A digital travel diary. · WP v1.08 · Updated
Tuesday, July 7, 2026 . From the Takakkaw Falls, it took us about two hours to reach the Kananaskis Mountain Lodge, where we had planned to stay one night. Inna had found an amazing Nordic Spa, and she wanted everyone to rest after so many days of hiking. . . . . . . We reached the Kananaskis Mountain Lodge at around 16:30, and it…
Read More: Kananaskis Village Hotel & Nordic Spa
Tuesday, July 6, 2026 . We checked out of the Storm Mountain Lodge (Lake Louise area), where we had been staying for the past 3 nights, and started our drive to Yoho National Park, where we had planned multiple hikes. . . Our first stop was at Emerald Lake. As we started our drive at 09:00, we were worried about the limited parking there. .…
Read More: Yoho National Park
Sunday, July 5, 2026 . We awoke at 06:00, brushed our teeth, and quickly dressed. At 06:30, we started our drive toward the Summer Gondola at Lake Louise, where we planned to park before catching the shuttle to Lake Moraine. Our shuttle was scheduled to depart at 07:25, so we had a 15-minute wait to drink coffee (from our Thermos) and eat pastries (Pastel de…
Read More: Stunning Lake Moraine
Saturday, July 4, 2026 . After the 50-minute drive from Peyto Lake, we arrived at Storm Mountain Lodge, near Lake Louise. Inna had chosen the Storm Mountain Lodge for its convenient location for the many hikes around Lake Louise (since shuttles were required to access the hiking trails). (I wish that UberX were available for drop-off at Lake Louise, as the price for shuttle transfers…
Read More: Gorgeous Lake Louise
Saturday, July 4, 2026 . At 10:00, after we finished breakfast at Hotel Canoe's Sudden Sally restaurant, we loaded our Hyundai Kona. We made several stops on our preplanned road trip along the Icefields Parkway. . . . . Our first stop was Crowfoot Glacier Viewpoint, about an hour away from Banff. We pulled into a fairly full parking lot at 11:00, but managed to…
Read More: Icefields Parkway
Thursday, July 2, 2026 . On the way to Hotel Canoe in Banff, where we planned to spend two nights, I intended to stop at Wild Flower Bakery to purchase the next day's packable lunch. Once we reached Banff, traffic was extremely heavy, so I dropped off Alex and Inna nearby so they could order pastries and sandwiches while I looked for parking. . .…
Read More: Beautiful Banff
Thursday, July 2, 2026 . We had always wanted to see the Canadian Rockies, Banff, and Lake Louise, but had never had the time. For the July 4th weekend, I checked to see whether flights from San Francisco to Calgary were available at a reasonable price (and luckily, they were). With Inna's and ChatGPT's help, we came up with a detailed plan to see as…
Read More: Calgary
In November 2017, we considered skiing at Whistler/Blackcomb but realized the cost was too high. However, while drinking coffee at our favorite Philz Coffee, I was perusing a message from NorCal Snowboarders and noticed a planned Whistler ski trip, which was really inexpensive. How did NorCal manage to keep prices so low? . . . Inna and I looked into it further and discovered we…
Read More: Snowboarding Whistler
After many changes in travel arrangements, we settled on our Whistler Ski vacation for February 18 to 22. Since we could not book our favorite Pan Pacific Whistler Mountainside hotel for Alex's annual ski week (at Dartmouth Middle School), we made reservations at the Crystal Lodge. Pan Pacific usually offers significant adventures for skiers, such as the included 2 adult Whistler/Blackcomb lift tickets for each…
Read More: Snowboarding Whistler
The drive from Montreal to Mont-Tremblant took about two hours. Mont-Tremblant is one of the major ski resorts near Montreal, and we wanted to see what it looks like and what activities it offers in the summer.. . When we arrived in the afternoon, we did not realize that Mont-Tremblant had a Blues Festival. I was surprised that a small ski town could host such…
Read More: Ziplining on Mont-Tremblant
We were not originally planning to visit the Botanical Gardens in Montreal on July 4, 2015. However, having finished exploring the nearby Biodome, we decided to take a closer look at the beautiful gardens.. . . . . It was around 5:00 p.m. when we arrived, and the indoor garden exhibit would close at 6:00 p.m. We decided to go in anyway. I am thankful…
Read More: Botanical Garden, Montreal, Quebec
Imagine a park where the deer are domesticated and come up without fear of humans - that's Parc Omega!. . The drive from Montreal to Parc Omega was only about 90 minutes. When we arrived, we thought about renting a golf cart with a built-in cage - the cost seemed reasonable at $25/hour. However, the golf cart could not visit some park areas, so we…
Read More: Parc Omega, Quebec
Our drive from Gananoque (Thousand Islands) to Montreal took a little over two and a half hours. We experienced periods of heavy rain but made it safely to our rented Airbnb apartment.. . . We were staying on Rue Towers Street in downtown Montreal. Our Airbnb host, Tyler, met us and showed us where to park our car and the many amenities of the rented…
Read More: Montreal, Quebec
After packing our suitcases for our drive to Gananoque, Canada, to see the Thousand Islands, we decided to get breakfast at the nearby La Prep restaurant. We had a couple of coffees and pastries and then drove our Toyota Camry out of Toronto. Although traffic was not very heavy, we experienced several rain showers during our two-and-a-half-hour drive to Gananoque.. . We checked into our…
Read More: Thousand Islands, Ontario
I am 1,168 feet above the ground, on a thin metal walkway around the CN Tower's upper platform. It's a beautiful sunset in Toronto, and I can see for miles around in all directions. I am doing the highly recommended EdgeWalk with my wife.. . I can see the nearby Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport; the Blue Jays play the Red Sox in the Ricoh…
Read More: Walking on the Edge
After getting up early, around 6:30 a.m., we dressed and drove to Niagara Falls. We were told that traffic could be heavy, but we did not expect it to be so terrible. It reminded me of traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most lanes were barely moving. Since we had 3 people in our car, we could use the HOV lane and made better…
Read More: Niagara Falls, Ontario
Is travel really worth it?. . I was contemplating this as I sat in the San Francisco airport, waiting for my Air Canada flight AC756 to Toronto (our first leg of the Eastern Canada trip).. . First, you spend time getting to the airport (contending with traffic on US-101), then you wait to check in at the airline terminal (Air Canada was running really slow).…
Read More: Raining in Toronto
On our drive from Whistler to Vancouver, we stopped by Lynn Canyon Park. Inna read that most locals prefer Lynn Canyon Park over the much more touristy Capilano Suspension Bridge. . . . We have been to the Capilano many times (and liked it a lot), but we were interested in trying something new. We enjoyed Lynn Canyon Park (though Capilano also offers excellent views)..…
Read More: Vancouver, British Columbia
After the hike at Lynn Canyon Park (and a delicious lunch at Tour de Feast), we drove to VanDusen Botanical Gardens in Vancouver. The gardens closed at 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays, so we had just over an hour to explore them.. . . . . There were many plants and flowers in the garden, but the vast majority were not blooming. Here is a map…
Read More: VanDusen Botanical Gardens, British Columbia
After our last breakfast in our Pan Pacific Mountainside Whistler hotel room, we loaded up our Kia Sorento rental and drove to Vancouver, BC.. . On the way to Vancouver, we decided to stop at Lynn Canyon Park - instead of Capilano Suspension Bridge. We have been to the Capilano Suspension Bridge many times before, but heard that Vancouver's natives prefer to relax in Lynn…
Read More: Lynn Canyon Park, British Columbia