Terrace-Nanaimo-Surrey-Calgary

In Terrace we had a great four day visit with Jeanine (niece), Greg, Nolan and Damian. Their large, lovely home is on the shores of the Kalum River. During our stay Greg did up a very tasty Skeena River salmon on the barbeque. Jeannine took time out of her busy schedule to guide us on a tour up the Nass River Valley to the lava fields and the Nisga nation village of New Alyansh. Faye was impressed with the totems and was brave enough to walk with Paul across the swinging bridge.
Paul managed to visit the local Legion and a couple tackle shops in Terrace where he picked up some local steelhead salmon flies to try out on Souris River next spring.
The drive thru the Skeena River Valley from Terrace to Prince Rupert on Friday morning was totally awe inspiring as the sun finally showed its face after a week’s absence! The scenery on the drive through the mountain ranges was “wow”!!
The ferry MV “Queen of Prince Rupert” departed from Prince Rupert at 4:30 taking the spectacular inside passage to Port Hardy arriving at 4 pm on Saturday so we caught some good mountain views while sailing through the Grenville channel which is about 1400 ft. wide and very deep. We had a berth and so had a good nights sleep and spent all day sitting at the bow windows looking out at the magnificent scenery. We met and talked to a number of people who have been to PEI and loved it. The father of one girl was from North Rustico and now practices law in Prince Rupert. Sharon and Peter were both in education and Faye enjoyed her conversations with them. Paul Toth is an outfitter. His business is called “Something Fishy Charters”. www.somethingfishycharters.ca
He is a great talker describing some of the fish he guarantees - king salmon, halibut, and steelheads! He also explained much of what we were seeing as we sailed along. Terrific to get the local knowledge!
Upon reaching Port Hardy we drove thru clear weather as far as the Rustic Motel in Campbell River where a thick fog had set in. On Sunday morning we had another spectacular drive down to Nanaimo to catch the ferry to the Vancouver mainland. The truck GPS steered us under sunny skies and past green fields to Carl & Kim’s place in Surrey where we enjoyed visiting with them, their son Justin and another visiting nephew, Craig. Carl treated everyone to terrific beef tenderloins from the barbeque for dinner. Blair Deveau dropped in too. We had a great evening with them in their beautiful home.
We headed out from Surrey towards Calgary on Monday through the beautiful Fraser River Valley and up through the mountain ranges passing Hope, Kamloops, Salmon Arm as far as Revelstoke where we had a delicious meal (maple glazed salmon for Faye and Buffalo burger for Paul) at the Great Northern Bean pub. There we discovered Revelstoke Ski Resort and Tuesday morning took the opportunity to take the Gondola up to the upper restaurant for breakfast and then up further above the fog into sunshine and +4 temp and a view from 4700 ft. This ski resort opened in 2008, a massive project still underway with costs reaching one billion which includes a buyout of a heli ski company! (Confederation Bridge was one billion!)
From Revelstoke we drove through Golden and Lake Louise and on to Calgary. Faye took pictures at every turn in the highway.
We were so happy and relieved to have had mostly clear highways the entire trip from the time we left Calgary to our return. The trip of a lifetime!!!
We arrived in time at 6:00 pm to go to a birthday dinner at the Flatiron Restaurant honouring Jaime’s brother Ryan. What a great way to end our day and this leg of our trip.

Later……