Daniel and I and Neela did  a road trip to Alberta in June 07 …

We wine toured through Penticton, did a dog friendly motel hunt at Lake Louise, twirled over the Ice Fields on a Heli tour, drove on every bumpy gravel road in Alberta, visited a chicken Spa, got lost in Pigeon Lake and picked up our new dog Sierra in High River.

  We started off in our 1957 Chevy Nomad.  It looks like a station wagon from 1957 for those of you who don’t know your old cars… I’ll put a picture here !!

We left with 11 other old cars from our Port Alberni Golden Oldies Car Club to go to a car show in Penticton.  Its hilarious to try to get 12 cars… which means 12 men… to all decide on where to stop for gas.. what kind of gas each one likes and  who likes Hungry man burgers and who likes vegetarian !!

Some want to stop for cherries and some want to stop for ice cream.  We somehow managed to all find each other along the road and pulled into the Crown Motel which is like one of those quaint little motels from the 50s also that has a courtyard so we can all visit with each other from our patios while we ladies sipped tea in the evenings  while the guys checked each others cars out and sipped beer !!  lol 

The next day was all 12 of us doing a wine tour through Penticton and Naramata… now that, is FUN!!!

I loved it… bought all kinds of fun wines J so much for tea parties !!

The Car Show is called the Peach City Beach Cruise and everyone parks their cars along the beach and the street is closed off and it is tons of fun. There is a wonderful farmers and artisans market on the Saturday and there is also a casino on the beach.

I am not much into Casinos… although the thought of having fun is there… but after I have wasted my $5.00 there, I would rather go to the mall shopping where I know I will get something back for my money !!

I once read a Maxine greeting card that said she decided to save time by driving in front of the casino and dumping her wallet out there on the street in front of it rather than waste the time to go in !!       lol… that’s exactly how I feel !! 

From there we drove to Lake Louise and found out about who takes dogs into the hotel rooms and who doesn’t !

The Lake Louise Chateau rooms start at $299.00 and go up to $1400.00 a night and it is only $50.00 for your dog.  We did not stay there…. There are only 3 other hotels who take dogs… one was $150.00 for the night and $50.00 for Neela. We did not stay there.

Then there was a flash storm that just hit us out of nowhere and everyone at Lake Louise was running to their hotels or cars… hmmmm kind of strange.  Daniel thought it was great.  He loves thunder and lightening….. but then he loved earthquakes too till we were in the California Northridge Earthquake !!!

He has changed his mind on that one…will tell you about that later !!!

 We ended up staying at a little old hotel down the highway about 30 miles south who did not charge for dogs… it was very old and made a lot of noises during the night….bumping and banging and pipe rattling… hmmm….  It was very interesting there to say the least, but the people were from Australia and very nice.

We then went onto see our friends Sue and Ralph Sliger who own Icefield Helitours.

Sue and Ralph took us up for a Helicopter tour in one of their magnificent machines.

They had had the same yucky weather we had all spring/summer and this happened to be the first day of total Blue Skies and Sunshine since the winter… so… they also arranged to bring a photographer along to take some pictures for their new brochure and website and …. The informed us… Surprise !!! We were… the models !!!  and this was also going to be a photo shoot !!!

I was adamant that Daniel be in the front seat where he could see below his feet to the zillion miles down ice fields and mountains…. At least it felt like a zillion miles down !!

I wanted to stay in the back seat with my eyeballs behind my camera lens so I wouldn’t throw up all over the place lol…..

We zoomed up into the air… and I have to say Ralph was an excellent pilot… making every move very gentle for me and warning me when we were about to turn so I didn’t lose my cookies !

I have to say though that with these kinds of views you forget about anything but the sheer beauty of what you are seeing.  I find it hard to beleive I took these pictures with my little digital camera.

                         

The photographer was the problem.  He was from Australia and used to these kinds of things… and wanted us to dive down the canyon to zoom along the waterfall and just when I was recovering from lowering into the canyon… (it felt just like when they went down to the waterfalls in Jurasic park )!!

 The photographer says oh wow… can you do another spin around this again I need to change lenses !! 

I was like uggghhh… and closed my eyes!!! It really was very smooth though…  you have to understand… I get sea sick, air sick, car sick and I used to get sick in our old truck going down our driveway cause it had too soft of a suspension … so although I fly a lot… my body suffers.  I did finally find some wonderful herbs that really help.. but alas… I forgot to bring them J

Anyway we then landed on an incredible emerald green river … The Cline River and the photographer wanted us to walk across this long that went across the river for the brochure… while looking straight ahead and smiling for the camera !!! 

I said yeah right… first you twirl me around in a helicopter then ask me to walk across a log over a river while looking straight ahead and not down at where my feet are going and smiling into the camera  !! Daniel did great of course… I had to do it 20 times….. lol… a model I definitely am NOT … even without a helicopter ride !!!

It was truly amazing and the ice fields and cliffs and hoodoos were spectacular.  Here are some of the pictures I took with my little wee point and shoot.  You don’t need a fancy camera with these kinds of views.

We then had an incredible gourmet picnic lunch and hiked to the twin waterfalls… It was beautiful. 

Their website is  http://www.icefieldheli.com/
and if you ever get the chance to go…. I really recommend it !!!

 

They are amazing wonderful compassionate people who have great knowledge of the Land and are all expert helicopter pilots.  I would go again in a minute… despite the queasy tummy J

They are looking for a Yoga instructor to give Yoga classes in the icefields and I joked with Daniel to take up teaching Yoga so he can have free helicopter rides all the time… he is considering it !!!

We then went to visit friends in Carstairs Alberta who have a very fancy chicken farm called  The Avian Resort and Spa for Chickens J now those are spoiled chickens !!

From there we went to Gibbons Alberta to stay with friend who have zillions of old cars so Daniel did the tour of all the ones for sale and had a great time while I visited with his wife, my friend the Boss Lady Linda Panchycshyn… They own Aerotiques Cars and Parts and they repair old and new cars for resale.

Again there it absolutely poured their with thunder and Lightening… what a summer !!

After that, we went to visit my good friend and assistant Animal Communicator in Manville Alberta, Deb Barber.  Deb is as good of an Animal Communicator as I am… even better !! She is truly amazing and a wonderful friend.  They own a huge Canola farm and I learned more than I ever knew about farming.  Whew… I think farmers and nurses should be paid the most….where would we be without them ??   What a lifestyle of a ton of work !!

Deb is also a moderator on my Animal Communication Forum group, http://www.animal-communicator.com/forums/

and helps me with my students who are taking my Animal Communication Correspondence course and she also helps me with clients when I am overbooked.  She is amazing and it was great to spend time with her. Debs email is debtalk@incentre.net

We then took off back towards Edmonton and went to visit my friends from Las Vegas… yes that’s right.. remember the Florida story…and the Vegas story :)   well Sue and Steven Segal spend their winters in Vegas, and summer in Pigeon Lake.  So we visited them in Pigeon Lake and what a beautiful place to see. They have a great Log cabin there.  It is just east of Red Deer Alberta and beautiful !!  

 Sue and I discussed more about her work on grief counseling regarding those who are leaving the planet.  She is a grief counselor for those of you who didn’t read the Florida trip or Vegas adventure part of this Blog… and she is contributing a chapter in my module 4 book which is on Death and Dying, and how to cope with grief. She helps people through having them draw  pictures and  works with what comes from their soul.  She calls it Soul Art Therapy and it is incredible and her email is segal5@cox.net. 

We then took off to High River Alberta to pick up the new addition to our family !

I belong to Boston Terrier rescue and since we lost our sweet boxer dog Daiz a few months ago to the Rainbow Bridge… we had been giving Neela some one on one… but she was getting lonely lately so a little Boston Terrier came along who would be a perfect sister for Neela.

My idea was to size down from Boxers because we travel so much and I want to be able to take them with us more.  With the bigger dogs, we always have someone stay at the house with them, because it is hard to take them everywhere, but I would love to be able to travel everywhere with the dogs,  so sizing down really appealed to me, and because we love the Boxer breed it seemed natural to choose a Boston.

I had visions of being able to put her in a little designer purse pack like Paris Hilton and carry her over my shoulder and take her everywhere !!  Well Daniel warned me that wasn’t likely to happen and he was right. 

Our new little girl, Sierra was a solid little 21 pounds !!! egads… The wonderful Boston Terrier volunteer who was fostering her could not figure out why she was getting so heavy and the other Boston that had been rescued along with her stayed slim. 

Well it turns out Little Sierra was sneaking downstairs to the cat food bowl and having additional snacks !! lol…

                                                                

So… we took her to our Holistic vet Dr. Marlene Smiths Tree of Life Clinic to see Dr. Heather Matheson for a check up and she has lost 2 pounds which is great, but she still doesn’t fit in my purse. I do have to admit I am gaining more upper body strength carrying her around the house to give her kisses… she is sooo  cute !!!

She is an absolute joy to have around.  On the way home we did an 8 hour driving day and then the next day was 16 hours to get home and she slept with Neela all the way… what a great traveler… Neela loves her and kisses her all the time too.

Sierra loves to kiss Neela and is very patient with Neelas kisses too as was Daiz… but then who wouldn’t be patient with Neela she is such a gentle soul.

                                   

Hmmm so much for the Paris Hilton look…. well maybe I can get one of those little nylon pet travel bags with wheels, paint it pink and glue rhinestones on it so I can roll her through the malls !!!!