July 6, 2008

This is our first day back with Internet since we last talked to you on the 28th of June. And I must first address Kristi's message on this blog. I was very sad to hear Uncle Lou died. He had been quite ill for a while now and I'm sure he must have been tired of fighting. He was a very nice man, we enjoyed seeing him each Christmas for the last few years. Best wishes to Althea I sure she feels the loss the most.

Let me see if I can catch you up to the present. It's not going to be easy. We were in Montana, drove to the Canadian boarder and sat. Wow what a long wait. They are really being careful. It took us over an hour to get through. The line wasn't that long, they just asked each car a gazillion questions. Anyway we got through and we are now in Alberta Canada. Well I have to tell you it wasn't that exciting. Alberta to up the Canadian Rockies is huge farmland(guess they call them prairies) Farm after farm but miles apart. This was a travel day and not much excitement. We went quite a ways that day, camped, next day we drove about 100 more miles to a town call Cranmore which is about 40 miles away from Banff. We spent the 30th and 1st if July here and left on the 2nd. This was a lovely little town. Lot of building going on there so it must be pretty successful. We we there for Canada Day which is the 1st. It's like our 4th. Parades, fireworks!!!!! We drove around the mountains in the area and I did manage to get Mike to stop at one store other than the grocery. This was a good stop to get caught up on our laundry and all those kind of things. We got to Banff pretty early on the 2nd. You know Banff is in a Canadian National Park and you pay to enter by the day! So just to stay the 4 days we had to pay $20.00 per day to start. Then when we got to the campground, which is a "state" campground we had to pay there as well. The campground was nice, very large, and the showers were free!!!! (bonus) $3.50 a shower in Yellowstone! OK so now we are settled and we are going to check out the town. Well it was very nice. It is not a huge town but very pretty surrounded by the Canadian Rockies. A very popular town, busy with tourists. Anyway being our anniversary we decided to eat out. We ate at a pretty nice place but were both kind of disappointed in the quality. The shops we wonderful. There were some very artsy shops with museum quality things for sale. With, I might add, museum prices. But beautiful one of a kind pieces. BUT when I found and acrylic bead bracelet that was made with that stretchy elastic bands was $35.00 I figure everything was very very inflated. So guess you can guess, we didn't buy a thing. Oh sorry did buy one thing and you will experience at Christmas. Nope not telling.

The next day we went to Lake Louise. We took the longer way in hopes to see some animals. (We didn't) Anyway got to the lake. Very very beautiful. Lake Louise was created by glaciers. As a matter o fact, some of the glacier can still be seen at the end of the lake. The color is a turquoise and of coarse there is reason for this. The glacier moves and grinds the rock down to a powder, it is called "rock flour". It washes into the water, the water absorbs all the light except blue which is the reason why it is this color. Not only is Lake Louise this color but many many lakes and streams and rivers are this color. At the other end of the lake is a big beautiful hotel. Lake Louise Hotel, unique eh? Anyway it is quite posh, but we had lunch there anyway. Best lunch I have had on this trip yet. We ate outside and the day was warm and the view beautiful. There is a trail that goes along the lakeside and Mike and I took it for about 1.5 miles then turned back, almost to the end. The old guys knees were bothering him.

So the next couple of days we would drive around a new mountain or stream and would usually end up downtown with me having to see all the shops. The day before we left we went to the Banff Hotel which is very very beautiful. It's nestled in the mountains amongst pine trees. The view isn't as pretty a Lake Louise but the hotel is most beautiful. The shops in this hotel were expensive and elaborate, fun to look at!! These hotels are both owned by the same people who also own the Hotel Frontenac in Quebec. Cannot remember the name and Mike is sleeping so you're on you own on this one.

We left Banff this morning and road all day. (about 280 miles) Everything is in kilograms, kilometers, liters,and centimeters here so we have to figure it out when we stop. On the drive today we stopped by the Colombian Ice Fields. This is a glacier that has been around for a long time. The ice is as deep as the Empire State Building is tall. We thought about taking the tour out on the ice but decided not to as it was a 2 plus hour tour. From that point we saw many glaciers. Pretty amazing. We figured we would also see a lot more glaciers in Alaska. This area is in Jasper National Park, yep, another fee! However, it was a beautiful drive and also bear country. We got a few pictures and we spotted 3 separate bears. Saw lots of waterfalls as well. One of these pictures is called the "Weeping Wall". One of these falls is called "Bridal Veil Falls, can you tell which one it is? We are now in a little town called McBride Canada. Which is in the middle of nowhere. We were out of milk so we went into town. Oh my goodness.......it's Sunday so the town was empty but the market was open. You wouldn't believe the prices of things in this store. I don't know how this little town can afford to live here. I don't see any industry ,a few small farms, mostly cow type farms. A very small bag of snow peas was $10.00. Amazing. As you can imagine gas is expensive here as well. It is sold by the liter but is well over $5.00 per gallon. Have no idea how it is in the states now but it is expensive here.

We are on the long drive now to Alaska so I don't anticipate any great experiences but if I have any I will let you know. I don't know when I will have Internet again either so wish me luck.

Yes it gets cold at night, in the 60's in the day. I'm waiting for snow.