Golden Gate Heights Walk

Laurel and I decided to go to the city today and do one of the stairway walks. I was drawn to this walk because it featured a mosaic stair case with 162 steps. The mosaic was beautiful. I have been thinking about doing a mosaic because two of my friends (Cris and Linda) have made mosaics the last two years. They are teachers, so the do them during the summer. Now I want to join them next summer. So, this mosaic staircase just inspired me even more. As we got to the top, there were mirrored pieces. Laurel took a picture of it and you can see the two of us (red and green) in the reflection. What a treasure this is for the neighborhood.

Toward the end of our walk we came to Grand View Park. You can see why it got this name. The next two pictures were taken from there.

Here are the mosaics that Linda and Cris made. Aren't they amazing?

I guess this walk is a perfect example of vacationing near our home.

Molly has gone to doggy heaven.

Sad news today. Smylie had to put Molly down. She was a wonderful and obedient dog and a great companion.
I remember it like it was yesterday when Smylie brought Molly home. It was December 24, 1998. This was going to be a big surprise for Nancy. Kevin and Smylie went to the breeder and picked her out. They wrapped her up in a box and Nancy was told to open it. Boy, was Nancy surprised! She gave Smylie this look of "You have got to be kidding". Keep in mind, she had our whole family staying at her house. She a packed house for Christmas Eve and was doing Christmas Brunch. On Christmas day, we had to take an untrained puppy to Betty's house for Christmas dinner. It all worked out and now it makes us laugh. That expression on Nancy's face will not be forgotten. Anyway, that is how Molly entered the Smylie household. But, she did prove to be a wonderful family pet and we all loved her. Molly came from the same breeder as Goldie, their previous dog and the grandmother of our dog Moose. So, it is almost a relative.
I will miss having Molly greet me on my visits to Southern California.
Here are a few pictures of the good ole times with Molly.

Here is the Smylie Family with Molly up at our cabin. She is a fine looking dog.

Here is one of those cabin pictures with Molly when we actually had snow. That is Molly posing correctly and Moose with his back to the camera.

Here Chris is holding Molly in the Smylie kitchen like she is a lap dog. She wasn't a lap dog, but she was very compliant.

We will miss you Molly!

Happy 5th Anniversary Chris & Jess

I can hardly believe that it has been 5 years. You have produced 2 beautiful children and are a wonderful loving couple. Congratulations! I am very proud of both of you.

Then

Now

Banff * Lake Louise * Canmore

Canmore

We stayed in Canmore for 4 nights. Canmore is about 15 minutes from Banff National Park. There are more accommodations available because there aren't National Park restriction. We had a brand new two bedroom condo that we loved.

This is the Bow River that runs though Canmore. We strolled along it after dinner. What a beautiful place.

This is the view outside our window in Canmore. The first picture was taken the day we arrived. The second one is after we had a bit of snowfall. Most of our weather was beautiful. It was even pretty fun to have snow in July. The weather in the Canadian Rockies can change very quickly.

Our scenic drive near Canmore

We saw a number of bears on this trip, but this one was the most interesting. He/she was trying to get down a steep hill. He kept trying to find a way down. You can see him sliding at one point and finally he figured out how to do it. It was great fun to watch and I got to use my telephoto lense.

We were excited to see this long horned sheep crossing the rode. Then we continued to see them all over the place. We saw babies and complete families. Needless to say, it was wild life.

I really wanted to see a moose on this trip. The picture below is of an elk with a rack. I was sure when I took this picture that it was a moose. I was really excited. When I downloaded it onto the computer, Don said, "That's not a moose, it's an elk." I had already seen the elk without the rack, so I just assummed that this was something different. We city girls just can't identify our wildlife very easily. Down below is the only moose I saw on the trip. They are very shy animals. The one I saw at the Banff Hotel was very friendly.

Here is a picture of the four of us at Spray lake. We had lunch along this lake. Did I mention that we encounter an attack chipmunk during our lunch? We managed to protect our food from that nasty creature.

Kananaskis Valley is a beautiful and not very crowded place. We stopped here for a strolled.

Mistaya River

We hiked about a quarter mile to see this amazing river. It was fast moving water through narrow walled canyon. It was like being on a beautiful river without having to hall all of our gear there.

Johnston Falls

This was another short hike (about 1/2 mile) . More beautiful water. We hiked to lower Johnston Falls. We did encounter a little bit of hail on this hike. It made our trip interesting.

Banff Hotel

I had to include these two pictures because the setting for photographs at the Banff Hotel was so perfect. I didn't remember (from 32 years ago) how beautiful this place was. I think this might be our Christmas card picture. I think the Choys will need to do that too. I bet we both would end up picking the same costco from for the card. We do travel well together because we have the same taste.

Banff Gondola

The trip to the top of the Mountain was well worth it. The views from up there were outstanding. The pictures speak for the beauty of the area.

Lake Louise

We spent one night at Paradise Lodge in Lake Louise. Once again, the pictures tell it all. God's beauty is everywhere!

Columbia Ice Fields

Columbia Ice Fields are just inside of Jasper National Park. They are an interesting and beautiful part of nature, but I have seen more spectaular ice fields in Alaska, so I wasn't really that impress. When you go to Jasper, I think you have to go here, but for $38 per person, I thought it was just OK. But, I did get some nice pictures. The picture below is of the bus with oversized tires that takes you up to the icefield.

Here are a few of the quiet times we had on our trip. It's not like Chet took naps all the time. Sometimes Paula joined him too. I think DB would have taken more naps too, but he was our offical driver. There is a picture of him resting his eyes at the Banff Hotel.

What a wonderful trip!

Vancouver & The Rocky Mountaineer Train

Vancouver

We started our trip with 3 days in Vancouver. We use the Big Bus as our mode of transportation. It worked out well, giving us an overview of the city and then we used it to get around without taxis.

Stanley Park is a highlight in downtown Vancouver. It is lush from the frequent rain. It was warmer in Vancouver than I thought it would be which made walking around at night easy.

Another great place to visit is Granville Island. I decided that I love the condos in the background. They had a great view of the water and were right by the wonderful marketplace. Most of Vancover is near water. I loved that about it. I have a feeling that if I spent one winter there, I would be on plane back to California. I like year round mild weather.
I took this picture near the Martime Museum. We took a small boat seen in the background over to the museum. The picture is looking back on downtown Vancouver. Once again, there is water everywhere. Nice!
This is a clock powered by steam that goes off every half hour. It is located in Gas Town. This was just a short walk from our hotel, so we walked over here for dinners and ice cream treats.

Rocky Mountaineer

Here are a few pictures of our trip. It was so scenic, it was hard to decide what to post. We had first class service on the train. The seats gave us lots of leg room and if we wanted we could go stand outside of the train to take pictures we could. They would announce when something important was coming up. This was certainly a luxury vacation.

This is Paula and Chet with DB as we boarded the train.


Beautiful Canadian Rockies

I loved watching the train go around bends where we could see the front of our train. The cars in the front were only one floor in height. We were on the dome cars with two levels. The top of our car was glass so we could see outside from many windows.

This was fun. I took a picture of an oncoming train by sticking my head out the side of the train. I did manage to pull my camera inside before it passed. I think I could have click one more picture, but my play if safe instincts took over.

The Beauty of the trip never ended. If you want to see more pictures from the trip, you can go to my webshots site. http://community.webshots.com/user/cballanti