Gastown Was settled by Capt ‘Gassy’ Jack Deighton, so called because of his love of talking.  He came to the area in 1867 and with the help of timber milll workers built a saloon in less than 24 hours. The settlement grew to become Vancouver, on the site of the statue of Gassy Jack there once grew a maple tree under which the name Vancouver was chosen by a group of townsmen.

And it’s where D3 chose to celebrate her 30th Birthday. It was such a fun place, great shopping, delicious food, and just fabulousv to have all the girls together for the first time in months.

 

 

The nights were gorgeous, just right for a drink or an ice cream

In the 1960’s Gastown was planned for demolition to build a freeway but business owners and residents fought to keep the area as it was

We enjoyed a visit to the Police History Museum

we had spaghetti one night in our Airbnb, we found a bottle of Australian red to go with it, delicious!

Left over spaghetti toasties and phones for breakfast

Loved this dude sitting contemplating life at the local coffee shop, he was there ever morning, when I asked if I could take his photo he gave me the loveliest smile.

The girls celebrated D3’s birthday with a hike up Grouse Mountain

A 30th Birthday to remember, we’re already planning the next celebration!

…..there is something of the marvelous (Aristotle)

What a wonderful road trip from Calgary, to be surrounded by such mountainous grandeur was just awe-inspiring! I really could keep using cliche after cliche but it would never do it justice. And nor do my photos really. You could spend the whole trip clicking away, but then you would miss most of it!

Of course it didn’t all go to plan, we were going to stop in Banff, but it was Saturday and a glorious day so we weren’t the only ones with that idea! Never mind we thought, we’ll head onto Lake Louise and have lunch by the lake. As did many thousands of others it seemed. All the car parks were full so once again we just headed off down the highway!

But the scenery cheered us up, how could it not!

We stopped it a roadside park for lunch, it was bitterly cold so it was literally a quick bite

a quick selfie

And back on the road.

We thought we were making good time to Salmon Arm, our stop for the night, but that all came to halt when we we were stuck for a really, really long time while the road was cleared of a whole heap of rubble from blasting to widen the road.

The last hour or so was along the beautiful lakes, it’s hard to get a good photo through a windscreen and it had been a long day.

 

So long in fact we decided not to venture out for tea once we reached our accommodation, toasted cheese and scrambled eggs were delicious!

D3 and I decided to walk down the the lake the next morning, and we walked down and down and down, I’m sure the walk around the lake was lovely if only we could find a path to it!

We hit the road with our day planned to reach Vancouver in time for the 3:00pm check in at the Airbnb and to drop off of our trusty rental.

The lakes were so peaceful, it was hard to leave them.

We stopped for breakfast at Earl’s kitchen, after a scratch tea the night before it was delicious!

Unfortunately the skies grew grey, the heavens opened and the last hour or so into Vancouver weren’t much fun, especially for D3 who did a magnificent job of driving in such awful conditions.

But despite the weather we made it to the Airbnb with 10 minutes to spare!

Most readers of this blog will know that the reason we are doing this trip is to visit D3 who has been living in Calgary since the beginning of the year. So as much as I enjoyed the cruise, what I really wanted to do was get to Calgary and see my girl and give her a big hug!

First stop, a gin bar with the most amazing gin and tonics and yummy nachos. The g & t’s were served with fragrant herbs and spices and tonics. Can’t wait until summer to try them out.

I had a lovely day out in the mountains with a friend I haven’t seen for 19 years! We talked so much I ended up with a sore throat at the end of the day. The countryside is so beautiful. We drove past the the area where Revenant was filmed. B told how she and some friends went to a nearby bar and asked if Leo had popped. No, but his 13 stunt doubles had!

Pre-birthday celebrations at 10 Foot Henry.

 

Our last day we walked through downtown Calgary to Prince’s Island Park, what a stunning Park.

We sampled poutine ar Wurst restaurant. Chips fried in duck fat, smothered in chicken gravy and topped with a fried egg, sunny side up! I can’t wait to try at home.

Our time in Calgary was too short, it’s a lovely city, can’t wait to return!

I’m always really relieved when arrangements made in front of a computer thousands of kms away actually work! We disembarked from our ship at the designated time, made our way to the designated meeting place and sure enough there was our bus for the two and a half hour trip from Seward to the Lakefront Hotel Anchorage. It was actually a pleasant stay, lunch, a nap and walk along the lake until our early morning flight to Calgary. When I say early morning, I mean very early morning, like 02:00 early! Who has flights at that time?

Calgary here we come! I’m so excited!