Edmonton to Banff

I was going to subtitle today’s post with “from Sea to Sky”, but decided this was just plain false. I guess technically we were at the closest thing to the sea last night (the World Waterpark), but there’s really no sea around Edmonton at all. Anyway. This has started poorly. Let’s try again. Today was a very early start. Tori was up first (I know, don’t all fall over at once) at 5am, and I followed at about 5:30am. Our pickup was 6:45am from the mall, where we were staying, and similar to most countries in the world, the pre-arranged taxi didn’t show up on time. Lucky it wasn’t too late, but we soon realised that we would need more than one taxi to not only... [Read More]

Edmonton Day 2 – Amusement Central

Today was our first full day here in Edmonton, but really the second day of our stay here. We packed in as much excitement as possible before we exhausted ourselves, and were pretty successful on all counts. We started the day with four free breakfasts at the hotel – not bad feeding five people for less than $20! The food was enjoyed by all (as much as hotel breakfasts usually are of course), and we hit the shops with a blast just after 10:30am. Many bargains were uncovered, and with the help of a giant book of vouchers, we managed to save money in practically every store imaginable. We also managed to spot a mall cop – complete with segway to pursue the fast-walking shop-lifters.... [Read More]

Whistler to Edmonton

Today was our first internal Canada travel day. And it started early – 6:30am was our bus pickup time, so 5:15am was the wake-up call. Not so nice for those of us who enjoy a good sleep-in. Luckily we all were up and ready by the departure time, and in fact were marginally early as the flight time had changed from 10:30am to 10am. The shuttle arrived and we had a short wait while the driver pulled out his hair, trying to figure out how to fit in all the bags we’d accumulated since he last saw us, then we were soon on the road – back down the sea-to-sky highway to Vancouver. The trip was mostly in the dark, but we did get to... [Read More]

Whistler Day 7 – The End of the Line

Today was our last day here in Whistler – and it started a little worse than normal: with rain in the village. The nice snow cover that had developed on all the trees around the hotel had disappeared, and everything was looking very wet instead. The last day of sleep-ins started even slower than normal, with Tori and I not leaving the hotel until close to midday. We stopped by the Lift Coffee Co for a quick coffee before hitting the slopes, then met up with Ed and Tess at the base of Whistler to ski a few runs before the sun set. Ed and Tess had spent the morning at Blackcomb but found the conditions less-than-pleasant, so the afternoon was spent on Whistler –... [Read More]