Feeling Hot Hot Hot! The Rain Curse is Broken! Two Weeks of Fun in the Sun! COMPLETE

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I learned the hard way that i do not like the MK on Monday's. The crowd always seems thicker than any other day of the week there. Guess its typically the first place people go after driving in.

I knew it would be busy going in because 1)It was Monday 2)The Electrical Parade was running that night. It was our only chance to see it on the trip because we didn't have hoppers and our other park days were spoken for. It wasn't too bad and we weren't anticipating getting tons done so it all worked out okay. It was actually a pretty good night despite the crowds.

your hikes are beautiful- although i'm not sure you'd get me on them with all the bears and snakes around.

Well the snakes were only a possibility on that one hike to the dog beach. Although apparently the rattlesnakes also make their way up to Dad's neighbourhood from time to time (he has never seen one).

The bears scared me too but we are usually loud enough that the chance of coming upon one is slim. That or we would be on a heavily traveled path so they wouldn't come near. Dad has seen bears several times on his hikes, luckily never while we were with him. They even show up in his neighburhood from time to time as people there don't "bear proof" their garbage which really annoys him. Here is a bear he spotted last Fall on a path near his neighbourhood in the Silver Star Resort area.

and i just did the links to catch up- so sorry if this has been answered- but what is a marmot?

A marmot is part of the ground squirrel family. Ground hogs are also part of that family. They live in mountainous areas and typically make their burrows in rock piles. The ski resort Whistler in BC (Lots of the Vancouver Olympics skiing took place there) is named after the whistling sound that they make.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

The Crazy Stepmother Chronicles: August 2011

Day Six continued: Glacier National Park

Since we had been unable to finish our hike due to the weather we arrived back at the car just after 2pm. I suggested that we go in and tour the Rogers Pass Visitor Centre run by Parks Canada. There was a gift shop inside and I had noted that they had a museum set-up for national parks passholders which we were! You are required by law to purchase a park pass if you spend any amount of time in one of the National Parks other than driving through on the highway. If you are caught without one you receive a fine. They are not that expensive. Dad buys a family pass every year for about $150. It covers everybody in the car.

We checked out the gift shop where we bought nothing and then flashed our pass to get into the museum.

They had this sitting/photo op area

They had a model of an old luxury railroad hotel from the area set-up, Glacier House. It is no longer standing but it used to be located where we were camping and you can still see some of the ruins. It was built and operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway, the same company that built other fabulous hotels still in existence across Canada such as the Chateau Lake Louise, the Banff Springs Hotel, The Royal York in Toronto, the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, The Empress Hotel in Victoria and several others. If you ever travel to Canada or are from Canada you will know that these are THE places to stay.

They also had displays set-up to educate visitors about the various animals that live in the mountains.

This is the closest we got to a Grizzly Bear on our trip (sorta )

View from the parking lot, beautiful on a nice day, cold and dreary that day.

When we got back to the campground I changed into my comfy sweats that I planned on sleeping in and crawled into the tent to hang out with Alek and Erich who were reading and playing on their game systems. It had started to rain again so I was glad to be in the tent and not out on a hiking trail. If things went my way we would stay warm and dry in our tent for the rest of the day...

That happiness lasted about five minutes. Alek had his sleeping bag laid out in the center of the tent and he noticed a damp spot on it. Our tent was leaking! We hadn't used the tent in twenty years and even when we did use it all those years ago it was to have sleepovers in our backyard.

Luckily Maria had done something right and among all the massive amounts of stuff that she had packed for the trip she found an extra tarp. We ended up having to move our tent (still assembled) to another location on our site. We placed it right between Dad's and the picnic table where it was somewhat covered by a tree. We then covered it with the tarp and used bungee cords to secure it to the tree, the car and the picnic table. We hoped that would do the trick and no more water would get in the tent. Unfortunately, the sides of the tent were all cold and wet and if anything inside the tent touched the wall it would also get wet.

Dad convinced us to go on a walk with him and Marcus to check out the ruins of the old hotel so I changed back into my damp hiking clothes and headed back out into the rain. Maria stayed behind at our campsite and sat in the car. Since she wasn't coming Alek wore her rain coat and Erich wore the extra one that Dad had brought.

This is a cute little cabin that you can rent out if you are a member of some sort of club. I don't know the exact details. Sure looks nicer than a damp tent!

Bridge leading to the cabin

The weather and clouds made me feel like I was in a Twilight movie which makes sense as they film the movies in BC!

Continued in Next Post

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

A distant waterfall

They had informational signs talking about the history of the place located all over the path. I won't bore you by showing all of them, just a few.

There really wasn't much to see in regards to the ruins of the hotel, just pieces of the foundation and random pieces of equipment.

Oh look, a rusted bathtub!

When we came around the corner I saw this in the distance and I freaked (silently).

What does that look like to you? At first glance I thought it looked like the back end of a bear. Luckily it was just an oddly shaped tree stump.

It was raining pretty steadily and we were all pretty miserable. My "waterproof" coat was nearly soaked through.

Marcus was happy though as he had a stick to chew on

When we got back from our explorations we all retreated to the cook house. It was a little cabin with a few tables inside to eat at and a wood burning stove. The fire was lovely. There was one other family in there who had made up some chili and offered us some. Maria cooked up a bunch of rice and soup. We hung our soaking wet coats on pegs near the fire in hopes that they would dry.

We stayed in there for a few hours, only one other group showed up and so all three groups shared fire responsibilities. The first group would chop wood when needed and we were in charge of feeding the fire.

Poor Marcus was absolutely soaked, thankfully he was pretty much dry from the fire by the time we left.

What did we do for all that time in the cook house? We played Uno! I think that everybody won except for me.

It was really hard to head back out into the rain to go back to the cold damp tent but it had to be done.

I did not sleep well that night. It poured rain pretty much all night and the sound of it hitting the tarp was so loud. It was also cold and damp not to mention sleeping on the ground is really uncomfortable! It was really difficult to not touch the side walls of the tent. Unfortunately for Erich he ended up pretty much against the wall by the end of the night. They blamed me as I kept shifting in my sleep. Needless to say our first real camping experience was not all that wonderful. We could only hope that things would be better the next day when we got to Banff. One thing I know, I will be buying a mat for my sleeping bag before I go tent camping again as that would have improved things a great deal!

 

[englishrose47]

Oh that camping brings back memories of camping in Wales soooo many years ago when I woke up to water all around and they blamed me as they said I touched the side of the Tent !!Since then I had better experiences , but I also had a mat to sleep on !!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Oh that camping brings back memories of camping in Wales soooo many years ago when I woke up to water all around and they blamed me as they said I touched the side of the Tent !!Since then I had better experiences , but I also had a mat to sleep on !!!

A mat to sleep on would have been nice. I was tempted to wake Dad up and ask for the keys to the car and just sleep in there.

 

[marvali]

More great updates! Love the pictures with all the beautiful scenery! Seems like you have the same kind of luck camping that I do.......it is GOING to rain!!!

I have visited Tom Sawyer's Island too !!I agree it is a great place to take a little break and the ride over is fun !!

Just your speed, right Rosie???

We have never been to Tom Sawyer's Island, not even when the kids were little. Therefore, I enjoyed your photos.

Haven't been there either, even when I was a kid going to WDW. I remember we did ride in some kind of Indian canoes it seems like in that area, but that was a long time ago so maybe I'm remembering it wrong.

I haven't done Country Bear's since I was a kid either, but I thought it was very funny then. The lyrics didn't bother me any. I suggested the boys go a couple of trips ago just so they could say they had seen it. They were thrilled they spent that time there instead of riding another boring thrill ride.....

 

[englishrose47]

Yes Marv Tom Sawyer Island is my speed!!!

 

[jenbear123]

Gorgeous photos of BC! I really must go there soon. That tree stump definitely looked like a bear! I would've turned tail and bolted out of there really quick! That place that had the Glacier house looks really eerie. Too bad about the rain when you were camping. This is why I'm really not too keen about tent camping. I love nature.....but not that much

 

[KatMark]

Great update, Lessa.

Sorry about the leaky tent, but glad to see that Maria did ONE thing right.

The pictures of the area are beautiful.

And that definitely did look like the "back end" of a bear!

 

[CandleontheWater]

I love Tom Saywer Island, and I can't wait to take Everett there and let him run rampant. When I was a kid my parents used to take me and my brothers there, and let us run free with the strict instructions not to get on the boat back to the "mainland", then they would go hang in Aunt Polly's. Maybe it was questionable parenting, because my brothers and I did get up to some shenanigans, but it was really fun!

Yikes, your camping experience sounds awful! I'm not a camper myself, and being wet and cold is never fun. I hope it gets better for you. I do think that the hotel site was very cool, and I would have enjoyed seeing that, but only if it was warm and sunny.

 

[lbuzz52]

that tree did look like the back of a bear. it looked like a shaved bear behind to be exact (well, not really exact becuase i'm sure that's not proper terminology but monkey backsides look shaved to me)
i love the idea of having a cook house with camping. i would have slept in there!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

More great updates! Love the pictures with all the beautiful scenery! Seems like you have the same kind of luck camping that I do.......it is GOING to rain!!!

Guess our rain curse gave us a break at Disney this year as it was lurking in wait for the camping trip.

I haven't done Country Bear's since I was a kid either, but I thought it was very funny then. The lyrics didn't bother me any. I suggested the boys go a couple of trips ago just so they could say they had seen it. They were thrilled they spent that time there instead of riding another boring thrill ride.....

You are evil!

Yes Marv Tom Sawyer Island is my speed!!!

Gorgeous photos of BC! I really must go there soon. That tree stump definitely looked like a bear! I would've turned tail and bolted out of there really quick! That place that had the Glacier house looks really eerie. Too bad about the rain when you were camping. This is why I'm really not too keen about tent camping. I love nature.....but not that much

Yeah, I wasn't too keen on tent camping either but Dad is too cheap to pay for a hotel, especially in Banff. $$$$ He is okay with dropping tons of money on wine and luxury SUV's though.

Great update, Lessa.

Sorry about the leaky tent, but glad to see that Maria did ONE thing right.

The pictures of the area are beautiful.

And that definitely did look like the "back end" of a bear!

Yeah, I was feeling almost lukewarm friendly feelings to her after she pulled out the tarp.

I love Tom Saywer Island, and I can't wait to take Everett there and let him run rampant. When I was a kid my parents used to take me and my brothers there, and let us run free with the strict instructions not to get on the boat back to the "mainland", then they would go hang in Aunt Polly's. Maybe it was questionable parenting, because my brothers and I did get up to some shenanigans, but it was really fun!

Parenting back then was more relaxed. I remember running around my neighbourhood with my friends with no parents around. We would walk over to the nearby corner store or shopping centre all the time. People weren't as worried and scared back then as they are today yet somehow we all managed to survive and grow up to be relatively normal.

Yikes, your camping experience sounds awful! I'm not a camper myself, and being wet and cold is never fun. I hope it gets better for you. I do think that the hotel site was very cool, and I would have enjoyed seeing that, but only if it was warm and sunny.

Yeah, it was definitely not the best of times, especially for a first camping trip. I laughed because of all the people back home who were making fun of me for roughing it and how I wouldn't last. Well I sure had a story to tell them when I got home!

that tree did look like the back of a bear. it looked like a shaved bear behind to be exact (well, not really exact becuase i'm sure that's not proper terminology but monkey backsides look shaved to me)
i love the idea of having a cook house with camping. i would have slept in there!

The cook house was nice and the fire was wonderful. Couldn't sleep there, they lock it up overnight.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

May 16th continued

What did I spy in the Times Guide that caught my interest? The meet and greet with Tiana that just happened to be scheduled to take place right outside the Christmas Store! I convinced the rest of the family that I needed this picture as Tiana was a new character for us. They agreed without much convincing needed and we joined the line. Well, Mom, Alek and I joined the line. Erich decided to sit on the wall on the edge of the line.

We were pretty close to the front of the line, there were only a few families in front of us.

I think we waited about twenty minutes and then we saw this lovely lady and her prince strolling towards us.

Erich stood on the wall and took some pictures as he had a much better view than us.

Remember how we had been in the pool a few nights before this and met a guy who was basically the twin of Erich's best friend Jessie? Well Naveen looked nearly identical to Erich's friend Pedro! Alek and Erich thought this was hilarious!

Soon it was our turn. The boys decided not to get in the photo.

Here are the pictures Erich took

And the photopass pictures

It was a fun character meet. Tiana and Naveen were both very friendly and made conversation with us although I have no recollection what we talked about! Clearly it was something amusing as we are laughing in the photos.

We wandered over to the bridge by the castle where we took a few photos

There was also a photopass photographer stationed on the bridge. The sun was glaring into our eyes and I could barely keep mine open but I think the pictures turned out okay.

Did you notice that the brothers posed normally?

[post=42667009]Click here to continue[/post]

 

[GeminiAngel]

Yes. I did notice the normal poses. Was it an off day for them?

 

[IheartDDuck]

Your pictures of BC are really beautiful! I had the same thought that you did. They totally remind me of Twilight.

The picture of the tree stump? I thought it was a bear too!

I haven't actually met Tiana, so I may have to do that on my upcoming trip. I love that your bro's actually posed normal. I thought something seemed a little off.

 

[KatMark]

Great photos, Lessa. The pictures with Tiana are great, and I love the photopass pictures (despite the sun being in your eyes). You look just like your Mom in those pictures. And I'm pretty impressed by how "almost normal" the boys posed.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Yes. I did notice the normal poses. Was it an off day for them?

Your pictures of BC are really beautiful! I had the same thought that you did. They totally remind me of Twilight.

The picture of the tree stump? I thought it was a bear too!

I haven't actually met Tiana, so I may have to do that on my upcoming trip. I love that your bro's actually posed normal. I thought something seemed a little off.

They do pose "normally" on occasion.

Great photos, Lessa. The pictures with Tiana are great, and I love the photopass pictures (despite the sun being in your eyes). You look just like your Mom in those pictures. And I'm pretty impressed by how "almost normal" the boys posed.

"Almost normal"

 

[englishrose47]

I didn't recognise The Bros !!! That is what happens when they pose normally
Really beautiful pix of all of you!!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I didn't recognise The Bros !!! That is what happens when they pose normally
Really beautiful pix of all of you!!!

I know it is strange to see them looking "normal" but so different it makes them unrecognizable?

 

[Mysteria]

I was way behind but I'm all caught up again. So much has happened I wouldn't know where to start comments. So for now I'll say it was a great read and more beautiful pictures!