Traveling with Old & Dear Friends

Just one of the beautiful gardens in Stanley Park

We had not visited Vancouver before, so we couldn't pass up the chance to see the city and spend some time with great friends in the bargain.

Like Portland, Vancouver is a beautiful city and it has wonderful parks and miles of harbor side walking and biking trails.

Sue & John

We were particularly enchanted by Stanley Park, with its wonderful and varied perennial and rose gardens and an impressive number and variety of trees, but the entire city is a sparkling gem.

Vancouver is another foodie city.  One night we dined in a revolving restaurant atop a 50 story building, with our view of the city constantly changing. Our AirBnB landlady, Andrea, put us onto a great eating experiences.  She recommended we try Campagnolo, which was just a mile from our apartment and five minutes from the train station, so we made reservations for lunch on the day of our departure.

We were a party of seven and they served us family style with a Chef's taster menu.  We were served with three courses--appetizers/salads, pizza, and desserts.  Each course had three or four different dishes, all were wonderful.  We ordered some Tuscan wine to go with the food, and the bill was about $35/person with tip.  Lots of fun and really tasty--we would highly recommend Campagnolo.

Cabins with Elk

In Vancouver, we were joined by John Cunningham, Lois and Martin Simpson, and Benigno and Lauriece Aguirre--friends from our graduate school days in New Orleans. We've known each other nearly 45 years--incredible as that seems.

The Gang getting ready for the Lake Maligne cruise

Thanks in large part to John's organizing skills and perseverance, we have managed to stay in touch with one another over the years, and recently we have been trying to get together on a regular basis for reunions and travel experiences.

This year we all agreed to meet in Vancouver and then ride the Canadian Pacific's train through the Rockies to Jasper National Park. It proved to be a great and unique experience.

The 18-hour, overnight train journey was surprisingly comfortable, even in a regular coach seat--most of us managed to dose off for some time during the night.  And share snacks during the day.

The construction of the line is a marvel of 19th and early 20th century engineering and ingenuity and the scenery is unparalleled. If you book through one of the Tour Canada companies, you can pay two or three thousand a person for this trip--I think we paid less than $150 for our train ticket. Seems like the scenery is the same, though, no matter what you pay.

Martin, John, Lauriece, Lois and Sue

We disembarked in Jasper, Alberta, Canada--a little mountain town of just 5,000 inhabitants that swells to a population of some 25,000 during the short summer tourist season.  Lodging for our stay was at the Pine Cabins, a cluster of log cabins just outside of town along the banks of the Athabasca River.

Most morning and evenings, we were visited by a small herd of elk--they are great fun for the tourists but make maintaining a garden and shrub plantings a real problem.

Spirit Island, a painter's paradise

There is a lot to see and do in and around Jasper, but most of it involves driving, which we did in a GMC Yukon, a huge, behemoth of a vehicle that easily held all seven of us as well as our luggage and paraphernalia.

Driving was surprisingly easy, what with power steering, the onboard GPS, and the ever present six backseat drivers and navigators. Not complaining; sometimes you needed everyone of them to see where you were suppose to turn.

Lois and Martin and the $1 million ice bus

All of us enjoyed our visit to Maligne Lake which is very close to Jasper.  On a chilly and rainy day, we booked a lake cruise that took us to Spirt Island, a small "islet" that you don't actually walk on, but you can get off the boat and take a short hike to a viewing/photography spot.  It is said to be one of the most photographed scenes in Canada. It was both beautiful and haunting.

One of the most interesting day trips involved a 200 mile roundtrip to the Columbia Icefield, where we rode a $1million ice bus that took us out onto the Athabasca glacier.

On the Ice Bus

Since its discovery in the 19th century, the glacier has retreated several miles and many scientists believe that it will disappear by the end of this century.

It certainly brings home the concept of global warming. During the 20 minutes you are on the glacier, you are free to walk around and explore.

Some of our fellow tourists, hiked pretty far onto the ice, but the story the bus driver told of the recent discovery of the body of a cross country skier that had been encased in the ice for twenty years was enough to make most of us want to stay close to the ice bus.

On the glacier

On another day we visited Lake Louise--truly an extraordinarily beautiful location.  Even though it was the middle of August, all of us were glad to have our fleeces and jackets, and the pause for coffee and hot chocolate in the majestic Lake Louise Lodge was an unexpected bonus.

A gondola ride up Whistlers Mountain (so called for the high pitched whistle made by the marmosets who live on mountain) was the highlight of another day. The gondola took us up above the tree line, but only Lois had the stamina to hike up the rest of the way to the top, while the rest of us visited the gift shop and coffee bar.

Lake Louise

Of course, the nicest part of the trip was just being with old and dear friends--gossiping and catching up, making and eating homemade meals, teasing, playing dominoes or reading by the fire for an evening, laughing and grouching.  It was a delight, and we are looking forward to our next reunion.  We all had a truly wonderful time and Sue has dubbed it "National Lampoon's Elders in the Rockies." We should be famous!

We left our mark near the cabins