Costco

Oh how I love Costco.  I have their app and check all our areas for Costcos.  I love Costco!!!  There's even Costco in Canada.  And Costco switched to Visa recently, which makes shopping there even more convenient for us on the road.  Except in Canada.  Where they take Mastercard.  I had a Mastercard with USAA, but they switched to Visa this year, too.  Blech.  Fortunately for us, they took US cash, giving us change in Canadian.  Which we promptly spent at the food court.  Where we got Hawaiian pizza and chicken tenders/french fries.  It was a fun and different experience, and now my kids want chicken tenders when we hit Costcos!

More Travel Day Woes

Seriously HATE travel days.  

Getting into the US is trickier than getting into Canada.  It felt like a warm welcome going into Canada, and somewhat of a cold greeting coming into the US.  Oh well.          

And this seems to be the sweet gift the US border left us with.  Just a few minutes after crossing the border, the car's system starting freaking out about our tire pressure.  Wonder why with these three beauties?!  But Bill got it changed and us back on the road in a little more than an hour.  Go Bill!        

But our day wasn't over.  Our trailer blew a tire when we were about half an hour from Deception Pass, where we were meeting my sister and her kiddos for lunch and fun.  We showed up about an hour and a half late (we were an hour ahead when we started our day), but fortunately my brother-in-law warned the kiddos that we might be late, cuz we might get a flat tire or something.  Oish.  Thanks for the jinx!      

We did actually make it to Deception Pass, so the day ended happily.

Lions, Tigers, and BEARS!

I was a little disappointed in the wildlife in Banff, truth be told.  Yes, we saw a herd of elk our first night there.  BUT, they talk about the animals just walking down the mainstreet of Banff.  Never saw that.  Except for the horses that pulled carriages.  I mean, the entire town has bear proof trash cans outside.  No big animals.  Sigh.   We did, however, have three (possibly four) bear sightings in our time in Canada.  Two while we were in Banff, one or two in EC Manning.  

This was our first bear sighting.  There was a large crowd pulled over on the side of the road, and experience has taught us that means a big animal is nearby, so we joined them.  I immediately got this photo.  About five minutes after this photo, rangers shooed us all away. An exciting way to start our day trip out to Lake Louise.         I apparently deleted the other picture of a bear in Banff.  So sad.  But as we were driving to Jasper, we caught sight of more people stopping on the side, and the bear was right there at the fence line.  We didn't stop that time, but we were happy to get the chance to see another bear.  The third bear sighting (?) was on our hike of Frosty Mtn Trail, where K thinks she saw a bear.  Very exciting to think we were that close to a bear, but I'm very happy it was just a vague sighting and not a bigger encounter!   Our fourth sighting scared the daylights out of me.  Much like a deer might shock you by jumping out into the road, this little bear jumped out of the forest onto the side of the road, where (I'm thankful) he stayed while we drove by.  Bill did slam on the brakes and swerve just to make sure we didn't do damage, and it took me five minutes or so to calm down, but we all ended the encounter safe and sound.

EC Manning Park

We needed a place to camp between Banff and Seattle, so I scoured our Adventure Atlas (Rand McNally) to find a campground and settled on EC Manning Provincial Park in BC.  We arrived to find our reserved spot filled, but without people.  Hmmm...  After driving around a bit and talking to a ranger, we made our way back to our site to find the dad examining our reservation sheet on the campsite post.  We hung out for a bit at the campground playground while they packed up and left, and then made our way over to our riverfront site.  And oh, was it worth the wait.  

This is the view from our campsite.  Those are our kids exploring the (very chilly) waters on our first evening.  They were quite cranky that we wouldn't let them get on their suits and actually swim, but they had camp chores, so testing the waters was all they could do.        

For whatever crazy reason, NS and NB decided they needed to do a polar plunge.  BUT, they were lame with their "plunge."  It turned into a wade, but with much enouragement from us, they agreed to sit down.  Some in deeper waters than others.  As the day worn on, they even agreed to dunk the head.  We eventually got them to swim the rapids, some small currents in our part of the river.  After much trepidation, they had a ton of fun and rode the rapids over and over again.  Thank you to the girls from another campsite who showed my guys that it was fun and easy!    

NS at the rapids.  What you see is pretty much all there is to them, they go just beyond the picture to end at some low rocks.  The kids really enjoyed doing this, and we spent the better portion of our first whole day there just swimming in the river.            

Spotted sand piper at Lightning Lakes in EC Manning.  NB wanted me to video this little dude because he liked his song so much, but we were actually pretty far away and I didn't think the microphone on my camera would be able to pick it up so nicely.  We initially were going to do a lake hike, but NS snarkily suggested the Frosty Mtn Trail, and I thought that sounded like a dandy idea.  My hip has been giving me trouble all year, so I thought the uneven terrain and the steep ascent would be great for me.  I was right, so I'm very thankful the snark in my son came out that day!  Unfortunately, I had some very cranky campers who were displeased with taking such a hike.  Yeah, we hiked a good attitude into those dudes. I told them we wouldn't stop hiking until all attitudes improved.  

Did the ruffled grouse spotting improve attitudes?  No.  On we hike!              

Beautiful forest scenery improve attitudes?  Not at all.  Didn't even look.  Grumble, grumble grumble...on we hike!            

Trees swarming with mountain chickadees improve attitudes?  I spent a lot of time trying to get this picture, and so others got into the photography aspect, and that finally brought out the good moods.  So we did indeed turn back and head back down the mountain, and from then on, we were good nature observers.      

We checked out many mushrooms, including this mini mushroom.          

These flowers caught our eye.              

The rock slide where G paused to collect himself.           K even thought she saw a bear.  I was keeping my eyes out, because bears had been spotted in the areas near where we were hiking, and I kept pausing because I thought I heard things, but I never saw a bear.  K said she saw a large animal, though, and she would prefer us to pick up the pace, thank you.   All in all, our time at EC Manning was fun and relaxing.

Church, Cave and Basin, Calgary

Our Sunday started off with mass at St. Mary's in Banff.  The priest asked visitors to say where they were from, and the couple behind us was from St. Mary's in Fairfax, VA!  That was really cool meeting someone from our old parish, so we spent some time talking with them after mass.  Never did catch their names, though.  Hmmm.....          

After mass, we stopped off at Cave and Basin, the birthplace of Canada's national park system.  This is inside the cave, where there's a hot spring.  You're not allowed to touch the water, in order to keep the habitat safe for the snails.  It also smells a lot of sulphur, so after snapping the picture, we were happy to get back out of the cave.  Outside you can catch a better view of the snails in the hot spring, and there's a special area for touching the water that doesn't flow the water back into the spring.  I do so love a hot spring!        

We didn't do much in Calgary.  But as we were driving around, I spotted this sign.  Teen burger?  I can't imagine a teen tastes that good...  We got to see (from the road) the Olympic park, but we had a hard time finding parking in the actual city, so we did some sight seeing from the road.  We hit some grocery stores and then headed back to Banff.

Jasper

We took a day and left Banff and headed up to Jasper National Park.  It was a much quieter experience.  We got to see three different lakes:  Hector Lake, Lower Waterfowl Lake, and Bow Lake.  We were part of just a handful of people at each lake.  

Hector Lake is advertised as a photographer's dream.  It was beautiful, and only just a short walk around it.  So while we took a bunch of cool photos, we only spent a little time there.  Before we walked around the lake, we enjoyed a nice lunch at the picnic tables, with just a wee hint of rain.            

NS even got to try out the water just a bit.  Hector Lake doesn't have a beach, it's surrounded by the forest, so NS took a spot on the shoreline and dunked his hands.            

One of the many glaciers seen from the road.  We spent the day driving the Icefields Parkway, so we got to see a ton of cool glaciers.  I think the parkway takes more than three hours to drive, but we only spent maybe two hours, plus all the time we spent at the various lakes, so that we could get back to the campsite for dinner.  Lots of beautiful scenery in Jasper, totally worth the drive.  We also decided that if we come back this way, we would camp in Jasper rather than in Banff.  Banff is very crowded, and Jasper is less visited, which suits us just fine.        

We took a small-ish stop at Lower Waterfowl Lake.  It was a beautiful hike with some beach area, and tons of forest.  NB was really putting his watershoes to work, testing all the waters he came to.  K joined him for a bit, but the water was very cold, so she wasn't enjoying it as much as NB was.         We also took a brief stop at Bow Lake.  The kids were done by this point, so they just stayed in the car, and I even left my camera behind.  But it was a beautiful hike, and if we had more energy, I would have insisted we take the hike to the waterfall.  But at the end of the day, sometimes just taking in the sights is good enough.

  Back at the campsite, relaxing in style.  We do so love our campfires!

Lake Louise

Lake Louise was on my list of things to do in Banff.  It's a very popular site.  VERY POPULAR.  With the gigantic mobile, we were able to pass all the other vehicles vying for car parking and head right to bus parking.  Right off the trail.  SWEET!  

This is the first look at the lake.  What you don't see in this picture are the tons and tons of other people trying to get the gorgeous shot, too.  Right behind us is a resort lodge, gorgeous, huge, and filled to capacity.  Fortunately, most of the crowd doesn't take the actual hike, they simply stay at the immediate shore and take pictures.      

They were all excited to try out the waters.  The blue of the waters in Banff is truly amazing, unlike any other waters I've seen.  They're an aqua blue, so clear.  The mountains surrounding Lake Louise are home to glaciers, so I can only imagine the waters are icy, but the kids loved playing around in it.  I'm more a hot springs kinda gal.      

I was taken with the mushrooms on this trip.  Nathan was the first to spot them, but I really loved sitting and observing them.  This one was huge, to me, and different from a lot of mushrooms I've seen.            

You could hear the boat tour from shore, so I hung out for a bit listening to what the tour guide said.  I can't remember anything now, so I guess I should have paid more attention!