Monterey ...Jasper.....

Skip, Joshua and Jacqui inCarmel,.with his Drizabone and Akubra, Skip looks more Australian then most Australians.

A beautiful window decor in Carmel
One of the houses in Carmel with the unusual curved roof line.

I had bought a post card of this covered bridge when in the US in 1997, so had to take my own picture.

The viewing car, the screen in the corner is for films, they show them at night, when of course you can't see much out of the windows.

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We only changed trains in Vancouver and then it was off to Jasper, Alberta. It was a stunning place, lovely little town nestled all around with mountains, with snow on them of course, which suited me very well. We had a great self contained unit, quite new and well appointed.
We ate out and had some great meals. It was Halloween, while we were there and it was very interesting for us to watch the children, trick or treating, halloween is not celebrated in Australia.

The weather was beautiful, and because it was still early in the season the mountains were not covered in snow, but had these lines of snow, that with the sun shining on them, made it look like the mountains were wearing giant diamond necklaces, it truly was a glorious sight.

We booked to go on a mini-bus tour to Lake Maligne, and were to be picked up outside our unit at 8am. So Walter who is a real stickler for being on time had us out there 10 minutes early, it had snowed overnight and the whole place was breath taking. Well time went on and Walter had marched up and down, till he had quite a track worn, getting madder by the minute. At 20 past eight, he sent me back to unit to call and find out where the mini-bus was, and they informed me that it was only 7.20 am, daylight saving having finished at midnight. He really had to eat the nasty words he had been saying about them. So we went back to our unit and had a lovely cup of hot chocolate, and were picked up at the corect time.

The tour was well worth the wait, we went up to Lake Maligne, which was just beautiful, and on the way we passed a herd of Elk, saw fresh wolf tracks in the snow, some Rocky mountain sheep, no bears though they were already in hibernation. With the 3 to 4 inches of fresh snow that had fallen, the whole place was amazingly beautiful, it was so wonderful to be there in the midst of so much natural beauty.

After our delightful 3 days in Jasper, it was back on the train for two days and nights to Montreal. Once more travelling through superb scenery, and as usual there were great people on the train to interact with. It took us three hours to get through customs at the border, security is just so tight , and they were leaving nothing to chance. We made it and then headed for Buffalo, New York State.

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In Australia, there are three roads to poverty - drinking, gambling and farming.

My family chose the slowest of the three. author unknown