Romeo And Juliet

By our tradition, it is de rigueur to stop by the Greenleaf Restaurant in Ashland, Oregon for marionberry pancakes. (Heavens, they’re tasty!)

We also like to check out the summer offerings from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. This year’s program features Romeo And Juliet. I’ve heard that this play is about love. I know that there are different kinds of love. There’s family love, which I have in spades. There is love of this world and the precious planet we live on. (We need to see more of that.) There’s also romantic love, which I don’t know very much about but it seems like it can make people both happy and sad. One thing for sure- I would not want to have anything to do with a love where you have to kill yourself at the end of the play.

The Eye Of My Apple

Washington’s Yakima Valley is “home” to my favorite fruit snack- the apple. What I mean is that it’s a major apple growing region, so passing through here felt like a pilgrimage.

I used to believe that the Apple Goddess (health conscious cousin of the Ice Cream Goddess) dwelt at the summit of Mt. Rainier, bestowing her blessings on those of us below. Now, I am pretty sure that her spirit lives here as well as at countless grocery stores and farmer’s markets around the world.

Northern Sky

British Columbia’s Mt. Robson (3,954 m) is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies. It’s quite a sight from the visitor center in its namesake provincial park, so we really didn’t need to hike to it. I’ve noticed that the mountains around here really stand out. There’s no question that you’re in the presence of something really big.

By the way, this spot is the farthest north I’ve been to in my life so far (almost 53 degrees north according to the map). It feels like I’m at the ends of the earth, but in fact I am much closer to Davis, California than to the North Pole.

Athabasca Falls

One of the coolest sights in Canada’s Jasper National Park is this waterfall on the Athabasca River. It’s not very tall but you can see that there’s a huge amount of water flowing through. Kind of a miniature Niagara Falls. The water is a glacier-fed turquoise color. Beautiful!

Mount Edith Cavell

We had a great hike in the shadow of Mt. Edith Cavell (3,363 m) in Jasper National Park. It’s easily the most visible peak in the park and it features the Angel Glacier, which looks to be spreading its wings from certain angles (look it up on Google and you’ll see what I mean). It’s a beautiful and dramatic area.

The peak is named for Edith Cavell (1865-1915), a British nurse who was executed by the Germans during World War I. I’ve noticed while traveling up here that Canada shows many of its British Commonwealth roots. Queen Elizabeth II is on the money and there’s even a mountain named for Winston Churchill. The United States has lots of peaks named after people, but this is the first one I’ve encountered that’s named for a woman. Very progressive.

The Iceman Cometh

O.K., I have something to proclaim. The Icefields Parkway is arguably the most extraordinarily scenic drive in North America. It goes for 233 km through Banff and Jasper National Parks in the Canadian Rockies. Huge glaciers are fed by the magnificent Columbia Icefield (which is behind me in the photo). Some of the rivers fed by all that frozen water flow all the way to the Arctic Ocean.

I urge you to try this drive at least once in your life.

Alberta

Today we entered Canada. It’s the third time I’ve been to this country. I think it’s a great place. We stopped by Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site (cool name) for a repeat visit. I mentioned this place in an earlier post from 2018. Taking a walk around the site, looking out at the boundless prairie was neat. What I really liked was finding wild roses on the trail. They are the symbol of Alberta.