May 20 - Niagara Falls

Today was beautiful, again!  Warm (about 19 degrees C), and mostly sunny with a few cloudy periods.  We had breakfast at the hotel this morning, then decided that we would do the "Maid of the Mist" boat ride today.  We went over to U.S. side of Niagara Falls for the ride, as the lineups for the ride were less than half that of the lineups for the Canadian side.  So we drove through the border and parked on Goat Island, in the midst of the Niagara River.  We had a bit of a walk around, and made our way to where the boats depart.  We were ready to be soaked, but with the supplied poncho, we barely got wet at all.  The hems of my jeans got a bit wet, and I think that was the worst of it.  What a fantastic experience that was!  It's hard to describe the power and force and magnitude of the water going over those falls.

Me and Rick on the "Maid of the Mist" at Niagara Falls

We haven't decided what we're doing for dinner this evening - perhaps burgers and beer.  Sounds good to me!

Mileage to date: 5,711 kms.
Gas in Ridgeway, ON: $1.36/litre
Gas in Blenheim, ON: $1.30/litre

May 19 - Niagara Falls

We had a big sleep-in this morning – didn’t actually roll out of bed until 10:30!  We grabbed a quick sandwich and latte at the Starbucks in the hotel, then thought about what to do for today…  The day has been warm, about 19 degrees C, and sunny with cloudy periods.  As it turned out, this was a quiet, relaxing day for us – a quick shopping trip, then back to the hotel for some R&R.  We’re just trying to decide what to do for dinner this evening – we think we may find a Greek restaurant.

We found a Greek restaurant called Koutouki Greek Cuisine – it looked really nice, and had a very good menu and a good rating on Trip Advisor.  I had the pork souvlaki and Rick had the moussaka, which is his very favourite Greek dish.  We also shared a saganaki appetizer.  My dinner was really good, but Rick’s was less than…  He said it lacked any kind of spice, so was bland, at best.

Just before going back to the hotel for the evening, we took a quick walk down the street, to the Hershey Store, which was about six storefronts from the hotel.  Talk about chocolate heaven!!  I could have cleaned up in there in no time!  I may have to go back again tomorrow, when I have a little more time to choose and decide what I want there…

So much chocolate... so little time...

#neverenoughchocolate

May 18 - Niagara Falls

Today is fan-tastic!!  Beautiful blue sky and sunshine on the falls this morning – it just doesn’t get any better for a vacation day, particularly since we haven’t had the best of vacation weather since leaving Kelowna.

We had breakfast at the Sheraton breakfast buffet this morning – quite an extensive affair, and absolutely delicious!  I could have stayed and enjoyed more coffee, but we wanted to get out to see Niagara On The Lake today.

We stopped at the Niagara Whirlpool on our route, and took some pictures.  Rick would have loved to take the Niagara Whirlpool Aerocar across the whirlpool, but I’m afraid that I just didn’t “feel the love” for that.  Chicken??  Yes!  Readily admitted.

We found our way to a couple scenic views along the Niagara Parkway, particularly the monument dedicated to Major General Sir Isaac Brock - Brock's Monument is a 56-metre column atop Queenston Heights, in Queenston, Ontario, one of Canada's heroes of the War of 1812; and the Niagara Park Floral Clock; then found our way, amongst the beauty of the old, grand homes along the Niagara River to Niagara-On-The-Lake.  Southern Ontario has captured my interest in a big way.  Though the spring season is about two weeks later than spring in B.C., the trees are just turning green here, and the lawns and surrounding green areas (parks and such) are just the “new spring” green that I love so much.  The beauty of the surroundings here makes me jealous of those who can enjoy this time and again.  But I dare not forget that this beauty is replaced by harsher winters than I care to tolerate, given a choice.

Rick and I wandered around “Old Town” Niagara-On-The-Lake for a couple hours, poking into this shop, and peeking into that shop – it was crowded, and it was fun.  Because of our large breakfast, and the lateness of the afternoon, we decided to forego lunch, and treated ourselves to a piece of carrot cake for me, and a date square for Rick.  We tasted some ice wine, and bought a bottle, and was tempted to buy a number of other items, but refrained…  We stopped into a winery, Reif Estate Winery, on the way back to the hotel, and tasted another ice wine, and bought a bottle there, too.  Who says I can’t be tempted with sweet nectar?!

“Old Town” Niagara-On-The-Lake

We got back to our hotel, and checked with the front desk, as the hotel was to move us from the room we checked into yesterday, to a suite.  They gave us new room keys, and we went in search of our new accommodations for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights.  This 22^nd floor suite is gorgeous, with two full bathrooms, two fireplaces (electric) and a circular staircase to the bedroom.  The suite has a chandelier in the loft area, and curtains that operate with a switch.  The view of the falls is magnificent from our room, and we learned that there will be fireworks over the falls tonight, for Victoria Day, and we’ll get the best view from our room.

Our two-storey suite at the Sheraton

Dinner at the Fallsview Restaurant in the Sheraton this evening was so delicious.  It was a huge buffet-style dinner, and there were so many selections, that it was hard to choose.  We took our time with dinner, and enjoyed a bottle of wine, then went back to our suite to wait on the fireworks at 10:00.

The fireworks were fantastic, and we had one of the best views that we could have had – Rick took quite a few pictures, that didn’t really do them justice, of course.  It was great having the opportunity to see them from the vantage that we had.

It’s now midnight, and time to turn in for the night.

May 17 – Stratford to Niagara Falls

Today we woke to a gray day, but fortunately it’s not raining.  We got ourselves ready for the day, and down to breakfast just before 9:00.  Elena and Dom, our hosts at the Birmingham Manor B&B requested that we be on time for breakfast, as they request of all their guests.  They treated us to a delicious breakfast of a fresh fruit plate, orange juice, orange and ricotta pancakes with berry compote, and "something" and rhubarb crumble, with coffee and tea, as desired.  There was another couple staying there at the same time, and between the hosting couple, and the other guests, we had some interesting conversation over breakfast.  We’d definitely stay at this B&B again, if ever in this area.  http://birminghammanor.com/

Elena Pastura & Dom Tassielli, owners of Birmingham Manor B&B in Stratford, ON.

We had a really nice drive today – not sunny, but certainly not bad for driving.  Again, the scenery was beautiful – the landscape so lush and green.  Along the way, I spotted some “minion” hay bales in a field that a farmer had created, but we were traveling too fast for me to grab my camera and get a shot, or even to tell Rick to stop for a moment so I could get my camera out…  I totally regret not going back there to get a picture, as it was sooo cute.

We got to Niagara Falls at about 2:00, and we had to drive past the falls, first and foremost, as it was my first time experiencing Niagara Falls.  So by the time we took a little drive, we got to our hotel, Sheraton On The Falls at about 3:00.  We checked in and were given a double-queen room on the 3^rd floor for one night.  We could have remained in that room for the duration of our stay, but we were promised a two-floor suite on a higher floor with a king bed, if we wanted to move.  We indicated that we’d definitely change rooms when the suite came available tomorrow.

Once we got checked in, we went to the Hard Rock Café in the adjoining complex, for a late lunch.

We then decided to go for a walk down to the falls…  What an experience!  I was amazed and impressed and awestruck, and more…  The force and the magnitude of the falls overwhelm me.

We walked along from the Sheraton to the Canadian falls, and then we warmed up in the Table Rock Welcome Centre with a cup of Timmy’s hot chocolate and a doughnut before we headed on our walk back to the hotel.  Because of our late lunch and snack of hot chocolate and doughnuts, we weren't very hungry for dinner, so instead had a snack/dinner of nachos at Ruby Tuesday’s, at about 9:00.  Then we went back to the hotel, and soon after turned in for the night.

Mileage to date: 5,371 kms.
Gas in Niagara Falls, NY: $3.88/gal = $1.128/litre Cdn

May 16 – Caledon to Stratford

We had a bit of a chance to sleep in a little this morning, then checked out of our beautiful room at the Millcroft Inn.  We decided to go back to Orangeville to find ourselves a Starbucks breakfast.  Again, we had a beautiful day for travel - not too warm, but pleasant.  It was a great drive from Caledon to Stratford - and we took our time, taking some back roads through the beautiful countryside, and thoroughly enjoying the drive...

We drove through Brampton, and stopped to take a picture of the house that Rick owned while living there, and where Shannon and Meghan first lived after they were born.  This house was about 900 sq. ft. upstairs - a little larger than the house that I lived in, as a child.  It appears that someone's doing renos to this house, at the moment...

18 Royce Avenue, Brampton, ON

We got to Stratford and found the Birmingham Manor B&B that we had reservations at - it was around 4:00 pm by this time.  We were greeted by Elena, one of the hosts of the Birmingham Manor B&B, and were shown to our room.  I had a sneak peek at the other rooms in the B&B, since they weren't occupied just yet.  In the hallway, there was a "guest" mini-fridge that could be used for any items; and was stocked with water and pop which were complimentary for guests.  There were a lot of little amenities for guests, that were very thoughtful.

Birmingham Manor B&B, Stratford, ON.

We thought we'd have an early dinner and catch our evening show that we'd previously booked.  When Rick looked at the tickets for our show, however, we realized that we'd goofed - our show was a matinee that started at 2:00 pm - not an evening show, as we had thought and anticipated.  We were both disappointed, but there was nothing that could be done about it at this point.  So we found a place to go have dinner, and went back to the B&B for an early evening.

Our room at the Birmingham Manor B&B.

 A beautiful, comfortable queen-size bed in a beautifully appointed room.

 The foyer to the Birmingham Manor B&B.

 The other side of the foyer.

 A working telephone booth inside the B&B

- local calls and long distance calls within Canada are complimentary.

 The sitting room for guests at the B&B.

The formal dining room for guests at the B&B.

Mileage to date: 5,157 kms.
Gas in Guelph, ON: $1.33/litre

May 15 – Manitoulin Island to Caledon

We decided to get up by 8:00 this morning, as we wanted to grab a bite of breakfast at Mum's Cafe; and had to catch the M.S. Chi-Cheemaun ferry from Manitoulin Island over to Tobermorey, and still had to travel about 37 kms to get there.  We miscalculated our time, and had to rush through breakfast, and literally sped the distance between Mindemoya and South Baymouth, where we were to catch the ferry.  If we missed the 11:15 am ferry, there was one more ferry at 3:00 pm, and then our day would have been thrown off.

The ferry ride between South Baymouth and Tobermorey is about two hours - something that we're quite familiar with, being from Vancouver Island, and traveling to the mainland of BC often.  On this ferry, however, passengers aren't allowed to remain in their vehicles during the ferry ride.

The ride between the two ports was often very foggy, and dismal with rain.  Something that I found quite interesting, is that this ferry has a permit to sell alcohol on it, and has beer and a couple cocktails that they sell.

Rick and I were sitting in the lounge area, and were absolutely freezing, with our hoodies on.  We decided to move one floor down, to the cafeteria area, and perhaps get a hot chocolate to warm us - this area was much more bearable regarding warmth, and we stayed there until it was time to return to our vehicle.

After our ferry ride, we continued our trip through Wiarton, where we had lunch, and took some pictures of the huge groundhog statue, commemorating Wiarton Willie.  Oh, and we saw Wiarton Willie's "Re/max" home, and took a photo of that, too!

We passed through some areas that had Amish colonies - there were road signs heeding us to watch for horse-drawn buggies on the road.  And we came upon some areas that were using wind turbines for power generation - we'd never seen that many wind turbines in such a small area.

We continued our beautiful, scenic drive to the Village of Alton in Caledon.  We had a reservation at the Millcroft Inn, which is a beautiful, historic, country inn that was once a knitting mill in 1881.  Rick had also made dinner reservations for us at the restaurant in the Inn.  We took a short while to rest up and change our clothes, and then we went down to the restaurant.  We both had a cocktail prior to dinner, while relaxing, then had a most delicious meal, while overlooking the waterfall that used to operate the mill.  We took about twenty photos at the Inn, but I'll only post a couple.  Our room was fantastic, beautifully appointed with a comfortable king-size bed, towel-warmer in the bathroom, a seating area and stunning views from the windows.

 Lounge area off the Dining Room.

 Rick and our view of the falls during dinner.

Millcroft Inn - such beauty!

Mileage to date: 4,905 kms.

Gas in Tobermorey: $1.40/litre

May 14 - Red Rock to Manitoulin Island

We got up fairly early this morning, as we have a long day of driving ahead of us.  Our hosts treated us to a breakfast of delicious blueberry pancakes with maple syrup, bacon and coffee and orange and apple juices.  After breakfast we got our bags packed and were off.

This was the view of the morning from the Quebec Lodge.

It was a beautiful day's drive, along Lake Superior, that goes on, and on..., and on....  We took some photos of the ice still on the lake.

We drove through White River, where the story of Pooh began...  Of course, I had to get a picture of this!

We had wanted to stop for dinner at a couple places we saw on billboards, but when we got there, they were closed for the evening.  We came into the town of Little Current, and spotted a pub that appeared to be open and thought this would be a great place for a bite to eat.  They even had the Montreal vs New York playoff game on - how could we lose?

After dinner we had to get on the road again, as it was becoming dark and the rain was threatening, again.  It was about 40 more minutes to our destination.

We finally got to where we were booked to spend the night, on Manitoulin Island, at Mindemoya.  At this point, it had been raining off and on all evening, and it was dark, and we were both tired of the day's drive.  We checked into Manitoulin Inn, and were glad to be able to stretch out and put our feet up.  We couldn't find the ice machine, if there was one, and neither of us had enough change to get a coke or something similar from the vending machine...  So we turned in for the night.

Mileage to date: 3,917 kms.
Gas in Wawa, ON: $1.47/litre
Gas in Sault Ste Marie, ON: $1.39/litre

May 13 - Winnipeg to Red Rock

We left Winnipeg early this morning, after having breakfast in our hotel - and very fortunately, right next door to the hotel was Starbucks, so we got our Starbucks venti-latte "fix" right away.  It was perfect.  And once again, we were off!  Shortly after leaving the city we came across the "longitudinal centre of Canada", so of course I grabbed a memento...

As we were driving along, we encountered snow on the roadside (again).  It appears that the cold front with snow that found us in Banff, had preceded us.  There was actually quite a bit of snow beside the road, in places, towards Kenora, ON.  And Lake Superior had quite a lot of ice still on it, when we saw it.

We lunched in Dryden, then carried on to Red Rock, Ontario, for the night.  We had a B&B reservation at the Quebec Lodge, and were quite taken with the lodge itself, and with the hosts, Ray Rivard and Carol-Anne.  We hadn't yet had dinner when we arrived, but they welcomed us and invited us to share dinner with them and their other two guests, Gord and Kim.  The meal was at least as good as we could have gotten in any restaurant, and it was home-cooked.  They served chicken cordon-bleu and twice-baked potatoes with a green salad and corn-on-the-cob, and chocolate cake with chocolate icing for dessert.  Rick and I had a queen-bed room, with a bathroom that's normally shared, but there wasn't a guest in the adjoining bedroom, so we had the bathroom to ourselves, which was nice.  The lodge is a fantastic place, with the most scenic setting you can imagine.

View from the front porch of the Quebec Lodge B&B

This is a short video of the lodge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48cgckOLzg

Mileage to date: 3,117 kms.

Gas in Thunder Bay, ON: $1.40/litre

May 12 - Saskatoon to Winnipeg

If you've never traveled from Saskatoon to Regina, then from Regina to Winnipeg, you have no idea what you're in for!!  Mile upon mile of prairie...  Just how much prairie does it take to hypnotize you into sleep - didn't take too much for me!

Miles and miles of miles and miles.... for as far as the eye can see...

We left early this morning - we were actually out the door of the hotel by 8 am, and on our way... to Starbucks... for coffee.  Then we were on our way to Regina first, as we decided to take the  Trans-Canada dual lane, rather than slow our travel on the single-lane highway, and have to pass any cars and/or trucks that were traveling slower than we were.  Both routes were about the same length.  About half way between Saskatoon and Regina is the town of Davidson - with their claim to fame, a giant coffee-pot and coffee cup.

We got to Regina by 10:30 and stopped for a quick break before continuing.  We stopped at Moosomin for lunch at the Red Barn Family Restaurant - both our sandwiches were delicious!  We felt better after getting out of the car for a bit, and stretching and having lunch, gassing up, and we were back on the road again...

We pulled into Winnipeg at about 5 pm, but then still had to get to our hotel, which took about another hour, in rush hour traffic, to boot.  Wasn't too bad - it certainly could have been worse than it was.  We had dinner reservations at one of our very favourite Japanese/sushi restaurants in Winnipeg, Wasabi on Broadway.  We discovered it when we were in Winnipeg on a project back in 2007.  We hoped it was still operating, and were delighted to find that it was!  We had an amazing meal at Wasabi on Broadway this evening!!  Sooo delicious!!  Tonight will be an "early to bed" one, as we want to get up early again, to hit the road early, as we have another fairly long day of driving ahead of us tomorrow.

Wasabi on Broadway, in Winnipeg

Gas in Moosomin, SK: $1.34/litre
Gas in Winnipeg, MB: $1.30/litre

May 9 to 11 - Edmonton to Saskatoon

May 11 - Saskatoon

Today we went to the Saskatoon Inn for the Mother's Day Brunch with my mom, Natasha, my brother, Darrell, my granddaughter, Angel and her boyfriend, Cody, Rick and myself.  I gave Mom some beautiful cream-coloured roses for Mother's Day.  We had a wonderful visit with all, and brunch while there.  After brunch, we all went back to mom's for a bit more visiting time - finally Angel and Cody had to leave, and Darrell also went home.  Mom and I continued visiting, and talked to Kristah when she called, while Rick was working on the computer downstairs, getting it ready to take to the thrift shop.  Once he was finished on the computer, it was time for dinner.  We went to Alexander's Restaurant on Cumberland at College Avenue for dinner - it was wonderful!!  We drove mom back home, and bid her farewell, as we'll be leaving Saskatoon early tomorrow morning.

Darrell, Natasha (Mom), Angel, Chantal (me)

Mileage to date: 2,261 kms.

Gas in Saskatoon, SK: $1.26/litre

May 10 - Saskatoon

Rick and I slept in until 10 this morning - it was sooo nice!! We had brunch at Ricky's, then went over to my mom's place.  She had made arrangements with the lady that bought our first home from us 50 years ago, to go there and see it, again.  It was such a wonderful visit - seeing how little our house was, all 775 square feet of it, and thinking about us, a family of four, living there.  I still have so many memories of events that happened in that house.  I would have loved to take pictures of the inside, mostly to document the size of various rooms in it, but I didn't want to invade Lois' privacy.  The two bedrooms were barely big enough for a bed and a dresser in them, and the kitchen was smaller than the average apartment "galley" kitchen.

This evening, we attended Angel's graduation from Marca College, in Esthetics.  It was wonderful seeing her graduate with her class - my mom, Rick and myself, Jean, Kelsey, Angel and her boyfriend, Cody, were at our table.  The graduation consisted of cocktails, dinner, awards and a dance.  We left just prior to the dance - gettin' old, I guess...  ;)

                                  Angel                                       Cody and Angel

May 9 - Edmonton to Saskatoon

We awoke to another beautiful, blue-skied day in Edmonton, however the temperature was only about 4 degrees C when we left this morning.  It definitely made for a great driving day, however.  We left by about 11 am, by the time we got up, had breakfast at the hotel, got our luggage into the car and were off.

We took a small break for a stretch in Vegreville, and passed by the World's Largest Pysanka (easter egg) while there.

We breezed on through Lloydminster, and stopped for a quick lunch (again at Subway) in North Battleford just prior to 3 pm.

We arrived in Saskatoon at about 5 pm, and we've checked into our hotel, Country Inn & Suites, for the next three nights.  We'll be going over to my mom's place in a little while, then going for dinner at Grainfields Restaurant on Circle Drive - one of my long-time favourites.

Mileage to date: 1,657 kms.
Gas in Lloydminster, AB: $1.21/litre
Gas in North Battleford, SK: $1.30/litre

May 7 - Banff to Edmonton

We left Banff to a beautiful, sunny, blue-skied day!!  Such a joy to travel through the "winter wonderland" on a gorgeous day!  There was plenty of snow through the Icefields Parkway, to Rocky Mountain House.  It was evident that the roads had been recently cleared, and the highway was actually dry, but it looked like there was a fresh couple feet of snow on the sides of the road.  We said good-bye to the Rockies, and headed east into Red Deer, and on towards Edmonton.  It became a long-tiring day of driving, and we welcomed pulling into our hotel in Edmonton just before dinner.

Gas in Banff, AB: $1.28/litre

As we were checking into our hotel, the manager asked if we would like to attend the Manager's Reception, which was about to begin in about an hour - free beer, wine and appies would be served.  Well, why not?  After all, it's not every day that free beer and wine is served.  So we attended for a short while, enjoyed some beer and spring rolls and taco chips with salsa and sour cream, while watching part of the hockey playoffs game that was on.  We then retired to our room to finish watching the game, and ordered in a pizza for dinner.  It was an early night for us, as we were exhausted.

Today we'll be seeing Meghan, Ryan, Maddie and Freya, and we're very much looking forward to that.  Meghan's fella, Brendan, will be at work, so unfortunately we won't be able to meet him on this trip.  Ryan gets off school early, so we'll be going to their apartment shortly after lunch.

It was so wonderful seeing the grandkids and Meghan today!  The kids have grown so much, and are so adorable.  They showed us around their apartment, then we had to decide what we should do for the afternoon.  They wanted to go to the zoo, so arrangements were made for us all to go for a few hours.

It was a beautiful day out - just right for doing a bit of walking around the zoo, seeing the animals and the kids' reactions to them...  Ryan was startled when a pelican, which was behind glass, opened its mouth and turned towards the glass, as if to gobble up a small child...  And both kids were startled when one of the sea lions came up to the glass window and opened its mouth wide.  Rick and I saw animals that we've never seen before in any other zoo, or otherwise.  It was educational, and entertaining.  But Nana and Grampa get sore backs when walking on concrete for too long, and such was the case here, as well as being closing time for the zoo.

We then took a short shopping trip before taking the family out to Olive Garden for some pasta.  Dinner was wonderful, and the kids were well-behaved in the restaurant.  Maddie loves salad, and Ryan loves the bread sticks.  We all had our fill of dinner, then everyone decided that ice cream would be the topper - so we ordered ice cream all around.

After dinner, we bid farewell to Meghan and the kids - giving each hugs and kisses, and promises to "see you again soon, next time".  And now I put the finishing touches on this blog before hitting the bed again, exhausted.

Gas in Edmonton, AB: $1.15/litre

May 5 - Kelowna to Banff

We had a great time in Kelowna the past couple days.  We spent some wonderful quality time with my dad and step-mom, Manno and Helen.  They put us up at their place, so we were able to visit from the time we got up, until we bid each other good-night.  We slept so well, with the frogs singing their chorus to us each night.

We were able to get in a short visit on Saturday afternoon with Rick's friend, Phil, and his wife, Karen, from his days with Canadian Airlines; and that night we had dinner and visited with my cousin, Corrine, and her hubby, Oral, in addition to my dad and step-mom.  We had a lot of laughs, reminisced some, about when we were young, and generally had a great time.  The weather wasn't pleasant enough to visit outside, as we often do in Kelowna, as it was rainy and drizzly and cool.  Sunday was a day of a little shopping and much relaxation.

Mileage to date: 518 kms.
Gas in Kelowna: $1.35/litre

On Monday morning, we left Kelowna to a dull, cloudy day, and about 12 degrees - not quite nice enough to drop the top on the 'Stang.  We had a nice day of travel, though - we stopped in Golden, BC, for lunch at a unique little diner called the Legendz Diner, a 50's-style diner.  Rick had the chili with toast and a homemade chocolate milkshake, and I had the classic burger with fries - we both really enjoyed our meals.

We continued on to Banff after lunch, and arrived just before dinner time.  It had snowed recently, and though the streets were dry, there was a bit of snow beside the highway.  We checked into the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel for a couple days - we've stayed here previously, and really enjoyed the hotel - it's simply gorgeous.  Because today is May 5th - Cinco de Mayo - we decided to find a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  We managed to get a table at the Magpie & Stump (doesn't sound much like a Mexican restaurant, but the food they serve is...), ordered a couple beers and daquiris, and dinner!  Rick and I both had quesadillas, and they were wonderful.

We woke on Tuesday morning to snow and more snow!  It was completely unexpected for us!  It snowed fairly heavily for part of the day, then stopped, and the temperature warmed enough for the snow to begin melting again.  We had brunch at Starbucks, then did a bit of shopping and stopped into the Cascades Art Gallery, that we always stop at when visiting Banff.  After that, we decided to take a drive - I know, going for a drive when on a road-trip is a bit of redundancy, but it's what we enjoy.  We drove up Tunnel Mountain Drive, and then carried on to the Lake Minnewanka Scenic Drive, past Lake Minnewanka, Two Jack Lake and Johnson Lake.  It was very beautiful, what with the newly fallen snow and the sun starting to break through by the end of the drive...  I'll be posting some photos of our drive.

Mileage to date: 1080 kms.

May 2 - Parksville to Kelowna

So we were ready early, and left the house by about 8:15, to grab a quick breakfast at Starbucks, then to an appointment in Nanaimo.  After that, we were fortunate to catch the 10:30 ferry, by a hair, it seems, from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay on the mainland, and we were officially on our vacation.

Gas in Parksville: $1.37.9/litre

The day was overcast, all along our entire route, but the temperature was very nice all day.  We enjoyed seeing the new leaves on the trees, and the waterfalls coming off the snow on the mountains (Bridal Falls, just east of Chilliwack, was beautiful, as always).

We stopped at Chilliwack for lunch at the Subway, and a top-up for gas (hungry car, too), and we were back on the road.

At the top of the Coquihalla, we were a little surprised to see that there was still quite a bit of snow, and we were more surprised to see even more snow at the top of Pennask summit.

We arrived at West Kelowna at 5 pm, just in time for dinner with my dad and step-mom.  What a wonderful visit this evening!  We'll be spending a couple nights here, before carrying on our road trip.  I'll try to post some photos tomorrow.

Photos are now added, below.