Sorry it’s been a while since my last post.  My mother and I took a fantastic trip to the Canadian Rockies and then I celebrated my dear friend Jan’s wedding.  It’s been difficult trying to get back into my routine, but slowly I am adjusting.  The trip was amazing and instead writing a lot of details, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Snazzy-looking ladies getting ready to tour.  The car is a rental I purchased for Mom’s visit.  My car has no ac and she wasn’t hearing any of that.  It was a Kia and I loved the way it ran.  Chuck has told me that every car we rent is the one I love and want for my next car.

This is outside our hotel in Vancouver.  We stayed at the Sheraton Wall Centre for the first night.  It was very luxurious and the pillows were amazing.  Mom and I became very spoiled with our bedding.

This picture was taken from the top of the Vancouver Lookout.  The building that reads 322 Water Street was where we ate dinner.  It was a yummy meal — the first of many.

This is the harbor where all the big cruise ships dock.  When Mom and I took our Alaskan cruise, this is where we ended up.  The city of Vancouver was beautiful and clean.  Unfortunately it rains quite a bit.

This is Mom getting ready to board our train.  The first day we had about 25 cars.  That is a really long train!

We used Chuck’s gorilla pod to get this shot.  It took us forever to get it balanced on the seat in front of us.  The older tourists were really impressed with the gadget.

They fed us a tremendous amount of food when we were on the train.  Each day we traveled about eight hours.  They fed us breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and then another snack before we deboarded.  I think I gained 10 pounds in two days.

This is a picture of Hell’s Gate and was taken from the train.  Apparently the amount of water pressure passing through this small space is the equivalent of Niagra Falls.  It is so forceful that the salmon can not make it back up the river to spawn.  Wildlife folks made these concrete structures on the sides of the river for the salmon to enter and get past the treacherous waters.   

Our destination was Kamloops, BC.  This is the quaint train station.  They also had mountieswelcoming us to town. 

This was our hotel in Kamloops.  It was pretty simple, but the bedding and pillows were divine.  I knew I was no longer in the States when I opened up the night stand and found this:

The Teaching of Buddha right next to Gideon’s Bible — how cool is that?  Stay tuned for more adventures.