Last post

Ok this is likely to be my last post as my travels are coming to an end. Lase week I was in Quebec city, it was very pretty, i really liked old Quebec. It's nice as all the leaves are starting to change colour.

After Quebec I caught the over night train out to Nova Scotia and I am now in Halifax. Its nice out here and the farthest I have been away from home this travel I think. It's nice out here, I have only been here for a day and I did a tour of the Citadel (Fort George) and walked along the peir. On Wednesday I will be starting my tour that goes around Nova Scotia and sees all the pretty sights such as the Cabolt trail at Cape Breton and The bay of Fundy which is that place on the Earth that has the largest change in tides, so I am very excited about that.

After the tour I will be flying back to Vancouver where I will be there for three days, then i will fly back home. I leave Vancouver at 11:55 on the 18th October, which means i get into sydney about 9am on the 20th and will fly directly to Coffs Harbour from there.

At this stage I will be in Coffs for about a week as it's dad's 50th, then i will head down to Newcastle sometime after that, will give you all the details when i am home.


Also to all those reading this, i no longer have a mobile number, so if you try to message or call me when i get back, i wont get it. i will have to buy a new phone when i get back, so ill give you all the number when i have one ok.

see you all soon

Karyn

since my return to Canada I have seen Niagara falls, thn I went up to their largest city Toronto. To be honest there isnt alot to do in Toronto, and it rained for the first 2 days that i was there, so i went shopping, not the best idea as i have no suitcase space left, and i walked around and saw the city. went onto the Toronto islands.

Then i went to Canadas capital, Ottawa. Its a pretty city with lots of pretty buildings and the parliament which is really pretty. I spent a few days here and really enjoyed it. I met a boy who was from Coffs harbour and had plyed football against David. Met a lot of really lovely people in Ottawa.

Now i am in Montréal. its really pretty here, i have seen the old part of town and been to the biodome (indoor animal park) and botanic gardens. its nice here and the weather has been fantastic. next i am going up to Québec city which i am excited about.

finallly some pictures for you all, this is all i could get so far

Yosemite national park, 5th aug



















Golden Gate Bridge




















A street in San Francisco

USA and back to Canada

Ok, so I went on a tour around 6 states in the USA. I saw Mt Rushmore, crazy horse (not yet finished), the devil's tower, Yellowstone National Park (which i loved!!!), Grand Teton National Park, The arches national park and more!!

Then I flew to New York city where i spent 4 days and saw the statue of liberty, went up the empire state building, walked through centrel park and times square, went to Grenwich village, little italy, china town, walked across the Brooklyn bridge, went to the WTC site and spent 5 hours in the museum of natural history, so it was a very busy 4 days, and i was so exhausted afterwards!

I am now finally back in Canada visiting Niagara falls, it's so beautiful here. I went on the maid on the mist and got drenched by the falls, then took a walk behind the falls yesterday, and today i walked along and saw some of the worlds roughest rapids, went to the butterfly house where there are over 2000 pretty little butterflies. some landed on me and gave me a bit of a fright, haha yes i got scared by a butterfly. I did a tour of the hydro electricity plant which was pretty cool, and walked along the falls. So I have been a very busy girl, and i am so tired, but its so much fun!!

USA

Victoria
After Vancouver I went to Victoria on Vancouver island for 3 days. It was a really pretty place, nice to walk around the island and see the beach, pitty was that it rained while I was there.

Seattle
I took a ferry from Victoria down to Seattle where I stayed at a place called Vashon island, away from downtown for a few days. It was a very pretty little place. the hostel there was a few barns and teepees. Luckily I was in one of the barns as it rained at night and all the teepees got flooded. It was an awesom place to stay, so laid back and on the property was a forest that i walked through as well as exploring the island.

San Francisco
I was in San Fran for 5 days. It was pretty, although the city was in a fog so in the middle of summer it was very cold, it felt like winter. I walked aroung the bay area, saw Alcatraz island and the golden gate bridge.

I did a day tour out to eastern California to the Yosamite national park, which was just beautiful. i will try to get some pics up if i can, but i cant promise anything.

For my birthday i did another tour where we went to the Muir woods, where the tallest trees in the world are, and then we did a wine tour in the Sonome valley just north of San Francisco. I was great, strange that you can drive 1/2 out of the city and go from what felt like winter, to summer. Got some great views of the golden gate bridge.

Los Angeles
I stayed in a hostel in Hollywood, which was ok, but I discovered that i am allergic to bed bugs :(. appart from that i really liked LA. Hollywood is a very happy place, all the tourists are all in a good mood, so it was really nice. I did that walk of fame and saw that stars of all the actors, and saw the hollywood sign.

My favourite part of La was Santa monica, It was great to go to the beach and just relax. I also walked up to Venice beach where all the markets are. I spent a day at malibu beach which was also very pretty, and not as busy as the other beaches.

My last day in LA i went up to the Grifith observitory and saw all the space stuff, that was really cool.

San Diego
If i had to live in the USA I would want to live in San Diego, i really liked it here. Lots of pretty buildings. I went to the zoo, and man is it a zoo. Its huge! it took me almost 6 hours to walk around the whole thing, and im still not sure if i saw all of it. I did a cruiz of the bay and saw all the air craft carriers and navy ships that currently arent in use.

I spent 2 days at the beach. first I went to ocean beach, which was ok, then to Mission beach, which was beautiful. they have a beach on one side and a water network on the other, it was great, i loved the mission area, there was even a roller coaster.

Las Vegas
Mmm, going to vegas was like stepping into an oven, the ave temp was about 41 in the day and 30 at night, if you were lucky, it was a dry heat like i have never felt before.

The hotels here are amazing, i know why they are rated by diamonds rather then stars. they are well worth seeing. The casinos are huge too.

while in Vegas i went and saw the phantom of the opera which was just fantastic.

i also did a tour of the grand canyon where i was picked up, then we got into a mini plane and flew for an hour over hoover dam and lake mead, and half the greand canyon, then we had a 2 hour bus trip around the south rim, then we flew back over a different part of the canyon for an hour. it was one of the best things that i have ever done!!

Denver
I am now in Denver. I didnt know that Obama was going to be here until i got here, so i cant do much as the city is full of protestors and the bus network isnt too good this weeks, and not many tours are running. I did manage to do a tour of the colorado rocky mountains yesterday however. it was beautiful, the mountains here are so different to those in canada. As part of the tour i went into a real gold mine where i saw gold in the rock, and i even tried panning for gold, but didnt find any :(.

well thats you all up to date. ill try to get pics up if i can. i am going on a yellowstone national park tour for a week starting tomorrow, so ill let you all know how that goes.

Karyn

My week in Vancouver

I arrived in Vancouver on sunday 20th July, Bronwen Hill met me at the bus station and we went back to her place.

On Monday I walked around Stanly Park, which is right near downtown Vancouver, it took me a few hours to walk around the island, was really pretty. Here is a view of downtown from the park.

On the island I came across a little squrrel who was hungry and eating berries. He came and stoon on my foot and tried to eat my shoe. Then I looked up and saw a family of racoons coming toward me, this was my first racoon experience, was pretty exciting.

Here is a swan at the lost lake bird sanctuary on the Stanley park island.

This is English bay, one of Vancouver's beaches (with no waves). On the left side is a rock thing, which was put there as the symbol for the 2010 winter olympics which will be held at Vancouver and Whistler.

Bron took me up the tour in the centre of town, which gives a view of all of Vancouver, it was really pretty.

On Wednesday Bron had the day off, so we caught a skytrain, ferry and bus to get to the other part of Vancouver where we went to Capilano where they have a really long suspension bridge, as well as a tree top walk.

Then she took me up the top of Grouse mountain, where usually there is a beautiful view of the city, but it was in a cloud today, so we couldn't see very far at all. Saw a grizzly bear up the top.

In the afternoon me, Farah and Bron went and caught a Baseball game. Was ok, they had Sad Diego chicken entertaining the crowd all night, so it was fun. Then we jumped into Farah's car and drove into town, ran onto a bridge to see the first part of the celebration of lights. It was Canada's night. Pretty lights!!

Bron also had Thursday off, so we booked a tour through her company to go up to Whistler. It was really cool up therem the village was designed so that you can walk everywhere, there are no cars in the main part of the town. We caught a bus out to the lost lake. You can see the lake in the pic here, with the ski mountain in the background.

After a few hours at the lake, we went to Earls for a few cocktails, here is me and Bron with our drinks.

On Friday I went to the Quees Elizabeth Park where they have lots of pretty plants flowes and Birds (see pics above).

On Saturday I went to the Choneese garden downtown. It was cool to have a pieceful park in the centre of town. Then a few of us met at English bay downtown to watch the USA part of the celebration of lights. It was soo awesome, they made pretty pink hear fireworks.

Here is me today. I went to the University of British Columbia as they have the museum of Anthropology, a beach and Botanic garden. You can probably notice in this pic that my hair is short and I now have a fringe, I cut it all off the other day, I like it.


Now that I have seen Vancouver it is time to move on, next stop Victoria, which is on Vancouver island.

The last few weeks

Here is me at Medicine lake just outside of Jasper.

This is Maligne lake, also just outside of Jasper. 3 weeks ago I did a tour around the beautiful Jasper, which is in the rockeys about 300km north of Banff.

The beautiful Peyto lake, on the highway between Jasper and Banff, said to be one of the most beautiful laked.

This is the columbie icefield. We got a bus onto the icefield and were able to walk on the glacier, which was pretty awesome.

Here is my friend Mr squirrel who I met at Lake Louise, isn't he a cutie!!!

After my trip through the rockeys I went to a place called Kelowna for a while. It is kinda half way between Banff and Vancouver. It was a pretty city about the size of Coffs Harbour on a lake, so its kinda an inland beachy town, so i liked it there! This pic is one of the many vinyards that are in Kelowna, they have some nice wine there :)