My wife and I chose Turin as one of our stops as we toured northern Italy mostly because of its proximity to the Barolo wine region and because we found a stunning rental property with an enormous balcony overlooking the city. Here we are a few minutes after checking in already making plans for sitting here and drinking wine for a few days.
I’m not going to bury the lede on this… The five day, 2,200km road trip I took with my dad from Saskatoon to Calgary, then onto Banff, Lake Lousie and Jasper, and finally back to Saskatoon via Edmonton was one of the most fun things I’ve done in a long, long time. Every time I speak with my dad on the phone since he returned to New Brunswick, we end up talking about this trip and how much fun it was. Here’s the recap of an epic road trip, at least what I’m willing to share publicly. As with any good trip, there’s always a few things that need to respect the mantra “what happens on the road, stays on the road”
Calgary
When dad booked his flight from Bathurst, NB to visit me in Saskatoon in May, I immediately booked hotels for a mountain road trip so he could see the Rockies up close for the first time in his life. He arrived in Saskatoon, got acclimatized to my hometown for a couple of days, then we packed up the car and pointed it west. About seven hours later, we rolled into a rainy Calgary. First stop was at National on 17th, a great beer bar close to our hotel. Dad seems to be a fan of the pint I picked for him.
Favourite 2018 travel photos. Kananaskis, AB. June 2018.
In February I traded in the bitterly cold temperatures of a Saskatoon winter for a colder than normal four days in Vancouver. Colder than normal still meant it was the first time in months that I could walk around outside without gloves on. It’s really all about small victories in surviving winter on the prairies. And while for most of the trip I had to carry around an umbrella to stay dry, I did get one nice day to leave the raincoat at the hotel and breathe in the fresh west coast air along the seawall.
I took a bus from downtown to Kitsilano Beach to start a hike along the seawall. My one nice day in Vancouver was actually a perfect February day in Vancouver. Seeing blue skies and water made my coastal, now landlocked heart, very happy.
I was under no false pretences when I booked a February trip to Portland, Oregon. I used to live on a coast and I get that winter weather can be grey and dreary. I was looking for somewhere warmer than Saskatoon, even if I’d be dealing with damp winter days. Imagine my pleasant surprise waking on my first day in Portland to crystal clear blue skies and unseasonably warm temperatures (no jacket needed!). I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me by – I had a rare February opportunity to view the mountains off in the distance from Portland.
After a short train ride south of downtown, I took the Portland Aerial Tram to the top of Marquam Hill and feasted my eyes on this – a stunningly clear view of Mount St. Helens:
I’m just back from a few days spent in Vancouver. Vancouver has always held a special, almost mythical place in my heart. Growing up on the east coast, and having spent a good portion of my adult life within walking distance of the harbour in Halifax and never too far out of sight of the Atlantic Ocean, the coast on the other side of the country always appealed to me. I didn’t make it out to Vancouver until I was 39 when my wife and I stretched out a work trip and spent a week falling in love with the city. Even before that trip, I had often dreamt of Vancouver. Truth is, I was in love with Vancouver before I had even set foot in the city.
With our body clocks saying it was noon, we picked up the rental car in downtown Vancouver on Sunday morning at 8am feeling fresh and ready to head up into the mountains. A couple of outstanding coffees acquired (conveniently right next door to Avis), we pulled out of the city in a sexy Fiat 500 with a sunroof. Fifteen minutes outside Vancouver, we’re on to the Sea to Sky Highway and more than an hour of views like this:
Bluenose Traveler 