Road Trip Day Ten - Kamloops, Canada

Today, we ate our breakfast before we left the hotel. It was nice because most of the crew in the hotel were Filipinas and they were all friendly. We drove the whole day and we didn’t makes to many stops on the way to Kamloops, not even for lunch.

We just ate some fruit and snacks that we already had in the car. Today we had estimated that we would arrive about 3:00 or 4:00 at the hotel but it seems Kamloops is a very spread out city.

So, we couldn’t fine the exact location of the hotel right away. After driving around the city for about 30 minutes we finally found the hotel. Just another part of our road trip. Have a good night guys!!!

Road Trip Day Nine - Hinton, Canada

We left the Marriot Hotel on Sunday morning and drove to Hinton, Canada but we made lots of stops before getting to Hinton. We had estimated that it would take about 6.5 hours to travel from Calgary, Canada to Hinton, Canada. Our long drive north would take us through Banff National Park and Jasper national Park. It was a great drive through the Rocky Mountains. Who knows when we’ll be back here again so we did our best to enjoy every moment. Of course, I did take one or two small naps. On the way to Hinton Will and I stopped at Lake Louise. Lake Louise is on the small side but the water has a beautiful color and is hemmed in on both sides by short mountains. At the far end of the valley is a really big mountain that is home to an official glacier! There is also a hotel right on the edge of the lake. The most inexpensive room is about $500. Guess what? We didn’t stay overnight! LOL. It turned out to be a long day for us because we made a two hour mistake oh!oh. Will and I still enjoyed our day of driving. We made lots of stops every time we saw wildlife near the highway such as; Black Bears, Elk, Foxes, etc. I’m a nature lover! This trip was a nice treat for both of us. We’re enjoying every day!!!

Road Trip Day Eight - Deerfoot Casino (woo-hoo!) and the Calgary Zoo, Canada

Once again we got up late today and thought about which place in Calgary we wanted to visit first. Most days we’ve been getting up fairly early to it was a nice treat to just sleep in and get up when we felt like it. Even after we woke up we just puttered along - in no real rush to get out the door. We went to the Deerfoot Casino for lunch and we also played some slots there. Lunch was OK. Will thought their prices were a bit high. But we don’t know yet if that’s because everything in Canada costs more or if the casino had jacked up there prices. Definitely nothing special about this casino. No exciting slot machines. But it was interesting that it didn’t reek of cigarette smoke. We weren’t sure if smoking was not allowed or if no one in Canada smokes (LOL).

After the casino/lunch we visited the Calgary Zoo. They have a huge zoo here. I don’t know anything about the zoo in San Francisco because we’ve never been there before. So, I can’t compare which one was nicer or bigger. There were lots of people there, especially kids of course. Will isn’t big on zoo’s or any facility where animals are caged or prevented from living in their natural habitat. He’s bothered by a wild animal having to live its life in a cage or enclosure (no matter how nice or roomy). I think that’s why we haven’t been to the zoo in San Francisco.

It was really hot for Will and I. I think the temperature was between 80 and 85F. Isn’t that crazy? I was little bit cranky earlier because of the hot weather. I couldn’t stand it. How ridiculous to think that I come from a group of tropical islands - the Philippines and now I can’t tolerate anything above 75F. I’m too acclimated to the cooler weather of the coast. While I was miserable from the "heat" Will actually seemed OK. We both started to sweat when we went in to some of the enclosed exhibits where they were purposefully keeping it hot and humid. We spent 3 or more hours there. At some point I told Will that I had had enough. We headed to the hotel and to take a break. So, here I am doing my daily rounds visiting my co - bloggers blogs.

Road Trip Day Seven - Calgary, Canada

How’s everyone doing today? OK guys...I didn’t update my blog yesterday. Not because we didn’t have a connection to the internet, I was just too tired. It’s was a long drive for us from Helena, Montana to Calgary, Canada. When we arrived at the U.S./Canada border there was already a big line of travelers ahead of us who also wanted to enter Canada and the line was moving very slowly. After 45 minutes (that’s my guess) it was our turn to drive up to the booth. They asked for our ID and also asked us some questions. Here are the questions they asked:

1. Have you been to Canada before?
2. What’s your purpose for entering Canada?
3. Do you have any friends in Canada?
4. How much cash do you have?
5. How many days will you be staying in Canada?
6. What part in Canada are you visiting?
7. Have you been arrested before?

After they asked those questions they told us to park our car and proceed to the immigration counter. I never thought that we would have to go inside and give our ID to the immigration officer. You then have to wait for your name to be called (sounds familiar). We weren’t the only people waiting, there were 10-15 other people there also. I was feeling hungry while we waited for our name to be called. After 35 minutes, more or less, our name was called (thank God). The immigration officer who checked our ID asked the same questions when we were outside. Everything must have been OK because he gave us our ID’s back and told us to have a nice trip. I was so excited to see Canada at the same time but I was also so excited to have lunch because I was so tired of snacks in the car.

Before heading to Calgary we stopped in Lethbridge, Canada and we went to Safeway to buy fruit and pastries. We arrived at Marriot Hotel around 6:00 p.m. I think that the Marriot Hotel in Cebu, Philippines is nicer when compared to the Calgary Marriot. I told Will the Water Front Hotel in Cebu was better when compared to the Cebu Marriot but Will said he liked the Cebu Marriot (no comparison according to him). Last night we just stayed in and ordered dinner from room service. We don’t know yet what our plan is for today. Have a fantastic weekend everyone!!!

Road Trip Day Six - Helena, Montana

Today, we got up late since we didn’t have to hurry to our destination. We drove from Yellowstone to Helena, Montana where we’re staying over night. We arrived in Helena early so we were just hanging around checking out the city because we couldn’t check-in to the hotel until 3:00 o’clock. I told Will that I was craving Chinese food.

Thank God Will was smart enough to ask the hotel receptionist if there were any good Chinese restaurants nearby. So, we went to the Jade Garden restaurant. Inside the restaurant there was some people eating but they weren’t really too busy (we were there after the lunch hour rush). Well, after our lunch I went shopping for more than an hour and then we drove back to hotel. I think that was it for today.

Road Trip Day Five - Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming)

I was so disappointed with the hotel that we stayed at yesterday because I wasn’t able to update my blog. There was an internet connection and I couldn’t even view my page because the internet connection was so slow. Will thinks that they have one teeny tiny internet connection that all of the different rooms used. We couldn’t even obtain an IP address. Anyways, Will and I were busy yesterday visiting Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

I really enjoyed all of the terrific views!Yellowstone is a fantastic place to visit - it’s all about Nature. I kept asking Will if any of the things we saw were man-made. He would just smile and say that God had been busy at some time in the past. It was the most wonderful place to visit that I could ever imagine. Everything there was amazing. We arrived in Yellowstone around 10:00 o’clock in the morning and it wasn’t too crowded yet. The first residents of Yellowstone that we got to meet were Bison. The Bison have a thick kind of curly fur and they look similar to a water buffalo. They seemed to a bit smaller than a water buffalo. I never thought that I could ever see this kinds of wildlife in real life.

I remember when I was in college I saw some pictures of Bison and I was completely uninterested in them because they looked so scary to me. Will and I were just kept driving after we took the pictures of the Bison. My hubby and I stopped next at a place called Madison Geyser Basin. Madison Geyser is group of geothermal geysers that show themselves in different ways. Sometimes steam erupts from vents, and sometimes gasses trapped under the ground bubble to the surface. From some of them you could even smell sulfur being emitted with the steam. The other thing that caught my attention were the Mud Pots. They’re called Mud Pots because you can see the mud bubbling and boiling...I told Will it looked like lava from a volcano. We spent more than 30 minutes just taking pictures.

One of things on Will’s list was to see the "OLD FAITHFULL GEYSER". This one was more interesting because the water comes out very high every 80-90 minutes. We got there about 5 minutes before the start of the erruption. Good timing! There were lots of people also waiting to witness this amazing natural event created by God. I was so speechless when I saw the water come out with a lot of smoke (steam). Only one word came out from my mouth after that show (I don’t know if that’s the right word to say "show"). Oh God! There’s nothing impossible for God to accomplish.

Will and I really enjoyed Yellowstone National Park. Before sunset we had almost visited all the destinations that we had on our list. Everything from wild animals to water falls to geothermal geysers. Yellowstone National Park would be a great place to visit and go camping with family. On a previous trip I visited the Redwood Forest near Eureka California. The Redwood Forest contains giant (and I mean GIANT) redwood trees, some so big that several people can’t join hands around the base of a tree. Comparing Yellowstone to the Redwood Forest - there really isn’t a comparison. You could spend days or weeks at Yellowstone seeing all of the different things in this terrific national park. Animals, geysers, water falls, geothermal vents, canyons, etc. I hope we can go back again!


Facts:

*First U.S. National Park
*3,472 square miles
*Larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined
*76 species of mammals
*More than 300 geysers
*Yellowstone Lake - 132 square miles of surface
*Over 3 million visitors in 2007

Note: I downloaded a short video of the Old Faithful Geyser so you can see it in action and some of the pictures from our day there. Hope you guys enjoy it!!!

OLD FAITHFUL AND BOILING HOT WATER FROM INSIDE THE EARTH