Travelogue

We left Whistler in mid-afternoon, tired yet exhilarated from our mountain biking. We headed northeast on the winding and scenic Sea to Sky Highway (Highway 99) on our way to Banff, over 500 miles away.

Andrew flexing biceps on Sea to Sky HighwayWhen we hit the town of Kamloops, we stopped to stock up on groceries, as we must do every 4 or 5 days. One thing I've learned while traveling is how much groceries stores vary from region to region. You can really learn a lot about an area from the type of service given in the local supermarket. Where we're from, you usually have to bag and carry your own groceries and the cashiers act like they're doing you a favor by ringing up your order. Most other places in the country bag your order, carry it to the car, and even smile at you while doing it. What a great concept--customer service! Food shopping while traveling is often stressful because you don't know where anything is and you don't know the local shopping etiquette. This is what happened to me in Kamloops. I was tired and cranky and just wanted to get this over with. The first obstacle I encountered was trying to obtain a shopping cart. There were lots of them, but for some reason they were all locked up. As I was staring at them with a confused look on my face, a fellow shopper informed me that I just had to insert a quarter to get a cart out and that a quarter would be returned to me when I put it back. "Don't you lock up your buggies in the States?" she then asked pleasantly. "Buggies?" I thought to myself. I made a mental note of that so I would handle by next Canadian food shopping experience more smoothly. After trying to jam a U.S. quarter into the slot and failing, I sent the kids in to get some Canadian money. This wasn't going well. Twenty minutes had passed and I hadn't even managed to get my "buggy" into the store yet. Things moved along a bit smoother after that. Cashiers smiled, employees offered assistance, and all in all it was a good food shopping experience. We returned our "buggy" to the rack, received our Canadian quarter, and continued on our journey.

Description

This was just a stopover for us on our drive from Whistler to Banff. The campground we stayed out was right on Route 1 in the town of Kamloops.