When we last wrote, we had officially traveled 186 miles from Whistler to Kamloops and landed in Nick and Erika's place in the late afternoon. It was definitely one of the bigger cities we've seen while being in Canada so we figured a night on the town would be great. For dinner, we located the main drag and asked a local where she recommended we eat. Her three choices... 1) "This sushi place" - she pointed to an empty restaurant behind her, 2) Denny's (really? Denny's), 3) She couldn't think of a third so I think she defaulted to the Mexican place across the street. So we ate at Qdoba. When in doubt, eat a burrito.

The next morning, we were up and at 'em eating breakfast, making smoothies, and throwing all our junk back into our bags so we could head to Canmore (Get it? The title of the blog?!), our base for exploring Banff National Park. The last leg of our road trip consisted of 321 miles of driving and with all the singing that went on in the back of the van, it actually wasn't too bad. In addition, we cut through Glacier National Park and Yoho National Park so the sights weren't too shabby either. We made a few stops, first at a strikingly blue lake in Yoho National Park and second, the Giant Cedars Boardwalk Trail near Revelstoke.

The signs throughout the day finally led us to believe we were getting close to Lake Louise. I had been dreaming about visiting Lake Louise for years. I'm a blue/turquoise lake snob and I'm obsessed with the color and contrast of the lake, the mountains, the snow and the sky. So here we were, pulling in to the car park and there was my travel anxiety again (I had it at Halong Bay in Vietnam), hoping this lived up to my expectations. Chip couldn't park fast enough and we were out of the car sprinting towards the lake. We arrived to...Blue? Turquoise? Wait...It's still FROZEN!!!! How did we not realize this?! Nonetheless YES, it still lived up to my expectations. This place is beautiful and we happily spent a few hours enjoying the sights, eating ice chunks, and taking photos. Next time I come back though...It will be in July (See my post from June 2019! Did I finally see the turquoise????)

After our Lake Louise fix, we headed through Banff National Park and ten minutes south to the less touristy town of Canmore, where our vacation rental awaits. We opened the condo door to a spacious and fully furnished apartment where we would be spending the next 4 days.

A good night's sleep and we were up at 9 am (yep, lots of sleeping in), ready to explore the town of Banff. First on our list of things to do, "ride" the gondola up Sulphur Mountain for views of the surrounding mountains. However, we parked, read the cost to ride the gondola and almost had a heart attack. $35 for an adult and $17 for a child. I'm no mathematician but that's nearly $200 that we didn't want to spend to ride up an 8 minute gondola. “Is there a hiking trail?” We asked. There was, and off we went. After an hour of decent climbing, Helena decided to take off her shoes and hike/run the rest of the way with Chip. Off they went and eventually we came across snow the last 15 minutes of the hike. Sure enough, we spotted Helena's foot prints in the snow. Not sure how she did it without her feet freezing off but she did.

We made it after an hour and 45 minutes and fully enjoyed our FREE hike to the top. A little fresh air never hurt, right? We snacked on our lunch while admiring the views then when we were ready we decided to enter the gondola line to head down. Apparently the ride down was free because no one checked for tickets. Totally worth it...The rest of the day was spent exploring the bustling downtown of Banff which confirmed why we stayed in Canmore in the first place. It was fun to visit during the day but Canmore was a much more cute and quaint town. We took full advantage of our kitchen and cooked in that night, then enjoyed a dip on the rooftop hot tub.

We had two days left in Canada but rumor had it, rain was officially making its way into the forecast. In order to take full advantage of the sun on our second to last day, we drove towards Banff to explore Lake Minnewanka, a glacial lake. As you can see, we spent a lot of time perfecting our jump shots!

And a walk around Canmore in the afternoon, followed by a date with my lover at a few local restaurants so we could sample the beer and food. That evening we sent Rach and Jeff out on the town so they could have some ALONE time. We watched the girls which basically meant closing all the blinds, turning up the music and having a dance club after dining on tacos for dinner. Even Chip got jiggy wit it.

Our last day in Canada was, in fact, rainy. We were lucky though...ten days with blue skies in May was apparently unheard of. The last day we checked out a couple scenic drives and ate our final meal together: Burritos with ice cream for dessert. Jeff came up with a brilliant idea where the girls got to pick which utensils the adults had to eat their ice cream with. Chip got a beater attachment, Jeff got chopsticks, Rach, a giant fork and I got giant tongs. I don't think I've laughed so hard eating ice cream!

That's it and that's all from Canada! We had an amazing time visiting friends, old and new, and seeing what the beautiful country of Canada has to offer. Luckily, we didn't have to say our final goodbyes to the Kennedy clan as they would be traveling south and into Colorado to visit the Fontenots (our mutual friends we met in NZ but live in Fort Collins) and then to Durango and Moab to see us. Life is grand!!!! On to planning our next adventure ;)

Love to all,

Lindsay and Chip

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