Banff in the Canadian Rockies, Sept 20 - 22

We had an uneventful drive from Calgary to Banff, about 2 hours west. Unfortunately, it is not sunny so the views are limited.

By Lake Louise hotel - flowers in the snow

  We got to our Blue Mountain Bed and Breakfast early (around 11:30) and it was too early to check in. It is on the corner of Caribou and Muskrat and has 5 parking spots. It is in a great location, just a block off the main streets, so we wandered to find food while waiting for the bed and breakfast to be ready. It is very very touristy here! Loads of shops and restaurants. Although it was only in the mid 40s and spitting rain, we ate outside (under an umbrella) at the open air market that is only held on Wednesdays, so that was fortunate. We wandered around it and then had some spicy Indian soup and Mark added a grilled cheese sandwich. After some more wandering, we went back to the bed and breakfast that let us in. A very modest room, but adequate. It feels like a hostel, but it is not cheap as it is still high season here.

   Despite the rain, we took a walk along the Bow River to the Bow River Falls and walked up the hill to the grand Banff hotel - palatial and expensive. In the 20s, rich people would spend the "season" there with its outdoor pool etc etc. We had a cup of tea and watched people, then walked back along the river to the bed and breakfast. We stayed in for the evening reading and eating sausage and a baguette.
     The next day we woke to snow and temperatures in the 30s. We had a surprisingly good breakfast (continental with well stocked) with several couples from England, as well as one couple from Virginia. One from Bournemouth, one from London and one from ? (Forgot). We expected most of our fellow guests would be younger, but these were all couples from middle age on up.
    We decided that, as we will probably never get back here, that we'd drive up to Lake Louise despite the weather. We knew that the visibility would not be great. We drove there and back mostly on the secondary road, the Bow River Trail. We stopped along the way and took photos, but they won't be stunning.

      Lake Louise is a huge tourist draw, so despite the weather, it was quite parked up. However, we were able to park by the lake and not at the satellite lot which would have required taking a shuttle. We did not walk far along the lake because it was just too wet. But, you could see that is must be stunning when the sun is out. The water is a beautiful and unusual color of blue from what is called "rock flour" which are small particulates from the glaciers that supply the lake. They add a blue reflective color.
     We walked into the big lodge there, but did not stay. We met a huge group of Chinese people and took their photo in a snow-covered garden...they took ours as well.
      Then we drove back "home" also along the back road. We rested for a bit and then went back out. We drove the Minnewanka loop which is not far out of town. The road goes by the bottom of the largest lake in the park, but it was so foggy and overcast that we did not see very much. Then we went up the road to the Norquay ski resort. Along the roadside we came across a small herd (9) of elk. The patriarch was huge - probably 10 points. Spotting them truly did make our day as we have not seen much wildlife.

Big elk - he was with about 7 others

      For dinner we walked to the Balkan restaurant, a recommended locally-owned Greek restaurant. We both had a lamb shank dish that was delicious, neither of which we expected we would have ordered, but the waiter talked us into it as the best dish in the house and it was truly delicious. But filling.
     The next morning, our last morning in Banff, it was still disappointingly overcast. But, we had a lively breakfast with a couple from Virginia. He is an airport architect and has been working in both Helena and Missoula.

Calgary, Canada, September 17-20

   At any rate, we finally got to a wonderful Bed and Breakfast called Westways. We are in a wonderful room with a little sitting room as well. It is gorgeous. We were too tired to do much and were delighted to find that there is a wealth of restaurants right around the corner. We ended up at Earl's Kitchen. Barbara had ahi tuna and Mark had Korean wings. It was all so good, especially the tuna, but we decided we'd to again tomorrow for happy hour and more tuna.

1 September 17 was a day of misturns. We had an uneventful drive up to the Canadian border and crossed at a very small border checkpoint.   We were supposed to stay on Canada's Route 2, but, somehow (I think we were chatting too much), we missed a tour at Fort Macleod  and ended up taking Route 3 west. We didn't realize it for an entire hour. We did notice

that we were getting into the mountains which we thought was strange, but we are not familiar enough with the geography to have it really stop us. We passed a huge mountain slide called Frank's Slide and just kept going. When we passed into British Columbia we knew that something was wrong. So, we stopped in Starwood found out that we had to backtrack over 60 miles. Sigh. It added over 2 hours to our trip. But, we had no choice and tried to be positive about it.  

    So, instead of arriving around 2, we arrived around 4:30. To compound our mistake, we also went to the wrong address for the Bed and Breakfast. Turns out that there are FOUR 25th Streets in Calgary - one in each quadrant. We went to the Northeast and we should have been in the Southwest. We rang the doorbell at the wrong house and finally called the B and B. Jonathan said that he hadn't heard the doorbell. It took a little while before he realized we were in the wrong part of the city. Mark was tired from all the driving, but had no choice but to drive through the city to the correct one. (Barbara is not on the car as it cost $90 extra for a second driver.)
     On the first morning, we had a sumptuous breakfast with a wonderful man from France who gave us many tips on places to stay in Brittany. We exchanged emails and we will call him when we are in Paris next year. There was also a nice young couple from Switzerland. It is the aspect of Bed and Breakfast that we most like - chatting with people, especially from around the world.
     On our first full day in Calgary we drove to Market Mall to ask some questions about the use of the new IPad and to buy an adapter so we can download photos from the camera. We stayed for an hour lesson on use of the ICloud and it was very informative.
    In the afternoon we walked along the Elbow River and ate at Earl's Kitchen where we both had ahi tuna for an early dinner.

    On our second full day in Calgary, we had a lovely and international breakfast once again....this time with a couple from the Netherlands. We decided to walk to into town - just over 2 kilometers each way. Our destination was the Glenbow Museum where we stayed about two hours. We spent the most time in an exhibit about "mavericks" of Alberta - those who helped settle it, the railroad barons and a diverse group of people. It was very interesting. In each room, there was a placard from the First Peoples explaining their take on the various things, such as the disruption that the railroad caused them. The second exhibit we lingered in was an exhibit about the First Peoples, also very interesting. We also spent some time in an exhibit about West Africa.

   Afterwards, we went to a supermarket called Sunterra where we had a coffee, bought some coffee for David and Maura and got some sausage for our trip tomorrow.
    Then we walked back to the B &B, took a bit of a rest/read and then went to Original Joes on 4th street where we both had fish tacos and Mark also had two tiny hamburger sliders.
    On the last morning in Calgary, we had another lovely breakfast with some more international folk and then took off for Banff.