Summer Road Trip, 2018 - Getting There
Jul. 24th, 2018 01:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqA little late, but not as bad as the 50 weeks it took me to post the 2017 road trip.
Friday at noon, my vacation started, I hopped into the loaded car and headed to Banff for lunch. I was craving jambalaya, and Tooloolous makes a good one. A quick jaunt to get some candy and I was back on the road. I took the Icefields Parkway from Banff to Jasper, stopping briefly to take some pictures of the Columbia icefields themselves.
I wonder what they looked like 100 years ago. Larger I imagine. Who knows how long we'll have them to marvel at.
Pulling into Jasper, I self-checked in at the Rockaboo Inn.
The room was spartan and small, but since I was only planning on sleeping there while in Jasper, that suited me just fine. They actually warn you not to try to get more than two people in the room, and they aren't kidding - there's about two feet of clearance around the bed, so no room for a crib or foamy. It did have a perfectly adequate bathroom though.
After a ten minute walk to downtown Jasper, I found the Jasper Brewing Company. I had a second-best Rogan Josh and a flight of beer (best beer: Key Lime Cream Ale or maybe the Black Eye Blueberry Ale). I didn't want to get drunk every night, so I stopped there and headed back to my room. Along the way I found that a local church had a gratitude board on the side of their community centre. Can you guess what I'm grateful for? Hint: Not crack.
I saw this ginger a few doors down from my inn. I beckoned it over for scritches and pets, but the black and white barged in, pushing him out of the way so that he could get scritches instead. Cats are jurkfaces, even to other cats. Adorable jurkfaces.
I do wonder why Jasper exists. Oh, I get why Banff exists - it's a gem and one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Jasper is no slouch, but it's not particularly close to its own scenery. I feel like it was really just a place for the trains to stop between Edmonton and Prince George, and it sort of became a tourist attraction by default. Still, I'm glad it was there, since something needed to be.
I checked out the next day and drove downtown in search of breakfast, eventually finding Coco's Cafe, had one of the signature scrambles, then got back into the car to go to Prince George.
I stopped at the Dome Creek rest area; a beautiful place that they tell me is the northern-most rain forest in Canada.
Now it was time to go visit friends, George and Shannon, whom I met in the SCA. If you're SCAdian, you know them as D'mitri and Elena. They were the whole reason I went this far north, instead of motoring straight through to Vancouver. Friends and exploring? What more do you need for a good vacation?
I reached Prince George, a city that my friend George (no relation to the city aside from residency) tells me is just like other cities. It has everything bigger cities has - a movie theatre, a mall. He did add, with a twinkle in his eye, that what it didn't have was many options. Just the one movie theatre, and just the one mall. Plenty of nice restaurants and pubs though, including a few breweries. He, Shannon and I went to Crossroads Brewing, which had a lot of really good beers (Best beer: Cloud 9 Witbier), and some pretty fantastic pizza. We had some microscopic error with our food (I think one of the pizzas was ever so slightly overcooked) and our food got comped by the head chef (whom they knew, though I don't think that was a factor). Afterward, we went to Kask, which doesn't brew their own beer, but does have about twenty-four beers on tap. We ended up getting good and drunk, met up with a bunch of Shannon's friends (from the roller derby league?), and took turns tasting the worst beer I've ever had (Hazy Imperial IPL #84 from Swans Brewery. The rest were good though - best beer was the Sea Level Saison from Wheelhouse Brewing). Also ran into a Peruvian tree planter who was enjoying a night off. It was a very good way to spend a Saturday night.
Sunday we went from George and Shannon's home to their home. Let me unpack that a bit. They have a lovely house in Prince George, and also a cabin on Norman Lake. PG was were they lived and made their livings. Norman Lake was where their souls resided. The cabin was cozy and inviting. I'm humbled that they invited me to spend time there.
It doesn't look like much, but this A Frame is very TARDIS-like. It contains more than it seems.
Beware of SCAdians:
We spent a few hours in and out of the cabin, and I saw my first hummingbird! Trying to get a decent picture was difficult on my phone though.
I'm confident I could have spent the night there, but I'm a city boy at heart, and wanted to be in PG when I woke up so I could get in the car bright and early for the longest leg of my trip. Along the way back to PG, I got them to stop so I could get pictures of these Black Marsh Firs. I'm told they're not actually dead or being choked to death by moss - they're actually a species that thrives under marshy conditions. Still, they look beautifully creepy!
Back in Prince George, we had another excellent meal, this time at the Cornerstone Kitchen. Then we retired back to George and Shannon's house to watch The Last Witch Hunter, a surprisingly entertaining movie. Why that movie? It was playing silently on a monitor at Kask the night before, and we were wondering what movie Vin Diesel, Elijah Wood, and Rose Leslie were in. Grab some popcorn and some friends and give it a look.
Monday morning, after a brief goodbye with Shannon (George had left for work by the time my late-sleeping ass got up) I got on the road.
As I mentioned, this was going to be the longest drive of the trip - about six hours. I had gotten advice beforehand and was told that the very best burger on the trip was at a joint called GBR in 100 Mile House, so that's where I aimed to be at lunch time. Sure enough, it was a damn fine burger. As good as any high-end restaurant I'd been to, and probably the equal of those Las Vegas specialty burger places. What it's doing in 100 Mile House, I'll never know. Being a glutton for punishment, I also had a deep-fried Mars bar. Not the wisest thing I'd do this trip, but probably not the worst, though I'd put it in the top three.
I made a few mistakes on Monday, though none really harshed my vacation mood. Mistake one: I booked a hotel in downtown Kamloops. Now there's nothing wrong with that per se - it's not sketchy or anything like that. No, it's just that I spent most of my time on the edge of Kamloops where the mall was (and a cluster of hotels). One of the reasons I aimed for Kamloops (I was originally aiming for Clinton because it's about half way between PG and Vancouver) was there'd be more to do there. Namely, more brew pubs and a movie theatre.
I looked online and booked a ticket for Skyscraper at the Aberdeen mall. Or at least I thought I did - and therein lies mistake two: to get to the Cineplex site, I clicked on the link on Google Maps of the theatre. In the past, this brought me to Cineplex and pre-selected the individual theatre. That's not what it did this time, and I ended up buying a ticket from the theatre that was the first one alphabetically in BC - The Abbotsford theatre.
I got to a largely empty theatre at four to discover the first showing of Skyscraper wasn't until seven. I managed to get the ticket refunded and purchased the correct ticket. But now I had a couple hours to kill. Well, I was planning on going to some brew pubs anyway, and one of them was nearby. And by nearby, I mean 2000 metres south and 120 meters down. I got to Iron Road Brewing and enjoyed a flight (Best beer: Boom Wild Ale) and an appetizer. Then I went back up the hill to see the movie.
Aberdeen theatre has this weird take on reserved seating - only two rows are reserved. I generally always pick reserved when I can, so I'm not stuck on an edge. By preference I'll also pick the back row, but that wasn't one of the two rows. Anyway, this had a perverse effect on the theatre - half the people in it were in those two rows. And my preferred seats were open, whereas my (allegedly) good seats were in the thick of humanity. I should have just moved.
After all the drama, I'm quite glad the movie was good. It was a really good action-adventure movie. Dwayne Johnson does great, and Neve Campbell is a badass!
After the movie I walked to the bus stop and caught this wonderful view of Kamloops from on high:
Had a late flight of beer at The Nobel Pig, near my hotel (Best beer: Wallonian Pig Belgian Peppered Ale tied with the Munich Helles Lager), then went to bed. Next morning I spent two hours wandering around downtown Kamloops and then got in my car and went to Vancouver. Next post: my adventures in Vancouver.
Friday at noon, my vacation started, I hopped into the loaded car and headed to Banff for lunch. I was craving jambalaya, and Tooloolous makes a good one. A quick jaunt to get some candy and I was back on the road. I took the Icefields Parkway from Banff to Jasper, stopping briefly to take some pictures of the Columbia icefields themselves.
I wonder what they looked like 100 years ago. Larger I imagine. Who knows how long we'll have them to marvel at.
Pulling into Jasper, I self-checked in at the Rockaboo Inn.
The room was spartan and small, but since I was only planning on sleeping there while in Jasper, that suited me just fine. They actually warn you not to try to get more than two people in the room, and they aren't kidding - there's about two feet of clearance around the bed, so no room for a crib or foamy. It did have a perfectly adequate bathroom though.
After a ten minute walk to downtown Jasper, I found the Jasper Brewing Company. I had a second-best Rogan Josh and a flight of beer (best beer: Key Lime Cream Ale or maybe the Black Eye Blueberry Ale). I didn't want to get drunk every night, so I stopped there and headed back to my room. Along the way I found that a local church had a gratitude board on the side of their community centre. Can you guess what I'm grateful for? Hint: Not crack.
I saw this ginger a few doors down from my inn. I beckoned it over for scritches and pets, but the black and white barged in, pushing him out of the way so that he could get scritches instead. Cats are jurkfaces, even to other cats. Adorable jurkfaces.
I do wonder why Jasper exists. Oh, I get why Banff exists - it's a gem and one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Jasper is no slouch, but it's not particularly close to its own scenery. I feel like it was really just a place for the trains to stop between Edmonton and Prince George, and it sort of became a tourist attraction by default. Still, I'm glad it was there, since something needed to be.
I checked out the next day and drove downtown in search of breakfast, eventually finding Coco's Cafe, had one of the signature scrambles, then got back into the car to go to Prince George.
I stopped at the Dome Creek rest area; a beautiful place that they tell me is the northern-most rain forest in Canada.
Now it was time to go visit friends, George and Shannon, whom I met in the SCA. If you're SCAdian, you know them as D'mitri and Elena. They were the whole reason I went this far north, instead of motoring straight through to Vancouver. Friends and exploring? What more do you need for a good vacation?
I reached Prince George, a city that my friend George (no relation to the city aside from residency) tells me is just like other cities. It has everything bigger cities has - a movie theatre, a mall. He did add, with a twinkle in his eye, that what it didn't have was many options. Just the one movie theatre, and just the one mall. Plenty of nice restaurants and pubs though, including a few breweries. He, Shannon and I went to Crossroads Brewing, which had a lot of really good beers (Best beer: Cloud 9 Witbier), and some pretty fantastic pizza. We had some microscopic error with our food (I think one of the pizzas was ever so slightly overcooked) and our food got comped by the head chef (whom they knew, though I don't think that was a factor). Afterward, we went to Kask, which doesn't brew their own beer, but does have about twenty-four beers on tap. We ended up getting good and drunk, met up with a bunch of Shannon's friends (from the roller derby league?), and took turns tasting the worst beer I've ever had (Hazy Imperial IPL #84 from Swans Brewery. The rest were good though - best beer was the Sea Level Saison from Wheelhouse Brewing). Also ran into a Peruvian tree planter who was enjoying a night off. It was a very good way to spend a Saturday night.
Sunday we went from George and Shannon's home to their home. Let me unpack that a bit. They have a lovely house in Prince George, and also a cabin on Norman Lake. PG was were they lived and made their livings. Norman Lake was where their souls resided. The cabin was cozy and inviting. I'm humbled that they invited me to spend time there.
It doesn't look like much, but this A Frame is very TARDIS-like. It contains more than it seems.
Beware of SCAdians:
We spent a few hours in and out of the cabin, and I saw my first hummingbird! Trying to get a decent picture was difficult on my phone though.
I'm confident I could have spent the night there, but I'm a city boy at heart, and wanted to be in PG when I woke up so I could get in the car bright and early for the longest leg of my trip. Along the way back to PG, I got them to stop so I could get pictures of these Black Marsh Firs. I'm told they're not actually dead or being choked to death by moss - they're actually a species that thrives under marshy conditions. Still, they look beautifully creepy!
Back in Prince George, we had another excellent meal, this time at the Cornerstone Kitchen. Then we retired back to George and Shannon's house to watch The Last Witch Hunter, a surprisingly entertaining movie. Why that movie? It was playing silently on a monitor at Kask the night before, and we were wondering what movie Vin Diesel, Elijah Wood, and Rose Leslie were in. Grab some popcorn and some friends and give it a look.
Monday morning, after a brief goodbye with Shannon (George had left for work by the time my late-sleeping ass got up) I got on the road.
As I mentioned, this was going to be the longest drive of the trip - about six hours. I had gotten advice beforehand and was told that the very best burger on the trip was at a joint called GBR in 100 Mile House, so that's where I aimed to be at lunch time. Sure enough, it was a damn fine burger. As good as any high-end restaurant I'd been to, and probably the equal of those Las Vegas specialty burger places. What it's doing in 100 Mile House, I'll never know. Being a glutton for punishment, I also had a deep-fried Mars bar. Not the wisest thing I'd do this trip, but probably not the worst, though I'd put it in the top three.
I made a few mistakes on Monday, though none really harshed my vacation mood. Mistake one: I booked a hotel in downtown Kamloops. Now there's nothing wrong with that per se - it's not sketchy or anything like that. No, it's just that I spent most of my time on the edge of Kamloops where the mall was (and a cluster of hotels). One of the reasons I aimed for Kamloops (I was originally aiming for Clinton because it's about half way between PG and Vancouver) was there'd be more to do there. Namely, more brew pubs and a movie theatre.
I looked online and booked a ticket for Skyscraper at the Aberdeen mall. Or at least I thought I did - and therein lies mistake two: to get to the Cineplex site, I clicked on the link on Google Maps of the theatre. In the past, this brought me to Cineplex and pre-selected the individual theatre. That's not what it did this time, and I ended up buying a ticket from the theatre that was the first one alphabetically in BC - The Abbotsford theatre.
I got to a largely empty theatre at four to discover the first showing of Skyscraper wasn't until seven. I managed to get the ticket refunded and purchased the correct ticket. But now I had a couple hours to kill. Well, I was planning on going to some brew pubs anyway, and one of them was nearby. And by nearby, I mean 2000 metres south and 120 meters down. I got to Iron Road Brewing and enjoyed a flight (Best beer: Boom Wild Ale) and an appetizer. Then I went back up the hill to see the movie.
Aberdeen theatre has this weird take on reserved seating - only two rows are reserved. I generally always pick reserved when I can, so I'm not stuck on an edge. By preference I'll also pick the back row, but that wasn't one of the two rows. Anyway, this had a perverse effect on the theatre - half the people in it were in those two rows. And my preferred seats were open, whereas my (allegedly) good seats were in the thick of humanity. I should have just moved.
After all the drama, I'm quite glad the movie was good. It was a really good action-adventure movie. Dwayne Johnson does great, and Neve Campbell is a badass!
After the movie I walked to the bus stop and caught this wonderful view of Kamloops from on high:
Had a late flight of beer at The Nobel Pig, near my hotel (Best beer: Wallonian Pig Belgian Peppered Ale tied with the Munich Helles Lager), then went to bed. Next morning I spent two hours wandering around downtown Kamloops and then got in my car and went to Vancouver. Next post: my adventures in Vancouver.
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Date: 2020-02-10 02:11 pm (UTC)