Canada Day 2009

How lucky am I to be able to visit Banff, Alberta on Canada Day. I woke fairly early this morning, after a decent nights sleep. Once up, I woke Ryan and I proceeded to find a rental car. Quite a feat on a National holiday, but I managed. Ryan and I called a cab and went to pick up the car, afterward, we went to Denny's for a nice leisurely breakfast. The company and the conversation was wonderful. It's been quite a while since Ryan and I have had the opportunity to chat like that, what a level headed young man he has turned out to be. He explained to me what he had been up to over the past several months and what his future plans were. It was nice to hear, and very exciting stuff. I felt myself take a hidden sigh of relief.

After breakfast we drove back to the condo to grab a few things to take with us on our outing for the day. Namely, the camera After making a few quick stops before heading out of Calgary, we were on our way to Banff. How exciting! I could hardly wait to see the mountains in all their glory once again. Such an inspiring energy, and the air seems so much easier to breathe.

Our first stop of course was the Village of Banff. It hasn't changed very much, as I had suspected. Some of the shoppe owners have altered, but the streetscape and the mountains in the background still remain very familiar. We spent quite a few hours walking around, in and out of the shoppes and walked down towards the Banff Hotel and the rapids. They were wonderful. (There are plenty of pictures to share, but once again, I don't have any way of downloading from my main camera, so they won't be up until after I get home. In the meantime, I have some blackberry photos that I took to share until then.) After spending some time in Banff Village, and a very slow departure due to the Canada Day Parade, we headed back to the car and made our way to Lake Louise. We took the off road (Bow River Parkway I think they call it) rather than the #1 highway, which was a nice treat, certainly sounds more intriguing. The scenery was beautiful and the speed limit a little slower to enjoy it.

Along the way, I got one of my wishes. Alongside the road was a herd of wild horses just meandering around, slowing and stopping traffic, not a care in the world. Ryan jumped out of the car to take some pictures on the camera, but quickly jumped back in as the horses began to trot towards him snorting, after only a few shots. I think it scared him just a bit. I am hoping that he got a clear photo of the mustang in front that had crystal blue eyes!

Amazing, I will never forget this beautiful chestnut and brown painted mustang as he led the herd down the road. Obviously the Alpha male. I think i'd like to paint him. Due to the circumstances, I may be painting from memory

After driving along the road for several miles we finally came upon Lake Louise. The hotel was like a jewel in the wilderness, but the real jewel lay quietly behind her, Lake Louise herself. The day had graced us with sunshine from the time we woke up this morning, and to see the glacier on the mountain that feeds Lake Louise with the shimmer on the surface of the lake was unbelievable. It's another one of those things, that you can't really take a photo of it, as it missed the whole panoramic setting, but we did try and will upload later with the others. We then all headed toward the hotel, as I was intrigued to see the inside of it. The architecture and tapestries that graced the main lobby was a nice surprise. Off to the right was a windowed hallway of arches, that let to shops and an art gallery. We stayed inside the hotel for about an hour, wandering around the main floor. It was beautiful.

After Lake Louise we headed a little further on down the road to Lake Moraine. Here I got a little bit smarter and took some photos on my BB to share here. Again, such a beautiful sight and not at all captured in all it's glory, and much less commercialized as Lake Louise, but it does hold the title of being on the backside of the twenty dollar bill form 1969-1979. After a few photos and being chased off by monster mosquitos, we headed back to the car.

It had been 9 hours since we had left Calgary this morning, and it was time to head back. The drive was fairly uneventful with the exception of driving back into poor weather in Calgary after such a stunning day in Banff. I'm not sure what happened to the fireworks display that they had planned. It stays so light so long here, at 11:00 p.m. it was finally getting dark.

I am quite tired and I know I will sleep well again tonight...and I'll need to...tomorrow, we are spending the day in downtown Calgary. I would like to visit some art galleries and do a little shopping.