Part I: calgary

it's fierce's BDay and we wake to chocolate cake and birth stories. a couple of presents, a quick tidy of the house, last minute packing of a few items (thank god fierce remembers the hats and gloves three minutes before we leave!) and we head to hamilton airport - so much nicer to fly from there, rather than congested, dirty toronto.

when we arrive in calgary, we are disappointed to see the very small size of our supposed mid-size car but we somehow squeeze us (and all our luggage) in and get to our rented townhouse. nice. 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, fully equipped kitchen, living room, flat screen tv. we do a grocery shop, cook up some dinner and get to bed late - something we'll do a lot while on our vacation

the next day, it's all business as we go straight to banff national park.  and WOW.  this is our first view, from inside the car and we couldn't resist photographing it

we are 'doing' lake moraine and lake louise with our cousins - and ALL the children (ok, not april) make a bee-line for the rock-pile interpretive trail. of course they don't bother with the actual trail - they just start climbing! if you look closely, you can make out all 5 of them on that mountain

meanwhile, us adults take the 'civilized' trail :)
 
 

lake moraine is so spectacular,
it looks like a sears portrait backdrop

 

 
we have a picnic lunch in a nearby shelter and laugh to see the 'canadian' grafitti (have a nice day, etc)
but in all likelihood, this was probably written by japanese school girls, trying out their rudimentary, and pleasant, english skills...

 
along the road, we can't help but notice the guard rail has been torn off.  it's lying far below us in the valley, push down by the weight of snow, no doubt

at lake louise, everyone competes at 'who can keep their keep feet in longer'
man, that water is COLD!

april takes a liking to pepper and won't let anyone else push her :)



 




gwen takes a (full) family photo, something that will be hard to come by on our trip :)

 

that's kevin and gwen back there

driving in 2 cars is sometimes a challenge as we lose each other a few times :)  but that just adds to the adlventure, right?  we were really up the creek when we lost sight of kevin and gwen's car while downtown banff, but when my much-laboured-over typed travel plan flew out the window (!), i was forced to jump out and retrieve it, gosh-darn the traffic.  yet this ridiculous commotion is what allowed kevin to find us again.  so it all worked out.

in banff, the children enjoy the local playground, bosco finds a driftwood 'gun' that never leaves his side, we scour the shops for a walking stick for fierce, and then we have some dinner

 



what great, long day