Banff and the Rockies

11th May

Mothers Day in Canada, and OZ dawned with the promise of sunshine and warmth, only for the sun to be replaced with clouds...

set out around 11 and headed up to Herritage park.

Had a nice semi frozen lake which we walked around, it was bitterly cold.

There was a sea of people entering the park, all families with kids, had a look at the map and decided it wasn't worth the money, and it was really crowded o we headed to one of the local shopping malls and went shopping instead!

headed back to the house, where we had home made lasanga, and garlic bread... mmm yum
and watched the others play cards for most of the night...

I just don't get it!

12th May

Up and off at 8am and headed to Banff for the day

First stop was at Minnewanka lake, which was all frozen over, and had patches of snow everywhere..



it was exciting

wandered around, found a pair of classy glasses, in the snow which I re-homed to the ice on the lake.

This area is thought to be the lake of spirits, and many people fear coming here..

it's also meant to be home to many bighorned sheep, which we didn't managed to see any off..

found some deer along the road, which looked less than excited to see us

next stop was at johnson lake..

One of my favourite pictures from my last trip to Canada was taken at this very lake..

It was then on to Banff

where we had lunch and Mc Donalds before wandering through the shops..

I tried on many the attractive moose hats

It started snowing just after lunch...

It was just magical!

Found the pump and Tap, an interesting pub that Tash and I had adventures in last time we were here, many a drink was drunk there... glad to see it's still there!

bought my token souvenieer a bever with a mounty hat on, named flapjack!

Before heading up Mt Sulphur on the gondola...

All the pathes were covered in snow, so it was nice and slippery..

almost ended up slidding down the side of the mountain!

gorgeous views, strange seeing it all covered in snow.

had a bit of a snow ball fight with Bev at the top which I won! but she thinks she won! mabe it was a tie :O)
before heading back down the mountain.

Decided to call it a day and head back to Calgary for the night,
we had pasta with homemade sauce and garlic bread for dinner, I could so get used to this cooking mmmm yum!

Before Keith and Adel took us down town for a bit of Calary sight seeing...
saw the Calgary trees (horrific looking metal trees that cost the earth and that no one likes!)

headed up the Calgary Tower just as the sun was setting...

loved how they had the names of buildings written on the tops of them, like Arts center, Hilton, Car yard... you didn't need a map, you could jut read them off the buildings themselves..

It was good having locals with us too, they pointed out all sorts of things too.

Bev crawling across the glass floor.. scary!

headed back and somehow ended up at dairy queen again! more icecream!!! mm yum!
before heading back