Day 4 - Banff

Banff was a fun stop but it was much more touristy that I thought it would be. Lots of shops, some high-end and things we can get at home and lots of gift shops/stones/first-nations items (like our Native American tribes).

Like I said in the last post, we didn't stick around to see the trains in the spiral? We were trying to make it from Recelstoke to Banff. It's doable, there's just a lot to see in between.

First we had to cross into Alberta.

After a late dinner in Banff we waited for the bus. There was a city bus that went from our campground at the top of a hill to the downtown area for free. We just had to pay $2 a person to ride up...

So while we waited for the bus after dinner we walked around the town, looked inside the widows because it was so late that the businesses were closed (even though you can see blue sky and sun, it was after 9pm). We ran into this gem: The Cascade Gardens. We had our heads to the wrought iron gate looking in when a couple of young people walked up and said "excuse me" and walked right in... Duh.

No one was there so we let the kids run a bit.

Then we walked back downtown (behind them) and waited at the bus stop.

This was taken at the entrance to our campground at 10:15pm. I loved it. I wish it was like this all year round.

We went back downtown the next morning to get Aaron some hiking sandals and then Chuck and I got some shoes as well. Who can pass up adult Keens for $75US?!

Breakfast in the morning:

Downtown Banff

The National Parks in Canada offer these dog tags with each Park name on it. But they are suppose do do a bunch of activities in these activity books before they get the tags. I guess we'd been riding the system the previous parks because Mr. Grumpy Pants would not give the kids their tags until they'd completed 6 of the activities. Good thing we still had to go to Lake Louise (which is located in Banff) so they could fill out their activities and still get their tags. Crisis averted!

On our way to Lake Louise:

It wasn't very far and we were there. That was the plan, to get there at least by lunch time and get a campsite (they didn't take reservations until the next weekend), eat lunch and then hike/bike Lake Louise.

We shared a Coke with Aaron

Are some ketchup chips (a friend from BC suggested it)

We all agreed you aren't missing anything.

And set out for our bike ride to Lake Louise (the lake). Boy. We didn't know what we were facing...

Beautiful views, that's for sure. At least at the beginning.

After a long, steep (by 4 and 7 year old standards) we ran into this:

After some more (5k in total by the end) of about 4-6% grade, there was this: 

And a lot of what I didn't capture:

Walking

Crying

Breathing hard

Some riding

Some more walking

Some more crying

Some more talking and biking

It was a slow and arduous process.

Very slow and very arduous.

But at the top:

And a lot of high fives and lots of happy tears and smiling and cheering and big ol' suckers. Because we promised them a lemonade or ice cream but they chose lollipops.

And then it sprinkled a bit.

To be continued...