Travel

The Devil Loves Prada 2

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Since we don’t live close to our grown children and their families and weren’t going to be seeing any of them yesterday, hubby suggested earlier in the week that we should go out for dinner and a movie on Mother’s Day. I chose The Devil Wears Prada 2. Considering the fact that it’s been 20 years since the original movie was released and close to that long since we had seen it, we decided to watch it on Disney+ on Friday evening to refresh our memories. I’m glad we did. While the sequel, with its return of the original cast, could be enjoyed as a stand alone, it definitely features character callbacks and references to the original.

I wasn’t sure what to expect as sequels are often disappointing, but in this case, I was pleasantly surprised. We both thoroughly enjoyed the movie. The script writers did an admirable job of handling the 20-year time span and I loved seeing 76-year-old Meryl Streep still rocking the big screen. The movie also showed very clearly the major changes that have taken place in the world of journalism and the magazine industry over the past two decades.

Of course, how could I not enjoy a movie about fashion and writing? The often flamboyant outfits were a sight to behold, but one piece especially captured my attention. I absolutely loved Miranda Priestly’s (Meryl Streep) cropped and tasseled Dries Van Noten jacket!

It’s interesting to note that the jacket almost didn’t make it into the movie. Apparently, it sparked quite a controversy with some in the studio wanting to axe it, but Meryl Streep herself convinced them that it was an important addition that fit the scene very well. It has rightfully become a fan favourite and I foresee similarly embellished jackets becoming a trend!

I also enjoyed the portions of the movie that were filmed on location in Milan, Italy as they brought back wonderful memories of our very brief time there in 2019. Glimpses of the magnificent Duomo reminded me of our astounding time on its very ornate rooftop and watching Meryl Streep walk the length of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a very high end shopping mall that we also walked, was definitely a fun moment. You can read about our afternoon in Milan and see more photos here.

At one point in the movie, Stanley Tucci’s character, Nigel makes the rather disparaging comment, “Look what TJ Maxx dragged in.” For those of you, especially amongst my Canadian readers, who aren’t familiar with TJ Maxx, it is similar to our Winners and is, in fact, owned by the same parent company. Obviously, the off-price retailer wasn’t impressed with the snarky line in the movie, but rather than respond in a negative way, they saw it as a “can’t miss” opportunity. Flipping the script, they hired Tucci and came out with this absolutely brilliant ad.

So, if you’re wondering if The Devil Wears Prada 2 is worth seeing, I say yes!

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

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Hubby and I reached a new milestone on Friday. For the first time ever, we became the grandparents of an adult when our grandson, Drew, celebrated his 18th birthday! I have no idea how the time went so fast, but this sweet babe is now a fine young man!

Drew and his siblings are Métis. He, in particular, has taken a keen interest in their Indigenous heritage, so yesterday we took them to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a remarkable site that teaches about the Plains native culture.

Located about two hours south of Calgary, Alberta, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is the most outstanding and best preserved example of a unique communal hunting technique employed by the Plains people for thousands of years. At sites like this one across the North American Plains, Indigenous tribes used natural barriers such as coulees, depressions and hills to funnel bison herds into prepared drive lanes ending at a precipice over which the bison were stampeded to their deaths. The carcasses were then butchered in camps set up below the cliffs to provide food and materials for clothing, tools and dwellings.

The seven-levelled Interpretive Centre at Head-Smashed-In was built into the hillside just south of the jump site in such a way that the fragile archaeological deposits were left undisturbed. As recommended, we started our tour at the top where we walked the 200 metre upper trail to the viewpoint overlooking the precipice.

Working our way down through the seven levels of exhibits, we stopped at the theatre on the third level to view an excellent 15 minute film re-enactment of a buffalo jump.

We had planned on walking the 1.2 km interpretive trail below the cliff after finishing inside, but a storm had blown in and it was raining, so we missed that part of the experience. It was still an excellent day and well worth the trip.

Book of the month – April 2026

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Moon Road

Sarah Leipciger

Divorced for more than two decades, Yannick and Kathleen have not seen or spoken to one another for nineteen years when they receive the news that human remains have been unearthed on Vancouver Island. Could this be their daughter, Una, who disappeared without a trace over twenty years earlier? This unimaginable shared loss brings them together for a cross-Canada trip from Ontario all the way to the Pacific Coast.

As they bicker their way across more than two thousand miles of Canadian Shield, prairie, mountain, and forest in Yannick’s old pick-up truck, a history of love, loss, headstrong children, and hopeless searching reveals itself.

It was the cross-Canada trek, a route that I have traveled several times myself, that first drew me to this book, but it was superb character development  that kept me turning the pages. Kathleen is strong, single-minded, and independent. After all the years that have passed, she still keeps a running count of the number of days that Una has been missing, maintains a Find Una Facebook page, and hosts an annual party to keep the memory of her disappearance alive. Yannick, divorced several times, is a bit of a lost soul, restless, unsettled, and feeling his age in creaky bones and aching joints.

I’ve seen valid comparisons made between Moon Road and Elizabeth Strout’s novels, but truth be told, I enjoyed this one more. It’s a thoughtful and moving story that I found difficult to put down.

Moon Road was the first of Sarah Leipciger’s novels that I’ve read, but I’ll definitely be looking for her two earlier ones, The Mountain Can Wait and Coming Up for Air.

Saipan: from tranquility to typhoon devastation

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This is the message that I’ve been receiving from WordPress for the past few days.

By far the most popular post, the one that has been drawing lots of readers to my blog, is this one that was published more 15 years ago. Entitled Where in the World is Saipan, it was written when hubby and I learned that we would be spending the summer of 2011 serving as short term missionaries on the tiny Pacific island of Saipan.

Saipan is the largest and the most densely populated of the 14 tiny islands that make up the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands which stretches 400 miles along the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean. Just 15 degrees north of the equator, the island is only 12.5 miles (20 km) long & 5.5 miles (8 km) wide, but it has a population of almost 47 000 people.

A tropical island with a warm humid climate, Saipan holds the Guinness World Record for having the most consistent temperature in the world. The average temperature year-round is 27C (81 F) with very little fluctuation between day and night. It is, however, in a very high-risk area for tropical storms or typhoon with several passing near or directly over the island annually and I’m sure that this is what has drawn so many people to my blog post this week.

On Tuesday night and throughout the day on Wednesday, Super Typhoon Sinlaku hammered the island with sustained winds of up to 150 mph (240 km/h) flipping cars, uprooting trees, toppling utility poles, and ripping off tin roofs. The only hospital on the island sustained severe flooding as did many homes and other buildings. Power and water were out and many of the roads were left impassable. The images and videos that have been filling my Facebook feed are heartbreaking. Here are a several from the Marianas Press.

What a sharp and horrifying contrast from the tranquil beauty that I remember.

As gorgeous as Saipan was, however, and in spite of the fact that there were beautiful beach resorts along the west side of the island, we also knew that many of the people that we were ministering to lived in houses like these ones. I can only imagine what’s left of them after Sinlaku ravaged the island this week.

I’m not happy about the fact that there’s still snow in our forecast for the coming week, a time of year when we’re often on the golf course, but seeing what the people of Saipan have been dealing with certainly puts things into perspective in a hurry!

How far would you go for a party?

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This weekend I did something I never imagined that I would do. I flew all the way to Vancouver for a party! I left Friday morning and was back home again by supper time on Sunday! It was a whirlwind trip, but I’m so glad I went.

It was over ten years ago that I wrote this post about my older brother. More than a decade before the measles vaccine became available, Donald, an infant at the time, suffered irreversible brain damage due to encephalitis, a severe, often fatal, complication of measles. Although my parents were told that they should put him in an institution, they refused and we grew up together. He has, however, been in care all of his adult life. Since 1981, before the Community Living Society that now provides residential and personalized community-based support to individuals throughout Vancouver and the Lower Mainland of BC, came into existence, Trudy M has been one of Donald’s primary caregivers. After 43 years with CLS and even longer with Donald, Saturday’s party was a well-earned celebration of Trudy’s retirement. How could I not be there?

Over the years, Trudy has become family. Mom and Dad adored her and as I said when asked to say a few words on behalf of our family at the party, four of us became siblings by birth, she became our sibling through hard work and dedication.

The only reason that I had considered not going to the party and the reason that my stay in Vancouver was so short was the fact that this is the beginning of what we in my community theatre group call “hell week”. This Friday is opening night of our latest play and it’s all hands on deck to ensure that we’re ready to entertain our audiences. Thankfully, our director is also a close personal friend who knew how important it was to me to be able to slip away for Trudy’s party.

Although I was in Vancouver for less than 48 hours and in spite of the fact that it was a damp, drizzly weekend, I arrived in the city on Friday in time to watch one of my grandsons play a game of rugby. That was particularly meaningful to me because he attends and was playing for the same high school that I attended 60 years ago!

My sister and I also fit in a long walk on Saturday morning. Coming from Alberta where we still have sub zero temperatures and lots of snow, we enjoyed the humidity and the signs of spring that we won’t see here for awhile yet.

Saying yes to the unexpected

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From time to time over the years, I have experienced the joy that comes from saying yes to the unexpected. While it’s easy to stay within what’s predictable and familiar, saying yes often requires us to step out of our comfort zone and stretches us as a person.

In mid December, I received an email from the president of CNETS (the Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society) asking me if I would be interested in sharing my patient story at a pharmaceutical company gathering in Kananaskis on January 20th. While I seldom give an immediate response to an unexpected request, preferring to give myself time to think about it first, I knew right away that this was something I wanted to do. Since there was nothing on our calendar to prevent me from saying yes and since we could also combine it with a weekend visit with our daughter’s family on the way, I sent off a quick reply saying yes to this unexpected opportunity. I will admit that the location in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of southwest Alberta was an added incentive!

The event was held in the Black Diamond Club, an exclusive “hotel within a hotel” at the Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge, and we were provided with one night’s luxury accommodation there. Here’s the beautiful view from the window of our room early Tuesday morning.

The group that I would be speaking to on Tuesday was made up of approximately 20 individuals from across the country plus a member of the company’s legal counsel from the US. We were invited to have dinner with them on Monday evening and by the time we’d spent a couple of very relaxing hours over a delicious meal together, I felt so comfortable with them that any nervousness I might have felt about sharing my story had completely evaporated. They have an unwritten rule that when they assemble in person they don’t discuss politics or religion, probably very wise considering the state of the world that we live in today. Instead, conversation around the table ranged from families to food to travel and a variety of other topics. After dinner, hubby and I relaxed in the outdoor hot tub before retiring for the night.

The following morning my story was very well received. As the producers of a generic version of a medication that is commonly used by neuroendocrine patients, they wanted to hear about my journey to diagnosis, my treatments, and what it has been like living with NETS (neuroendocrine cancer), as well as what tools or support services might be helpful to the NETS community. I was impressed by the fact that  they were very interested in learning about the disease from the patient’s perspective. There were audible gasps and even a few tears, but also moments of laughter as they hung on every word. My half hour talk was followed by a question and answer period during which they asked some very insightful questions and expressed their appreciation for all that I shared.

Once again, saying yes to the unexpected was a very rewarding experience and one that I’d be happy to repeat. When we take a chance and step into the unknown, we have the opportunity to make new connections, discover new strengths, and open ourselves up to unexpected rewards. I believe in embracing life and living it to the fullest, so I hope to have more opportunities to say yes to the unexpected!

Book of the month – December 2025

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Early in December, I was looking for something light and entertaining to read when I came across two books that fit the bill. The fact that both are set in locations that I’ve had the privilege of visiting added to the fun. Since I couldn’t decide which one to review this month, I decided to share them both.

Buying a Piece of Paris: The Home of My Dreams in the City of Lights

Ellie Nielsen

Buying a Piece of Paris is a charming memoir about the Australian author’s humorous and challenging quest to find and purchase an apartment in Paris. With only two weeks to locate and secure the apartment of her dreams, something exuding character and Parisian chic, Ellie embarks on what seems an almost impossible pursuit. Armed with only a cursory grasp of the language, she finds herself trying to navigate the bewildering French real estate market with its unique customs, quirky agents, and unexpected cultural hurdles. All in all, a very entertaining read and especially so since, although I’ve only spent five days in Paris, I could visualize many of the places that she mentioned and the kind of buildings she visited in her frantic and sometimes hilarious search for the perfect place to call home.

A couple of Paris street scenes from our visit in 2019…

The Colour of Tea

Hannah Tunnicliffe

After moving with her husband to the tiny, bustling city of Macau, across the Pearl River delta from Hong Kong, Grace Miller finds herself a stranger in a very foreign land. Facing the devastating news of her infertility and a marriage in crisis, Grace resolves to do something bold, something that her impetuous mother might have done. Turning to her love of baking, she opens Lillian’s, a café specializing in coffee, tea, and delicate French macarons. In this story of love, friendship, and renewal, Lillian’s quickly becomes a sanctuary where women from different cultural backgrounds come together to support one another.

I could easily visualize Grace’s café on a street like this, one of the many that we walked down during our one day visit to Macau in 2009.

Book of the month – September 2025

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During our teaching careers, hubby and I had to learn numerous acronyms describing ND (neurodivergent) children: ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) and so on, but the book that I’m reviewing this month is an extreme example of what hubby calls PPS (Poor Parenting Syndrome)!

Wavewalker: A Memoir of Breaking Free

Suzanne Heywood

At seven years old, Suzanne Heywood set sail from England with her parents and younger brother on what was supposed to be a three-year trip around the world retracing one of Captain Cook’s voyages. What followed was a decade of isolation on a 70-foot sailboat crossing some of the world’s most dangerous oceans and surviving horrendous storms, shipwrecks, and reefs. What sounded like the romantic adventure of a lifetime became a child’s worst nightmare “trapped inside someone else’s dream”.

Deprived of safety, friendship, and education, Suzanne longed to return to the stability of England and the opportunity to attend school, but her parents saw this only as selfishness on her part and refused to entertain the idea. Determined to educate herself, she worked diligently on correspondence courses dropping lessons into the mail whenever and wherever the family went ashore. Ultimately her desire for independence and self-determination became so intolerable to her parents, particularly her mother, that at age 16, they dropped her off at an isolated cabin on the north island of New Zealand, leaving her responsible for her younger brother while they continued their travels around the South Pacific!   

It would be hard to read this book without becoming increasingly angry at the parents who, according to the epilogue, told their daughter later that she had a “privileged” upbringing! It is, however, a story of resilience and determination. At 17, finally escaping the constraints of her bizarre childhood, Suzanne was accepted into college at Oxford where she went on to earn her PhD.

While Suzanne’s childhood was one of neglect rather than physical abuse, there are strong parallels between her story and Tara Westover’s powerful memoir, Educated. 

A Scenic Journey on the White Pass & Yukon Route

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I first rode the narrow gauge White Pass & Yukon Route railway on a family holiday in the summer of 1967. I was 14 at the time. In those days, there was no road between Whitehorse in the Yukon and Skagway in southeast Alaska. We drove to Haines, Alaska, took a ferry to Skagway, and then, with our vehicle loaded on a flat car, rode the train to Whitehorse.

 

The White Pass & Yukon Route has a fascinating history. When gold was found in the Yukon in 1897, the news spread like wildfire and tens of thousands of fortune seekers steamed up the Inside Passage waterway to Skagway and Dyea to begin the treacherous overland trek to the Klondike. Each person was required to carry a ton of supplies. Some chose the shorter, but steeper Chilkoot Trail that started at Dyea while others chose the longer, less steep White Pass Trail from Skagway. Both led to the interior lake country where the stampeders could begin a 550 mile (885 km) journey through the lake systems to the Yukon River and the gold fields. 

On May 28, 1898 construction began on a railway over the coastal mountains from Skagway to Whitehorse. Thirty-five thousand men worked on the $10 million dollar project.  In just 20 miles, the track climbs from sea level at Skagway to almost 3000 feet (914 metres) at the summit! It features steep grades of almost 3.9%. Tight cliff-hanging curves required a narrow gauge railroad with tracks just 3 feet apart as well as the construction of two tunnels and numerous bridges and trestles. Against all odds, working through the dead of a northern winter, the 110 mile (177 km) project was completed in just 14 months. 

For decades following the gold rush, the White Pass & Yukon Route carried significant amounts of ore and concentrates to tidewater to be loaded onto ships, but with the opening of the Klondike Highway from Whitehorse to Skagway in 1978 followed by plummeting world metal prices, the railroad suspended operations in 1982. Six years later, it reinvented itself as a tourist attraction. 

When we looked at possible shore excursions to add to our recent Alaska cruise, the scenic railway was the one that caught our attention and I looked forward to riding the train again! For the most part, the photos will speak for themselves, but I’ll add a few details as you ride along with us. 

In the next photo, the line across the hillside on the far side of the gully is the Klondike Highway. 

In the early days and when I rode the train in 1967, it was pulled by a steam locomotive. While the railroad still has two of those vintage engines in their fleet, most of the excursions now use diesel engines like this one that passed us going down as we were still climbing. 

That’s the shadow of our train crossing a bridge at the bottom of the next picture. 

If you look very closely at the next photo, you’ll see a tiny slice of blue in front of the distant mountains and in the V between the hillsides. That’s the Skagway harbour far below. 

As the train approaches this broken trestle, it looks like it’s going to cross it, but it hasn’t actually been in use since 1969 and began to fall apart many years after that. It was a bit strange to look across at it and realize that I crossed it back in 1967. 

If you look very closely at this final photo taken near the summit, you can see one of the few remaining bits of the White Pass Trail that was traversed by thousands of gold seekers before the construction of the railway. 

If an Alaska cruise is in your future, I highly recommend the White Pass & Yukon Route shore excursion. You won’t be disappointed! 

 

Alaska cruise: Exploring Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan

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As I mentioned in my last post, our 7-Day round trip Alaska cruise from Vancouver stopped at Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan and also included a side trip up Endicott Arm to see Dawe’s Glacier.

There were a vast number of possible shore excursions to choose from at each location, but we chose only one, the White Pass Scenic Railway at Skagway. Rather than purchasing other shore excursions, I did what I usually do when we travel. I researched each location and planned our own self-guided tour.

Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan all depend heavily on tourism in the summer and each has what my sister-in-law refers to as “trinket alley”, a street close to the cruise ship wharf that’s lined with shops selling souvenirs. We wanted to go beyond those areas to see more of each community.

Juneau  

After 48 hours at sea, we docked at Juneau, the capital city of Alaska. As soon as we disembarked, we headed for the Goldbelt Tram, just steps from the cruise ship dock and took a six minute ride up Mount Roberts to a height of about 550 metres (1800 feet).

There we did a short hike and enjoyed the spectacular views. That’s our cruise ship, the Grand Princess, in the bottom left corner of the first photo. She didn’t look as big from up there!

Before descending and beginning to explore the town, we watched Seeing Daylight, an 18-minute award-winning film on Tlingit history and culture, in the Chilkat theatre. The Tlingit are one of three Indigenous people groups living in Southeast Alaska. The other two are the Tsimshian and the Haida. I was particularly interested in the fact that these groups are matrilineal societies. 

In the heart of downtown Juneau, we visited the Sealaska Heritage Institute. Dedicated to perpetuating and showcasing the Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida cultures, it houses a cedar clan house and an exhibit gallery. I love Northwest Coast Indigenous art and was amazed by the stunning glass screen at the front of the clan house. Made by Tlingit glass artist Preston Singletary, it is apparently the largest glass screen in the world. 

Like most coastal towns, Juneau is built on a hillside. We walked up a few steep blocks to see the Alaska State Capital building and the nearby statue of U.S. Secretary of State William Henry Seward who orchestrated the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.

Close by was another bronze statue called Windfall Fisherman, a life-sized and very realistic brown bear by artist R.T. Wallen. 

Hubby’s feet were getting sore by this point, so we headed back downhill toward the waterfront and the seawalk where many of the city’s totem poles are found. Here’s just one example, the Ishkahittaan pole by Tlingit carver, Jon Rowan. At the top is Raven with the Box of Daylight. According to oral tradition, Raven opened the box and released the sun, bringing daylight to the world. Below Raven, you can see Frog and Sea Lion. 

I loved the aluminum sculpture of a 20-foot 9-inch canoe, Yaadachoon, by native artist Robert Mills. The name means “straight ahead” in the language of the Tlingit. 

Although we didn’t see any whales close up while on our cruise, we did see Tahku, the life-sized bronze sculpture depicting a breaching humpback whale, also by artist R.T. Wallen, at the end of the seawalk. 

Skagway

I awoke very early the next morning to the haunting sound of the ship’s horn warning others of our presence. Standing on our stateroom balcony breathing in the heavy fog that surrounded us, I was transported back to my childhood on the waterfront. Crawling back into bed I fell back to sleep to the familiar sound of the foghorn. Later, when I woke again, the sky had cleared, the sun was shining, and we were docking at Skagway. 

Skagway is rich in Klondike Gold Rush history. 1897 and early 1898 saw tens of thousands of fortune-seekers pile off steamships, eager to head overland to the Yukon gold fields via the White Pass Trail from Skagway or the Chilkoot Trail from nearby Dyea.

It was from Skagway that we took the scenic White Pass rail excursion, a 40 mile, 2 hour and 45 minute round trip to the White Pass summit. Considering how long this post is becoming and how much I still have to share, I’m going to save that for a separate post. 

When we disembarked from the train, we were met by hubby’s sister and her husband who live across the Canadian border near Whitehorse in the Yukon. They drove about two hours each way to spend the afternoon with us. They took us to their favourite fish and chips restaurant for lunch and then we just walked around town while we visited. Hubby and I had been to Skagway by road many years ago and were well versed in gold rush history from our previous visits to the Yukon, so I didn’t take very many photos. Here are just a few to show you what the town, which has a year round population of about 1200, looks like. Most of the shops that cater to tourists are closed during the winter months. 

Here’s hubby hanging out with an exhausted gold seeker and his dog. 

And perhaps you can spot him in this photo too. This is the Skagway Centennial Statue erected in 1997 in a park close to the train station.  

Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier

Next on our itinerary was a scenic cruise up Endicott Arm to view the Dawes Glacier. The further up the beautiful Arm we cruised, the more and bigger chunks of ice we began to see in the water. 

There were other glaciers like this one along the way, but they were high in the mountains and far from the shore. 

Eventually Dawes came into view. 

Because of the enormous size of our ship, we couldn’t get as close to the glacier as smaller ones could, so this was one of the times that we were very happy to have binoculars with us. The captain turned the ship in a complete slow circle so that everyone on either side could get a good view and lots of photos. 

Why is the glacier blue, you ask? The naturalist on board explained that that’s because the ice is incredibly dense, having lost almost all of its air over time due to the immense weight of snow that compacted it. This dense ice absorbs most of the long-wavelength colours of white light, such as red and green, while allowing the short-wavelength blue light to pass through or scatter, which is what we see.

Ketchikan

Ketchikan, with a permanent population of about 8000, was our last port of call. Like Juneau, it is inaccessible by road. It receives an average of approximately 150 inches of rainfall a year. Some of that fell while we were there, but we didn’t let that put a damper (pun intended) on our once in a lifetime opportunity to be there and see the sights.

We started by walking the 1.5 mile (2.4 km) Salmon Walk which is dedicated to the importance of salmon to the area and to encouraging good stewardship of the fish and their habitat. The walk upstream along Ketchikan Creek  in the direction that the salmon swim took us past a fish ladder and a hatchery, then along a forest trail before continuing back into the downtown area. 

Along the way, we stopped to watch a bald eagle eating a freshly caught salmon. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t turn around and pose for me!

Halfway through the walk, we stopped at the Totem Heritage Center which houses an invaluable collection of 19th century poles retrieved in the 1970s from some of the nearby islands. It was a good place to escape the rain for a little while! 

Our walk ended with a stroll along Creek Street, once the town’s red light district, but now a charming historic area known for it’s picturesque boardwalk built over the creek. We watched a couple of seals cavorting in the water there. 

After returning to the ship for lunch, we took a taxi to Saxman Totem Park about 2.5 miles (4 km) south of Ketchikan because we didn’t want to walk that far in the rain and the city bus only goes once an hour. Of all the things we saw and did on this this trip, Saxman was the only one that we considered to be a bit of a rip off. We were charged $8 USD apiece to walk around and look at the collection of totem poles, authentic replicas of original poles that were left in abandoned villages in the past. There was no map available to guide us and most of the descriptive signs were missing. The traditional clan house and the carving centre were closed and all that was open was the gift shop!  We did manage to tag along with a tour group that made a very quick stop there and heard the stories of a few of the poles from their guide. 

And that brings this very long post to a full STOP. If you’ve stuck with it and read this far, you are to be commended!