On family vacation in Western Canada

In the picture you can see a rain-forest within the Pacific Rim natural reserve in the western part of the Vancouver Island. This area is less known then other natural reserves in the Canadian Rockies, but IMHO it is the most beautiful one, and we spent several days there at the end of our trip. We started our trip in Lake Louise, in the Canadian rockies Banff reserve, and caught by sleet storm in the middle of walking uphill (we climbed down in heavy slit that turned into rain), but besides the first trip, the weather was relatively cooperative. We continued north to Jasper, where we also had one of the nicest tracks, the Malinge canyon. There is a parking lot up the canyon, and another parking lot down, so one would expect that there will be a shuttle between the two parking lots, as climbing back is not really fun, it seems that the Canadians don't think this way - luckily I found somebody leaving the lower parking lot who agreed to drive me to the upper parking lot, so I could bring the car and take the rest of the family, in turn I also took another person who waited there for the same purpose -- and idea for a start-up!

We spent one day in the Yoho park in the way to Banff, and then continued to the second part of the trip -- flying to Vancouver, going in the ferry to Victoria and driving to Pacific rim (300 KM from Victoria), and then back to Vancouver through the northern ferry. Most of the trip consists on walks in the nature - glaciers, lakes, mountains, and in the west rain-forests. We also sailed in the Pacific rim to an island with natural hot springs, and then in the way back sailed through the ocean to see whales (we saw some). Good trip, I've returned charged with energy (and intimidately got flu, so last couple of days have not been so nice - and I am still behind on Email answering, but am recovering now).

Next trip: Hong-Kong and Singapore (for VLDB) in September.