Well, I have not wasted my freedom and spent the first two weeks of my holiday touring Canada and America. This was a first as I have never had the confidence to fly so far, actually to be honest I have never had the confidence to fly until the last 2 years when I decided I wanted to go abroad for my honeymoon.
We (Husband and Parent in laws), started off in Banff and toured round the Rockies exploring the beauty of God's creation as I was able to photograph glaciers, lakes, mountains, hummingbirds, rivers, waterfalls, Bears, Elks, Chipmunks, flowers, trees...it was spectacular!
The lakes and rivers were so blue because of the glaciers. On the 3rd day we went on a canoe on Lake Louise which was stunning. The lake had been frozen until June and only a few weeks before we arrived it had been snowing. We stayed in B&Bs as we travelled round the Rockies including one stunning place in Mount Robson (highest mountain in Canada). It was here where we began to see the Hummingbirds. They are tricky to take pictures of because they move to quickly yet gracefully through the air.
The reason we went to Canada was to attend my Cousin in laws wedding in Kelowna. So after a week in the Rockies we headed over to Kelowna for a few days. Kelowna is beautiful with vineyards everywhere and a huge lake where everyone hangs out in their boats. It is similar to the South of France with it's Mediterranean feel. The wedding was outside and was beautiful - the family made a big deal that we came over for the wedding and made us big hats with feathers in to celebrate our tradition of fascinators at weddings. Following the Royal Wedding, fascinators became fashionable in Canada.
But, it was after the wedding when the Holiday began to speed up. The next day we travelled to Vancouver to go whale watching! This was my part of the trip, something I have wanted to do forever. One of my favourite films as a child was Free Willy and I had always wanted to see Orca in the wild. It was so awesome actually seeing them diving in and out of the water. They were slow swimming so there weren't any Free Willy moments of spyhopping or lobtailing but on one occasion we did see one of them breeching.
The boats had to keep 200m away from the Orcas as they are endangered. Following our time in Vancouver, we caught a plane to Las Vegas where we stayed in the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino before driving down to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. It was really hot and humid which was a complete shock to some of our wet, cold days in the Rockies. But WOW the Grand Canyon was breath taking. On our second day there we flew over the Grand Canyon in a helicopter. I wasn't sure if I'd like it as I had heard of people having motion sickness but I didn't feel anything and was able to really enjoy the vastness of the Canyon. It is amazing how it was formed and really makes you realise how small you are and how big our Lord is.
It was a good end to our holiday as my husband and I then began our journey home flying from Flagstaff to Phoenix to Las Vegas to Montreal to London! If I could only leave you with one impression from this amazing two week experience it would be - How awesome is our God!
