Rocky Mountain Road Trip Day 16

 Well, this is it folks. We flew out of Edmonton the same day the pope flew in. The security lines were longer than expected, but we had no problems. We were excited to have snagged 2 window seats for our return flight. Alas, David lost their window seat when bumped to the front of the plane for unaccompanied minors. We switched Lucas and David, so that Lucas could profit from the extra leg-room in the bulkhead seat. Nonetheless, Michael still had his window seat. Kind of.

We finally got home and the garden had survived the 16 days without us. Rogue cherry tomato plants were flourishing anywhere I hadn't put cardboard down to control the weeds.

Before

After

I was super impressed with how well the trip went. Two weeks in the back seat of a car and there were no major fights. Within minutes of being home, Lucas and David were playing video games with each other. I am so happy that we were able to take this adventure together. All three are old enough that they should remember this trip for the rest of their lives. I certainly will. I was also pleasantly surprised that my 48 year old body managed to keep up and there were no major aches or pains to slow me down. My one foot did get a sharp pain after the day of walking in Vancouver which did impact my hiking afterwards, but it was gone after a couple days rest. My fitbit tells me that I walked 289,649 steps and covered 195km by foot. The car rental invoice says we drove 3328km.

Rocky Mountain Road Trip Day 15

 The morning of our penultimate day of our adventure we spent sipping coffee, and playing games with the Shutts. It is always such a pleasure to spend time with old friends as if no time had passed. Even better when the kids also get along. My very strong regret was that we did not take any pictures of our reunion! I think I may have exhausted my picture taking capacity after our Lake Louise/Lake Moraine outing. We thanked the Shutt's for their hospitality by leaving behind all our excess belongings. Who doesn't want 1/3 of a Costco jar of peanut butter or 3/4 of a box of fruit bars???

We planned a side detour on our way back to Edmonton to visit my Aunt Trudy and Uncle Bob. They live in the delightful town of Big Valley. We got to see the tourism train arrive and the community members who dress in garb from the 1800s to greet them. There are a couple of very impressive historical collections in town from thousands of different tools to historical population data and artifacts. I was privileged to see my Uncle's room of collectibles, particularly items related to Wyatt Earp and Roy Rogers. Again I failed to take photos of the reunion, but I treasure every moment spent with my Western family. 

As we continued on to Edmonton, our final reunions fell through. It was just not possible to meet up with everyone on our list. This means we have more people to see the next time we come out west! Our airport motel was quite the sight. We had 2 rooms, but not adjoining. The kids were upstairs while Chris and I had a deluxe jacuzzi room. David was the first to try it out, getting his swim suit on and filling it up while Chris ordered pizza. I drove over to the airport to return our trusty steed as our flight was an 8am departure the next morning.

Rocky Mountain Road Trip Day 14

 Day 14, two full weeks in! Today we were going to summit a mountain. In Banff, there is a 4km hike up Tunnel mountain. It is a perfect "starter" hike to get used to mountain hikes. It was perfect for our farewell hike. 

Nice easy wide path

Great view of Banff from the top

I had promised beaver tails at the end of our hike. It was actually too much sugar for David!

We had been making plans to meet up with friends in Calgary for Day 15. To maximize our time it had been suggested they could come out to Banff and have dinner with us. The weather forecast, which had been beautiful for 13 days straight, was calling for thunderstorms. Not wanting to pack up wet tents to take on the plane, and frankly not wanting to sleep another night on the gravel, we packed up camp early and hit the road for Calgary. I think we missed a great storm. The clouds were very dramatic, the thunder rolling, and there were some good flashes of lightning we could see from the road.

Chris spotted a woodpecker as we were packing up

We arrived at our good friend's Tim and Robin's house and saw their two kids: Katherine, who is almost exactly David's age, and Nathaniel, who was a soul mate of Lucas, just a decade or so younger. We had a delicious dinner and even more delicious conversation. We had a great after dinner walk though the neighbourhood and a nice lookout point to see Calgary's downtown. With our bodies and souls content, we finished off Day 14. 

Birthday twins David and Katherine

Spiritual twins Lucas and Nathaniel

Rocky Mountain Road Trip Day 13

 Before leaving Golden on our lucky 13th day, we stopped at the grocery store to replenish our perishables. 

Blasting for road building reminded us of driving through the Canadian shield, but on a much larger scale.

The earliest shuttle time I could book to go to Lake Louise / Lake Moraine was noon. We left with plenty of time to get to the shuttle parking area where we prepared and packed our staple hiking lunch of peanut butter and jam sandwiches with protein bars. We went to check in for our shuttle. The gentleman in the kiosk filled out our information and indicated where to go to board the buses now. I double checked that we didn't have to wait until our allotted time. He shrugged his shoulders and said it didn't really matter. The rule following, lawful good in me objected, but the itinerary, efficiency obsessed part of me rejoiced. Happily, we were on our way to Moraine Lake about an hour earlier than anticipated!

We veered towards the rockpile after leaving the shuttle bus. There was a short little climb and then jaw-dropping beauty! This is only a small selection of the photos we took. I might need more cloud storage space!

Feast your eyes, this is my virtual background for me meetings now!

David lamented that we did not bring the kayak (!)

We then ventured to the west side of the lake and walked along the shoreline. We had our picnic lunch at the south side of the lake before heading back. Our good fortune ran out and we just missed the shuttle bus to get to Lake Louise. 

Once at Lake Louise, there was no rock pile to climb. A short stroll down the path and our jaws were dropping again. 

As I was taking a panorama, a couple decided to walk right in front of me and do a little photo shoot.

This is me exercising restraint in not photobombing all of the above couples photos for the rest of the day.

Chris got the money shot.

I had planned a longer hike here. I had 2 options and decided on the shorter of the two, a hike up to Agnes Lake. As we set off, there was a detour due to bears in the area. So many bear alerts and the only 2 we saw the entire trip were outside a parking lot and from the safety of a gondola! The hike was a pretty constant and steep climb. This time it was David who was feeling like this:

There was a lake mid-way up that was delicious looking. Leaving it we crossed a tour group on horseback (which was how our shuttle bus driver had recommended getting up to Lake Agnes). Near the end was a waterfall. David had been obsessed with being able to touch a waterfall the whole trip. All the waterfalls up to that point were in accessible. This one, however, was just a couple meters off the trail. There was a lot of power in that waterfall!

Lake Louise as we climb over to Lake Agnes

Mirror Lake pit stop

At Lake Agnes is a tearoom. I had already read in reviews that you need to be up pretty early to not have to wait in a very long line. We opted to sit on some rocks, dip our feet in the freezing cold glacier lake and nibble on protein bars. As we took a return loop to Mirror lake, I noticed some definite drag marks and trail of blood across the trail. Yet again, the kids had gotten ahead of us on the hike. We reiterated the need to stick together!

Lake Agnes

The source of David's waterfall

We did not stay long at Lake Agnes. We were cognizant of the fact that we still needed to get back to the shuttle, drive to Banff, register and set up camp before dark! We made it back to the shuttle loading site at a similar time as many other tourists. It was a bit chaotic as the line to the parking area had merged into the line for Moraine Lake. Once the lines had been de-tangled, we managed to get on the second bus back to the parking area. 

Pretty hot and tuckered out

Last hand dip in the lake.

Waiting for the bus

Still smiles while waiting

Smiles dimmed a little after one bus came and left and we were still waiting.

We registered for our campsite in Banff, and got our 2 tents set up in record time considering we didn't have any of our normal camping supplies with us. Next task was to find food. We wound up at a Mexican rooftop patio with a DJ precluding the possibility of dinner conversation. The drinking age in Alberta is 18 and Chris was very disappointed that Lucas hadn't ordered a drink for himself when we had been in Jasper. This time, he ordered a margarita. The waitress asked him if that was a virgin one. As many of us do when faced with not really knowing what the question meant, Lucas said "sure". Chris quickly interjected that he did NOT mean a virgin margarita and Lucas was carded for the first time! So proud.

We had a quick fire before turning in to bed. Not a comfortable night for the two parental units as we were sleeping on a gravel pad and we did not have any extra mats or blankets.