Ahhh...Just What I Needed

I LOVE SUNSHINE!!!

Finally, I get to see the sun that had eluded me for a week. I got my first glimpse on Monday while I was still in Vancouver. Sunday, I did absolutely nothing. It was movie night at the hostel, so I just hung out and watched a couple movies with some of the other travellers. We watched The Good German and Ghost Rider. The Good German is pretty slow, can't recommend that one, but Ghost Rider was surprisingly pretty good. I woke up on Monday with the intent of seeing Vancouver whether it was raining or not. It was quite overcast, but I set out anyway. I walked all over that day. I even made it down to East Hastings, that's the area with all the homeless and addicted. I just had to check it out, it's pretty famous. I've never seen an area quite like that before. I then made my way to Stanly Park. It was beautiful, the sun finally started to peak out that evening. The architecture around Vancouver is much different than any other city I've been to, you can see in the pictures.

Tuesday, I left Vancouver and headed to Kelowna, BC. I didn't really know much about it, just knew the weather looked perfect and everyone said it was nice. I wasn't disappointed when I got here. The drive was nice too, back into the mountains. Kelowna is a town in the Okanagan valley, right on Lake Okanagan. The town reminds me of Lake of the Ozarks. It's a vacation town filled with tourists. The hostel is only a 5 minute walk to the beach where I've been the past couple days. It's very relaxing here. I've met lots of Eastern Canadians, Irish, English and Aussies. It seems many are here for a long time. I think they just hop from resort town to resort town working and playing. There's supposedly amazing ski resorts here in the winter and hot summers spent on the water. I could really get used to this place.

I leave tomorrow and I'm going to camp somewhere in Banff National Park for a few days. I've seen pictures from some of the other travellers and it looks amazing. After that, I'm going to drop back down to the States. I've talked to many people and they say Calgary is not worth a stop and Winnipeg is definitely not worth a trip. I think I'll check out the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore before making it back home. I'll be glad to get back to the States where stuff is cheaper. The prices here in Canada make me cringe every time I have to buy something. I'm finding the end of this trip to be very bittersweet. I'm going to hate not travelling, but I also can't wait to get back and see everyone.

See you all soon!

Dough