I had a quick shower, fed everyone, grabbed a bag filled with snacks and drinks and got everyone in the car to head up to the yard to see Nanny and Grandad. We didn't know who else might be there although I know the boys really wanted to see their cousins.
I really need to get my hair trimmed! It looks like the hay the horses are eating!
We had a really nice time up the yard. It was very chilled considering the heat! There is a lovely spot under some trees and a breeze hits you straight in the face.
Auntie Katie and the cousins did turn up, apart from Kamron who was still at Nanny and Grandad's house working on some project. I fed Jude and had snuggles while his Mum caught a few zzzz, Owen played with the water and Cherry played horses and hide & seek with Leo and Oscar.
Dad got the quad bike out again for Ellis who was super excited and Leo was really looking forward to having a go too. I let Ellis take Leo round as he is very, very sensible. Ellis let me have a go with him on the back and he ended up screaming at me to stop 😂😂 I took Oscar round too and he loved it and asked for me to go faster, which I didn't of course.
We got home a lot later than I thought we would which was fine and the pool was still filling up! Ellis cracked on with dinner once Rob was home from work, which received an 8/10 tonight.
I haven't really settled this evening. I've been doing chores, pottering around, putting kids to bed, doing the blog and once I've finished I need to put electrics away from the pool and get myself to bed! Doing my long run tomorrow and need to pick up the food shop before 9 so I'm going to have to get a move on. We have friends over tomorrow afternoon for some food and a few drinks. Really looking forward to it and I'm not going to stress about sorting food for everyone. 🤞 Also hope the weather is good for us so we can sit outside and the boys can go in the pool. 🤞
Where they to? - 31st July
Thirteen and a half hours, that's how long the bus from Vancouver to Banff takes. To put that into perspective, it's roughly the equivalent of getting a bus from Bristol to Carlisle and back, via London. It's so far that we passed a sign for a Subway sandwich shop that read "Subway - 125km". Strictly speaking, it was only twelve and a half hours but, we crossed a timezone and we're bloody well having that extra that hour, we've earnt it; I don't care what the official rules are.
13.5 hour bus journeys give you medical implications to consider. Firstly, there is the risk of a deep vein thrombosis due to a lack of circulation from sitting in the same position for a long time. The solution to this is to take an aspirin to thin the blood, drink plenty of water and take regular walks up and down the aisle of the bus. Secondly, there is the risk of travel sickness. This is remedied by eating ginger biscuits, wearing Nei-Kwan pressure-point wristbands and concentrating on the road. The third health risk is that of your bumhole healing over. I can't speak for Mush, as she's nodded off, but I'd say, from the way mine feels right now, that it only has a 50/50 chance of re-entering active service again in the future. I suppose we'd better get used to it. Imagine a 20 hour ride on a rickety bus with no air-con on crap roads in Chile. Just the thought of it makes me wince.
At least, on this occasion, we had some of the most awe-inspiring scenery that our planet has to offer to take our minds off things. Namely, the Canadian Rocky Mountains. To begin with, I was pretty disappointed by the Rockies. We were driving along and I kept thinking to myself that if you closed your eyes and clicked your fingers you could imagine you'd been teleported to the M74 on the way from England up to Scotland; the landscape is almost identical. But, it turns out, that we were just travelling through the Coastal Mountain Range. You don't hit the Rockies, proper, until after about 8 hours of driving and, when you reach them, you know about it. You simply run out of superlatives to describe the views. Majestic peaks, chasmic drops, shimmering lakes, none of them do justice to witnessing the spectacle first-hand. As we wended between the peaks, along highways carved into the hillside, the scene just rolled on and on. The sun the last few days has been so strong that I am now the proud owner of a white pair of shorts, a white t-shirt, a white wristwatch and a pair of white wraparound sunglasses and yet, the peaks of the mountains are still topped with snow; it almost betrays the senses.
On the Greyhound buses, they put videos on to help you while away the hours. Needless to say, Mush watched all 4 films that were put in front of her. As we were passing through the pretty, but uninspiring, Coastal Mountains, she watched Inspector Gadget and Mickey Blue Eyes. At least she had the judgement, however, when we were passing through the Rocky Mountains, to turn away from the screen and soak up the views. Some passengers, instead, chose to watch Vertical Limit. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a film about people running and jumping around in a snowy alpine range. Even better than the real thing, it would seem.
I decided to pass away some of the time by reading the manual that came with my camera - I've only had it a few months. It turns out that there is a fireworks mode. Pillock.
We finally broke our McDuck today and had our first McDonalds for lunch at the Greyhound service station. We've been eating pretty healthily up to now and one thing we've noticed is that our appetites have altered. I assume it's all of the activity we've been getting up to but we don't seem to crave junk food very much. I have had a thing for fruit smoothies since we arrived and we've eaten either pasta or rice for most meals.
We've only been in the town of Banff for a few hours but I already much prefer it to Vancouver. There is a really friendly atmosphere in town and, unlike Vancouver, the place doesn't seem to be trying to be something that it's not. It's a beautiful, but tiny village in one of Canada's most celebrated National Parks and it just seems to embrace that and get on with making it's guests feel welcome. Apparently, due to attempts to try to reverse the ecological damage to the area, a limit of 10,000 permanent residents has been set; a limit that is rapidly being approached. Despite that small number, 4 million tourists stay in Banff each year. I'm not quite sure how they manage it.
The view from our window is one you'd love to wake up to every morning. 2 mountains, covered in a patchwork of pine trees, reach up and touch the clouds. To one side, the River Bow, about 80 metres wide and fast-moving like the rivers that you see salmon leaping up in the documentaries, flows by. In the morning, we are going to hire out some bikes again and get a guide book of the bike trails to help us find the best spots. I can't wait...
----------
Night peeps xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment