{"id":1047,"date":"2011-08-26T13:22:42","date_gmt":"2011-08-26T20:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minniebiz.com\/gmcmotorhome\/?p=1047"},"modified":"2011-08-28T18:23:41","modified_gmt":"2011-08-29T01:23:41","slug":"hot-springs-and-a-haircut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/minniebiz.com\/gmcmotorhome\/2011\/08\/26\/hot-springs-and-a-haircut\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot springs and a haircut"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 26, 2011\u00a0 Being in Canada is nice in that the people are friendly and the scenery is fantastic \u2013 communicating is a pain in the butt though.\u00a0 The cell phone roaming charges are $0.79 per minute and the internet is more than $2 per megabyte which is very expensive considering how much we use it.<\/p>\n

Our first trip in the morning every morning so far \u2013 has been to pick up voice mails and make any phone calls that need to be made.\u00a0 We are using a pay phone and a prepaid calling card that I have had since our European trip two years ago.\u00a0 That probably makes me a cheapskate but I hate having to pay so much extra just because we crossed some imaginary line especially when we pay for more than 800 minutes per month.<\/p>\n

After picking up voice mails and making some reservations for Chilliwack and Vancouver we headed out for some sightseeing and a little walk.\u00a0 Chilliwack is a town on the way from Vernon, BC to Vancouver, BC and one of Carol\u2019s Mom\u2019s neighbors lives there.\u00a0 We know him and he is a very nice guy \u2013 former RCMP officer \u2013 so we are going to visit him for an evening.\u00a0 Vernon is where our former neighbors, Neil and Brenda, spend their summers and the site of our next visit.<\/p>\n

Our walk was just around the Cascade Pond just outside of town.\u00a0 After that we decided to head back up Sulphur Mountain \u2013 the site of our gondola ride \u2013 for a visit to the Banff Upper Hot Springs on the same mountain.\u00a0 On the road up the mountain we noticed an “Administration Building” surrounded by “Cascade Gardens”.\u00a0 I couldn’t help myself taking photos of some of the unusual flowers – about 50,000 plants that reach their peak right about now. After the gardens we spent about an hour soaking our tired, old(?), bones in the hot water \u2013 life is good.<\/p>\n

Another visit to town for some WiFi and a haircut for Carol \u2013 as usual, she hates it \u2013 and then back \u2018home\u2019 for an early evening.\u00a0 We have been sleeping long and well with the cool night air and the late sunrises due to high mountains all around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t