Head in the Clouds

What’s on the iPod: Somebody That I Used to Know by Walk Off the Earth (originally by Gotye)


Hi. Miss me?

I missed all of you. I just went nearly a week without any Internet connection and while it’s sad not being connected to the world, it’s the most refreshing, freeing feeling. If you haven’t tried it in a while (ever??), do. You’ll be shocked at how much more creative you become.

We arrived last night at a respectable hour — 7:30 pm — without any idea how we’d get home from the airport. Yet neither of us were stressed. We both had this feeling something would work out. Turns out it did. I turned on the phone after we landed and found the text from daughter — she was outside waiting, having not had to work the double shift she was scheduled for. We knew because that’s how the entire trip went. Things just worked out.

After a fantastic week in Vancouver with people we adore and love (and who run the best B&B in the city — I’m not kidding), we headed out of the rain and into the Canadian Rockies. It was love at first sight. The drive there was increasingly gorgeous, and we came upon a small town on one of our stops for gas and food — Hope, BC. He was hoping to see a sign heading out of town that said “Abandoning all Hope”, but alas. It was just “Come again!” We liked the town so much we stayed there on the way back through.

Onward to Jasper, AB, which is a town of 5,000 residents and one that’s inside the national park. In fact, that’s what makes these Rocky Mountain towns so great — they’re inside the parks, so their growth is regulated by the government. Amen. For when we headed outside of the park, we saw just what can happen when people decide they loved vacation enough to live there. But back to Jasper.

Great trails everywhere, from inside of town and outside. Given the exceptional food we had every morning during our stay in Vancouver, we were glad for the hiking. We stayed in a lovely place (photo above) — a cluster of cabins and chalets along a river, again in the park (everything is in a national park). The river was loud with rapids, which was great to fall asleep to every night. The property was well-manicured and thought out to provide maximum relaxation. And relax we did. I was beginning to think I was a slug with all my sleeping in. But we earned it — we hiked every day, and not short hikes, either.

We found the lookout after a hard climb. The view, like most, was terrific. The lake was still frozen over (probably will be for the next few weeks). We could see the Fairmont hotel, which faces the glacier (yes, we were pretty high up). What we couldn’t see was the bench on the lookout point. Here’s what we saw instead.

We drove into Canmore our last day and did some great hiking there. By now we had acclimated well and were feeling more fit (I actually lost weight this vacation!). So we took a trail that sent us up the mountain, but then we decided to see what was through the mountain pass, so we added about an hour each way to that hike, and we came back to our cabin spent, but happy.

Home called. We were forced by work and family to head back to Seattle for our flight home. We drove through Glacier National Park, which wore scars cut by several avalanches — trees and heavy snow everywhere. It was beautiful. We were to stay in a motor inn in Revelstoke, but we were feeling like we could drive some more (only three hours), so we canceled our reservation and kept going. We ended up back in Hope at a lovely B&B run by a woman who’d moved to Canada from South Africa decades prior. She had a nice home that was impeccably renovated and furnished. She gave us more suggestions for walks, which we took and were not disappointed. But we were tired. So we headed to Seattle without much delay.

There we went to the Boeing plant to see their gallery. Neat little display, but lacking on anything really to write home about. So off to our B&B, where we’d stayed last year.

Trouble was our innkeeper had fallen a few weeks prior and had nearly died from bleeding on the brain. She said it was lucky she fell walking into the hospital to visit someone, but from what her friends said, she was lucky to be alive at all. She had completely forgotten about us showing up (understandable), but wouldn’t hear of us going anywhere else. We were reluctant to stay, but her friends assured us she wasn’t going to wait on us at all — they did. We kept it low-maintenance and did what we could for ourselves, and we gave her bear hugs as we left. She remembered my mother-in-law and remembered us even though we’d stayed just one night. She’s the type of person who gathers people in like lost sheep, and judging from the number of people who’d come to see her (some from Santa Barbara by car), it was obvious her charm.

Home now and to work right away. I gained clients while I was away, and I have deadlines. So I must put toothpicks on the eyelids and get something done today as I try to get back into the correct time zone.

Glad to be back among you all.