The Looooooooooooooooooooong Day

Day 8

Kilometers travelled; 1000

Well, let me tell you, it is a very long way from Calgary to Vancouver! We got up very early and all the usual packing up chaos ensued. We said good bye to Lisa, Don and Dana, we were all a little sad as we had had a great visit with them and Nate was not at all happy about leaving the puppies behind, then we piled back in the car to begin our marathon day. Just as we were on the outskirts of Calgary we realized that the DVD player was no longer working. Part of me was panicked, the other part thought, the boys have been great travellers so far and I thought we would be fine. We were, until the end of the day! There were many incredible things to see out the window which kept the boys and Ken and I very entertained. The Rocky Mountains are an exceptionally stunning place. The turquoise mountain lakes and fresh glacier streams flowing down the mountain certainly make one understand why so many Canadians migrate to this part of the country. However, I have to say that after many hours in the Mountains I began to get claustrophobic. I am a girl who needs big water. I need to stand at the edge of a lapping lake and see nothing but blue to the horizon. I was actually beginning to feel a bit trapped by all these rocky monsters, luckily, at about this point the beautiful Shuswab appeared just out side my window which lifted my spirits. Although there were many amazing sights out side the window, I can say that this was not the best day of our trip. The boys were exceptionally good considering they mostly entertained themselves aside from marathon games of I Spy. Ken and I were very thankful for the Satalite radio kids channel so there was also lots of singing of silly songs, however, none of us were at our best. My lowest point came at the last spike. We had stopped to let the boys blow off some steam and to see a major Canadian land mark. Nate was not at all ready to get in the car at the end of our time there, I had to pick him up and he punched and kicked at me the entire way to the car. Good times! By the time we arrived at Kamloops we were all feeling fried so we stopped for dinner and a quick trip to Canadian Tire to replace the DVD player. After dinner and a very frustrating DVD installation we were back on the road. They boys were watching a movie and Ken and I put on a little Jack Johnson and waited for his music to work it's soothing magic. It did and we had a very peaceful trip all the way to the out side of Vancouver where we hit completely stopped traffic. Of course, we are finally near enough to our destination to see it on the GPS but we are stopped on the high way. I called my Aunt Wendy to let her know that we would be late. After a 20 minute delay we were on our way and arrived about half an hour later. After a very quick visit with my Aunt and cousin Trevor we were all sound asleep. We need our rest for the days to come.