28th-29th - Miami to Rio de Janiero

Spent our last day in Miami shopping for last minute things for our South American trip, then dropped the rental car back at around 4. Checked in at the airport only to find our 8pm flight had been cancelled and we were now on a 11pm flight. We met a lovely girl named Audrey who is from Sao Paulo. She gave us a few tips on what to see and do in Rio. We had a good flight arriving in Rio at 8.30am. Crazy taxi ride to our hotel, but arrived safely.
Spent the day aclimatizing to the heat and humidity. Caught a crazy local bus in which we managed to get airborne over a small bridge (they drive very fast, especially around corners and they brake really hard. Really need to hang on, even when sitting down.)
We ended the day at Copacabana beach, strolling along the waters edge. Very romantic.
We join the tour tomorrow 31st March.

21st to 27th - Florida

21st Walked off the American Airlines flight from Vegas to Miami at 6.00am a little tired but happy after we had a smooth night flight. Cat and I walked straight in and picked up our hire car from Hertz - a small Chevy (but it is like a toyota corolla actually).
Cat drove straight onto highway 1 and we were off down the road to Key West. It was a great drive over all the bridges (especially the 7 mile one) that link up all the Keys. At Key West we walked around all the old buildings and shops, had a hot drink and key lime pie (lime cheesecake) and we sat around Malloroy Square waiting for the sun set.

There was a large cruise liner at the dock and thousands of people from the ship were in Key West, so it was very crowded. As the sun lowered more and more street performers and the like set up around the square. It had a carnival type atmosphere. Unfortunately due to cloud cover we did not see the sunset.

22nd - We headed of the the John Pennecamp National Park and walked around the boardwalk through the mangroves. The weather was not favourable for snorkelling so we decided to head up to St Augustine. We were caught in a huge torrential downpour as we skirted Miami on the interstate 95 freeway. The rain was so heavy we could hardly see the road and many cars had their hazard lights on and were driving around 20 miles/hr instead of the usual 62-70 mph. We made it as far as Melbourne which is just south of Cape Canaveral. For dinner we had Pad Thai at a local Thai/Vietnamese restaurant.
23rd - Set off to the Kennedy Space Centre where we spent most of the day. We did a Cape Canaveral: Then and now tour which took us around to all the old launch sites and the airforce space missile museum. It was facinating to hear the guides and volunteers (who worked at the site during the time these old facilities were used in the early 60s) talk about what went on. Good thing we are not one of thier neighbours as they did occasionally have missiles go astray. One in particular ended up over Brazil and has just recently been found in the jungle. In the afternoon we headed off to St Augustine.

24th - We had a full day to look around St Augustine - the oldest European settlement in North America. It was settled in 1565.

We jumped onto one of the sight seeing trains that travel to all the important tourist places in St Augustine like the Oldest wooden school house in America, the Flagler memorial Presbyterian church, Flagler college-which was one of the old hotels built by Henry Flagler (one of the founders of standard oil) and the old fort which is one of the reasons that the town is still here.
25th - Found the library and Cat uploaded some photos and updated the blog while david did some washing at a laundromat. Then we headed back down the coast toward the Everglades. We stopped along the way at Daytona beach and had lunch and watched the cars driving on the beach. It was a cold windy day but there were still plenty of people sunbaking next to thier cars on the beach! Our overnight stop was at Pompano Beach.
26th Headed to the Everglades national park, Shark Valley visitors centre. From there we took a 2 hour narrated tram ride out to the observation tower. Saw many birds and alligators along the way. We found out that the everglades is actually a large freshwater river/slough that due to human intervention is endangered and much smaller than it first was.

27th Back into the everglades but the southern part this time and Flamingo visitors centre where we hired a canoe for 3 hours. We paddled up buttonwood canal to Coot Bay. M

17th - 20th March - Las Vegas

Very bumpy flight from Dallas Fort Worth to Las Vegas for the last 30 minutes as we skirted some electrical storms. Good lightening show out the window of the plane. Our bags were delayed for about an hour at Las Vegas so we occupied ourselves watching people on the slot machines and watching the huge advertising screens showing what shows were on in Las Vegas at present. Once we picked up our bags we caught a shuttle bus to our hotel - The Casino Royale - after dropping off others at their hotels. It was like a mini tour of the Las Vegas Casinos, great way to have a look around the lights of the strip. Ended up getting to bed around 1am.
18th Woke and had small breakfast of porridge then headed out onto the strip. After a couple of hours we stopped for second breakfast of ham, eggs, sausage and tortilla at a little Mexican restaurant, we declined the breakfast Margaritta or Bloody Mary that was offered. Walked to Tropicana and then caught local CAT (Citizen Area Transit) bus into the suburban area looking for a thrift store to get a wedding dress. No Luck, found where the shop used to be but it had closed down a couple of months previous. Missed a few buses and time was running out so we caught a monorail to the Sahara in the hope of having lunch. By the time we arrived there we didn't have much time left before the wedding so had to forgo lunch to find the Graceland Wedding Chapel. After an hour of walking and 4 blisters later we found the Chapel. You can view the pictures here http://www.dotphoto.com/GuestViewAlbum.asp?AID=5159405
Username Graceland Password DCHAR
The wedding was a hoot. As you can see from some of the photos we got to sing with Elvis.
After the wedding we decided to check out downtown las vegas, the old part you see in old Elvis Presley and James Bond movies. We then caught a bus back to the Sahara and the lines for dinner were excessive so we ended up catching the Monorail back to our hotel and had dinner next door at Denny's.
19th Had a good nights sleep and headed back to the Sahara for their breakfast buffet, but by the time we arrived they had already started the lunch buffet, so we took our time over brunch and left thoroughly stuffed. We caught the monorail back to the other end of the strip at MGM grand and headed to Mandalay Bay which is the last Casino on the strip. We made our way slowly back through the Luxor, Excalibur, New York New York and so on down the strip. Lots of interesting exhibitions etc in the casinos and lots of new shopping malls since we were here last.
20th Packed up and put our bags in the storage room. Another day hitting the strip taking photos inside The Venitian and other Casinos, as the voice on the monorail said, we travelled from Luxor to New York to Paris, Venice and the Sahara all without a passport. We had lunch at the Flamingo buffet and then headed into their gardens and pool area. An oasis in the desert with Flamingos, turtles and many birds. Cat had a little cat nap for 1/2 and hour then we wandered the strip a little more with the feeling of being Las Vegased out. We headed off to the airport in a shuttle and were glad to be away from Las Vegas. Caught our 11.10pm flight to Miami and because of the time change after our 4.5 hour flight arrived in Miami at 6am.

15th - 17th March - Calgary

Checked into our dodgy Hostel yesterday. Spent the first night in a mixed dorm, shared with some local homeless (they seemed to be working in the construction industry nearby).
15th-First stop was to return the rental car and from there we caught the C-train back into the city to do some sight seeing. We found an MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op, similar to Paddy Pallins) and ended up buying some shoes that are a cross between sandals and hiking shoes, they have covered in toes. I also had to buy a new pair of sunglasses as I had broken the arm off my old pair at Canmore. After a full day sight seeing we went back to the hostel and checked into a private room, much nicer than hanging out in the lounge watching boxing on the TV with a bunch of guys speeking French! I found a copy of REX my life and David had fun reading all about Rex Hunt's life so far.
16th- Got off to a slow start as it had been snowing all night and was rather cold outside, and we had the room to ourselves. Walked back to MEC and spent another $400 on some x-country ski/bike pants, 2 pairs of cycle shoes like the ones we bought yesterday except you can put cleats on them, and a pair of rear bike lights. We purchased a day ticket on the train, so spent the day travelling around on the C-train. Did a dry run of our trip to the airport and did some grocery shopping. Back to the hostel and David finished off reading REX.
17th - Up early and headed to the Scotia Centre to post off our ski gear home and the bike stuff we bought to London. Caught the Train and a Bus to the airport and were there 3 hours early. We needed it as we had to go through pre clearance for the USA. Much better than having to wait until we got to Dallas as we only had an our turnaround there.

14th March - Drumheller

Got up early and headed off to Drumheller. We stopped off on the way to have a look at the 1988 Olympic Ski Jump and Bobsled track near Calgary.We went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum just out of Drumheller. It is home to many dinosaur skeletons. It was absolutely amazing. We saw many bones and fossils and even a paleontologist working on a find.

After the museum we stopped off at a small church that claims to seat 10,000 only 6 at a time.

Then on to Horse Thief Canyon where we had a good view of the Bad Lands and the amazing landscape where they have found many dinosaur bones.

Then went to Wayne an old Ghost town with a population of 30. We had to cross 11 bridges in 6 miles to get to the Last Chance Saloon, where David had a beer and Catriona had a root beer.

Our last stop for the day was some more hoodoos. Once the cap is dislodged the form errodes much more quickly. The one on Davids right days are numbered.

13th March - Radium to Canmore

Left the hostel and the temperature was -8 and not a cloud in the sky. Another perfect day. Headed off throught the Kootenay National Park, stopping at the Kootenay River as it was one of the few we have seen that is not frozen over. We made it to Banff at midday and had lunch at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. We walked in and around the hotel. It was like a castle and they even hat castle tours that ran a few times during the day. After Banff we set off to view some Hoodoos. They are erroding sandstone structures that have been formed over 1000s of years.

We finally made it to Canmore and stayed at the fantastic Canadian Alpine Club Lodge. It was a shame we only had one night here. We went for a walk around downtown Canmore and a walking track around the riverside and past a Hydro Power station. We also stopped off at the local Micro Brewery Pub the Grizzly Paw. Cat had a Pint of the Rutting Elk Red and David had a Pint of Grumpy Bear Honey Wheat beer.

12th March -Lake Louise to Radium Hot Springs

It Snowed overnight and the mountain recieved 1cm of new powder. We headed off down the Trans-Canadian over the Kicking Horse River. Our first stop was to view a natural bridge in the Yoho National Park. We then headed for Golden where we did some grocery shopping and then on to Radium Hot Springs where we booked into the Misty River Lodge.
We went to the Hot Springs which was interesting to be in the hot water with snow all around the outside of the pool. We were in our cossies and the life guards where in their parkers, gloves and beanies.

9th March - 11th March Jasper to Lake Louise

9th We checked out of the hostel and hired a car to drive down the scenic Icefields parkway.
As we drove we viewed Athabasker falls, amazing frozen waterfall. We stopped off at a few lookouts along the way including Goats and Glacies, Mt Fryatt & Brussels Peak. Lots of ice and snow at Sunwapta falls.
We drove to the Columbia Icefields to view the largest Glacier in the Rockies but the wind was dreadfull and wipping the snow up, so we just took a long distance photo

and headed off to view the weaping wall where some iceclimbers were climbing a frozen waterfall, David says rampant.
Finally made it to Lake Louise Hostel where we had accommodation for the next 3 nights.
Fantastic scenic drive through the parkway, hardly any other cars and no trucks. Another day of fantastic weather.
10th we headed up to the Chateau Lake Louise where we booked on to a sleigh ride.
We checked out the hotel and then headed out for our sleigh ride. Moe and Joe were the two horses that pulled us round the lake. It was a pleasant experience to travel by the sleigh around the Northern side of the lake to the bottom of the glacier where we also saw ice climbers climbing the frozen glacier fed waterfall.
We then headed back in to the village to buy some food and drinks. David managed to buy a 6 pack of Bow Valley Lager for $7.85. When we were on our way our we noticed a poster for yoga at the Lake Louise Community Recreation hall and decided to check it out. We arrived just in time and had a lovely class run by Jenny. Catriona did the class in her long johns and David did it in his cargo pants (too embarrassed to take them off and do it in his long johns.)
11th Slept in and then headed off to do the tramway walk up to the Great Divide Parking area where we were to meet later in the day for our dog sled ride. As we were walking it started to snow. The snow was very dry, powder like snow, not wet at all. When we arrived at the parking area the dogs were there being readied for their 12pm trip. They were getting very excited when they knew it was time to be hooked on to their sled. Our ride started at 2pm so we headed back down to the hostel for lunch before going back at 2pm for our turn.
David and I shared a sled which was pulled by 7 dogs.

It was alot of fun and very bumpy at points. The dogs were so excited to be running and one in particular was jumping up and down every time we stopped as it just wanted to keep running.

Catriona had a go at driving the sled along one section of the track which was a great experience.

PS Thanks to everyone who are posting comments. We are enjoying reading them.

7th March to 8th March - Jasper

Spent the morning working out our next travel details as we were advised to take a trip down the Icefields parkway. We also walked the discover Jasper walking trail and walked the 7km back to the hostel.
Saturday we caught the shuttle back into Jasper to meet up with a couple we met at the hostel on Thursday night. Denis and Linda took us for a drive around Jasper for the day.
Our first stop off was Pyramid lake, where we walked out over a bridge to a little island and saw many little squirrels. We also saw a couple of wolves on the other side of the lake (which was frozen).

Our next stop off was fort hill where we walked up a steep incline to view Jasper township and the surrounding mountains.

We then drove out to have a look at the Jasper Park Fairmont Resort. On the way we stopped to take pictures of some big horn sheep and deer that were grazing by the side of the road.
We then went on a spectacular walk through the Maligne Canyon. We started at the top looking into the canyon and walked/slid down the very icy pathway. We crossed 4 bridges over the canyon then descended into the canyon itself to walk on the frozen water up to view the frozen waterfalls.

Last stop was the Medicine Lake which drains into underground rivers during the spring/winter. We had lunch there and headed back into Jasper before Denis and Linda headed back home.

After Dinner we went outside to check out the stars and there was an amazing, spectacular, awsome (not enough superlatives to describe) sight up in the sky. We were treated to a view of the Northern Lights. We stood outside in the freezing cold just looking up into the sky not wanting to go to bed. What a spectacular end to a fantastic day.

5th March - 6th March - Prince Rupert to Jasper

Set off on our Skeena train trip from Prince Rupert to Jasper via Prince George.

As you can see we spent our journey in the dome car of the train. Excellent views of the surrounding countryside along the whole journey. We had two more beautiful sunny days with clear skies. There were only 6 other passengers on the train on the second half of the first day and the whole of the second day.

Quick photo stop while we wait for a freight train to pass. There is only single track in many places and we often had to stop to let freight trains pass, most of the time we had to stay on board though. Our train ran late on both days, we didn't mind as it gave us more time to view the amazing mountain scenery. The conducter said, "an extra 10% at no extra cost".

Snow everywhere, very pretty. Prince George had received a fresh dump of snow (3ft) 3 days before our journey.
Mount Robson, the highest mountain in Canada. We were very lucky to have a clear day to view it. The Conductor said he didn't often get to see it as it is usually covered in cloud.

Finally made it to sunny Jasper. We continue to have great weather on our journey.

3rd March - 4th March Prince Rupert

Our frist day in Prince Rupert it was pouring, vertical rain is what the locals call it, but that did not stop us doing a 10km walk to the local industrial area. (We were heading for the rapids but took a detour to nowhere). We were totally drenched and did not want to continue to find them, so headed back to the hostel to dry off and wash our wet and dirty clothes.
The next day was fantastic, beautiful sunny weather. A balmy 7 degrees. We walked all around the town. Above is a shot of David at Cow bay wharf, where we stopped off at Breakers Pub to have a drink. We also went to the Museum of Northern British Columbia, which had First Nation artifacts, displays and information. It also included some railway and early explorer displays and info as well.

This is a picture of two of the many totem poles errected around the town. They are mostly replicas of totem poles from the Queen Charlotte Islands communities.

David out the front of the Black Rooster Roadhouse where we stayed. The front is boardered up as a car went through it when the road was icy during the winter. The hostel was cosy and central to the main part of town.

This is a view of the harbour from where we had a drink at the Chances Casino at the Crest Hotel.

29th February - 2nd March / Courtenay to Prince Rupert

We walked 2km's fully packed from our hostel to the greyhound bus depot in the rain. (Too stingy to pay for a cab, bet you can't believe that one can you?)
This was only our second day of rain. The first half of the trip we were in the middle of the bus, but the second half we got the front row. It was a very scenic trip, passing pine forrests, logging trucks (one which threw up a stone and cracked the front window of the bus, it sounded like a fire cracker going off), sea side towns and snowy mountains. We stopped off for the buss driver to have a rest at a place called Woss and I imediately thought EOM (Only you Stapletons will get that one). When we finally reached Port Hardy we walked up to Peters place. Peter already had another guest staying with him called Chris who had his husky with two different coloured eyes like bowie (Mick my brother's dog) with him.

We had a good afternoon/night chatting to Peter and Chris about what they did and where they were from.

Saturday 1st we walked around Port Hardy and along the waterfront. Saw half a dozen massive eagles in the trees and one sitting on a rock by the water. There was also a few seals in the water. The seaguls here are twice the size as the ones back home.
We caught a taxi to the ferry terminal as it was a little too far for us to walk!
I made sure I had my ginger tablets for this trip as the weather was closing in and we were sailing in open waters for the first 3 hours. I was glad I had them too and remembered to have the follow up ones every 2 hours. The trip was very rocky at times but smooth once we were inside the passage. We got to bed early and had a good nights sleep. So glad that we had booked a cabin and not had to sleep on the floor or in a chair like many others we saw.

Sunday 2nd we woke to more rain/snow. The weather was wet and windy which did not allow us to spend much time on deck however we did manage to go out a few times and also watched the passing scenery from our porthole in our cabin. We made it in to Prince Rupert around 2pm to foul weather. The lady from the hostel came to pick us up, we checked in, did some shopping and came back here to update the blog as we can't do much sight seeing for today, so David is trying out a thirsty beaver (Hand crafted amber ale from Kelowna BC) and I am having an Extra Mango BC Cider.

28th February off on our own / Vancouver to Courtenay

Had a slow start to the day today and with John and Lorna's help just made the Ferry.
We were the last ones on and they started retracting the foot passenger gangway as soon as we got off it. We were sad to say goodbye to John and Lorna and will look forward to seeing them again some day at home.
It was a foggy trip over the Nanaimo on the ferry. The captain kept on having to sound the horn to let other craft know we were there. It was another very smooth ride and no need to take anti sea sickness tablets.
We managed to get a taxi to the train. The train was very crowded when we got on and David and I couldn't sit next to one another so we were able to talk to some of the locals. I chatted to a girl who was a tree planter who liked to travel. They can't plant during the winter so she saves up her money during the summer and travels the world in winter.
Half way through the trip a school group got off and we were able to sit with each other again and enjoy the scenery in a window seat.

Our lodging for the night was the Shantz Haus Hostel in Courtenay. There was a resident black cat who took a liking to us.
I must have sat in it's spot next to the fire as it kept on head butting me until I moved. Courtenay is a charming little town on the water where many people seem to go to retire from some of the colder Canadian Provinces.
First night cooking for ourselves, we had Stagg chilli and eggs on toast. What a gourmet cook I am while travelling. LOL.