Thursday, August 30, 2007

Road Trip Part Six

Sorry its been awhile. We got home Tuesday night at eight. I went to bed at one, got up at nine in the morning, had to get hubby ready to go on the road again, then go to work for noon. It has been non-stop since I got home! (Hubby was not impressed that they sucked him into doing a trip, even if it was only to northern New Brunswick. But I knew he'd cave and not say no to them.

On to the Banff pictures!

We stopped in Kananaskis first. There was a bus load of rafters there. They were having a blast!


Beautiful green, cold glacier water!

The little black spec in the middle of the photo is a baby black bear. This was taken safely from the road inside the Jeep. I'm sure Momma was nearby, but I didn't see her. We also saw three deer, another buck later on that I thought was going to keep walking right out into the road between our two vehicles, and T saw a coyote in a field, but I missed it.

Driving into Banff from Kananaskis.


Banff itself was one of the prettiest towns I've ever been in. The buildings were gorgeous, and houses were, too. Lots of log buildings, and my dream home was always a log house! It was quite crowded, though. Fairly narrow street, loads of tour busses, tons of traffic and pedestrians. And a note for anyone going there for the first time -- you have to pay to get into Banff National Park, and they don't take debit. They only take cash or credit card. The reason for no debit was it took too long for people to put in PIN numbers, but what's the diff if you're waiting for credit card approval and need to sign your slip?





Banff Springs. Major fancy place! I was told that Queen Elizabeth stays here when she's in this part of Canada. Apparently the peak with three windows is one huge apartment, and that's the one that the Queen gets when she's there. More info on the place here. I guess the golf course is noted worldwide, and they added a world-class spa. This was taken across the river from the look-off. We did go over to the building itself, but I dare not go in! First time I ever pulled up to a place with valet parking! Not a place for my hill-billy clan.


The weather was a weird mish-mash that day. It started off sunny but hazy. It started to cloud over. We climbed down a very steep hill across from the Springs to a little sandy beach on the river. Then it started to cloud over, and the lightning began. It looked cool coming down on the mountains, but we decided we'd better get back up the hill to the cars before the rain started. We no sooner got back and started driving back into the town when humungous raindrops like I've never seen before started hitting the car like hammers, and the wind was blowing really hard. The outside temp dropped to 10Celsius. Then we noticed the rain looked funny. It wasn't just rain, but snow, too!

This is a splock of snow on the windshield.

First time I've seen snow in August. Totally weird. It rained for a bit, then it eased up and got sunny again.


There were several rainbows on the way home. This was a huge double rainbow.

The sky on the way back through Calgary.

Very beautiful place. Had I known that Banff was that close to the British Columbia border I would have gotten them to drive me across the border just so I could say I was all the way to BC! Next time. They're already planning on taking us to Lake Louise and Jasper next time. That won't happen for two years if plans go ahead for them to come here next summer.
Next post I promise to have a FO and pictures of my Sockapalooza socks! They are so nice, they are my new favorite socks.
Happy knitting!

9 Comments:

Blogger Charity said...

Welcome home! I'm glad you made it safely on such a big trip! :0) If you make it up to Jasper, make sure to let me know, it's only a few hours from here - I'd totally meet you at the LYS there!

12:06 AM  
Blogger Dave said...

Thanks so much for posting your vacation pictures -- I've enjoyed the trip, from the comfort of my home. :-) I grew up in Alberta, lived in the north, south and central, and in Saskatchewan, so much of where you've been is familiar. It was nice to see it again.

12:25 AM  
Blogger Pig wot flies said...

Wow, Canada is beautiful!
Glad you like the socks. :-)

5:38 AM  
Blogger Frieda said...

Glad you're all back safe and sound. That was one heckuva trip ! Next time you pass this way I'd love to meet up. Hope you can find a few minutes to cath your breath .

12:04 PM  
Blogger Miss Tonia said...

Glad your home, safe and sound. I know, I'm a little late, but I've had little computer time, since mine is in Dayton, Ohio waiting for a new hard drive. The pics are great. If and when I ever get tons of money, I'll have to take a tour of Canada. Can't wait to see your Sockapalooza socks. Have a great weekend.

1:01 PM  
Blogger Alisha said...

Holy cow, what beautiful shots!!! What a great experience you have had!!!

4:35 PM  
Blogger Ragan Knits etc... said...

WOW!!!! Love those pictures! I am glad that you made it back!!!

8:16 AM  
Blogger Donna M said...

Nice to know you are home safe and sound and had a wonderful trip. I really enjoyed your pics. The Banff ones are almost identical to the ones we took many, many years ago. And I guarantee you will love Jasper. It is absolutley gorgeous!

7:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Welcome home! Banff is very high up on my "Have to see when I finally make it to Canada" list, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading through your time there and seeing all the photos - actually, all your road trip stories are totally awesome and inspiring - I'm *so* ready for a vacation again ;)
Thanks for sharing everything - and I'm glad that you're back!

8:05 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home