BOSTON, BANFF & JASPER – TO THE ROCKIES

New York to Canada – Thursday 31 Aug
Penn Station was airy and efficient, the Amtrak train sweeping us away from the Big Apple, for 4 ½ hours to Boston. A full days sightseeing took us past Boston Commons, America’s oldest public park founded in in 1634 where there were painted cows and a public purple flowers memorial to drug overdoses. Fanueil Hall from 1794 a place for communal meetings and fomenting revolution; ..
Today was College moving in day so hundreds of moving vans in the streets, students with mom and dad standing on brownstone steps or in excited groups on orientation. There are 270,000 students of Harvard, Boston, MIT and other colleges in the region. Lovely brownstones on Beacon Hill and Back Bay area. We drove by Fenwick Park, home of the Red Sox, and James Brown is playing there tonight. Boston appears to have kept the original facades of brownstone, sandstone and balustrades so it looks gracious as well as modern.
Fri 1st September
Labor Day long weekend – expecting chaos at the airport but its fine. Long day Boston to Toronto transit to Calgary. US Border Force take photos of us. Tired arrival at 11pm

BANFF
How many Aussie workers does it take to run Banff? They are everywhere. Banff is a very touristy town, with beautiful mountains surrounding the town, blue and grey receding into the distance. Gondola up Sulphur Mountain gave us a view of pine clad ranges on one side, serrated bare cliffs on the other.
Lakes and mountains tour took us to Lake Louise, the blue- waters “deep, cold and beautiful – profonde, froid and magnifique “ in French! Emerald Lake, waterfalls – lovely beauty of nature, I’m satiated. Takkataw waterfall – also “magnificent” in Cree language.

TO JASPER
First change of weather today – clouds, rain, fog and in the afternoon, smoke from the forest fires. On our first flight to Vancouver, the pilot called us to applaud four Aussie firefighters who were on board to help fight the fires.
Today we saw incredible glaciers including walking on Athabasca Glacier and driving on the Icefield Parkway, which was originally built in 1930s for Depression employment. We didn’t get the best view of this spectacular drive but it is an accumulation of stunning views, mountains, 5 glaciers, pine, fir and aspen forest.