Calgary, AB

Happy New Year!

Dec 30th - Jan 2nd

We headed out of Edmonton for another 300km drive to Calgary, another big city in Alberta. This was the most amount of 'city' traffic we had to do out of our whole trip so far and it was interesting as we drove in during peak hour and the roads are quite different. We checked into the Glenmore Inn in glenmore about 20 mins from the main city area and the hotel was quite nice. As it was already quite late we had went for an indian buffet dinner at a restaurant across the road nad then had an early night. On the way back to the hotel I slipped (hayley) over the for the first time on the stupid icy bits of the car park!!! It hurt, and being so full from the indian didn't make it any better!!

On the 31st (-20!) we wanted to head into Canada olympic park which we though was almost like a ski area in the middle of the city. We were mistaken as canada olympic park was on the outskirts of calgary and instead we ended up at canada olympic station in the city where there was (another!) outdoor skating rink. So we went for a wander anyways and decided to go up calgary tower (like black mountain tower or sydney tower) where we got a pretty great view of the whole of calgary. It spreaded out as far as the eye could see and we could see the rocky mountains out in the distance too. It was a great view. We went walking around some of the main streets of the city which were quite nice and went through a couple of malls.

After lunch we got the train back to our hotel and bought tickets online to a nightclub for new years eve. We bought some drinks to have while we were getting ready and OMG they were soooo cheap compared to australia so that was good for us haha! And Shaun got a massive corona bottle for only $4! It was huge! We then headed back into the city and had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory which was yummy and then we went over to the Whiskey Nightclub where we had bought tickets. It was a really cool nightclub with lots of different areas (pub style, night club, lounge) and they had lots of 'new years' themed party favours we could have. It was pretty busy there by the time it struck 12 and we brought in the new year with lots of dancing and some drinks. It was a really fun night and we both had a great new years eve together!

After chatting to all of you guys on skype until 2:30 in the morning we went to sleep and woke up pretty late on new years day. We had a late breakkie at the hotel and then went to one of the local shopping centres which was quite massive and saw a movie at the scotiabank cinema. We saw How Do You Know which was pretty funny. We then headed back to the hotel for a rest and got ready to go out for dinner in the city. We decided to go to a Teppanyaki restaurant as we like to go to those for special occasions coz they're fun and always really yummy! (for those who didn't know, new years day was shaun and mine's 2nd anniversary haha so we had something to celebrate!) We had a really yummy dinner and as usual were rolling out of the restaurant coz we were so full!

On the 2nd of Jan we checked out of our hotel in Glenmore and decided to see the real Canada Olympic Park on our way to Canmore. It was on the outskirts of Calgary and it was like just one hill with 2 chairlifts and a terrain park. You could see the whole thing from the bottom so it wasn't very big. But it was used for the olympics. It looked like a good place for beginners to go. We went for a walk around and had a look at the luge and bobsled track and then hopped back into the car to keep going. Although we quite liked Calgary, We were quite keen and excited to make a move as it was now onto our home for 3 months, Canmore.

Stay tuned for our adventures of officially living in Canada for the next 3 months,

Love Hayley and Shaun

 Calgary tower entrance

Looking up at the tower

View of city

view of calgary

glass bottom floor

city

hayley in the main city street

shaun looking up at the buildings

happy new year! made of ice

happy new year!

happy 2011!

canada olympic park

Edmonton, AB

Now it's cold!

28th Dec - 30th Dec 2010

We left Jasper early to head to Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, again about 300km away. We finally reached truly freezing as it was in the -20's! So far it hadn't really got lower than -10 or -12 during the day. We went straight to West Edmonton Mall, a massive shopping centre that was beyond anything you have seen before. It has over 800 shops, an indoor theme park, and indoor water park, indoor ice-skating, putt putt gold, bowling and glow in the dark putt putt as well as an aquarium, 4 or 5 different themed shopping areas (chinatown, europa boulevard, bourbon st etc) and a massive pirate ship where you can ride little boats around on the water right in the centre of the shopping centre. There was also a sea lion show twice daily in the centre of the mall. This place was amazing, and one of the main reasons we wanted to go to Edmonton!

We searched around the mall for a few hours and then headed to our hotel, the Crowne Plaza and checked in. We then went over to the other side of the city for some Japanese for dinner.

The next morning we headed back to the mall, and when we stepped outside to get the bus OMG it was absolutely freezing! You couldn't take a full breath in because it would hurt and would make you cough. Getting onto the bus was the best thing ever! It was unbelievable! By taking the bus we got to see some of the main city part of Edmonton, it was one of the only actual 'cities' with skyscrapers that we had seen since Vancouver. When we arrived at the mall we played a round of glow in the dark putt putt golf which was really cool (shaun won, grrr!) Then we headed to the theme park and went on some cool rides. There was a really crazy rollercoaster where you span around the whole time as well as going up and down, then there was a massive loop-the-loop rollercoaster (indoors!) that was crazy! we felt like we'd been through a tornado afterwards!

After the theme park, we went to the water park. It was pretty cool, you could see it was dark outside thru the roof and it would have been -20 out there but we were swimming inside! There was a massive wave pool and about 10 or so different slides. Most of the slides were pretty cool and different, except one that left me feeling like I'd just died. It took me about 10 mins to get my heart rate back to a normal speed and to adjust my swimmers back into place. I'd also inhaled about 500 gallons of water including up my nose! Phew. But it was a really cool water park and lots of fun!

On the way home we ended up getting on a bus that decided to change routes mid way without telling anyone so then we were going way into suburbia and had to get off and get the right bus so that was interesting and took an extra hour back to our hotel! We ordered some chinese food and went to bed as it was pretty late.

The next morning we had to check out so we packed up the car again and headed out in the arctic weather. We read in the lonely planet book about 'old strathcona town' on the other side of the river that was kind of an 'alternative' area with lots of shops and restaurants with a vintage feel to it, so we thought we would check it out on our way out of Edmonton. However, when we got there it seemed to be only one really long street, and it looked just like everywhere else, didn't really seem that appealing but we did find a nice place to have lunch.

After lunch we headed out of Edmonton to move onto Calgary. We liked Edmonton but because of the cold, it made it a bit hard to see more than what we did, but I think its main attraction is the mall and we definitely made use of that!

Heading on to Calgary to bring in the New Year!

Hayley and Shaun xx

Indoor Pirate Ship and water area

Indoor water park

Indoor water park

Sea Lion show

Sea Lion

Some of the city

City

Jasper, AB

Jasper & Hinton

26th Dec - 28th Dec 2010

After leaving Lake Louise quite late on boxing day we missed a lot of the famous scenery of frozen lakes and the big rocky mountains on the way to Jasper as it was dark. However we noticed a lot of trails that you could drive down to see all of the beauty were closed which we thought was odd because it's most popular time is winter. We had arranged to stay in Hinton which I (hayley) thought was only just out of Jasper (as all of the hotels in Jasper were full at that time) so we stopped at a petrol station in Jasper to ask directions. It turned out Hinton was another 75km out of Jasper! So we still had a while to go yet. When we arrived in Hinton it was quite late and it was another of those small industrial towns either side of the highway (like kamloops). The hotel we stayed at was called Nova Lodge which was fairly modern and nice, however pretty empty. But it was another hotel with breakkie included! So that was a bonus.

It turned out majority of the restaurants and fast food places nearby were closed because it was a holiday so we settled on Boston Pizza, a 'family' italian restaurant and since eating there we have now seen one everywhere, much like the A&W fast food place. We still don't know what A&W stands for!! We went to bed late and woke up to very cold conditions the next day and we trekked back into the town of Jasper. We went for a walk around, and the town was very small. We had a very cheap lunch in a pub and spent about an hour walking around trying to find the information centre after we were given wrong directions from about 3 different people. When we finally got there pretty much everything we thought we could do that was 'touristy' was closed, not just because it was holidays but because it was winter! So confusing, seeing as Jasper is famous for winter scenery. So we were pretty disappointed that we couldn't really see anything. We went for a drive up to the local ski hill, Marmot Basin, and just had a look at the view but by then it was getting dark and we headed back to Hinton for the night.

We went in the hot tub and my god it was HOT! It makes it worse when it's indoors and there is no cool air to help balance it out. After that we had Dairy queen for dinner and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up and got ready to head to Edmonton, about 300km away again.

Not much to tell about our Jasper adventure unfortunately as it was all closed, very disappointing. But there are many other things you can do within that general area as Jasper is a national park, so perhaps later on we might do some of those when we get a bit more money!

Stay tuned for our Edmonton travels.

Love Hayley and Shaun xoxo

Rocky Mountains

Jasper

Town of Jasper

Caribou

Snowy Mountains

Lake Louise, AB

24th Dec - 26th Dec 2010

Merry Christmas from Lake Louise!

We are now in Alberta!

We arrived at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise at about 2:30pm on Christmas Eve and we were immediately greeted with that lovely white christmas feeling. There was snow everywhere and christmas decorations covering the whole inside and outside of the hotel and the hotel itself was HUGE! For those who don't know, the Fairmont is a very fancy hotel chain, normally with castle-esque hotels and providing old-fashioned decor and service. We were both very excited to be having a white christmas and especially at such a nice place. It was very christmas themed, with lots of activities going on everywhere. We checked into our room and went and had some lunch at the deli, one of the many food establishments throughout the hotel. We went for a walk around as there were many different parts to the hotel and soon after that it was time for our first activity. The hotel through a "welcome reception" for all guests in one of their lounges providing lots of yummy canapes and drinks. It was lovely and a nice way to spend the start of the evening. We made the most of it and ate enough to last us for dinner haha!

After that it was time to get ready for our next activity. Before we left for Canada we had booked in to "Lake Louise by Moonlight". We met some other people (mostly from australia!) and our guide in the 'guides cabin' at about 7pm and went snowshoeing up and down a mountain close to the hotel, in the dark! Both of us had never been snowshoeing before so it was definitley a great experience! It was better going down than up though! And we all had little head lights on, like we were going into a mine ha ha, But our guide was great and he even gave us his card at the end in case we needed help with jobs once we got to Canmore, so that was nice. It was something really different and fun to do on Christmas Eve. When we returned to the hotel, the staff put on christmas carols in the lobby and they were all singing on the staircase and everyone else could stand around and join in. They even had hot chocolates and egg nogg and it was really nice and festive!

After talking to everyone on Skype (as it was xmas day for all of you!) we went to bed and woke up the next morning ready to celebrate Christmas Day. The hotel had left a christmas stocking on our door with a christmas card, some cake and cookies, a slinky and some playing cards. This was really cute and exciting!

We then went and had a late breakkie in one of the restaurants which was very yummy and then headed outside and watched some people do ice-skating on the lake. Then it was time to go on our sleigh ride. Lucky they had blankets coz it was pretty freezing! We were on a sleigh with two massive horses and about 15 other people, and there were about 4 sleighs all up. It took us all the way to the other end of the lake (that was all frozen) and we got a great view of the hotel from the other side, the mountains and some frozen waterfalls. It was a really lovely thing to do for both of us. After that we had some hot chocolates in the cafe and went for a dip in the hot tub. We then got ready for our christmas buffet dinner that we had pre-booked already as well. We headed to the function room at about 6 and it was a massive room full of buffet tables and beautiful xmas decorations. We ate ourselves stupid as usual and had some festive drinks of course! It was beautiful food and lovely atmosphere. We had a nightcap at the Glacier saloon and went to bed. It may not sound it when its written out like this but we had a lovely relaxing christmas day!

The next day (boxing day) we woke up and packed our bags again and had lunch in the cafe. We then had a quick ice-skate on the lake. Shaun was much better than me! I only lasted a few laps as the ice was obviously real, so much different to ice-skating at home and there was nothing to hang on to!! Bit scary, but cool to think we were skating on a real lake. After that we had booked into to make our own gingerbread house. We headed to yet another function room and we were given the kit with lollies (or candy!) and icing and got to build and decorate it however we wanted! We got to take it with us toom so its been travelling along on our road trip and I haven't let shaun eat it yet!

After we finished that we had to get going to our next destination and we were both very sad to leave such a beautiful magical place. Lake Louise in the winter was truly beautiful and we were very lucky to have such a fantastic christmas. Wish we could do it again, Although at many times throughout the day, we both missed everyone at home and wished we could all be together at christmas time too. We hope you all had a great festive season!

Now on to Jasper!

Love Hayley and Shaun xx
Photos Below

Xmas tree in the Lobby

Xmas Carols

Xmas Stocking, left at our door

Hayley in the snow

Shaun in the snow

Yogi Bear

View of the hotel from the other side of frozen lake!

Our sleigh ride

Xmas night

Our gingerbread house!

Us with the house :D

Kamloops & Revelstoke, B.C.

Kamloops 21st Dec - 22nd Dec
Revelstoke 22nd Dec - 24th Dec

Hitting the road....

Time to stretch the new car's legs and officially begin our roadtrip. After leaving Whistler on Tues arvo we headed to Kamloops. A small, mainly industrial city about 300km from Whistler. We got there late and didn't get the chance to see much, but from what we could gather the next morning in daylight there wasn't much to see anyways! We now refer to it as the hick-town. We stayed at Knight's Inn, which out of all of the hotels we've stayed at, was the only gross and dodgy one. But we got it for cheap and even had breakkie included so oh well! We've noticed that most hotels here offer free continental breakfast with their rooms, seems to be a standard thing here. After going to bed late we woke up to snow everywhere which was nice, but the city itself was fairly bland. We stopped by our first Wal-Mart which was a K-mart on steroids. You could even do your groceries there. We bought some necessities for our car and hit the road again on our way to Revelstoke.

On our way it started snowing which was cool and we stopped in a little town called Salmon Arm (ha!) for lunch. We had our first A&W, fast food burger chain that is absolutely everywhere here! Thats something else we have noticed, they love their fast food chains and their diner chains and they are absolutely everywhere in every town regardless of how big the town is! You're never short of A&W and Starbucks and Tim Hortons (another coffee place). After Salmon Arm we continued on to Revelstoke and checked into the Powder Springs Hotel. A lot of snow there too and all of the housed streets looked so pretty with the snow and they are very big on christmas lights so that was nice. We had dinner at yet another diner, Denny's and went to bed.

The next day we had breakkie included in our room as well as ski passes so we got all ready for that and headed to Mt Revelstoke, about a 10 min drive from the hotel. It was ridiculously quiet there and not a huge mountain (compared to whistler) but it was good all the same.The lifts at the ski hills are good as there is usually a gondola as the main lift so its nice and warm We did a run called "The Last Spike" that went pretty much around the whole mountain, top to bottom, that was 15km long. For a lot of that, we were skiing through cloud so you could barely see the end of your ski in front of you. I didn't like that much, I didn't think we were ever going to get out of it! But the run was good. We had lunch and then as usual Shaun had to stretch his legs and enjoy the mountain without having to stop every five seconds for me! So he went and did some harder runs at the top of the mountain and really enjoyed that. We headed back down about 3:30pm and checked into our second motel in Revelstoke, the Alpine Inn, which was classic motel style but fairly decent. We had dinner at a restaurant called Emo's and figured they must all be one because they were all in black and had heavy makeup etc. Either that or emo's are called something different in Canada haha!

Revelstoke was quite lovely, with a small village covered in snow too but you couldn't walk around the whole thing like you could Whistler as it was spread out more. The next morning we got up early so we could head to Lake Louise and make the most of our christmas weekend at the Fairmont!

Stay tuned for the christmas blog, coming soon!

Here are some pics from Kamloops and Revelstoke.

Love Hayley and Shaun

(Sideways) WalMart

Driving from Kamloops to Revelstoke, snow everywhere

On the Chairlift at Revelstoke

Shaun Skiing

Hayley skiing

View of Revelstoke from ski hill

Alpine Inn Motel Revelstoke