ALBERTA - three weeks in the Prairies & Rockies

CALGARY - ride 'em cowboy 

We had only a couple of days in Calgary enroute to the snowfields of the Rockies so needless to say we only

managed a couple of 'essential' destinations. It was snowy, cold & the days were still short, which unfortunately limited us incredibly. We did manage a fire station visit, a walk along the riverfront to Fort Calgary & some time wandering through the Plus 15 walkway.

Calgary City Hall, built of local sandstone

Fort Calgary was very informative, naturally the original timber structure is long gone but the site has been preserved at the junction of the Bow & the Elbow Rivers. The fort was built in 1875 & staffed by the 'Mounties', the North West Mounted Police (they weren't Royal until 1904) to bring law to the territories. Seems to have worked, Canada is pretty law abiding really!!

Fortunatley they had a dress-up box for the kids!

The Plus 15 is a system of shopping areas in buildings connected by walkways which join the buildings - 15 metres above the roadway. Good stuff, no exposure to the weather but unlike the underground systems you could actually see the sky & the road signs to help you work out where you were!

Inside one of the wonderful Plus 15 walkways,
all heated of course

It proved a little difficult to get to the Greyhound Bus Station & we had to wait for a bus that only ran once an hour. There was a light rail station near the depot but it was still under construction, what a shame, that would have been so much easier!

CANMORE - Learn to ski or die trying!

We rented a one bedroom apartment on the outskirts of town for our stay in the snowfields. The weather forecast looked promising for a bit of snow & fortunately for us not too much wind to spoil things. After our scenic trip with Greyhound from Calgary we settled into our apartment, the next morning we awoke to gently falling snowflakes & a pristine wonderland outside our balcony. Mind you it is a bit cold to be using the BBQ on the balcony at this time of year! 

Falcon Crest Lodge, wonderful accommodation, could easily live here...

Needing a few supplies (we had eaten just about everything we had brought with us for dinner the first night) we wandered into town through the snow. It is about 2 kilometres from our place to the centre of town but it was OK as long as you took it steady.

Nice & cosy, but watch your step on the ice

So, rugged up in just about everything we own, we window-shopped, visited the tourist information office (lovely lass there who holidayed on the Sunshine Coast a few years ago, small world eh!), had coffee & a muffin, looked for some souveniers, bought a couple of second-hand books to read & picked up a couple of postcards. Grabbing a few bags full of groceries at Safeways on our walk home we then settled in for a bit of TV & relaxing as we watched the snow falling outside, fire burning - how perfect is that!



The view from the corner of our street, on the left are the peaks known locally as the Three Sisters

Grant has been skiing in the past but he was by no means an expert so we decided now was a really good time to have a few lessons & to spend some time on the slopes to improve his skills. We booked him in for three days of group lessons, that included two, one & a half hour lessons, ski hire & the shuttle bus from the hotel a block away. As it turned out he was the only person in the group & his instructor was from Melbourne......funny eh!

Historic Building & Museum for the North West Mounted Police

While Grant was off skiing I used the days to wander round the township & my first stop was the ammolite jewellery factory. They offered free tours on the hour so I timed my 3km walk to get there in plenty of time, as I had never heard of Ammolite it was intriguing. The tour was great, the lady gave the prehistoric history of the inland sea that 70 million years ago covered most of Alberta & explained the mining, handling & sale of ammolite.

As part of a round trip I then walked via the chocolate factory/store & after nibbling on a few samples & watching them make chocolates I walked, downhill fortunately, back to the apartment.

Banff, has always been one of those must see destination of the Canadian Rockies so we hired a car for just the day & headed north to the tourist hotspot.  The township is packed with tour buses & tour groups in  the summer months but in the middle of winter all we had to contend with were a few skiiers & plenty of board riders.  The town was full of Aussies, the very first person we spoke to, a lovely young lady at the tourist information office was Canadian but her mother was born & bred in Tamworth (of all places).



Now that is a view! As we drove to Banff, the Canadian Rockies rose before us

Following her advice we headed through town & uphill to the gondola. Wonderful, wonderful views on the way up in the gondola to the mountain top, when we got to the restaurant & viewing area we found it connected to a kilometre long, wooden, raised boardwalk which followed the natural contours of the ridge all the way to the cutest little stone cottage, the fully restored historic weather station.



View over the river valley from the viewing area

In just that one walk we met five people, all of whom where or used to be Australians, see it is an invasion! The views were amazing, over the township & river itself right up one valley to Minniwanker Lake, which of course was white like every other lake we have seen this winter. The snow was gentling falling & it was a truely magical spot, so just to extend our visit a little we enjoyed a nice hot soup in the restaurant before descending to the valley floor again.



Panorama - that is Banff township in the lower right & Lake Minniwanker above it

A short drive & we were at the historic & absolutley gorgeous Banff Fairmont Hotel & at the back of that we stopped for a photo opportunity at the frozen river cascades. Quick wander round town for a few souveniers & some postcards & off again.  

Frozen Lake Louise, above it you can see Victoria Glacier which feeds the lake

Lake Louise is a short drive further north, this is a very small place, just a half dozen shops & a bakery (thank goodness for that) & of course its famous blue lake. Well, as you might already have guessed the lake was white & frozen, we're told about one metre deep & there were plenty of people out there snow-shoeing & cross-country skiing across the lake. It was a fine clear day & it was very easy to see the glacier high up in mountain valley behind, that feeds the lake. The unusual blue colour comes from the glacial sand (very fine particles) suspended in the water.

On the lake side of the famous Fairmont Hotel there was a small hockey rink, a skating rink & a wonderful display of ice sculptures which included a 'castle' right out on the ice of the lake.

Modest decorations inside the
Fairmont Hotel, Lake Louise

Our week in the snow was at an end & we caught the Greyhound bus back to Calgary, changed buses & headed for South Edmonton where Joy & Lew picked us up....

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON STATE

We had been pre-warned about the rain in Seattle but were determined not to let the overcast skies & regular drizzling spoil our stay. Fortunately for us, the skies did clear once or twice & the rain was light for our entire stay. 

Our TOP SPOTS to visit:
 

1) EMP Museum (Experimental Music Project), this is located in Seattle Centre, the original site of the1962 World's Fair. Toni had recommended we visit & thank goodness she did or we may have given it a miss altogether. It was absolutely amazing with wonderful displays both static & interactive. The first one we went into was the AVATAR exhibition, WOW, it showed all the technology, imagination & science behind the making of the film including props, concept art etc.

The second visit was to 'Can't Look Away: the lure of Horror Film' display, another WOW. Wonderful interviews with stars, directors etc talking about horror expressed on film. Believe it or not this was really interesting, you know Hitchcock almost released 'Psycho' as a TV movie until the music was added, then he realised just how scary it actually was. So if you want to not be frightened cover your ears, not your eyes!

  

Sculpture made completely of guitars,
two storeys high

Next was the 'Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses' display. This was a massive collection of memorabilia including rare artifacts & photography, broken guitars, hand written notes & so much more. We had no idea that grunge music had started here in Seattle.

Fender Stratocaster used during Nirvana's 1992
'Nevermind' Tour



Then the Jimmy Hendrix exhibition, again we had no idea he was born here in Seattle. This place has always had such a thriving underground of musicians. As part of the display they had the white guitar that he used at Woodstock to play the national anthem, a pivotal moment in history! They also had, behind glass of course, a three day ticket to Woodstock!! In mint condition too......unbelievable stuff, we loved it!

Now that was a good value event! 

We spent an interesting half hour in the Guitar Gallery too, looking at all the old instruments that they used to trace the development of the guitar until it became electric & dominated rock & roll music. An original electric Gibson from the 1930's wonderful!

1950 Fender Broadcaster, the 'Model T'
of electric guitars

And just to top the whole day off there was a huge screen (10m x 20m) in a room called the Sky Church where they played mostly film clips but I saw the full length version of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' & Jimmy Hendrix playing 'All along the Watchtower' in the same orange outfit that was hanging in a glass case in his exhibition.

No need to say who owned this outfit!

2) Pike Place Market, the hustle, the bustle, the vendors shouting out specials, the handmade goods, the fruit, the vegetables, the fresh fish, the clothing, the leathergoods & we must not forget the Gum Wall.  Yes, there is a wall covered in used chewing gum...definitely had yuck value. Just across the street from the market is the now historic first shop in the Starbucks chain , the queue went out the door & into the street so getting a coffee there wasn't a priority but we did manage to squash in for a photo opportunity with the original logo on the front window.

The entrance to Pike Place Markets

 

Yes, it is as gross as it looks & it smells like bubblegum



The sign reads 'Starbucks, Coffee, Tea, Spices' & it's brown not green

3) Bainbridge Island is just a 45 minute ferry ride from the Seattle harbour across Puget Sound so we popped over for a visit. The day was pretty ordinary but the rain did hold off long enough for me to get a few shots of the city as we left the dock.



Seattle skyline from the back deck of the ferry



Rock man - holding up the fencing on
the marina boardwalk

Some of the cute cottages on Bainbridge Island

4) Space Needle is a great looking structure but we didn't go up, the weather was too overcast to see anything. It was built for the 1962 World's Fair (that is where Elvis made the movie, It Happened at the World's Fair) along with the monorail which leads to it from the city centre. Locals refer to the monorail as the 'train to nowhere' as it only stops at the ends & only goes to the one place but it carries millions of tourists every year & while the World's Fair was on it transported 8 million people in six months, pretty good going I reckon.

Space Needle & us

Looking through the monorail carriage as we take a bend on the elevated track

5) Last but not least a couple of interesting stop-overs were the Sculpture Park down near the port & the Glass Blowing studio which was near our hotel.

Upmarket Apples - covered in chocolate, caramel, nuts
& all sorts of scrumptious decorations

Great environmentally friendly idea, a solar,
self-compacting garbage bin

Next stop....snow!