug a 19-week-old baby in your belly up that hill, you'd take a break too! The trail has markers that show where the glacier used to be in previous years, going back to the 1800's. It's quite scary to see how much the glacier had retreated and if that wasn't a lesson for global warming, I don't know what else is.

When we finally got to the foot of the glacier, there was a rope there with a sign that said DO NOT CROSS. Well, I hadn't flown 18hours and hiked up that hill and froze to death just to be stopped by some rope and sign, so I followed Dear Hubby and ducked under the rope. I don't even know why the rope is there because everyone else was doing the same.

And there I am - I'm standing on a glacier!!! Woohoo!!! If I were a lad, I'm sure I would have written my name in pee on the snow. :)) We saw others hike further up the glacier but I didn't want to risk the trip, not with our Little One dependent on me to keep him safe. So we just stayed at the foot and took pictures of us on the ice.

The walk downhill from the glacier was a great deal easier and slower. I'd been so eager to get on the glacier I must have really zoomed up the hill. When we got back to our car, I looked back at the glacier and I couldn't believe that we'd gone that far. I'm so stoked I got to stand on a glacier. You don't think that it's possible, right.. glaciers are supposed to be high up and cold and one just doesn't go, "Hey, you wanna hike up to a glacier?" Well, in Columbia Icefield Parkway, you can do just that. All you need is a car to get you there, money to pay for the park access ticket and your legs.

I was on a high for the rest of the way. We would be driving past Banff to stay with friends in Cochrane for the night. The plan was to come back to visit Banff the next day. One more night in Cochrane and we would point our car westwards again and head back to Vancouver. We're almost halfway through the holiday and I'm having the greatest time of my life.

Day 4 in Canada: Driving up to Jasper National Park (plus some stuff from the night before...)

Last night, we went for a concert. It was by a group called Return to Forever, comprising of Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al di Meola and Lenny White. I'd never heard of them but when Dear Hubby heard that they would be in Vancouver the same time we were, he went over the moon and rushed to get tickets. I was really very doubtful about the concert since he said they played jazz-rock fusion and I can't stand fusion.

But I knew I enjoyed live music, I enjoy watching the interaction between the players and I'd never minded before what genre they were playing. And who could pass up the chance of seeing STANLEY CLARKE live??? So off we went at 7pm to have dinner at the Shark Club. There were some things I quickly learnt about Canadian cuisine: it's always served in huge portions and it's practically tasteless. Coming from Malaysia where everything tends to taste really, really good, Canadian food was quite bland.

The audience were mainly middle-aged and one of the most oft-overheard things at the concert was, "Jesus, I last saw them when they were playing in (insert venue) in 1972!" I thought, "Man... I wasn't even born yet when you guys saw them!" But it's okay. I'm used to hanging out with older folk and besides, I'd heard exactly the same comments when I attended the Eagles concert in Singapore back in 2004.

About three hours later, I found myself smiling from ear to ear. The music still wasn't my type and I hadn't a clue what Chick Corea was trying to express with his compositions but I'd enjoyed myself. It was a pleasure to watch top class musicians enjoying themselves playing together on stage. Best bit of the concert has to go to Stanley Clarke doing his solo bit on a double bass. I have no idea how he could coax that many sounds off that instrument, it was awesome.

This morning, we dragged ourselves reluctantly out of bed. We were facing an 8hr drive up to Jasper National Park. I'm normally comatose till maybe 10am but the promise of snow, glaciers and animals in the wild was enough to charge my batteries.

After the death-defying antics of drivers on the roads of KL and Jakarta, it was such a relief to drive in a country where people were actually civilised enough to obey traffic rules and use signals. The funniest thing about traffic in Canada is that pedestrians have right of way. When we were in Jasper, we had a cyclist - a cyclist!!! - stop at the pedestrian crossing so that we could cross safely. I told Dear Hubby that if this was KL, all drivers would be speeding up so that we would run and scatter in fear and not block his road!

We turned east towards Hope before going up north-east towards Kamloops and then on to Jasper. It was flat, cowboy country in the first part of the journey before the mountains took over. Long before we reached them, we could see the Canadian Rockies right ahead of us. John Denver songs swirled in my head. I know he was singing about another country but when I'm looking at the snow-capped Rockies ahead and the clear rivers running by the highway, I knew what he was meant.

It had been drizzling most of the time on the road. By the time we got to the mountain roads, guess what? It snowed!!! I was soooooooo stoked! I'm a tropical baby, I've spent all my life growing up in the sunshine and rain and had never seen snow. But right next to me on the highway were fir and spruce with snow heavy on their branches, snow on the ground and snow flying towards us. I squealed excitedly, "Snooowwwwwwww!!!" and rolled down the window, ignoring the wind and stuck my hand out. I sang out "Jingle bells" as we continued driving on and I finally rolled the window up again when my hand was close to freezing off my wrist.

It was 6pm when we finally arrived in Jasper National Park. Jasper is a little touristy town situated in the Park. People come here all year round to hike, ski and climb the Rockies. It was utterly charming and who wouldn't want to live in a town that had the magnificent snow-capped Rockies as your backyard? It was bear country and all the bins in the town were bear-proof. This is to stop bears from learning that they can forage for food in bins where humans live. Canada's policy is to keep bears in the wild away from human so that they can continue to be bears. Bears in human areas mean only one thing: either the bear or the human dies.

We ate dinner at Earl's which is a chain of restaurants. Dear Hubby told me that Earl's employs the cutest wait staff he'd ever seen. And it was true! Our waiter was a tall, fit, strong-looking Canadian lad with hazel eyes and thick dark brown hair. I thought to myself, "If you were in KL, you'd be mobbed by the ladies!"

We were absolutely pooped after the 8hr drive, so all we did after dinner was tumble into bed and snore the night away. Tomorrow would be another 4hr drive to Banff.... and... can't think... zzzzzzzzz.....