We very much enjoyed the journey through The Rockies - the Dome Car was a great viewpoint but the views from our seats were good too. We passed Mount Robson the highest peak in The Rockies at just under 13,000ft and the amazingly blue waters of Moose Lake, the deepest lake at 700ft deep. Photographing these sights was a challenge - although the train slows down to pass points of interest there is still the problem of avoiding reflections in the glass, issues of ...

And yet another first! Our longest train journey - 20 hours, leaving Vancouver in the evening so that some of the more boring scenery is covered in darkness and supposed sleep. We did sleep a little but we only had reclining seats for this leg of the journey so not exactly comfortable - Jill has repeatedly said that one night is an adventure, which Dave did remind her of! Think we'll be grateful we've got a cabin booked for the coming four day/three night journ...

Today was a day of contrasting gardens. The one more highly rated in the guide book was rather disappointing, the other was a joy! We started (via SkyTrain) at Queen Elizabeth Park which did have views out over the city - and now with a blue, cloudless sky - and a couple of pleasant quarry gardens but it didn't have much to detain us for long. We'd not really planned to visit VanDusen Botanical Gardens but had time to spare and it is in the same area and we wer...

Saturday was another dullish day but dry. We started the day at a Trees Organic Coffee outlet where we learnt that they served the best cheesecake in Vancouver - not even Dave could eat cheesecake for breakfast so we had to return for lunch. You'll need to look at the photo! Between times we strolled around the Gastown district, stopping to browse in First Nation art stores. Slightly madly we bought a print that we liked - hope we can keep it flat for the next ...

Another first! Our first flight on a seaplane was a fun experience. We had the seats immediately behind the pilot. The take off and landing were exceptionally smooth and brisk on the water - much gentler than on land. Interestingly it looked like there was an 'air traffic control' at the entrance to Victoria Harbour that was managing the traffic, giving our plane priority to take off over a whale watching boat that was also leaving the harbour. And the first ti...