Just another turquoise lake

Peyto lake, Banff national park, Alberta Canada

Banff, Beautiful Banff

Banff town from atop Sulphur Mountain after a breath-taking gondola ride... we are staying in Banff for about 4 nights.

Lake Louise - Blue waters from "snow flour" - crushed rock sediment as it comes out in run-off from the glacier behind.

Eric and So Hang in Toronto!

Great to see you guys and your condo, and your little corner of the world!!

Toronto and Niagara

We made it to Toronto... And the great Niagara falls. Even on that
boat "Maid of the Mist" you can see right in the falls! Fantastic!!

Ottawa with Dan and Allison

Parliament and Canadian capital with Dan and Allison... what a whirlwind visit. But thanks lots and great to see your two... plus ominous storm clouds that thundered, lightning-ed, but no rain. All for show I think! And also thanks for introduction to Beavertails - they are made from real beavers, right?

Bump, Mum & Ligthouse

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, 27 deg C, 25 weeks.

Alanna: We were there...

Hope you are having a great time in India, Alanna!!

Pretty Nova Scotia

A weekend of checking out Halifax and maritime Nova Scotia.

Louisbourg - Old French Fort

From PEI we drove through rain and storms and back through time to Cape Breton's Louisbourg - a French fort and fishing port in 1700s. One fifth of the fort has been carefully reconstructed for tourists to come and relive - including dining in authentic inns and eating typical sailors' port fare (bread, cheese, sausage, beans, fish soup, and a whole lot of blandness).

PEI - blustery, cloudy, relaxed...

A day around the Kells' corner of the world...

And back home, with the sun coming out!!

Arriving at PEI for the Kells' (and the World Cup!!)

The Confederation Bridge that joins New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island...

We drove all day out of Quebec, through New Brunswick and over to Prince Edward Island to get to the Kells'.

Football final at the Kells'

Simon and Genevieve: Our hosts and friends in Quebec

THANKS SIMON & GENEVIEVE!! (at the falls above)

We had a great time with a very warm welcome from these guys who took time out to show us around and give us endless tips. AND, this great dessert at the restaurant they work at... the Chocolate platter - divine!

Hope to see you guys again soon, especially if you are coming to Hong Kong.

Quebec City

The Chateau Frontenac - Old fortification and old town in Quebec City

Lower old town...

The summer festivals (and heat wave) continue in Quebec city... viewing the backstage and sunset on top of the old city wall.

Fleury Latouche Clan

Escaping the heat wave at Terese's place (Reg's step-mum's)

Sasha: Parenting lessons

The family at the pub!

Thanks Reg, Jas, Sydney and Sasha for a very warm welcome into Montreal! It was lovely to visit and stay!

And also a great night out at the International Jazz Festival in Montreal... "Are you agree?" (Emir Kusturica and his No Smoking Band...)

Montreal, Hot Montreal

We arrived Montreal by plane, flying over vast Canada, on July 4th.

Buggy-ing and Boogie-ing

After a morning of watching the football (Go European nations!) and trying out different baby buggies - Andrew mostly doing the former... we hit the Yaletown Roundhouse area for some live music - The Vancouver Jazz Festival in its 25th year.

Caught bits of different shows, a jazz quintet, a country-sounding band, a jazz orchestra and a jazz singer all for free and some outside locations in giving it a very summer festival feel - despite the not quite summer temperatures. A very relaxing afternoon and evening before our early start for Quebec the next day.

Sunny Vancouver

Raccoons, Beluga Whales, Dolphins, Sharks and 4D cinema experience at the Vancouver Aquarium, followed by a stroll by the beach and dinner in Yaletown, make a pretty long but fun tour of Vancouver downtown.

O Canada Day

Canada Day on Granville Island and fireworks at Canada Place.

Granville Island: lots of activity in the market, galleries, many stages with performances and music and street perform

ers... a real festival feeling.

Then fireworks at night at packed Canada Place (400,000 people estimated to have been out watching the fireworks)

Vancouver is a beautiful and peaceful city.

Chinatown is a bit dodgy though - feels like the homeless and junkies of the world conspired to make our accidental walk through the main street quite "an interesting experience".

Anyways, bed, then world cup at 7am and 11:30am. A respectable hour, instead of 2:30am!!

The Edward at Windsor

A lovely B&B, this is our Edward Room. Kath continues to make peace
with the bed. Baby kicks her awake every now and then.

Great breakfast this morning (made better by my 3 hour anticipation -
I was awake at 5 and they only serve breakky at 8)... But must
remember that 1 Canadian serve is equal to 2.5 HK serves. We thought
we had eaten our 2 serves of French toast to be greeted with the same
dish again!!

Air Canada: Confusion to YVR

We have arrived in Vancouver (YVR) after a bumpy 12 hour flight.

It's odd arriving 3 hours before we left... keep feeling we are due for our flight that we have already taken.

We were already confused at a previous email that said "Air Canada: Itinerary Change", and then showed us pretty much exactly the itinerary we had had before.

The check-in counter had a confusing seating system that required us to wait until we got to the boarding gate before they could assign us seats.

We were confused because we were sure that we had previously reserved two seats online, but this hadn't registered in the system. They did register that I ordered vegetarian meals though, so I'm pretty sure this confirms to me that we did reserve seats.

Understanding English, some French and Cantonese, I found Air Canada onboard announcements confusing. Apparently if you speak English you may be interested in lots of different views all around the plane as you descend into YVR. You are also reminded exactly where the emergency exits are in your particular cabin "2 at the front of the executive cabin, 2 at the front of the first economy cabin,...". If you are Cantonese, you are only interested in one sight outside the plane and there are 10 emergency exits, 5 on the left and 5 on the right - "find the one closest to you!"

Even the snacks are confused. I did enjoy the "Maized and Confused Corn Chips" though.

But first impressions in Vancouver are that things aren't at all confusing... there was one exit to one escalator to one train platform to one train line that had one carriage.... cant really go wrong there. And having arrived at a gorgeous, cozy B&B within 1 hour of landing, Kath asleep on the bed next to me... I think we are doing just fine!