We are back on the road and in the middle of our 6 month Americas (plus Scotland) trip. We spent a few weeks in Canada, specifically within, and around, Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta. I’m still working on blog posts from our time there, but wanted to include a few random things in this post.
Wildlife Spotted:
We have been traveling through national parks, and have been pretty lucky in our animal spotting. The highlight was a bear (the boys swear it was a grizzly, I think it was a black bear) who walked into the road right next to our car. The bear appeared on the edge of the road as our car was passing, and then crossed behind us. We got a great view of the bear, but didn’t get any pictures, as we were too busy taking it in as we drove past.
We did have a few other (slightly less exciting) bear spottings. We have found that when there are lots of cars pulled over to the side of the road, there is likely wildlife nearby, and sure enough, we pulled over alongside other cars to spot a bear far up on a ridge above us.
After that, we had two bear sightings within a few miles of each other, and in this case, both bears were right next to the road, foraging while happily ignoring the gaping tourists. We got a great view of these bears, and it almost felt like they were put there just for the pleasure of passing motorists! 🙂
We also spotted a few deer as we were out and about, once at Lake Louise and another time while walking through Banff.
Our last big animal spotted was the elk. We went driving around Jasper looking for elk, and didn’t find any. Later, we were driving and spotted a few at an intersection (both as we were going and a few more when we returned).
One day we rented bikes in Jasper, and as we were riding our bikes, we rode by an entire herd of elk just hanging out.
In addition to the big guys, we also spotted a few rabbits, a hare, a ptarmigan and its chicks, and a pika.
Traveling Life Lessons
Traveling always teaches us new things. In this case, I learned something I would have preferred to never know. I now know the price of five stitches for non-residents in a Canadian hospital. I think you will be as amazed as I was when I tell you just how much it was…
In Japser, our hotel room had two stories, and the staircase to the top level didn’t have a railing, and as N was walking up the stairs, he took a misstep and went flying off the stairs and onto the tile floor below. C saw him fall and said it was pretty scary. As soon as I heard the thud, followed by the scary cry that means something big is wrong, I knew we had a problem. After assessing him, we realized he had a pretty good gash in his chin, and we needed to take him to a doctor. They didn’t seem to have an urgent care in town, and the only place we could take him was the local hospital. Once we got to the hospital, I took N down to the emergency room, while C started filling out paperwork at the registration. As I was talking with the doctor and nurse, C came down with a look and said “Um, it will be $1,500 for him to be treated”. So I asked the doctor if it was possible he didn’t need stitches, but unfortunately, after taking a look, it was determined he needed 5 stitches. So, 5 stitches and $1,500 later (at least it was only Canadian dollars – a bargain at only $1,150 USD, €1,021 or £916.), we left the Canadian hospital, with our newfound knowledge of the price of Canadian healthcare.
Medical care aside, we still found Canada to be surprisingly expensive. It could be partially that we visited mostly super touristy areas in peak season, it could also be that we tend to just view all currencies as equivalent to each other (okay, yes, I know a euro is worth more than a dollar, but they are close-ish, so in my mind, I never really bother converting them, which tends to make the euro priced items seem cheaper than they are (until we get our US$ credit card bill!), same thing goes with UK pounds too. dollar and pound, eh close enough. So, naturally, we tend to think that US dollars and Canadian dollars are roughly the same, which makes the $18 burgers that much harder to swallow (pun!)). Also, I guess I always thought of Canada as being cheaper than the US for some reason, maybe because the Canadian dollar was worth less than a US dollar. Finally, we are just coming from one of the cheapest countries in Europe, so it may just be adjusting to non-Spain prices. Bottom line – I was very surprised about the price of stuff in Canada.
Calgary
After two weeks in the Rocky Mountains just an hour or so outside of Calgary, we left the mountains behind and aimed for the flat plains that housed Calgary. At first glance, we were pretty impressed with Calgary, our drive into the city followed along the river, which hosted a wonderful walking/biking path, and we saw lots of parks and sports facilities.
We ended up staying in downtown Calgary, and the boys visited a few top notch sites, including the Calgary Zoo and the Science Museum.
While in Calgary, we also met up with C’s uncle who lives in Vancouver, but, in a serendipitous coincidence, was working as a tour bus driver in the national parks near Calgary while we were there.
The boys had a blast checking out his tour bus, and we enjoyed a nice dinner with him.
These are all of my random notes from our trip to Canada. Stay tuned for a few more blog posts as we wrap up our time in Canada, and get ready to start the next phase of our “Big South America (plus Scotland, Canada and a stop in Atlanta) Second Half of 2019 Trip” (trademark pending).
