I’m calling this “My Bucket Runneth Over Tour”.
Hold onto the bucket handle! This is an amazing adventure!

Wednesday July 8, 2026  It took awhile to get the water running and start filling the bucket,  but it was definitely a good move to start out slow.  We flew into Vancouver, via Delta Airlines a day early. We had booked an extra night at the Sandman Signature Vancouver Airport Hotel and Resort (2 nights), where Our Insight Tour was to begin on July 9.  (Great Airport Hotel Location, but nothing else nearby).

Welcome to Vancouver, British Columbia! 

.Day 1. Thursday  July 9, 2026    The bucket was just starting to fill when we met our Insight Tour Director,  Jeannine.  This is my first time booking an  Insight Tour. We had a traditional Meet and Greet Dinner at the Hotel and the bucket started filling with Friendships.  First impression, this group was going to be fun.  Every single one of the Twenty-six passengers, the Coach Driver, Mary  and the Tour Director, Jeannine were amazing.  No drips in this bucket!

Note:  This was a 14 day trip (15 for us) and there are only four two night hotel stays. All others are one night.  We saw Moose, Grizzly and Black Bear, Elk, Deer, Mountain goats, Big Horn Sheep, Whales, Sea lions, Seals, Porpoises, Marmuts and American Red Squirrels  …. 

Day 2.  Friday July 10   Early morning start and we’re off on a Coach Tour of Vancouver.

Note:  This is the most comfortable Coach, I’ve ever been on. The seats are comfortable and the leg room would even put a smile on Donovan Clingan’s face.  Considering we would be traveling on it more than 40 hours and almost 2,000 miles in the next 11 days it put a smile on my face for sure.

 First stop the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park  … FUN! Fun! fun!   I haven’t laughed so hard in a very long time.  We wibbled, wobbled, swished and swayed but didn’t fall down! Crossing was a blast!

Across the bridge is the Tree Tops Adventure! More wibbling, wobbling, swishing and swaying suspension bridges strung from tree top to tree top!  

Wibbled and wobbled our way back over the “big bridge” to the Cliff Walk.   Not wibbley, wobbley  or swishy or swaying just magnificent views from a Birds Eye perspective. 

Next Stop Stanley Park for a little stroll along the Seawall and to check out the Totem Poles. 

We boarded at the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal and crossed the Straight of Georgia to Beautiful Victoria, British Columbia.  My photos are a little hazy. There was smoke making its way from Washington State wild fires.

Welcome to Victoria, British Columbia and the Hotel Grand Pacific!  The photo below is the Welcome sign made of begonias, the building is the Parliament Building the Hotel Grand Pacific is just to the right of it. (Great Location).

Day 3. Saturday July 11   Our morning was spent visiting the Beautiful Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay Victoria British Columbia. 

Afternoon (Optional $183 CAD) Eagle Wing Whale Watch.  Did we see Whales???  We saw Sea Lions! We saw porpoises!  We saw 2 families of Orca Whales and a Mom Humpback Whale and her calf!   My bucket was filled from the sea!  Five stars for the Eagle Wing Staff.  The below photos were taken on board by the Staff and emailed to all on board, for free!!! 

Day 4.  Sunday July 12  We Ferry back across the Straight of Georgia. We travel the, can be hair raising but wasn’t today, Coquihalla Pass.  We stop in Hope, British Columbia for lunch.  The town is famous for its Chain Saw wood carving competitions and parts of the movie Rambo was filmed there.

We head on to Sun Peaks, British Columbia, Canadas second largest Ski Resort, for a quick overnight stay at the Sun Peaks Grand Hotel.

Day 5.  Monday July 13  We travel through Wells Grey Provincial Park: Mountain Robson. Nickname: Cloud Cap.  Mount Robson is the highest peak (a-boo today) in the Canadian Rockies.

Note: The Canadian Rockies mountain range spans the Provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. Roughly 1,000 miles of the most magnificent,  mountain ranges.  My photos do no justice to their magnificence, uniqueness or breathtaking beauty.   I no longer have any desire to visit Switzerland.  The Canadian Rockies far exceed in numbers of mountain peaks and glaciers. 

We arrive in the Alpine Wonderland of Jasper, Alberta National Park (lose an hour time change).  We check in at The Crimson Jasper Hotel and head right back out for our “Float Trip”  on the Athabasca River.  It was a “float” trip with category 2  rapids.  Not as relaxing as expected, but much more fun and exciting. 
Note:  Photos still have a slight haze from the smoke from wild fires in Washington State.

Day 6.  Tuesday July 14.  Lakes, Falls and Glaciers     After lunch,  a beautiful boat ride on Lake Maligne, with a stop at Spirit Island.  Next stop Athabasca Falls and our first wildlife viewing!

Moose on the Loose!  First wildlife sighting!

 

Our Awesome Coach Driver, Mary, spotted our first bear!

Our stop for the night is the Glacier View Lodge, Columbia Icefield, Alberta.  Our nights entertainment was an after hours visit to the Glacier glass bottom Sky Walk. 

Day 7.  Wednesday July 15.  Before hours tour of the Athabasca Glacier in an Ice Explorer, Icefield Parkway.  Everything about this excursion was awesome.  Our Tour Guide, Malakai and Ice Explorer Driver, Chris (There are more Astronauts in the world than Ice Explorer drivers.) the ride up and down the Glacier, the walk on the glaciers and the 360 views were a bit chilling, even more thrilling!  What bucket isn’t complete without ice cubes! 

Note: From our hotel  we could see five glaciers, North Face, Double AA, Andromeda, Athabasca and Snow Dome! 

On our  travels along the Icefield Parkway we make two unscheduled stops. Peyto Lake ….WOW! WOW! WOW!  And Crow Foot Glacier and Bow Lake!  

We are having a great time! Myself and many of my travel mates didn’t quite follow directions and chose the wrong path down to the Lake.  We ended up “bushwhacking” our way down instead of taking the well marked trail.  It was quite an adventure and everyone had a good laugh.

Our last stop of the day is Lake Louise and Victoria Glacier.  I added two wildlife sightings a Magpie (bird) and a Marmut (large ground squirrel) 

 

Our hotel for the next two nights is the “Castle in the Rockies”  Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Banff National Park. 

Day 8. Thursday July 16. Optional Banff Gondola ride ($85 CAD) on Sulphur  Mountain.  A beautiful day for a hike, From the gondola lift lower terminal (5194 ft ) to the lookout (7,486) to the Summitt (8,041 ft). Absolutely magnificent views! I was totally in awe! 

When I returned from the hike to the Summit, I had a welcome committee waiting!  A family of Big Horn Sheep!  I can’t express enough how much I’m loving this adventure.

Afternoon on our own , walking around downtown Banff and a trip to Cave and Basin a National Historic Site, a very special place for indigenous people for over ten thousand years. It is also home to the endangered Banff  Snail, only a bucket full left in the world. 

Indigenous People Art Work.

The Banff Snail is in the water, it looks a little like a mini squid.

Day 9. Friday July 17. We say goodbye to the Canadian Rockies and Hello to the United States at Watertown (Canadian)  – Glacier (U.S.) National Park the only International Peace Park in the world.  

We arrive at Many Glacier Hotel, Browning Montana in time to take a very cool 2 mile lake side hike.  During the day hikers had reported more than 10 Grizzly Bear sightings in the area.  We didn’t see any bears, but a very cute Squirrel saw us.

Day 10 Saturday Friday July 18.  Mariah Gladstone a Native American educator “Hops On” and shares some wonderful stories of her tribe,  Black Feet, Cherokee, at the Blackfeet Indian Memorial.

We have lunch at the St. Mary Lodge  and are met there by the Red Jammers (3) where our Tour of the Going to the Sun road starts …. Start to finish 50 miles!  The bucket is overflowing!  

Arrive Lake McDonald Lodge, West Glacier, Montana.  Lots of our very entertaining furry friends popping up and down and in and out of ground holes everywhere! We take the Glacier Park Boat Company evening tour of the lake.

Day 11 Sunday July 19.  Enroute to our next stop Spokane, Washington we make fun stops along the way.  In St Regis, Washington  we stop at an “Only in Montana” gift shop. 

 In Lake Coeur D’Alene we stoped at McEuen Park.

Next hotel is  The Historic Davenport Hotel, Spokane, Washington it’s a short walk to the Riverfront Park and the Spokane Falls. 

Day 12  Monday July 20.  Lunch at Errant Cellars Winery  for a yummy wine and food pairing.

Our next stop encounter to Seattle is Snoqualmie Falls is a place of spiritual importance to the Snoqualmie People.  It is also featured in the opening credits of the TV show Twin Peaks.

Our last two nights are at the Even Hotel Seattle Downtown Lake Union and IHG Hotel (2 nights)

Day 13. July 21  The Soaring Sights of Seattle … Seattle Space Needle

This is my fourth visit to Seattle and my first to the Chihuly Glass Museum … hard to tell what is glass and what is real … sometimes!
Can’t go to Seattle and not go to Pike Place Market and watch the fish fly!

Last stop on the tour Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and Carl S. English Jr. Gardens

 Good by Dinner Ivar’s Salmon House

Day 14.  July 22.  Another full day of travel, but not on the Coach, an airplane.  I can’t take a bucket on the plane, but I am bringing home a fuller than full Bucket running over of wonderful memories.