The day in Banff

I was trying to remember if there was anything I missed. I mean, it was two days on the train, and I took around 500 pictures. But it seems like we did nothing but go through beautiful country and how much an you say about that, one if comes down to it. The beauty speaks for itself.

So we arrived in Banff 6-something and got shuttled to the Fairmont Hotel there, which is kind of like a castle. It’s absolutely huge and there’s actually more to it than just that main hotel; there’s a conference center and some other stuff that I didn’t explore.

View from our hotel window

Ronnie and I went out to dinner at a place called Park Distillery, which has a huge still from which they seem to sell nothing. Part of it’s licensing and part is just it’s new and they don’t have the stuff yet. Distilling takes time, I guess. In any event, the cocktails and beer were delicious and the food was very good.

Then to bed, before the one morning we didn’t need to get up any particular time. We woke up in Banff, which is a really beautiful place. The town is okay, not crazy upscale like Aspen, but pretty lively, featuring lots of gift shops and cafés to go with the bars and jewelry stores.

Our first trip was to Lake Louise, a glacial lake about 45 minutes away. The best way I can describe the lake is that it’s a jewel. It’s this almost unnatural greenish blue. It’s a glacial lake, and part of the glacier still remains, hanging over it in the distance. It’s quite a remarkable sight, as I guess I just remarked.

Ronnie and I walked along a train on the shoreline for a while, enjoying the quiet and the beauty. It was another beautiful day out- sunny and mid-60’s. You can rent canoes, but we were hungry and wanted to see other stuff, so we headed back to Banff.

After lunch and some coffee, we went for a hike through a very strange landscape. There’s a thermal spring on nearby Sulfur Mountain, and it feed a marsh area that thrives on the warm water that’s there year-round. It’s unlike anything I’d seen before, because you have these huge, sheer mountains all around, a river doing its river stuff, and then this marsh.

According to the signs, people were curious if the marsh would support tropical fish, and in fact it does to an extent. There are a lot of Black Mollies around, and some small fish that look like guppies but are called mosquito fish, named after their favorite food. I’m glad I’m not named after my favorite food.

The whole area was strange and beautiful in totally unexpected ways. I said at some point it looked like hand-colored black and white. Photos don’t quite do it justice, but they try.

After that, we headed up to the thermal springs themselves, about feet higher on the mountain. Unfortunately, you don’t get to see the spring itself (I’m guessing it might not look like anything except a bunch of leaking puddles), but there’s a pool where you can soak in the mineral water. It’s about hot tub temperature, which was very soothing and felt good along with the upper 50’s air. Aside from the soaking, the main event was the frequent plea of “Someone stole my towel!” It’s like at baggage claim, all those white towels look alike. Fortunately, I’d borrowed ours from the hotel and (a) didn’t really care and (b) had them in a plastic bag, where they couldn’t be confused with others.

Back in town, we walked the streets, lined with shops I had no desire to go inside of, so we stopped for a drink, returned the rental car, and caught the shuttle to the bus station for an evening ride to Calgary. We departed right around sunset.

I’d always wanted to see Banff and was not disappointed. It’s stunningly beautiful in many ways. I could have spent longer there, but this was a nice taste. This was a wonderful trip and I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present. Ronnie took care of everything and all I had to do was sit back and enjoy it, which I did, every moment of it.

From all accounts, there’s not much to do in Calgary, which was fine, because we got in at 9-something and had a 6 AM (!) flight the next morning. Maybe I didn’t enjoy the waking up at 3:10 AM moment, but the rest was great.