Tag Archives: travel

Hawaiian Honeymoon Day 1- Beach and Turtle Bay

31 Mar

I’m back! Thank goodness for the long weekend which gave me a chance to catch up on everything. I am expecting my wedding pictures any day now so watch my Wedding link for a TON of photos in the next week or so. But I have been dying to share my Hawaiian adventures so let’s get started!

After spending the night in Great Falls and 12 hours of flying or waiting for flights, Ryan and I finally arrived in Oahu! I had been looking forward to show Ryan my favourite place in the world for months and months.

DSCF3376

We rented a condo at Pat’s on Punaluu for only $95/night! A steal for Hawaii. This beach front property was the perfect place for a honeymoon. My only complaint is that the bedroom is on the street side of the place and the traffic was so loud I couldn’t sleep on the comfy bed. But there was a futon in the living room, so we slept there and listened to the waves. You can find the condo we stayed in HERE.

Image

We spent the morning out on the beach right in front of us, swimming around and enjoying the beach. Ryan saw his first sea turtle (a big guy too) swim by us and we both got our first reef scratches, ha ha!

DSCF3383

My sexy husband enjoying the beach

DSCF3380

Me swimming

DSCF3387

Heaven!

DSCF3388

The view down the beach

After lunch we headed to my favourite resort that I have yet to ever stay in; The Turtle Bay in Kahuku. My mum has been taking us to the cove at this resort for years. She even had her second wedding at the Sunset Room in the resort and it’s where we like to eat when we stay on the north shore.

We did a loop around the place and I showed Ryan all the places that he saw on Forgetting Sarah Marshall (one of my favourite movies).

DSCF3396

Ryan in front of the “yoga studio” from Forgetting Sarah Marshall

DSCF3398

Honeymooners enjoying a walk around the resort

DSCF3402

Ryan enjoying his vacation in a hammock

DSCF3405

“Sitting in a hammock with my baby, watching the sea roll by!”

DSCF3410

Hello gecko!

All in all, day one was an amazing, relaxing day.

About these ads

Tags: , , , , , ,

That Time I was on a Reality TV Show (1/3)

3 Oct

On a beautiful summer day I grudgingly came in from the sunshine to my windowless office to sit on my butt and work. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really like my job- but summer is hard for the office worker, especially a girl who used to spend her summers on a ranch.  Anyway I came in and had a thought “I wonder if Shaw TV does any local programming on hikes or things to do near Lethbridge?” That’s where I found Make it Happen, a new program by Shaw helping people do the crazy adventures they have always wanted to.

I wrote in an application and was selected to be on the show! The fun part? They wanted my adventure to be a surprise so I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. All I knew was that I was flying into Toronto which was exciting because like many Albertans the farthest east in Canada I have ever been is Medicine Hat.

Upon arriving I got to meet Helen Upperton, a silver medallist in bobsled and the hostess of Make it Happen.

Helen and her silver medal!

She informed me that we were headed to Algonquin Park which is three hours north of Toronto. I have heard of Algonquin and I knew that the leaves would be changing and gorgeous up there but I still had no idea what I was doing!

Off we went with a quick stop to Webers Hamburgers, a local legend when it comes to awesome burgers and chocolate shakes. The  dining area is actually an old dining car which I thought was very cool.

The dining car

A few hours later we arrived.

 

When we pulled in to where we would be staying Helen informed me that we were staying at Bonita Cabin, owned by the family who owns Roots and the visiting place of many an athlete and celebrity. The cabin was straight out of a magazine and had a gorgeous view of the water.  I wish I had taken a picture of the cabin!

Before turning in Helen informed me that I would in fact be kayaking on this trip. Yeah! She then informed me that my coach would be four time Olympic medallist Adam van Koeverden!! I flipped! I am an Olympic nerd having had Olympic dreams but not Olympic athleticism so this was too much.  Hanging out with Helen was cool enough but now I was going to be coached by one of the worlds best kayakers? Awesome!

I didn’t think I was going to be able to sleep much I was so excited but the incredible feather duvets at the cabin enveloped me in warmth and I slept like a baby.

Watch for my next post about meeting Adam, my butt getting stuck in the kayak, and our soup falling in the fire.

My kayak on the beautiful Lake Bonita

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Hiking Saskatoon Mountain in the Crowsnest Pass

24 Aug

As you may have read in my summary blog about my Adventures in Crowsnest Pass you know that we did not get to hike to the Dakota Plane Crash Site like I wanted to. We spent an hour and 15 minutes driving around on off road terrain (my car rocked!) until we gave up and decided to try another hike.  We wanted something moderate but short as were quickly burning daylight so we settled on Saskatoon Mountain a 1.2km hike each way that was rated moderate.

When we pulled up and started on the trail head I was less than impressed. I was really looking forward to the plane crash site and was in a bad mood that we didn’t get to do that. I was furious when we started and saw what Saskatoon Mountain looked like.

Saskatoon Mountain. Where’s Waldo? Lol

The map said to follow the fence line up but we decided to follow the service road for a bit and swing around in order to make the hike a little longer. I’m glad we did because we came down by the fence line and it was so steep! So along the service road we started.

I was NOT happy by the start of our hike

The boys were so bored they decided to knock down a tree

After walking along the service for a road, we veered left through the growth and started ascending the “mountain.”

Up we go

Now, the whole time I was complaining about this hike. I kept calling it lame and stupid and kept saying I was going to go back to the car. I would plop my butt down every 10 minutes and sit and would say “I’m in no hurry to get to the top of this lame mountain.” I really was a major pest!

Sitting and sulking because this wasn’t the hike I wanted.

But when we got to the top, even I had to admit the view was still pretty.

The view of Crowsnest Mountain from the top

While taking pictures, my boyfriend Ryan got down on one knee.

Yup. He proposed!!!

Now THAT turned around my mood! For awhile anyway. On the way back down it was really steep and I just wanted to get to my phone in the car to call my family and friends. So I started complaining again about how lame the hike was. Ha ha ha!

Heading down

Cows in our way. Ryan was scared! I had to go first and shoo them out of the way!

Saskatoon Mountain will now always have good memories for me, and one hell of a funny proposal story.

The hikers!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Frank Slide in Frank, Alberta

22 Aug

I drove through Frank Slide on every trip from Seattle to Magrath and I always meant to stop and read the interpretive signage and find out what it was about but never did. This past weekend adventures in Crowsnest Pass was the perfect opportunity to stop and find out what this was about.

Here are the basic facts you need to know:

  • April 30, 1903 4:10 am, the town of Frank is awoken by a thunderous sound, the mountain was collapsing
  • Of Frank’s 600 resident, 90 were killed
  • Surprisingly, all but three midnight mine workers survived. They had to dig themselves out.
  • One train worker had to run a mile and a half over the rock in the dark to flag down an oncoming passenger train

Ben among the rubble

Ben and I went to the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre to learn more about this disaster. Now, if you want to get your $10 worth from the centre, see the film last. It is an amazing film with re-enactment, photos and testimonies from residents. It is an interesting film and very educational. The problem is, most of the displays repeat the information told in the movie. Even the interactive testimonies are sound clips straight from the movie. So we made it through half the centre before we were bored and ready to leave. That is kind of a bummer.

Natives called this “the mountain that moves” and never camped under it.

But a visit to the Frank Slide Centre is a must. It’s fun, interactive, has a kids section and is an interesting piece of history. Just see the movie last!

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Adventures in Crowsnest Pass

21 Aug

Wow! What a weekend it was! My little brother and I really wanted some quality time together (he is spending the summer in Waterton before going back to Seattle) so we scheduled this camping trip over a month ago to make sure that we got some quality time in together! And we did have several adventures. He wanted to get out of Waterton, my typical place of choice so we decided to hit up Crowsnest Pass instead.

My first off impression is that the Crowsnest Pass is that it’s not the place for me. It’s crowded, the mountains aren’t nearly as dramatic as Waterton, and the trail heads are not marked (more on that later).

CAMPING

We camped at Chinook Lake just 6km north of Highway 3. It is very clearly marked and easy to find. This was my first time camping in a crowded camp ground EVER! I always camped in remote camp grounds or back country. I did not liek the experience at all! I was kept up until 3am the first night by the drunk d-bags two camping spots over from us and then awoken at 7am by the screaming kids right next to us. I was not a happy camper.

Tent # 1

Tent #2

We intended to buy wood from the camp site but when we arrived they weren’t home. It was 8pm on a Friday night, prime camp site hours. I left a note and it wasn’t  until 10 pm that the host came by with some wood for us to purchase. In the meantime we were starving and so picked up dead wood around the site (which we weren’t supposed to) to get a fire started to cook on.

Searching for wood

When we tried to go down to Chinook Lake, it was so crowded we couldn’t find any parking. By the end of the trip I was pretty annoyed with the whole camp ground experience. From now on, I am sticking to back country.

Reflection of the trees in my coffee

ACTIVITIES

We did have a good time being tourists in Crowsnest Pass. Ryan wasn’t with us on the first day as he had to work so Ben and I were complete tourists and started off our day walking through Blairmore.

Ben hopped the fence to get this shot with a historic train on display in the town

We had breakfast as this amazing cafe! It is just like Luke’s Diner from Gimore Girls.

I ordered a fresh carrot juice and it was so tasty!

We headed to Crowsnest Lake to enjoy the view

We went on the Bellevue Mine Tour! A blog post about this awesome experience to come.

We hit the Interpretive Centre and learned all about Frank Slide. More info to come soon.

HIKING

I wanted to go on an epic hike with Ben, at least once. SO I researched local hikes and found one that goes to a World War !! plane crash site where the shell of the plane is still there. From that site you can hike 3km more up to the peak of the mountain it’s on.  I was so excited to take Ben and Ryan and I found a free hiking map at Stone’s Throw Cafe so I thought I knew the way.

We followed the map to the North Creek Road and stopped under a big sign that said North Creek Staging Area while we looked for a sign somewhere. I stopped a group of passing mountain bikers (one of whom happened to be an old aquaintence) and got directions to the trail head. He said that we had to go over the yellow York Creek Bridge, up a few switchbacks and we would see a sign. We passed the bridge, drove up the switch backs and saw two trails forking. First we tried the left but that lead to what looked like a quad trail then we turned around and tried the right and ended up on another quad trail.  We drove through puddles and over rocks and ruts and I was shocked at how awesome my car was doing.

This was the highlight of this morning. We drove around for over an hour before I gave up trying to find this trail or the trail head because there are several trails shooting off the main road and not one is marked and the map’s instructions were clear as mud. But I still enjoyed myself because my car Norman a small 2-wheel drive SUV was ROCKING on this off road terrain! I couldn’t believe it. I will never call Norman boring again! 

Just a little of the mud when we first started off-roading with Norman.

So after about an hour and 15 minutes I stressed right out and said forget it. We went to a gas station and looked at the trail map and tried to find something that was a nice hike but short because we were quickly burning daylight. We decided on Saskatoon Mountain a 1.2km hike each way that was rated moderate. More details on this hike to come.

I was not impressed when we started the trail. More info on this hike to come soon.

We ended our weekend with a swim in the Crowsnest River and headed back for home.

It was a good time, I enjoyed my time with my brother, but I will stick to Waterton from now on. It’s closer, there are less crowds, and most importantly trail heads are clearly marked!!!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

3/3 One Short Day in Waterton- Red Rock Canyon

29 Jul

After hiking Bear’s Hump, canoeing on Cameron Lake and a pit stop at Pearl’s for a wrap we headed to Red Rock Canyon. I told you we had a lot to fit into one day! My mum and my stepdad walked along the paved trail that goes around it and watched Ben and I walk through the canyon, playing like little kids in the water.

Lots of natural little water slides in the canyon. I didn’t actually slide, the water was so cold!

This is the spot where my sister thought she was going to drown last time I brought her up. Ha ha ha ha! The water goes to your waist!

Someone placed a log so we didn’t have to wade through the freezing water

Didn’t know if it was going to hold his weight

Wading through the water

The end of the canyon

Looking up the canyon to the observation bridge

Another natural water slide

Ben slid down this. Video clip below

Tags:

2/3 One Short Day in Waterton- Cameron Lake

28 Jul

After hiking Bear’s Hump it was a straight shot up to Cameron Lake for some canoeing. Even though I lived in Waterton and go there to hike a lot, I have never been on Cameron Lake in the summer. You think the mountain looks beautiful from the shore but it is NOTHING compared to getting up close and personal.

We rented canoes from Cameron Lake Boat Rentals for $35/hour and an extra $6 per 15 minutes after that.

Mum and Charles canoeing out to the end of the lake

My step dad laid back in the canoe a lot and made my mum do most of the paddling. Lol

So green!

The closer you got, the greener it became

Tags:

1/3 One Short Day in Waterton- Bear’s Hump

27 Jul

My mum came into town for a short three day visit and I took Wednesday off to spend the day in Waterton with her.  I had to cram as much Waterton fun as I could in one day and I think I did a good job- I should be a tour guide!

First off was a quick stop to Prince of Wales to check out the historic hotel and take a photo from that scenic view point.

Outside the Prince of Wales hotel

Then it was off to Bears Hump. I was so excited to school these old folks but for some reason I was DIEING. My legs felt weak and it was a struggle to hike up this. It’s a difficult hike but usually not that difficult. Oh well, they loved the view (who wouldn’t). The best part was on the way down we raced my mum. I thought her knees would give out and she would stop and walk but she jogged down the whole thing! I was very proud of her.

One of many breaks on the way up

Lots and lots of stairs!

Mum and I at the top

Me and my baby brother Ben!

Mum checking out the other side

Looking to the left

Looking to the right

Ben loves Bears Hump

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Lundbreck Falls, Alberta

14 Jun

I was lucky enough to road trip back to Alberta from Washington with my little brother Ben after his graduation. Just as we were leaving the Crowsnest Pass I saw the sign for Lundbreck Falls and asked him if we wanted to make a quick pit stop though we were less than two hours from home.

When you pull off the highway you only need to drive for about 3-4 minutes and you’ll see the parking area on your left. You can’t miss it!

A rest stop well worth it! The falls are beautiful and have a couple of observation decks that jut out over the water. There are also restrooms and benches, the perfect pit stop at a beautiful location. There is a campground across the bridge from the falls so I may have to try it out one weekend this summer.

The falls

Climbing over the observations deck

Ben soaking in the beauty

The river feeding into the falls

Beautiful!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Nothing Like a Road Trip

13 Jun

I have done A LOT of travelling the last two weeks of May. With one brother getting married in Salt Lake City and the other brother graduating from Richland, Washington I spent a total of 40 hours in a car and 3 hours on a plane in two weeks!!!!! Craziness! Luckily I had some great companions who made the trip fun and enjoyable.

Here are some tips for a great road trip:

  • Dress comfy
  • Pack healthy snacks
  • Stop a lot! Even if it’s for 5 minutes. A stretch break at a scenic spot will rejuvenate you along the way.
  • Do not eat in the car and don’t eat at chain restaurants. You can eat at McDonalds at home, when you are on the road seek out the locally owned joints and get chatting with the locals about cool places to hit up
  • Music. Make sure you have lots of music for every mood. I LOVE musical soundtracks to sing along to on a long drive
  • Talking. If you don’t have a talkative partner (like when I drove to Seattle with Ryan) it will be a LONG drive. The first 6 hours of my trip to SLC flew by because my cousin Jenn and I were talking the whole time

I love a good road trip. (This was taken just outside Pocatello, Idaho)

My Cousin Jenn makes a great road trip companion!

We had lunch at this diner in Helena, MT and talked to the locals about fly fishing and the giant statue on the top of the mountain overlooking the city.

We stopped at this general store for a pee break and took the time to look at all the local wares for sale.

The name of this school house-turned-cafe drew us in. The $1 coffee was pretty terrible though!

We stopped at this drive thru in Conrad, MT on the way to Great Falls

I wondered why everyone looked at us funny when we got out of the car

Ben & I took a rest stop at Lundbreck Falls, Alberta

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 239 other followers