Jasper

At Jasper we realized that the Canadians had a 3-day weekend and ALL campsites in the entire park (there are over 2,000) were full. So we did a whirlwind tour of the park and left the same day. Here are some sights we saw:
Mt. Edith Cavell-- here is the glacier flowing into the lake. There was an enormous hanging glacier above that used to be connected to the lower one, but global warming separated the two. If you don't believe in climate change, seeing pictures of how this park used to look will convince you. This is the toe of the Athabasca glacier. It was 50-something degrees right there, hence the jackets in the middle of July. This glacier is also retreating rapidly; there were markers for where it was over the last century and they were thousands of feet ahead of the current edge.

Here is Athabasca Falls. I was really excited to see it but there were swarms of tourists when we got there. Alot of them climbed over the guard rails and ruined everyone's pictures. Jerks.

On the way out we saw this bear. Isn't he cute? I must say, he is the least scary-looking bear I've ever seen. I was more inclined to jump out of the car and pet him than I was to run away from him.

That night we headed out and decided to drive through the night to Washington. What we didn't know was that Canada doesn't have 24-hour gas pumps everywhere like the US does, and we were running critically low on gas at 2 AM and 45 miles away from the next open pump. At that point, McKay said, "Don't worry, I have enough faith to get us there." I told him that he had better have enough to compensate for my lack. So we said a little prayer and miraculously got to Kamloops without having to push the car.

Banff part 1

So here is Banff, one of the most strikingly beautiful places I've ever been. The pictures are in reverse order again so you'll have to bear with me. This is Peyto Lake. It has famously blue water but it was really foggy that day so it doesn't look as cool. It is also famous for looking like a dog. I think when I have a dog some day I will name it Peyto. This picture was taken at Consolation lakes. It was surrounded by huge boulders and Brandon accidentally dropped our camera lens in a pile of them. Luckily, we only cracked the filter on the lens. We also found bear scat on the trail. I took a picture of it, but I didn't post it on the blog.

This is Moraine Lake-- SO pretty! I don't have anything else to say, the picture says it all.

Here is the famous Lake Louise. Violet loved crawling along the board walk and the lighting made the lake look amazing.

And this last one was taken on the trail in Johnston Canyon.

Settling in

After 2 and a half weeks in our apartment, we finally have internet! We got unpacked within a couple of days, and I was so thrilled about the cuteness of our apartment that I had to put up some pictures of it. We didn't have much wall space, so we had to get creative with space and the bookcases ended up in the dining room. My favorite thing in this room is our cool tapestry from Brandon's aunt in India. And here is the living room, complete with our national parks picture wall, crocodile skin table, and new red rug. I love it. It's so us.

Besides the internet thing, everything has been going really well. I have a possible babysitting job, I get to hang out with Jennifer all the time, and Brandon likes his classes. He even gets to go to Belize for a field trip this semseter. Did I mention how much I love Rice?

Day 2 in Glacier

On the second day in Glacier we did a 10-mile hike to Iceberg Lake. There was a pretty waterfall along the way where we stopped and Violet had a great time with aunt Lena. Before the hike, McKay found an old Halloween costume in the car and decided to wear it. Somehow he wasn't embarrassed by this, but he was embarrassed when Brandon drew a small tattoo on his ankle. I will never figure out that kid.

This was our first view of Iceberg Lake. This was the lake where Brandon got into a long discussion with the ranger about the park's geology. She ended the conversation by saying, "Well, I really have to go change the toilet paper in the outhouse." She must have been desperate to get away.

Here is a closer picture of what we got to look at. We even witnessed one of the icebergs calving (breaking off a peice).

At the end of the day, Violet was pooped. She slept the entire 5 miles back to the car.

After that we concluded the Montana portion of our trip and headed off to Alberta.

the move

We are finally moved in! And nothing went as planned. On Saturday we went to pick up our new mattress on the way to our apartment. First we got stuck in terrible traffic, then we found out that I-45 was closed down where we wanted to go. So we had to find an alternate route, and I am not a very good navigator. So after another 45 minutes in the car we finally got to the mattress place only to find that they had LOST the mattress they sold us. They had us pick out a different one but if people hadn't been waiting for us I would have just told them to give me my deposit back and kiss my butt. When we went to pay the remainder, they didn't have a credit card machine and they wouldn't take our out-of-state check. Honestly, I don't know how that makes a difference, but they threw a big fit about it. So we forked out all the cash we had and paid a little with a check, and they were still mad about it. Anyways, we now have a nice pillowtop mattress but I am never doing business with them again. After that our move went fine, thanks to my wonderful family and awesome friends that came to help out. It's a relief to be in our own place! Thanks, everyone!

Finally a Canada post! First stop: Glacier

These pictures popped up in reverse order so I will not be going in chronological order on this post. This picture was at the end of our first day in glacier. There was a pretty gorge formed by a little stream that we hiked around. We saw our first bare there (no, that's not a typo). This is Hidden Lake. We hiked to it on our first day. (That was the hike that gave Violet the killer sunburn. Pictures of that later.) But it was so beautiful! There were little streams all around the trail and mountain goats would walk right up to you.

This was the ice field that we hiked across on our way to Hidden Lake. I stopped keeping track of how many times I slipped and fell on my butt after the third time.

We stopped at these rapids just after getting into the park. Glacial water is famously blue, as shown in this picture.

Brandon took this picture when he woke up after the first night. We camped out on the side of the road since we got there so late. One of Brandon's brothers scared the crap out of me in the middle of the night when he was walking around, but neither of them remembered it the next morning. As you can tell, Violet did very well sleeping outside.

Don't worry, we are still alive

And we didn't even have to use bear spray. We saw 3 bears, but none were agressive. Right now we are in Discovery Bay, Washington and here is what our trip has been like:

-Violet has loved it despite getting sun blisters (I know, I am a horrible mother) and teething.
- I jumped into a glacial lake, went swimming for a few minutes, and came out with a frozen butt.
- Violet enjoyed sleeping between Brandon and me on the air mattress all week. Brandon and I enjoyed it less.
- I saw a billboard advertising the "Testicle festival" (I'm assuming they were talking about Rocky Mountain oysters). No one thought it was as funny as I did.
- We hiked to a lake with a glacier flowing into it. Awesome.
- We went on a 10-mile hike to a lake with icebergs in it; Brandon started correcting the park ranger while she was talking about the geology of the park.
- I got squirted in the face by a squid. We were fishing for squid and when Lena caught one, I tried to release it and it inked me.
- We hiked in a rain forest today. I let Violet crawl under a tree and everyone else on the trail thought it was soooo funny.
- Violet went to the beach today for the first time.

I promise to post pictures as soon as I can!