Seattle & Canada Trip

Summer break is over and my big girls are back at school. I can't believe how quickly the Summer flew by. Part of me feels like we didn't really do much or hardly go anywhere this Summer, but then I remember, hey, we just came back from Canada! Ha!

If you're following Little Hiccups on Instagram then you will have been seeing photos from our recent trip to Seattle and Canada over the past few weeks. I have so much to share with you from our trip as we went to so many amazing places - and as always, I took a gazillion photos! For now I thought I'd share an overview of our trip with a few highlights from each place we visited.

So here's a look at our trip to Seattle, Vancouver and Victoria...

Québec City

Our last stop on our Canadian trip was the picturesque city of Québec. 

Now, I'd thought that the Old Town of Montreal was beautiful with it's mixture of quaint row houses and stately buildings, but Québec took the whole "Old Town" thing to a new level. Montreal's Old Town  had quite a European feel to it, however somehow Québec's Old Town felt more European. Maybe it was the street layout. Maybe it was the style of buildings. I can't really put my finger on it, but as we walked around the Old Town I really felt as though we had been transported into a European town.

Maybe what made Québec feel more European was the fact that it rained almost the whole time we were there! Unfortunately it rained a little too much for us to get out and see everything that we had hoped to see. I'd planned to stroll through the narrow streets down by the port but instead we had to suffice with driving through them in the shelter of our rental car. We had also planned to visit the nearby Montmorency Falls but the rain but a dampener on that plan too. Kind of ironic that we skipped out on seeing a waterfall due to water falling! Unfortunately though it was just too wet and cold for us to do all that much for a lot of the time that we were in Québec. However we did see enough to appreciate what a beautiful little city it is. 

We spent most of our time in Québec visiting the Old Town where tourists are drawn in droves to the picturesque port area. One of the main tourist draw cards to the area is the imposing Château Frontenac which perches atop a hill above the port. Built in 1893, the Château is in fact a very grand hotel. While spending a night at the Château was a little out our reach, stopping by the (not so grand!) Starbucks on the ground floor was definitely within our price range! A nice warm latte (or hot chocolate for the girls) was just what we needed after braving the cold walking along the boardwalk in front of the Château.

Château Frontenac

Bienvenue a Montreal

Welcome to Montreal, and the second part of our trip to Canada. 

While waiting for our visas to be be processed and ready to pick up we decided to head east to Quebec and visit the beautiful cities of Montreal and Quebec City for a few days. We spent the weekend in Montreal and we all fell in love with the place. Such a city of contrasts. North American, yet so European. A vibrant modern city with skyscrapers, heavy traffic and everything that goes along with a big city. Then there's the old town; Vieux Montreal. Cobblestone and paved streets lined with grand public buildings and quaint stone row houses dating from the 17th century onwards. Living in California we often forget just how long ago the East Coast of the USA and Canada was colonised by Europeans. Anything built in the 19th century is old by Californian standards (and similarly by our Australian standards back home) so being in such an old area without having to leave North America is such a treat. We really felt like we had suddenly appeared in a European city. The fact that everything is in French adds to the European feel too :)

Our hotel in Montreal was ideally located close to the old town which was our first stop for a spot of sightseeing. We walked the paved streets (which were super bumpy with a stroller - sorry Lola!) and took in the sights of the old buildings and the port. We had arrived a little later in the day that planned and it was quite a bit colder than we'd hoped so we weren't out for too long. After a few hours of exploring it was starting to get dark (and colder!) so we retreated into a restaurant for dinner then back to the hotel for an early night.

Montreal's old town

Back in Canada: First stop, Ottawa

We're back in Canada again!

Nothing says Canada quite like a red maple leaf

Another visa trip, this time for all new visas to go with Kim's all new job. Even though we only just renewed our visas a few months back in Calgary they can't be transferred between jobs so that means another trip out of the USA to visit a consulate/embassy. This time we decided to head east and visit Ottawa. There were a few reasons for this. First of all, the visas are actually prepared in Ottawa (the main embassy is here) so the wait time can be a little shorter. Our appointment was yesterday and we received notification today that our visas are ready so that worked well. Secondly, we've already visited the cities closest to the west coast with consulates (Vancouver and Calgary) and we thought it would be nice to see a little more of Canada. And thirdly (and maybe most importantly), heading to the eastern side of the country means we're only a short trip away from New York and can drop by on the way home for a much promised visit with friends!

We arrived in Ottawa on Wednesday morning after taking the red eye flight from San Francisco, via Toronto. Ava and Kim slept relatively well on the flights however as Lola had slept the whole BART ride to SFO and all throughout our two hour wait in the airport she was wide awake in time for the flight. She didn't fall back to sleep until we were about one and a half hours away from Toronto. Of course, this meant that I didn't get to sleep until we were about one and a half hours away from Toronto. She didn't sleep at all on the connecting flight to Ottawa so neither could I. Needless to say I was pretty exhausted by the time we arrived at our hotel in Ottawa. Somehow Lola was wide awake and full of beans.

After a little rest in the hotel we headed out to take a look around Ottawa. Our hotel is quite close to many of the tourist attractions; Parliament Hill, Rideau Canal, Byward Market... All the things we wanted to see are within easy walking distance which is great. We headed to Byward Market for some lunch then onto Major's Hill Park which has beautiful views along the Rideau Canal and Ottawa River. Of course, by now Lola had crashed and was fast asleep in her stroller, missing out on playing in the park with Ava.

Looking over Parliament Hill from Major's Hill Park

Capilano Suspension Bridge Park

One last post from our recent trip to Canada...

On our last full day in Canada we visited Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, a short drive north of Vancouver's Downtown. 

Family in the forest

Capilano Suspension Bridge Park has many attractions to keep visitors busy, but the highlight is, you guessed it, the suspension bridge! 

Out and about in Vancouver

Our move into our new apartment is all done and dusted so it's time to get back to writing a few more posts about our recent trip to Canada.

This time let's have a look at a day we spent out and about exploring the beautiful city of Vancouver...

We spent out third day in Vancouver wandering around various places. We did a little shopping, visited Canada Place, took in the views from high above the city at Vancouver Lookout, walked across the bridge to Granville Island where the kids played in the water park, tasted a few local brews at Granville Island Brewing Company, caught a water taxi and walked along the beach watching the sun set over the harbour.

Vancouver Lookout

Vancouver Aquarium

One of the girls' favourite places that we visited in Canada was Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park. Both Ava and Lola are pretty obsessed with sea creatures so I knew that the aquarium would be a big hit with them.

There were plenty of familiar sea creatures to see and a few that we hadn't seen before, including our new favourite, the beluga whale. Beluga. I love that word!

First up for the day was the beluga whale show. The keepers demonstrated how they interact with these majestic creatures on a regular basis, explained how these whales came to be at the aquarium and taught us a little about their environment, the perils they face in the wild and the research that is being done to learn more about them. 

The beluga whale show

A day in Vancouver's Stanley Park

Stanley Park in Vancouver is gigantic.

This wooded piece of land at the end of Downtown Vancouver is roughly 400 hectares. That's pretty much equal to the size of our very own Golden Gate Park here in San Francisco and approximately 10% larger than New York's Central Park.

Our hotel in Vancouver was located close to the entrance of Stanley Park so it was the logical place to visit on our first day in this beautiful city. We had planned to just spend the morning going for a short walk in Stanley Park before heading on to another location. Quite a few hours and 10kms later we found ourselves walking the entire length of the seawall around Stanley Park. Ava was pretty proud of the fact that she walked the entire way. No mean feat for a six year old.

Vancouver Rowing Club at the start of our walk 

Along our walk around Stanley Park we took in the beautiful views over the city and stopped at various landmarks and attractions.

Enjoying the sun

A day in the Canadian Rockies

Back to the Canada trip posts...

One of the highlights of our trip to Canada was our day in the mountains. We spent two days driving from Drumheller and Calgary to Vancouver and the vast majority of this trip (especially on the first day) seemed to be driving through the awe inspiring Canadian Rockies.

So exciting when those majestic mountains start to appear

I could get used to having this view out the windscreen 

Royal Tyrell Museum

You may remember that I mentioned that we visited a dinosaur museum last week in the Canadian Badlands.

I'm slowly getting around to catching up with my travel posts so it's time for a look at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller - or the Dinosaur Museum as the girls like to call it.

The girls were both pretty excited about visiting the dinosaur museum. When asked what they were looking forward to seeing in Canada before our trip they'd respond in unison with "Dinosaurs!". This answer was usually met with looks of confusion from others until I'd explain that Alberta is a major dinosaur fossil site. Large numbers of dinosaur bones and fossils have been discovered in the Badlands area since geologist Joseph Burr Tyrell's (the museum's namesake) 1884 discovery of the skull of a large carnivorous dinosaur later named Albertosaurus.

The Royal Tyrell Museum is located just a few kilometres from the location of that first fossil discovery. The girls had been hopeful that they too would find their very own fossils while we were in the area. No new fossil finds for us but we did see a lot on display in the museum, along with plenty of other interesting exhibits. Here's a look...

Dinosaur models greet visitors in the Cretaceous Alberta room

Drumheller Dinosaurs

The town of Drumheller in Alberta, Canada certainly does love its dinosaurs!

Well, it is located smack-dab in the middle of a dinosaur and fossil rich area after all.

Driving through Drumheller when we first arrived we noticed colourful dinosaurs dotted around the town's street corners. The girls were pretty taken by these so we decided to go on a little dinosaur hunt and see how many we could find.

I wonder who he's waiting for

Vancouver Celebration of Light

Ok, so I'm skipping a little further ahead here but I couldn't wait to share these pictures from tonight.

We're currently in Vancouver, and have been for a few days, however I'm a little behind with my posts about our trip. I was trying to keep them in order but I'll skip ahead just this once...

We've been really lucky that our stay in Vancouver has coincided with the first night of the annual Celebration of Light festival. Celebration of Light is Vancouver biggest event and the largest offshore fireworks competition in the the world. Each year three countries compete for the title over three different nights. Tonight's spectacular display was courtesy of the United Kingdom. Canada and Thailand will also be competing however we won't be here to see their displays.

I've seen some pretty amazing fireworks displays in my time (New Year's Eve 2003 over Sydney Harbour springs to mind) but this was definitely the biggest display I've ever seen and we were lucky to be able to see it so close up. 

Pictures speak louder than words so here's a look at the amazing fireworks from this evening...

The Badlands

Time for another installment of our trip to Canada...

When you think of Canadian landscapes you tend to think of snowy mountains, lush pine forests, fertile green farmland etc. The image of badlands (harsh, dry environs unsuitable for farming) don't tend to spring to mind. Well, at least not when you think of the southern parts of Canada. But sure enough Canada has badlands and over the past few days we were visitors to such a place.

Now I must point out that what we saw of the Canadian Badlands was much less arid than most farmland we've seen back home in Australia. But I guess that by Canadian standards the land's not so good!

The Canadian Badlands are located east of Calgary. After driving for a few hours through some of the greenest farmland I've ever seen we arrived in the Badlands and the town of Drumheller. The change of scenery is quite sudden. The green and yellow of endless canola fields gives way rocky formations striped through the ages in shades of brown, red, white and black. The scenery is spectacular, quite like something that you'd expect to see in Utah - although on a much smaller scale, I'm sure.

Canadian Badlands

Welcome to Calgary

Greetings from Canada!

We're currently in Calgary on a visa renewal trip/holiday. Today we carried out the visa renewal part of our trip at the US consulate, and now we're onto the holiday part while we wait for our passports to be returned with their shiny new visas. Hooray for holidays!

We arrived in Calgary on Sunday. As we'd been up since 3am in preparation for our horribly early flight we decided that a fairly low key day was in order. After checking into our hotel in Downtown Calgary we headed to the banks of the Bow River for a walk. We crossed over the Peace Bridge (a modern, photo worthy pedestrian bridge), grabbed a bite to eat in the nearby area of Kensington then made our way back along the river and to our hotel. On our way back we spotted a few squirrels. Unlike the squirrels that we get back home in Berkeley, these Canadian squirrels were black.

Lola and Ava with the Peace Bridge