Mt Robson...

After leaving Whistler our drive to Kamloops was pretty spectacular.

It took longer than the expected 4hrs as we had to wait at least 30 min at a bridge crossing. A truck had apparently been through and knocked out one of the overhead support beams. We were happy to wait for them to repair it, rather than fall into the icy glacial-melt river. Mark wander up to suss out what was going on, then I got out of the car too. I ended up chatting to a lovely woman from much further north in Canada. She was dressed in shorts and t-shirt and thought it hilarious that I was cold in the 3C temperature. We ran into her and her husband again at a service station up the road. Another friendly chat - I silently decided their accent (and many northern Canadians) sounds to me like a cross between an american twang and the Swedish chef off the muppets. Lots of yoddly yoddly sounds in there! >>> Kamloops turned out to be a surprisingly large city. A population of around 100,000 it is the hub the surrounding towns come to for provisions. I had searched out an organic supermarket to stock up on food for our next 3 nights in a cabin. I figured if we went to a shop that only stocks healthy-ish food, then we would eat healthy-ish!

Again we had about 290km to drive from Kamloops to Mt Robson. However, because of the winding roads, it took more like 5 hrs. We also stopped along the way to sight-see and eat lunch. We didnt bother getting out of the car as it was cold enough that we drove through a couple of small snow flurries. We bought this sandwich at the supermarket. We figured with so much turkey on it, one was enough between the two of us.

As luck would have it, the cafe we stopped in on the premise of buying a coffee but really to use their toilet, sold this irresistable home made apple pie. Lucky we had only half a sandwich each and had the room to share a piece of pie!

We arrived at our gorgeous cabin in Mt Robson around 4pm. Unpacked, a glass of wine, and I soon had the chicken roast going. ($32 for a raw chicken - very big OUCH!! - more than double home prices)

We are getting in the maple syrup where possible.

The cabin is just fantastic. Kitchen, dining, lounge and bathroom w/ shower downstairs.

Upstairs 2 bedrooms and a bathroom with large bathtub. Lovely for soaking after being out in the cold.

To get here it was just a 100m drive up a small road that was directly off the main highway. Then our cottage is just inside the driveway entrance.

Set in the trees, it is a lovely quiet refuge for a few days. The owners have a house further down the road and completely out of sight.

We took a few short walks in the area. The property borders Swift Current Creek. Apparently in late summer occasionally the salmon get this far up for spawning. They said only the strongest get this far up, which also means the biggest. It would be incredible to see them leaping up these rocks.

Part of the walk near the creek was real 'Hansel & Gretel' country. The ground was spongy under foot from the depth of fallen pine needles and leaves. I was more than a little bit hesitant to walk past this cave. It was big enough for Mark & I to crawl in to and is clearly a place where bears hibernate. The literature at the house says there are ALWAYS bears around here. They even provide the bear spray to take with us walking. It is actually capsicum spray but is only useful at 6m. Personally Im happy not to have to use it!!

These yellow leaves on the track are all from birch trees. They are rounder than our birch leaves at home.

We walked up to this elevated section for a look at the surrounding mountains. Mt Robson is the highest in the Canadian Rockies. We are actually in a valley surrounded by snow capped mountains. A rare sight for us aussies! The water puddles also had a fine layer of ice on them! Brrr! As we headed down the hill I could hear some rustling in the trees. I looked a couple of times but didnt see anything. When looking for bears you not only check the ground as they are often in the trees too. ALOT of neck craning & hand clapping goes on! I did however work out what the rustling was. I saw what I thought was a large dog take off through the trees. On discussing this later with the owners, they assured me it was no dog. More likely a coyote or wolf - and a rare sighting!!!! yikes!!

This hill is covered in dark pine trees. Here though they are all dusted in snow.

We then walked down to the highway to see if we could get another view of the mountains. Our glamourous looks in this blog are never ending huh!! But at least we are warm. I must be slightly aclimatising as my chin has not turned purple here.

Across from our street is this view.

The splendid (& often hidden under clouds) Mt Robson. The far side of the mountain has a glacier feeding in to Lake Berg. We hear it is a gorgeous sight with often icebergs floating in the lake. We chose not to take the 23km each way hike in & up, up, to see it.

Looking up our street another aspect. The owners offered for us to pop down and see the view from their place any time. We wandered down around 3pm yesterday and WOW.. its an amazing view of Mt Robson from their upper balcony and inside their big log house. They kindly invited us to share a wine with them. 2 bottles and cheese and crackers later, we thought we better leave them alone. It was lovely to share their company for a couple of hours.

Mark was happy to settle in after getting our fire going. For warmth it's not essential as they have amazing heating throughout and under floor heating in the bathrooms. No cold tiles to walk on! In all it has been just a perfect place to stop, cook, read and walk.

Whistler - ridiculously beautiful in Fall

We invited Michelle, Adam and Steff to join us for our trip to Whistler. We were thrilled they did. We stopped by the Capilano Canyon along the way having heard it was worth seeing. We decided not to pay $35 each (x5) to walk on a suspension bridge across the canyon. It would be worth it if you could spend the day but we didnt have the time. I had seen the 'latest' pose by many foreign tourists and mentioned it to Adam. He is demonstrating it here.... normally they sit for the laid back style.

Instead we drove to the top where the dam outlet falls into the canyon. It was quite amazing to stand above the water pouring out. The force seemed incredible.

The drive up to Whistler was awesome. The highway is called the 'sea to sky' and the first 40% was along the water to Squamish. From there is was just gorgeous mountain views with the final 15 mins having snow capped mountains above us.

After checking in to our hotel, we planned to head off to check out the town. First up though we some how managed to consume a bottle or two of wine with some nibblies in Michelle's room. Eventually we headed out... only after posing on the steps.

Mark & Steff posing casually ... whilst Adam is still laid back.

Mother (Michelle) & son....

The village walk seemed about 1km long but maybe its only 500m. Who knows... but we were just gobsmacked at the colour of the trees....

The view form our balcony.... A little snow at the top of the mountain but not certainly not enough for the ski runs.

We enjoyed a fun night .. a little bar hopping and food. We planned to hit the rooftop hot-tub after dinner but Mark and I proved to be weaklings...the youngins' however showed us up.... we were asleep before we knew it..... However, we were up much earlier than them in the morning! Mark, Michelle and I took a walk over to Blackcomob village. Man.. it was so beautiful. We had to cross this bridge .... and river to get there.

Michelle and I pointing out some luscious items in a fur shop window. (hopefully all ethically obtained)

There was a meandering path down through the grounds of the Four Seasons Hotel. They have chosen to plant the perfect trees to showcase in Fall.

The colours were ridiculously bright... even more so than the picture shows.

Not sure who this furry man is next to me.... Don't be surprised if you see a little less hair in future photos. He is getting sick of it already.

From here we parted ways. We headed off around 2pm and drove to Kamloops for the night. About a 4.5 hr drive. Michelle, Adam & Steff planned to catch an evening bus back to Vancouver.

For the foodies out there.....

We were given a recommendation before we came, that a must visit, is the Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar. We decided to book before we came, and Im glad we did. It was very busy for a Sunday night.

We immediately loved the atmosphere and relaxed into a great night. Its predominantly a seafood restaurant and seafood is what we would eat!! First up we were given warm freshly baked rolls.. (to die for).. with a chickpea and roast pepper spread and a seaweed butter to go with. We also decided to drink wines by the glass so we could try more than one of the local wines. Our waitress we found out late in the evening was a somellier by trade. She was incredible insightful and interesting and helped make our night.

We were both keen on oysters as a starter and neither of us have seen such an extensive menu of oysters in any one place. In the long run they made it easy by saying they had an option of 6 different varieties available that evening. We decided to try one of each.

Yes Im rather happy to be there. Behind us is the sushi bar... with 3 sushi chefs

The fitout is similar to what is seen in modern Melbourne restaurants lately. Brick, timber, ducted pipework in the ceiling visible and comfy furniture. They also had ample space around each table to give privacy.

They oysters came with a raspberry vinegarette and lemons. We didnt bother with these!

Before and after.... we were fascinated at the different shells each oyser had. Some of them are from very close regions of the area. It made our options at home seem very limited.

Next up was Ahi Tuna Tataki. Lightly seared sashimi with daikon and miso infused barley. That barley went so fantastically with the tuna.....

Then is was a whole steamed Dungeness Crab for Mark... simply with a lemon butter and veges.

For me the Arctic Char... a fresh water fish that is somehow between a salmon and a trout. Light pink flesh and very delicate. Apparently is a favourite catch of fly-fishermen. The sauce was braised leeks, trout caviar, crab and cous cous in a vermouth butter sauce. Delicious!!!!

Believe it or not... we still managed to share a dessert. The most incredible... I repeat incredible dessert... Lemongrass brulee on one side with the other dish having a dense square of carrot cake, mango salsa with a light yoghurt & ginger sorbet. Did I mention it was incredible!!

The check came with Petit Four.... like we needed more food. Somehow we managed to down the banana and almond cake and a couple of bits of the blueberry biscotti. I dont know if it was the wine... (we only had 3.5 glasses each).. but by the end Mark was raving to the waitress that it was close to, if not, the best meal he had eaten in his life.

So Mark was still raving about it so much the next day, I could not stop him from heading there again. It was booked out (Monday night) but no reservation necessary to sit at the sushi bar.

The white in the background is an ice covered metal framework (like beer taps in a pub). So when the sushi orders came in, they would make them up then sit them in front of this ice to keep cool. FYI - hanging above is an olympic baton.

The chef in action searing some tuna.

We went for oysters again. Only 5 each this time.

Then a lighter meal of lobster and mango sushi wrapped in egg crepe and tuna belly sashimi. Super tender and delicate to eat. We were so, so tempted to back up with the same dessert again but we used a little restraint and stopped there... happy with a lighter meal.

Vancouver

Ok... so we are just loving the trees.

I know these are quite similar pics but I just couldnt decide which one to remove... so you are getting both.

We met Michelle at Thierry cafe for coffee and a pastry. A gorgeous cafe but still we have not found what is good coffee to us. Yes! we are spoilt Melbourne coffee loving brats!

From there Michelle headed off to Stanley Park for a big walk and we walked a little before jumping in a cab for Granville Island. Its not too far but it began to rain again so we decided to get there dry. This city at every turn just feels familiar. We realise it is the Imperial influence we didnt realise is also Australia. At every turn we feel Melbourne/ Brisbane/ and even Hong Kong.

Granville Island is a huge Public indoor Market as well and a very diverse arts community. There are many theatres and workshops on the island. For those who know it, it is probably the size of Brisbanes south bank. So a big area. Get a load of these trees across the water....

After a couple of hours wandering and enjoying, we bought some lunch and sat outside to enjoy. It had stopped raining and it was lovely looking across to Vancouver. This very sweet little bird had no qualms landing next to Mark and cheep in hope he would toss a crumb or two. We didnt dare as there were also copious amounts of seagulls (twice the size of ours at home) and pigeons.

Clam Chowder.... and loving it. The bloody seagulls literally swooped between our heads, before landing in front of us. It seemed they were practised in scaring the **** out of people in hope they would drop their food. They nearly succeeded ! FYI - I had some maple glazed dry smoked salmon and a salad. So yummy.

We then caught this tiny Aquabus up False Creek to the Science Centre district. From there we walked to Chinatown. Along the way we passed a football and ice hockey stadium. Mark gazed longingly at them... but alas there were no games on while we are here.

One of my main objectives here was to visit the DR Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. In very recent years National Geographic voted it the worlds best city public garden. They apparently had master craftsmen brought from China to build it in traditonal style.

Check out the laying of stones for the paths. Most have round edges as they are small river rocks and others are small pieces of granite.

There seemed to be a small monastary attached to the garden. Some monks we making a sand mandala. We sat and watched for a while .. enjoying a hot tea. It is painstaking back-breaking work literally laying the sand a grain at a time in the most intricate pattern. It literally means 'a million grains of sand'. It was to be finished within 24 hrs and it looked like they still had a lot of work to do. You can see the outline further out from where they are working, that had to be filled in. It was to be swept up in a ceremony the following day. I know in the past when they are swept up the sands have been distributed to people in little containers or poured into a river. This is to share the energy.

The garden was not large but it was beautiful. It was as much about the buildings as it was about water and plants.

Gorgeous!

We then strolled back up through Gastown. Adam had warned us about a particular area to avoid at night. We had to pass through it and I can see why the warning. Every street corner for about 4 blocks had about 20 people hanging around there. Seemingly homeless but clearly all with drug problems. It was very sad and more than a little disconcerting to see.

Back to the reality of our consumerist life. Here were candy apples in many flavours and coatings.

Mark watching the end of a working day, from our hotel window.