Tag Archives: river

2014: Travel Retrospective

January 31, 2015 ~j

Wow, 2014 was a year of travel near and far. A year that was busy and fulfilling, was also a year of change for the site, though the migration to self-hosting is still not complete! Maintaining a writing focus, while working full-time (sometimes more than full-time), and managing a household is a struggle of a balancing act. Sometimes, it’s more about living the experience, than writing it all down for y’all. Sorry, but it’s true.

Looking back on all of the mini-trips, visitors and experiences we had over the year, I thought I’d put together a recap of sorts. So here it is folks, your 2014 Travel Retrospective.

WINTER

January was a month of lingering cough and cold that felt like it was never, ever going away! Finally, we were well enough to travel, and made it to Mexico to visit Andrew. The Mayan Riviera, though not normally my go to vacation scene, was a great little getaway. (You can read about it HERE.)

February was a quiet month for travel because we had visitors here for a sporting event. There was plenty of time for card games, snacking and catching up between their beloved curling games. (FYI: You couldn’t pay me to watch curling. It’s BORING!)

Bombardier Dash 8-300 prop — The Bombardier Dash 8-300 purrs like a kitten

March gave me the opportunity to go to Edmonton to visit Jessie. We spent a few days chatting, shopping, and touring some of the most hideous Dream Lottery homes ever built. Driving to Edmonton is always a laborious task, but well worth the scenery. However, for this trip, I hopped the 1 hour flight. SO. MUCH. BETTER. On the flight home, I connected with my sister-in-law and nephew in Calgary, and we were all able to fly home together. Little Ben flew like a champ. (His mom did too; anyone who can fly with a toddler deserves a prize!)

SPRING

April and May kept us closer to home. We had a couple of day trips to Vancouver & Kelowna. Vancouver is always a nice getaway even during spring showers. For a change we chose not to drive through the city, and take the Sky Train instead.

Vancouver SkyTrain Map — Thanks for the SkyTrain map Wikimedia commons!

I’ve LOVED the SkyTrain since Expo ’86. And, traveling like a tourist in your own backyard is kind of fun once in a while. We spent the day shopping with my Aunt; I purchased a fab little backpack that has been one of my favorite gear purchases this year.

Then, the most shocking event in the history of our friendship with Andrew occurred in June. HE. GOT. MARRIED! This from the guy who has been an opponent to marriage and monogamy for as long as I can remember, not that he’s for being single, unfaithful or promiscuous either, he’s just never been pepped up about marriage. Well, Andrew met his match in his wife, and we couldn’t be happier for them. We travelled to Golden for the festivities. Catching up with old friends and laughing until our sides hurt made for a super fun weekend.

SUMMER

Oddly, I visited the Columbia River Valley twice in less than 30 days. Once for the aforementioned impromptu wedding, and once for a “camping” trip with Jessie and her family for the first week of July. (Q: Is it still technically classified as camping if you’re sleeping in a double bed, have air conditioning and a DVD player?)

We “camped” near Radium Hot Springs, at Redstreak Provincial Campground. One of the days we drove through to Cranbrook and Kimberly. Along the way we stopped at Fort Steele, a heritage town with a sweet little steam engine train.

Seven Parks in the Canadian Rockies share a UNESCO designation. Driving through the beauty of Rogers Pass to the Burgess Shale, it’s easy to understand why.

My friend Stacey came home from Alberta in August, and it was nice to catch up with her for a quick visit. Jon and I stayed pretty close to home for the most part. We made a few trips to the Lake.

Seymour. She’s a beauty when she doesn’t smell like wet dog.

Lake days are always filled with long hours at the beach, way too many snacks, and pseudo-competitive card games–mix that up with some sun screen, and a couple of wet dogs, and you’ve got the full package. We brought our niece with us for one of the trips. She’s quite the car dancer. The kid has moves even while buckled into a car seat.

FALL

Our new little nephew was born the first week of September…while we were waiting for a flight in Toronto. Yep, we missed his arrival because we were traveling to Spain. Jon and I spent two weeks touring through Spain visiting some gorgeous historic sites. More on that adventure to come. Trust me, I’ll be very busy writing over the next couple months.

October was ridiculously busy month for me work wise. A co-worker was diagnosed with cancer, so we lost an integral member of the team while she left to focus on getting herself well. I missed our annual tradition of visiting the pumpkin patch. Jon was able to go, and had a great time with the kids. Later in the month, we were able to sneak away for an afternoon to visit the Adam’s River Salmon Run. Our niece and nephew were so excited to see all of the fish. We’ll have to make it an annual tradition too.

In November, Fazh decided to go to Denmark. He asked me to plan the trip about a week before he decided he was leaving. For so many reasons the task was nearly impossible! Through some divine intervention, I was able to find his Danish friend on the internet, and he ended up having a once in a lifetime trip. And now, Fazh too must focus on getting himself well.

December, while frazzling, has updated/reinforced my outlook that the “small stuff” shouldn’t even be a blip on the radar. There are so many more important ways to spend time than focusing on trivial matters.

That brings us back to January. Our newest nephew was born on the 2nd. Fortunately, we were in the same city for his arrival. At present we just wait to hear from surgeons, so that they get Fazh fixed up.

We’ve had so many wonderful adventures this year; Thanks to everyone who was a part of them.

Here’s to 2015,

Asia, Vietnam

Mekong River Trip

January 18, 2012 ~j Leave a comment

We decided to do the first trip on the Mekong to get away from the hustle of the Ho Chi Minh City for the day. We booked a tour to take us to one of the floating markets. Now, when I say floating market, I picture ladies with conical hats in boats selling flowers and pineapples etc…NOPE! This was a HUGE out on the open water, with large boats, floating market. It was like wholesale for the tiny markets–basically the Costco of the floating markets, and definitely not as visually appealing, but still cool to see. Because there are so many boats, merchants display whatever they’re selling at the top of poles. You see the veggie you like dangling way up in the air, and you know that’s the boat you want to see. FYI: Buyers had to make some serious purchases of serious quantity.

The tour also took us through the process of making puffed rice, rice paper/wraps, coconut candy, and fed us a bizarro lunch, complete with live traditional Vietnamese singing. The fish looks kind of disturbing in the picture, but it was “crusted” with puffed rice, and was actually tasty. The fresh Vietnamese spring rolls were not my favourite, but Jon ate them–cucumber, pineapple, fish and all!

Fish with popped rice “crust”

Making rice paper

For me, the most interesting part of the day were the stilt houses on the delta, and the different styles of housing, methods of fishing, and strategies for gardening we saw.

Seeing a different lifestyle, and how it all just falls together made the day trip worth doing, even if being on a tour was slightly cheesy.

Happy Travels,
~j

Asia, Vietnam

Hue: The Imperial City

January 15, 2012 ~j Leave a comment

Once we returned to shore from Ha Long Bay, our next destination was Hue. To get there, we flew from Hanoi, in Northern Vietnam, to Hue, in Central Vietnam. It was a nice change to leave the bustle of Hanoi for the slightly less bustling Hue It was also a fantastic break in car sickness to fly instead of drive.

Our first interaction – we were scammed by the airport shuttle that was to take us to our hotel. Vietnamese culture is to avoid answering no, but it is kind of inconvenient when the question is, “Will you take us to the hotel?” and the shuttle driver answers, “Yes.” but really means, I’ll take you to somewhere near the hotel and then say get out, and leave you to figure out the rest of the way. The rest of the passengers with us were NOT impressed.

Unfortunately, the names of the hotels are confusing , eg: Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn 1, Holiday Inn 2, Original Holiday Inn. And #1 and #3 might be across the street from each other, while the original is around the corner. You get the picture. We did find the place, but what a rainy nightmare that was.Hue is a beautiful city. We visited several temples, tombs and the Imperial City. We also did a short river boat trip on the Perfume River at the end of the day.

Imperial City, Hue Vietnam

The Imperial City of Hue is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Construction started in 1804 during the reign of Gia Long, and was completed in 1838 under Minh Mang. The Imperial City served as the center of government and court life throughout the Nguyen Dynasty. It has been damaged by natural disasters over the years, and still has visible scars, damage, bullet holes etc, from wars in 1947 and 1968.We went to the Minh Lau – Pavilion of Light, and Khai Dinh tomb. The Khai Dinh Honour Courtyard is probably one of the most recognizable with the stone sculptures of Mandarins, soldiers, elephants and horses.

Khai Dinh Tomb

Tu Duc Tomb grounds

The Tu Duc tomb probably had the prettiest grounds and walk ways. When we set out for the day, I figured the sites we’d see were ancient, but most of the construction was done in the late 1800’s. For the Tu Duc tomb, construction began in 1864 and was completed in 1867.

Tomb grounds, Hue Vietnam

Lotus flower

One fantastic site for the day – the MASSIVE Buddha statue that was visible from Tu Duc Tomb. We never did get to visit it, but He fits right in with Cristo Blanco and Our Lady of the Rockies.

Asia, Cambodia

That’s downhill right?

March 16, 2011 ~j Leave a comment

On one of the days that we’re in Cambodia we’ve planned to visit the Tonle Sap–a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Yes, UNESCO strikes again!

What’s so interesting about this body of water? Despite having over 400 species of fish, and just as many mammals, birds, and reptiles, the most fascinating feature is the direction of the river flow changes depending on the season. True story.

During the dry season from November to May the Tonle Sap is a tributary of the Mekong. The River flows towards Phnom Penh. In June, heavy rain fall backs up the Tonle Sap and creates a large lake, and water is actually pushed from the Mekong into the Lake. At the end of the rainy season, the River changes direction again.

So, what makes this area worth visiting? (Besides being uber-nerdy?!) Well, the wildlife and scenery, the floating villages and stilt houses to name a few things. The sad part is that we’ll only see the region in the dry season, and not the other extreme. The depth of the lake changes from 1m to 10m during the rainy season. Check out the photo at the bottom of the Peace of Angkor page to see both seasons. We’re actually booked in with Peace of Angkor for the day to visit Beng Mealea and Tonle Sap. I hope it is a good one.

British Columbia, Canada, North America

Salmon Run

January 12, 2011 ~j 1 Comment

Mid-September, I roped a friend into going to the Adam’s River Salmon Run. He really wasn’t keen on it. As someone who works on the Thompson and Fraser Rivers, he sees thousands of fish in the river each summer, and understandably didn’t want to go see more. Luckily, my persistence paid off, and we went for the mini road trip. Every 4 years there is a mass return to the spawning grounds; 2010 was supposed to be one of the biggest returns in the past 100 years, so why not check it out?

The Salmon Run was elementary school field trip extravaganza when we were little! We would have to learn all the stages of the life cycle. Here’s your science lesson just in case you don’t remember grade 2. The salmon swim from the Pacific Ocean, travel up the Fraser River through Hell’s Gate, up the Thompson River and into the Adam’s River where they spawn and die. (And, smell horribly bad!) The eggs hatch, grow, swim to the ocean, live there for a few years, and if they’re lucky to have survived that far, they swim back to the Adam’s River to start the cycle all over again.

We were there at the start of the Sockeye run and the very end of the Chinook run. The size difference between the two fish is crazy, but I wasn’t able to get any good photos of Chinook to compare. They don’t turn the bright pink colour that the Sockeye do. We wandered the trails, took a few photos and all in all had a fun little road trip.