Finally! We've waited almost four months to go on this road trip. For some reason we were really, really looking forward to it!
We started driving Thursday evening, direction Kamloops. We booked the Accent Inns for the night. Quite nice actually, pleasant memories! It's the same hotel chain we stayed at (for 3 weeks) when we first arrived in Vancouver. Funny how all those hotels have the exact same interior.
Friday, early morning (way too early, but for a good cause) we headed in the direction of Jasper. We could have easily made the decision to go straight to Banff, but we wanted to drive along...
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The Winter Olympics (Winter itself not so much :) ) have arrived in Vancouver and everybody in Vancouver is hooked. At work everybody is working with the intranet TV broadcasting on their second monitor and cheering every time Canada gets a medal or scores in hockey. So far Canada has 5 medals of which 2 in snowboarding events and we are of course very curious of what the Belgian Ladies Bobsleigh Team is going to do.
Tomorrow we're going to one of the nightly Victory Ceremonies where they hand out the medals to the winners and have a concert of a different Canadian artist every night. Tomorrow...
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Good thing Kris has kept you guys and girls company!
I've been away for a couple of days (for work), and I also had to work on weekends. Well not every weekend but I have been quite busy lately.
The trip to Alberta was pretty cool! It was a nice opportunity to meet some new people, to visit Edmonton and Calgary and to visit Olivier and Saar.
The cool thing about Edmonton was definitely the biggest mall in the world: West Ed Mall.
IMPRESSIVE! They have a golf course, water park, skating rink, pirate ship, roller coaster, ... You name it, they've got it.
Basically: you could get lost, big time!...
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Maybe a more appropriate blog topic would be: "10 photos I made in 2008 of which I'm most happy and for which I'm looking for an excuse to post them again..." but that would be too long, so let's go for the Top 10 one :)
10. Rain over Lake Annette - Jasper N.P.
9. Swiftcurrent lake, Glacier N.P.
8. Berkeley Pit, Butte
7. Venice, Las Vegas
6. Vancouver Panorama
5. Hot spring, Yellowstone N.P.
4. Peyto Lake Panorama
3. Victoria Government Parliament building
2. Dead Tree in Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone N.P.
1. The Wave, Arizona
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I know that some of you guys aren't really interested in bear stories, so maybe this post is not for those readers (just to warn you guys:)).
I just finished reading a book which is called "The black grizzly of Whiskey Creek". Why am I so eager to write something about it? Well there are several reasons.
First of all, Whiskey Creek is situated in Banff. Banff is a place we have visited in June. So we know where the story took place.
Second reason, I'm very intrigued by bear stories, bear habits, ...
And the last reason: while reading some chapters, my heart was pounding and my adrenalin was coursing...
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Just a quick Friday afternoon post before the start of the weekend.
Lake Louise is a lake in Alberta, Canada. The glacial lake is located in Banff National Park of which the eastern shore of the lake is dominated by Chateau Lake Louise, one of Canada's grand railway hotels, a luxury resort hotel built in the early decades of the 20th century by the Canadian Pacific Railway. This hotel is now owned by the Fairmont hotel group.
Lake Louise | Location on map
Lake Louise | Location on map
As you can see on the pictures, the weather wasn't too great, spoiling the reflections on the lake...
[Ine]:...
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The Banff Marsh Trail is a 0.5 km boardwalk trail starting at the Cave & Basin site which leads downhill into a nearby marsh next to the Bow River. It brings you close to nature and wildlife within minutes of downtown Banff. Apparently this is one of the few places in the park where you can see the completely harmless garter snake, but alas.. no luck for me so you'll have to settle with a picture of the marsh itself.
Banff Cave & Basin Marsh | Location on map
The trail offers excellent views of Mount Norquay, which is home to one of the many ski resorts in the area, Ski Norquay.
Mount...
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Of course (since we have a photo addict among us) we are far from finished with our pictures from our trip to Canada and the US, so here are a few more.
The pictures in this post show Cave and Basin National Historic Site of Canada. It commemorates the birthplace of Canada's National Park system, which began here in 1885. Naturally occurring, warm mineral springs can be found inside the cave, and outside in an emerald coloured basin.
Banff Cave and Basin | Location on Map
Actually we had planned to go to Banff Upper Hot Springs, but since we didn’t had the time to sit in a hot spring and relax...
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Peyto Lake is another glacier-fed lake located in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies.
Before the melting of the glaciers which starts early June, the lake is dark blue. During the summer, meltwater flows into the lake which is loaded with finely ground particles of rock debris known as rock flour. These particles reflect the blue-green sector of the light spectrum resulting in the unique turquoise color of the lake.
If you look at the left side of the lake, you can see where the glacier used to be a couple of hundreds of years ago. Today, the glacier is so far retreated (losing 70% of its mass...
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Sunwapta Falls is a waterfall of the Sunwapta River located in Jasper National Park, Canada. The water originates from the Athabasca Glacier, and volumes are higher in early summer, caused by glacial meltdown. Sunwapta means "turbulent river" in the Stoney Indian language, which is a Siouan language of the Northern Plains.
Sunwapta Falls
Photo freaks only: This picture of the falls was taken with a ND-3 filter and a Circular Polarizer stacked together resulting in -5 stops. This allowed me to take a picture of the falls with a shutter speed of 0.8 seconds at f/22.
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