I'm currently sitting in a quaint library in Tofino, having really lucked out on accommodation and weather.  Following is just a range of things that have struck us as rather amusing/different.

Food
Portions
Don't believe sizes in canada.  This is a more realistic conversion table:
Small = Large
Medium = Extra Large
Large = Coronary

Also, entree doesn't mean entree - it means main.  Entrees are called appetisers.  It must really disappoint canadians when they come to visit Australia and order an entree.

And by the way, everything is just plain huge in proportion (which may explain the weight problem).  We never seem to learn but you could probably get by on an appetiser each.

Meal Types
Meals I hope never to eat again:
Cream-cheese coated mushrooms (this wasn't the description - they just lied)
Chocolate-coated jubes (they may have been the second best seller in the shop according to the lady behind the counter but they were plain nasty)
Hot chocolate (innocent enough you might think, but no way - it is laden with sugar - and I mean laden)
Poutaine (deep-fried cheese curds - actually I never tried them at all - the description was enough)

The canadain diet does have plenty of good stuff, especially seafood, but there is a trend for salty, fatty and sugary - I'm really going to have to hit the gym when I get back.

Taxes
Don't think that the price advertised is the price.  They have the GST (I think it 11% but it seems to vary and some things don't attract any but most are up around the 11% and sometimes higher) over here, BUT they add it after the purchase.  This means that a $2.50 hot chocolate (which I should never have bought - see above) actually costs $2.63.  Totally nobby and it means you never know how much change to get out and in the end you have piddling amounts of change to deal with.  In fact, the cents involved as so frustrating that mostly people don't bother too much and simply throw loose one cent pieces in a bowl at the counter and the cashiers round up and down from the bowl as they need.

And the GST gets even more confusing.  Let's see if I can make this make sense.  Alberta just has the GST.  The other provinces, excluding British Columbia and Ontaria, have a PST - Provincial Tax.  But here in BC (and Ontario) they have an HST - a Harmonised Sales Tax - this is the combination of both the GST and the PST (plus a bit more of course).  Confusing enough?  Took a while to find all this out.

So what you pay is the price + HST?  Nope - there's more.  Many people work on low/minimum wages (the minimum wage in Canada is just $8/hour!!! There's a big fight going on because somebody actually mentioned that this might be a bit low - woah - business were horrified - keep it at $8/hour or we'll vote you out).  So you're expected to tip for waiters, cleaners and a whole range of people who work in the service industry (which you kinda don't mind doing in one sense because they get such lousy pay).  How much extra - usually around 15%.

So what you pay is the price + HST + 15%?  Not always.  Some local government areas seem to apply a Municipal tax as well.  The one upside to this is that usually this isn't for a service but a room, so you don't pay the 15%.

So what you pay is the price + HST + municipal tax/15%?  Almost.  I've noticed that in a couple of high tourist areas there's also a Tourism Levy.  I'm not sure if these are the same as the Municipal Tax or not.

Driving
This one is not so much about the right-hand side of the road but more about driving habits.  First up, Canadians are really polite on the roads.  Haven't heard a horn yet and I've seen some crazy things.  They also have htese 4-way stop signs.  Whoever get's there first get's to go first - second goes second etc.  It means there's lots of polite "after you" kind of signals going on.

The other thing involves the speed limit and overtaking lines.  These appear to be optional.  If you don't do 20km over the limit you're holding people up, but don't worry too much as they overtake you across double yellow lines, no problem at all.

Gotta go now as the library is closing.

On the day we were due to leave Jasper by train (the skeena) we got an email to say that high seas had cancelled our boat out to Queen Charlotte Island.  Whilst this was a shame the upside was that if we could wrangle it we could score some extra time on Vancouver Island.  After many mad phone calls we managed to shift out booking out of Prince Rupert to Port Hardy (on Vancouver Island).

So, off we headed on the train, a hopeful that all the elements for the trip would fall in place (we had to change car bookings, grizzlie watching bookings, accommodation bookings and ferry bookings - all of which did work out in the end).

The skeena was a wonderful train trip (saw three more black bears on the train trip).  It took two days and we overnighted in Prince George - which proved to be a bit like a cross between Mount George and royalty (and based on the glorious history of european royalty not necessarily a good thing).  Prince George was wild, dark and windy when arrived - we had to drag our baggage several blocked through charming downtown PG (but we lived to tell about it).  The accommodation and the Ramada Hotel (which was labelled Rama since two of the lights were out) turned out to be actually fine and the dinner in the pub was great as was the service.

Next day we rolled across Canada to Prince Rupert (there seems a fascination with naming things after royalty) and chatted with some really pleasant people on the train.  dined that night in PR and then caught the ferry the next day down the Inside Passage (still sounds painful every time I say it).

The Inside Passage really is an amazing journey.  Stunning scenery and even saw some porpoises (not dolphins) and a Minke Whale.  Arrived at Port Hardy that night in the pouring rain (this was the weather that had cancelled our Queen Charlotte trip).  Had a really wonderful seafood dinner (you know they candy salmon?  Sounds horrific but actually isn't too bad at all).

The following day (honestly can't remember which day of the week this was - maybe Monday (over here)) we got a hire car and motored down to Campbell River, pretty much in the rain, which cleared by the afternoon.  That night we stayed in a floathouse - which is literally a floating house - it was above the office of the company that was taking us to see grizzly bears the next day.  Wild and windy night meant it really felt like we were on board again.

We got up to fine weather (which just got better as the day wore on) headed downstair and went on a boat trip to see grizzlies.  This was simply awesome.  It took a wille to boat over to the inlet and then we went in on one of the rougher roads you're likely to see.  We had two indian guides and had to sign all sorts of waivers regarding being mauled by grizzlies bears.  Slightly un-nerving.  At first we didn't have great viewing so it was decided we walk through the forest down to where to rivers met.  We all had to keep eyes open and be prepared to behave appropriately if approached by a grizzly (which turns out not to involve running away screaming - an appealing option that apparently just encourages them - nor should you consider any accidental voiding of the bowels - odours just attract them).  Mostly, just try and back away cautiously - which simply doesn't seem to cut the mustard.

Anyway, after a while of staring down a river this bear just appears out of nowhere.  It was a female and she'd been lying down behind a log.  Next thing you know a cub appears.  They wander around for a while being quite photogenic and then the mother decides to swim over to our side of the river.  Ok - remember no running or bowel movements.  We quietly climb up into a tower - the efficacy of which had been greatly diminished by the flood water that had been through.  It had been spun around so that the stairs were actually pointed towards the bear playground and it had been tilted on its side so that one end was within easy bear-reach of the ground.

Of course, nothing dramatic happened other that the bear ending up quite close by.  Then ensued a rather amusing episode with the cub.  He was not amused at all that mother had swum across this strongly flowing creek/river.  He howled and howled for about 5 minutes and then you could see him make up his mind.  He barrelled straight into the creek and there followed a rather nervous minute when we watched him almost swept downstream before he clambered ashore.  Then he literally bolted after his mother - running right past us (probably on a few feet away at most).

The whole grizzly thing was just fantastic.  After these two bears we wandered around and saw two bull grizzlies - seriously big suckers and another mother with two cubs.

We went for a drive to a nearby lake in Banff, and lo and behold we saw stacks of elk, including one impressive stag on the side of the road.  Then things got even more interesting, climatically.  It snowed, and snowed and snowed.  We had a weird-@rse dinner at a fondue restaurant, complete with bison head wall displays and then we gambolled in the snow.
 
The next morning the snow was thick on the ground and it looked like we might actually be snowed in - but, taking the bull by the horns we headed up the Icefields parkway to Jasper.
 
This is the most staggering piece of road I have ever driven.  You cannot imagine the grandeur of the mountains and the fact that it had snowed the day before gave the trees and amazing white dusting, turning mountains into giant silverbacked beasts.
 
And, to throw a bit more into the mix, we saw a mountain goat along the way.  We thought things couldn't get much better but we had no idea what the next day (yesterday) would bring.
 
So, yesterday dawned bright, sunny crisp blue-skied.  We took a tramway (which is actually a sky gondala - amusing name really - they even called the trips flights) right to the top of Whistler's Mountain.  Then wandered around in the snow as close to the heaven's as you'd want to get (quite short of breath due to the thin air).  The views were, of course, spectacular.
 
Then we headed into town and, thanks to both feeling tired and me having one of my trademark headaches we took a breather for an hour or so - and it was truly fortunate we did.  This meant when we took another drive - this time to Medicine and Maligne Lakes - it was later in the afternoon - and we were in for an amazing treat.
 
When we got to Medicine Lake (named because its actually a lake that comes and goes depending in the glacier melts - it disappears from Ocotber until around March - the natives thought it was bad luck place so the name Medicine Lakes comes from bad medicine) - lo and behold walking out in the middle of the late was a moose!  Yep - you can spend all you time looking into the trees and then Canada slaps a moose in a lake.  It's like some grand joke at tourists expenses.  Give yourself a headache peering into trees for hours and then we'll send you an aquatic moose.
 
So, first moose - woo hoo.  And then about 1 km down the road, right on the side of the road (2 metres away) there was a hoary marmot (yeah - amusing name I know) - kinda dog-sized guinea pig).
 
Two new animals up for the day and feeling happy with ourselves.  But it just got better.  10 minutes up the road a swag of cars were pulled over - we stopped as well (this seems to happen a lot up here in Jasper) and - strike me pink - it was a black bear ambling along just off the road.  More amazing shots - again - couldn't get better.
 
Wrong - once we'd got out to Maligne Lake (which was stunning, as everything seems to be up here) - we'd pottered back along the road and again swa a car pulled over.  We stopped as well and this time in the bushes there was a caribou and her calf.  What makes this doubly special is that there were only 8 caribou in the this whole area and it's rare to see them at all.
 
An amazing day - following on from two previously amazing days.  We even saw more mule deers and elk but they are so passe now.
 
Our animals now include:
 
Squirrels (by the bucketload)
Chipmunks (also in household appliance quantities)
Elk (till they are coming out of our ears)
Mule deers (like the elk)
Orcas
Seals (harbour, californian, Stella)
Humpback whales
Racoons
Mountain Goat
Bighorned sheep
Black-tailed deer
Pine Marten
Hoary Marmot
Moose
Caribou
Black Bear
 
Tomorrow we hop on the train across northern Canada to Prince Rupert.

Since my first email we've done a fair bit of interesting wanderings, mostly avoiding the wet weather.  We returned to Vancouver and this time stayed in a really cool hotel in the Westend, near Stanley Park, which is huge and abundant with squirrels and raccoons.
 
After Vancouver we drove to a strange little town of Oliver (near Osooyos).  This was one of those weird places and nights that seem to crop up on a trip.  Oliver was, essentially, pretty darn ugly, though the countryside getting there was awesome (a bit like queenstown in Tasmania).  We stayed in a strange little motel, ate largely unpleasant food and amired the bizarre decore of the place (right down to a bedspread with killer whales on it, with one of the whales having the sort of impossible fin on its back guraranteeing it was destined for a short life swimming in circles).
 
The upside of the drive was that not only was the scenery magnificent we were off the tourist travel and slap-dab in both the wine and fruit country.
 
The next day we drove to Nelson - and that really was a beautiful town.  Quirky but steeped in cool built heritage (right on a lake too).
 
Next day we drove to Revelstoke where the locals informed us of where we could see bears.  Tunred out that the locals were clearly on drugs and not a bear was to be seen (though there was an impressive bear scat (a.k.a. dump) which showed that the red berries were both a favourite of the bears and not good for their digestion).
 
Spent the night at Revelstoke and then headed up to Lake Louise for two nights.  LL was pleasant enough but we were definitely back in mainstream tourist land.  The Lake itself was beautiful though Lake Moraine, nearby, appealed more to the eyes and had less tourists.  The second day in LL was the first time we hit really inclement weather.  Amusingly, it was this day that my mania for doing too much seemed to rise to the occassion and we drove wet, mist-filled and rough roads in search of impressive animals.  Not one did we see any, except a measly chipmunk in the car park before we left - lol.

Today we got to bamff and finally saw a new critter - a pine marten.  Like a big stoat or weasel - ran across the road.  Weather is not good today but we're doing touristy shopping stuff and sending emails from public libraries/
 
Animal count:
 
Day 1 - zero
Day 2 - Canada Geese, harbour seals
Day 3 - Harbour seals, squirrel, woodpecker, black-tailed deer, killer whales (heaps of), humpback whales (rare over here), californian seal lions, Stella sea lions (huge critters).
Day 4 - Killer Whales, squirrels (two types), great blue herons, racoons
Day 5 - Chipmunks (Oliver)
Day 6 - more chipmunks, mule deer (Revelstoke).
Day 7 - bighorn sheep (LL)
Day 8 - 1 measly chipmunk
Day 9 - pine marten (so far).
 
Another amusing fact:
 
How can a nation truly want to tackle obesity (as Canadas proclaims) and run ads for children's breakfast foods that feature breakfast strudels - with extra icing!!

We landed successfully despite flying 9/11, twice, into the US.  It turns out that LA airport sucks.  If NZ is the land of the long white cloud, the US is the land of the long wait queue.  10 queues we ended up on getting through the airport out to Alaskan Airline - 2 hours of rivetting experience.
 
Got here in the end though.  The first couple of days were overcast and damp, though I think that's pretty normal for this area.  You begin to appreciate subtle variations in rainfall and it was never more than a misty sort of rain you could wander through.
 
Vancouver was a pretty town, at least downtown, but Victoria is much nicer (downtown).  We had our fun getting here though.  Canadians are obliging, just not always actually helpful.  We needed to hop the ferry to Victoria from Vancouver and a nice person at the motel directed us nortwards to a ferry stop 40 minutes out of town.  Unfortunately it was the wrong one.  Turns out Vancouver has two ferry terminals and you'd be insane to go to the one we went to (like flying from Newcastle to Sydney via Brisbane).  Anyway, we got the scenic tour, which was actually quite pretty.
 
Got to Victoria four days ago - saw seals along the way (the ferry ride is beautiful).  Spent the evening wandering around and watching local seals taking food from tourists much as gulls do over there.
 
Next day we went to the Bouchart Gardens - and they really are something.  Absolute must-see.  It was drizzling again but, surprise, surprise it started to clear.  Then we got back into town and went on a whale-watching tour.  Saw Killer Whales - awesome.
 
The following was another beautiful day and we saw Victoria in the morning in all its glory.  Then had a mad, fairly stressful rush before we got back on the bus which too us back to the ferry for another magic crossing to Vancouver.  This time sunny and this time more killer whales (woo hoo) just hangin' out.

Along the way we had a sudden realisation that despite what we thought we'd told our travel agent he hadn't book a motel room in Vancouver and we were meant to pick up the car that day instead of today (my mistake too because I hadn't read the documentation correctly).  Despite this causing further angst it actually turned out to be a really cool mistake.  We picked up our car early and booked into a different motel in Westend Vancouver and this is a seriously cool part of the city (kinda like Newtown).  We loved it here.  Close to Stanley Park which is huge and awesome and the motel is charmingly old and nearby restaurants are cheap and interesting.  On top of all of this the weather was magic and we saw bucketloads of squirrels and racoons.
 
Yesterday we hit the road - practicing some interesting driving skills.  Downtown Vancouver is ugly but then we got into some amazing countryside heading to Osooyos.  It's the fruit and wine belt of BC and we samp[led plenty of fruit and had some nice wine.  We stayed at a bizarre little place called Oliver last night.  Talk about a weird little motel we kipped in.  Decore straight out of the manual of off-kilter taste.  Uncomfortable bed, lumpy pillows - but hey - you've got to have a least one of these nights on a trip.  Oliver  itself wasn't a charming town though the countryside was fascinating.
 
This morning hit the road early (nothing to keep us at Oliver) and we meandered through to Nelson.  Really picturesque countryside - had morning tea in a charming and quirky bakery in a place called Greenwood (the bakery was the Copper Eagle).  Had a great chat with the part owner (vanessa) and left her some weird foreign money as a tip (she collects it).
 
Nelson is so cool - you'd love it her.  We've changed our plans and are aiming ti head up to Revelstoke tomorrow so we don't have a huge trip to Lake Louise.
 
Animal count:
Day 1 - zero
Day 2 - Canada Geese, harbour seals
Day 3 - Harbour seals, squirrel, woodpecker, black-tailed deer, killer whales (heaps of), humpback whales (rare over here), californian seal lions, Stella sea lions (huge critters).
Day 4 - Killer Whales, squirrels (two types), great blue herons, racoons
Day 5 - Chipmunks
Day 6 - more chipmunks (so far).
 
Amusing little thinks learned along the way:
* Don't presume people know what they're talking about despite their enthusiasm
* When asking for a meal deal - don't ask for a meal - you get the hamburger and that's it.  It turns out that if you want a drink and chips - you have to order a combo - meal means meal kiddo (this combo was acutally with a coffee and donut - only in America - didn't really want all that but sometimes you've just got to go with what's available)
* There's no such thing as white coffee or coffee with milk.  It just confuses people when you order it.  Coffee with cream - that's what you order - that's what you get (18% cream to be exact).
* Bottomless cups of coffee are great but think twice before you have two cups and then wander around a garden when the toilets are in short supply and though there are many wonderful bushes you don't get the privacy of using them and I'm pretty sure the locals frown on misuse of their shrubbery (the situation was compounded by the drizzle and many interesting and trickling water feature).