Holiday from our holiday...

Ever been in a dilemma of trying to spend $250 at an airport before your plane is due to take off? Well that was the predicament we found ourselves at the end of our USA and Canada trip. We not only had to spend this money – which was given by Delta airlines, but we got to sit in 1^st class twice though we only took one flight back to Grenada. We also had a day to explore New York and see the sights we never thought we’d see!

Awe inspiring, spectacular and dare I say it – amazing – are some of the descriptors we used when travelling around North West USA and British Columbia, Canada. The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterways can be quite breath taking. The kids were quoted to say at a number of places “we could live here”! Kara has vowed to come back and work at Whistler Ski Resort in 10 years time as we met so many Aussies working/visiting there. We had a fantastic time as a family, enjoying our land legs and driving around in our Dodge minivan visiting some very pretty spots. It certainly helped that we had virtually no rain while camping, and had the camping gear we needed (camping mats could have been just a bit thicker…)

We started out from Grenada at the end of June, leaving Moana Roa at a little marina at the south end of the island. We flew to Disneyworld for a week. What a contrast to what we were used to… We stayed in a 4 bedroom house, yes one bedroom for each child, that had a TV in each bedroom including the lounge!! At one point, Beau was ready to give up a day at Disneyworld just so he could stay at home, play iPod and watch TV! Disneyworld consisted of 4 theme parks that meant we had extremely hectic stimulated days. One of the best rides we all enjoyed was Everest – at the animal kingdom - as we got to go on it about 5 times in a row at the end of the day. One of those rollercoasters that sometimes goes in the dark and backwards.

We then flew to the North West of USA, to Portland, Oregon and picked up our van and our order of camping gear. I had found the Walmart website (like Kmart) and ordered camping gear which was sent to the store of our choice and held there. What a service! So all we had to do was walk in and pick it up. It meant we could get on our way a lot sooner. So off we went into Washington and was extremely pleased with our super-dooper instant tent – it really only took a minute to set up! We managed to wake the whole campsite the first night when Laurie accidently trod on the car panic button in the middle of the night and had no idea what it was or how to turn it off!!

We ended up celebrating 4^th July, Independence Day in Tacoma and saw an air show and the good old fireworks at night. Went to the beach there and were totally surprised by what we found. It was along a tidal river so saw a mucky low tide with lots of green stuff on the brown sand. We could not quite bring ourselves to take off our jumpers to go swimming. Throughout the whole trip we had quite a few opportunities to go swimming though we did not take up as many as we could have. Although we experienced some hot weather and tempting swimming spots, we have been spoilt with warm Caribbean water. The few times we did venture into the water was in hot tubs at the local swimming pools or tubing down some fast flowing snow melt… Had to be exciting to get into the water in the first place!

Our first impression of Canada was crossing a ferry from Port Angeles (Twilight fame) to Victoria, Vancouver Island. Beautiful scenery, a vibrant cosmopolitan city, but not too big. We also caught up with our cousins, who warmly welcomed us into their family. We think that was part of the magic of Vancouver island and British Columbia – not just the scenery, animals and weather, but having a great time catching up with family and friends.

We went onto Hope, just out of Vancouver and we met up with John from Busselton (and Hope). He spent a few days with us and took us up a very special part of the country. We had a day climbing up to the summit of the Coquihalla Needle. Not an easy feat with the stopping and playing in all the snow along the way. The kids had never seen snow before and you should have seen the snow flying around when they came across the first patch. John also taught the kids to boot ski and they spent ages just going up and down slopes.

 

We then went on a tour around British Columbia, getting out to the Okenagan Lakes across to Kamloops, back down to Vancouver via Whistler (home of the 2010 winter Olympics) and catching up with more of the clan, then up the Sunshine Coast. That meant making about 5 ferry crossings to parts of the mainland that can’t be accessed any other way – except sea plane. After visiting Vancouver Island again, we went back to Victoria to stay in a cousin’s house for a few days (bliss). We enjoyed more family hospitality, the BC museum and an international buskers festival. We then crossed back into USA via ferry and made our way to Seattle to fly out. Drove through Forks, (featured in Twilight) but the movie was obviously filmed elsewhere. It was hot and dry when we went through so decided Edward and Bella were in hiding. The only thing of note was a clever sign at the post office. Population 7500, Vampires 8.5

Every ferry crossing we took, we were on look out for Orcas (Killer Whales). Just couldn’t see them. Saw a few seals, especially around Vancouver, whilst roller blading/skateboarding around the beautiful Stanley Park (not adults, just the kids). Got our wish and saw 4 black bears. A mother and cub at Whistler. We were on the chair lift going up to the summit and saw them below us in the field. Then another bear on the side of the road and another a bear rehabilitation centre. We saw lots of Bald Eagles, deer (including urban deer), a coyote, raccoons, Columbian ground squirrels, Canada geese, lots of birds

We made the most of the Provincial Parks in British Columbia and got the occasional free site. One of the most beautiful camps was by a waterfall, with ripe blackberries and soaring snow capped mountains surrounding us. The kids got to go tubing on the river and we saw a tidal rapid with kayakers doing tricks. The site was free and no one else around. A fire, marshmallows and warm sleeping bag – what more could you ask??

So we came to the end of our trip. Flew out from Seattle to New York without incident. Had a few hours layover before boarding the plane back to Grenada. Managed to somehow jag First Class seats for us all on our 1.40am flight. We were settled in, already had the mimosa when it was announced that the pilot didn’t arrive. So then started the interesting bit!! My first thought was – oh no, I won’t actually get to enjoy my first ever (and probably only) first class flight. We heard lots of vocal disgruntled people, as first it was announced that the flight was delayed a few hours (which was appeased by a $50 voucher each) then after a lot of confusion we were told by gate staff that the plane was now cancelled till 1.40 am the following morning. The kids by this stage, were peacefully sleeping on the terminal floor, so Laurie could enter the ruckus and get Delta to organize hotels and taxis for everyone. Some of our baggage ended up being off loaded while some of it didn’t. We finally got to bed about 7am feeling very excited at the prospect of a day in NY as the boys had previously asked if we could visit NY. I had regrettably told them that we only had a transit in NY, as it was very expensive to stay. So here we were getting a wish that we never thought would happen!!

Thanks to Percy Jackson books, he has got the boys reading and their knowledge of NY was astounding. They were familiar with a lot of place names, and we got to actually see some places they had read about, like the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Manhattan, Times Square, Ground Zero. Travis got very excited about hailing and riding a NY yellow cab! So after a satisfying afternoon, we headed off to the airport again, to spend our Delta money and finally see what first class was all about.

What a GREAT holiday!!!