16 JUN 98

Hello from Banff, Alberta, Canada.

After my last update, the weather finally cleared up enough for seven of my passengers to skydive. As they were supposed to, they enjoyed it completely. After the skydive we went out for dinner and dancing in Vancouver.

The next day we came back to Seattle and finished the trip. They were one of the nicest groups ever. They bought a box of thank you cards and each filled out a whole card for me. One of them also made a small painting of me in my Drizabone riding coat, by blue wool hat, my sandals, and my bag of trial mix.

Then, to top it all off, the four crazy British women gave me a little package with small mementos of the whole trip and some hair nets. They called themselves the "Flying Foxettes" and they were "inFOXicated" with me and the trip. It was nice to be with a group that was so appreciative.

Hanging out in the hotel, after the trip, was one of my favorite people in the whole world. My friend Suzie was in Seattle for a few days before she headed up to Alaska with her boyfriend to lead tours for another company. We ate Japanese food one night and Indian the next. Seattle is great for Asian foods.

The next day, John, my former roommate from college showed up. He and his new wife were in town for a day. I enjoyed meeting Cathy and look forward to meeting their son when he pops out in September.

There were also a few other tour leaders I like in Seattle, so I barely had time to do my work in the office between all of my visiting friends.

I did manage to plan a trip, so I picked up a new group last Thursday and started the same two week trip over again. We drove through the cloudy North Cascades National Park, camped by a lake, crossed into Canada, went wine tasting, camped by a lake, walked around a lake, camped by a river, walked to a waterfall, and camped in the woods.

Yesterday, we went to Lake Louise and hiked for about ten miles up to some glaciers. They had a tea house near the top and we ate hot soup and bread before hiking down. Today is free day in Banff and I will watch some World Cup soccer later. It is very hard to follow soccer in France while camping in the middle of the Rockies.

Did I say it rained on my last trip here? Actually we a little rain most days, but it was never really bad. This trip we have had a light rain every day, all day since we got to Canada. We had to hike in the rain yesterday and my group is hiking in the rain right now.

One other thing I really like about Canada - There are tons of young backpackers hitch-hiking around the country. It is nice to see that.