KENORA ONTARIO THE START OF COTTAGE COUNTRY

June 28, 2016
Today marks 4 weeks since we left home.  Wow it does not seem that long.  We left Winnipeg and drove to Kenora, Ontario. It was so nice to see water and trees again    Kenora is situated on Lake of the Woods and is a very pretty town. It is typical Ontario Cottage Country Town and surrounds a lake that has 14,500 islands and
65,000 miles of shoreline.
The town itself is small but has some great architecture (City Hall Pic Below) which Brian became familiar with as he got a parking ticket and went to this building to pay it. 

 

We decided to do a Dinner Cruise on the MS Kenora around the Lake of the Woods. (OH OH a 3 hour cruise) Wow it was awesome.  The boat was cool the scenery was spectacular and the food was awesome.  We had Walleye for the very first time and YUM It was really really good.and can't wait to have it again on our travels.  Lake of the Woods is so beautiful with all its tiny and not so tiny islands.  It was a wonderful evening and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. 

FRIENDLY MANITOBA MOMENTS

June 24,2016
Friday we left our friends in Rosenfeld, Manitoba after having a great visit with them then drove the 90 KM through land that is so flat that you wouldn't think that water would run off it and some very bumpy highways.    We are camped in Ile des Chenes about 10 min south of Winnipeg.    We have been visiting with Brian's niece and her 3 children and have a great visit.  Its been fun and a treat getting to know them again after not seeing them for a number of years.
We had another storm Friday night and it beat all the others we have encountered on our travels.  This started approx. 2 am lasted approx. 2 hours and was Thunder, Lightening, torrential rain and HAIL  Oh Fun. 
June 25,2016
While in Winnipeg we have seen some of the local landmarks and heritage sites including The Forks which is a very well known and popular National Heritage Site and is visited every year by over 4 million people.  We took a boat tour on the Assiniboine and Red Rivers and learned a lot about the history of the city and saw the Legislative Buildings (pic below)

.  We also drove around the city on our own sight seeing adventure and saw the coldest corner in Canada - Portage & Main Streets- 
June 26, 2016
We have seen a bit more of Winnipeg.  Although it has rained a lot today we took a drive to St. Boniface Cathedral, a piece of Roman Catholic history built in 1906  WOW what an incredible building and there is only a shell left as the building caught fire in 1968 and they could not save it.  The circle in the front was a stained glass window which blew out during the fire. (pic below)

.They rebuilt a small Cathedral behind it in 1972.  We toured the graveyard surrounding the Cathedral which has some tombstones that are so old you can no longer read the engraving on them. Also came upon the final resting place of Louis Riel  an iconic figure in Canadian History.  We have enjoyed our tour of Winnipeg and visiting family and tomorrow we will continue the adventure into Ontario.

MEANDERING THROUGH SASK TO MANITOBA

Sept 17, 2016
Left Saskatoon and are on our way to visit our good Friends Neil & Dorothy in Rosenfeld, Manitoba.  For those of you who don't know they have been friends for over 35 years  Neil and Brian had a partnership back in the 1970's  framing houses and it was a great partnership until the housing market tanked.  I met Dorothy when Steve and her daughter Leanne were in Kindergarten together.  We introduced the two of them and they blended their family's and have been together ever since. 
It will take us a few days to get there as we hate driving long days so we take our time.  Stopped our first night at a cute very small town Called Indian Head, Sask   I never saw the tv show but if you ever watched Little Mosque on the Prairie it was filmed mostly in Indian Head  Lots of neat looking old buildings (Pics Below), and a really nice campsite.
 Next we stopped in Brandon Manitoba which greeted us with the most wicked Lightening & Thunder storm either us have ever experienced in our lifetime and hopefully never again.  It lasted almost 2 hours over our heads and the thunder was the loudest I have ever heard and had with it torrential downpours.   Since being on the east side of the rockies we have experienced one horrendous  wind storm and three thunder & lightening storms (oh Fun)  We will spend 2 nights in Brandon and tomorrow we will arrive at our friends place and visit with them for several days

SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN

June 15, 2016
So we landed in Saskatoon and Brian got an idea of how flat the prairies are (I had been to Sask when I was quite young so I knew) 
Saskatoon had some great sites to see.  We took a smaller River Boat Cruise down the Saskatchewan River which was quite nice (they had a full bar on board Yahaoo) Pics Below.  It was very interesting and they gave some great historical information along the way about the river and the city of Saskatoon. The Pic of the hotel is nicknamed The Bess and was built in 1925 Beautiful Bldg. 

June 16, 2016
Went to the Western Development Museum which is a must see if you are in Saskatoon.  We spent about 3 hours there and it was really great.  Lots of displays of authentic buildings from late 1800 plus the products they would have sold or used in that time period.  Pics below The Museum also has a collection of great old cars which are in immaculate condition and I have pics of but can't add all of them plus a lot of old farm equipment   Check out the last pic  If I was doing hair in those days YIKES  Haircut & a shave 25 cents

DRUMHELLER, ALBERTA

June 12 2016
Our journey across the Prairies has certainly been a learning experience for us.  To see the Prairie Winds create never ending vistas of grasses blowing like waves on the sea was awesome.  Very cool to see the wind turbines across southern Alberta generating  power.
We spent two nights in Drumheller and yesterday did all the Touristy Stuff which was fun.  We first went to the hoodoos and those are very cool (pic below).  Drumheller is also part of the Badlands and the landscape is very different and interesting and there are great viewpoints one of which is Horse Thief Canyon and that is incredible views (pic below)  You can really imagine the cowboys riding through those hills.  We also went to the Tyrell Museum of Paleontology. It was incredible and the history of the dinosaurs was amazing and the exhibits they have there are awesome.(pic below)  We also did a circle tour of the area which included a short ferry ride across the river.  It was sooooo fun  It is a cable ferry and the river is approx.150 to 200  ft across.  The operator was an absolute hoot.  He was fun friendly and joked with everyone for the all of 10 min ride.

June 14 2016
Driving from Drumheller to Saskatoon on secondary highways  really gives you an idea of how people who live and farm here have to deal with life on the prairies.  At best guess they would have to drive 100 kms just to buy groceries.  Not a life for the faint of heart.  On a lighter note its humorous to drive through small towns and see Car Dealerships larger than you would find in the auto malls in the lower mainland  and  with nothing but pickup trucks on the lots.   We are so glad to have experienced this and are looking forward to the next phase of the Adventure.

WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA

This Park is on Alberta / Montana Border/B.C. Border  and is the only Canadian Park that is shared with the U.S.A   We have spent 3 days here and it is absolutely one of the most beautiful Parks I have ever seen.  If you have not been here I Highly recommend it.  The Lakes are turquoise (pics below), the village is cute, we saw deer on the main street and the Prince of Wales Hotel is a Unesco Heritage Site  (pics below) is awesome and it is surrounded by beautiful mountains.   The Red Rock Canyon is a must see (pics below) and there is a Bison Paddock (pic below) that we drove through a few times  Also saw a couple of Bears and some Deer
P S  In order to eventually navigate our way home we are leaving a trail of Wine Bottles in our wake

BANFF & LAKE LOUISE, ALBERTA

We spent the most awesome day in Lake Louise & Banff  and although we have been here before it was quite a few years ago.  First went up to Lake Louise -  Spectacular - Then headed to Banff  Wow has that changed since we were last here.  We decided to go up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola which climbs 2300 vertical ft in 8 min and ends up at elevation of 7500 ft above sea level and although the FEAR FACTOR was way up there it was amazing.  The pics are a bit cloudy as the day was hazy.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS - SANDY POINT CAMPGROUND, SALMON ARM B.C.

 

This is the Best Campsite on Shuswap Lake

 

May 31, 2016   The Journey Begins   We left home and drove to Logan Lake for our first night and visited with our friend Mike.  Had dinner with him and a few bottles of wine.  Good Wine & a good Friend   On June 1, we drove to Salmon Arm to visit some very special Family members  Has a great time and the weather was good.