Labour Day in Jasper

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September 3, 2012 - It is Labour Day in Canada, so it is the same as Labor Day but with a u. We didn't notice anything else special about the holiday except that while crowds everywhere had been crazy since Thursday, we didn't see those kinds of throngs today so it looks like everyone was traveling home after the holiday weekend today.

Clay and I were up and out before sunrise because he had supposedly been up for a while hearing elk bugles. We went out to see if we could catch the sunrise or some wildlife. We didn't get any kind of special sunrise. But, we did see a collared mother elk and her yearling on the island in the Athabasca River from our cliffside view. The yearling was bucking and kicking and jumping and spinning around among some fallen trees out on the island. He was doing a crazy, happy dance to the break of day! Then, we watched him follow his mom across the river and they continued on south down the aptly named, Wapiti Trail. That was so great!

Then we walked to the road where we saw a woman standing still for a long time. We asked what she was looking at and she thought it was a fox. It turned out it was a coyote. It was following a trail on the other side of the road and heading north. Everyone had somewhere else to be this morning's commute!

Breakfast was at 8am at the hotel restaurant. We had 2 choices, hot or cold. Hot breakfast was 2 eggs cooked to order with bacon and sausage and toast. Cold breakfast was fruit and yogurt. Either breakfast came with orange juice and coffee or tea. We all went with hot. It was good. The bus departed at 9am.


Today our bus ride was to Maligne Canyon, Gorge and Lake. The only wildlife we saw was a coyote hunting mice on the way into and out of the canyon. We stopped briefly for a photo op at Medicine Lake, so named for Bad Medicine because of its extreme level fluctuations due to lots of holes in the rock that makes up the lake bed. Then, we drove on around it to Maligne Canyon and the falls through the gorge for a short, 2 bridge guided walk with Amy and a potty/gift shop break. We learned about chockstones. We learned about Rose Marie canoe at Maligne Lake. Then we went on to Maligne Lake where we were free to wander for a while, but we did not have enough time there to take the boat trip to Spirit Island and back.

We got back into Jasper proper and had an orientation bus ride around the main business part of town with places that might interest us for meals or shopping pointed out. The trail from Jasper to our hotel was also pointed out. We were told that cab fare would run about $12. The bus would be going back to the hotel after dropping off anyone who wanted and then would make 2 more round trip runs at 2:30pm and 4pm.

We got off the bus to stay in Jasper for lunch and the afternoon. We all agreed to skip dinner in essence. We walked a long loop around reading menus. We bought a 6-pack of beer for Judy and Clay. We looked in some shops. We ate a big, late lunch at Jasper Pizza. I, for one, was starving by then. Sadly, they did not start serving wood-oven pizzas until after 4pm, so while we got to see the smoke and smell it before we left town, we had ordinary thick pizzas. They were fine. We had 3 pizzas and Mom had a bison burger. We packed up leftovers and didn't order dessert. Clay walked the beer and leftovers over to the bus for storage at 2:30pm. He closed them in the overhead bin since we knew the smell would drive Brian crazy as he made his Febreeze sweep and cleaning every time everyone left the bus and we were right! The Febreeze smell was a little stronger in our area than normal at 4pm. When we got off the bus, we made Mom carry the pizza box and Brian mouth dropped open and he yelled at her, Pizza!?! Too funny. Brian worked so hard all week to keep that bus so clean inside and out and we really appreciated it, especially the clean windows so we could take pictures out them. Anyway, Clay got an ice cream cone after that. We all walked down to the 2 grocery stores and bought some things to dinner with the leftovers. We bought cheese, squeaky cheese curds (white cheddar, yum!) and yogurt and I think Clay bought soda. We walked past a couple of gardens, flower and vegetable. Then, Judy sat on a bench and Mom and Clay and I went back to one of the convenience stores that had a big array of frozen Slurpees. The one we wanted was by Tim Hortons because it had soft serve ice cream alone or mixed in a Slurpee and a self service milkshake machine. Mom got a chocolate milkshake and I got a root beer Slurpee with vanilla ice cream. Both were really good! We finished them up on the bench with Judy and then walked over to the train station just before the bus came back at 4pm. He didn't have anyone onboard when he arrived, so I guess none of our 46 planned an evening in Jasper.

We went back to the room and put our food and drinks in the refrigerator. Then, we went out to Wapiti Trail to the cliffside overlook again. I built an inukshuk beside the Athabasca River with supervision from Clay and Judy above. The rocks were weird. First, they were all covered with a silty powder. The rounded ones were really light, like the were made of foam and the angular ones were really heavy. Mom was going to build it with me, but she didn't help because she found some people to talk to. It was more difficult than I thought it would be trying not to fall off the rocks into the water and mud and there were spiders living in the mud under the rocks when I picked them up! I only fell once and I did not hurt myself other than skinning a knuckle. At some point Judy left and went back to her room.

We were hoping to see the elk come back but we didn't see any wildlife. We saw a couple from our group trying to go to the beach below the cliff by walking on the rocks below instead of the upper trail. I knew from building the inukshuk how hard it was to walk down there and was watching because it was a bad idea. She fell down hard and her leg went into a deep hole between 2 big rocks and she hit her head and gouged a hole in her left temple at the hairline. Then she took off her jacket and her shirt, so we stayed up top and moved away. After I checked that she was dressed again, we went back and I hollered down to ask if we could help, I had Kleenex and a bottle of water. They came up and tried to wipe away a lot of blood with my supplies. I thought she needed to go to a hospital and get stitches and a tetanus shot, but I kept that to myself since she looked shaky and scared. Her husband and Mom both had medical kits back in their rooms, so Clay and I stayed behind and left them to tending the injured patient. We went back to the room after we thought we had seen the color of sunset. We set up our picnic dinner on the table in our room. There were 3 chairs in the room and I sat on the bed. The husband came back looking to return Mom's bottle of hydrogen peroxide while we were sitting in the window eating. He said it quit bleeding and they were satisfied it was a clean wound and would be all right, but she was bruised, had a headache and they were worried about her having a black eye. We saw her the next morning and she looked fine. She even had her hair styled to cover the bandage and if you didn't know about it, you probably wouldn't have noticed the slight swelling on that side. I hope she healed well! It was scary.

Clay went back out after dark to look for wildlife again. He came back after I was in my pajamas. He was all excited about a big antlered bull elk across the road. I put on my socks and shoes and pulled a hoodie over the pajamas and we got Mom to put her shoes and jacket on and we all hurried over before it got too dark, or they left. Clay had alerted everyone he could find on his way to the room and there was a pretty good crowd out by the road watching the big guy and his 2 girlfriends grazing. Pretty exciting.

Found random videos from the trip!

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To Jasper

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September 2, 2012 - Bags out at 7am. Breakfast buffet again in Tony Roma's off the lobby. Bus departed at 8am. We had another long driving day today.

First, we visited Moraine Lake. It turns out to be a famous view. There was a Jeep commercial shot there on Devil's Thumb. Canadians call it a $20 view because it used to be the picture on the back of their $20 bill. I don't know what they have back there now! I didn't even think about checking when I had a wallet full! Mom found a hooded sweatshirt on sale here and it was just what she needed to keep warm. The girls at the gift shop cash register were collecting US quarters and only had about a half-dozen more that they needed to complete the collection. Mom had one. She told me about it and I checked my purse back at the bus and found South Dakota, so when we left they only needed 4 more. On the way back out to the main road, we passed a collared black bear in a berry feeding frenzy. He was right beside the road on the hillside almost level with the bus windows. See a short, but excited video below.

At 10am, we got off the bus in front of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Lunch time was here and it was on our own. We walked through and checked and it was very expensive. We used the restrooms and then went for a walk along Lake Louise. The girls ate Lance Nabs and protein bars again. When we got back to the hotel Clay got an $11 cold chicken sandwich. Mom and I each got a hot chocolate to go at $3.50 each. The bus left at noon.

We drove all afternoon on the Icefields Parkway through the Columbia Icefields. Fresh water melts from here and drains into 3 different oceans, the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific. It is a lot of ice and a lot of melt water. The scenery continues to vary and all of it is just spectacular. At one point, Amy pointed out some white dots again green way up the side of a mountain and Brian pulled over very briefly for photos. We were on the wrong side of the bus and by the time we got some window space, we were rolling again. Boo! We had a short photo stop at Crowfoot Glacier. We had another short stop at Peyto Lake at Bow Summit. We had another short stop for a potty break at a truck stop that I am sorry to say I did not get the name of it. Amy warned us that it was crazy expensive because there was nothing else around. I found a $50 apron that I liked and did not buy. But, Clay had been looking for some maple candy to take back to the office and it had been very expensive everywhere, but he found the most affordable bag here and bought one.

Our last stop was at Athabasca Falls to take our group photo. They had some metal risers set up and were photographing busload after busload! We were bigger than the risers, but he got us all in with Mt. Kerkeslin in the background. It was a beautiful sunny day for it! There is a short video of Athabasca Falls below. We had a show of hands for those who thought they might purchase a $20 photo. The photos were available for purchase on the day we left Jasper for Calgary.

We were offered a complimentary peach juice or orange juice on arrival at Jasper House Bungalows. We again were handed our keys as we left the bus. Our rooms were ready and our luggage arrived not too much later. Clay and I got number 44 and Mom & Judy were right next door. We all had a view of the rear of the bungalow row directly in front of us. We didn't feel too bad about it this time, since it appeared that the entire back row of bungalows was taken by Caravan people, so it wasn't just us! Once again, it seemed like a bad luck draw. The rooms were nicer than we expected for sitting out in the woods about 2.25 miles from Jasper. (They were much, much nicer than the wooden cabins we stayed at in Creel on Caravan's Copper Canyon trip!) The problem was that it was about 3pm and we had no transportation and there was nothing for us to do. Amy gave us no clue in advance so, we were all unprepared and she gave us no suggestions or tips on arrival either except to point out that there was a trail beside the road that in less than 3 miles would take you to Jasper and that the Jasper Tramway was in view across the road and possibly walkable. Eventually, the bar opened and a big group took it over, but had we been warned in advance of arrival we might have packed in some snacks and beverages for the nice outdoor spaces set up around the grounds. As it was, we just wandered the grounds, sat and watched the Athabasca River and Clay tried to walk to town and back. He reported that the trail was very rough and he couldn't make good time and he did not make it to Jasper. He went about 1/2 way to another hotel outside Jasper and turned around and came back. We had been warned that bears were out feeding on berries and that elk were to be avoided as they were in rut and we might hear them bugling. We were a little worried and a little thrilled, but it was a non-issue.



Dinner tonight was included and right at the hotel. It was at 7pm. We had placed our orders earlier on the bus. We had a choice of ground meat lasagna, 1/2 BBQ chicken or salmon and green salad followed by vanilla ice cream and coffee. Very few people heard Amy say lasagna and when she asked us for our orders, she did not repeat the choices, so it was all chicken for us. I like iceberg lettuce only as a salad, but there were a lot of unhappy people. The food was OK. We hung around outside for quite a while tonight hoping for a good sunset or some animal sightings, but we were disappointed and all went to bed early. The rooms had small refrigerators and televisions as well as coffee makers.

We slept OK, except for the scratchy sheets and Clay claimed he heard numerous elk bugles that woke him up and then kept him up. I didn't hear anything and neither did Mom, though Judy said she heard them too without having her sleep disturbed by it. Since Clay and I both broke out with rashes here, we decided that the sheets and towels must still have detergent in them and that was why they felt scratchy to us.

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Banff

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Photos in no particular order because Photobucket sucks!

September 1, 2012 - We got to sleep in today! No bags out. Breakfast was at 8am in Tony Roma's. It was kind of a mess of a makeshift buffet. The bus departed from our view of the parking lot at 9am. This would be our first really long day all outdoors and wouldn't you know it had snowed overnight on the mountaintops and it rained off and on all morning. It was a kind of crazy weather day, all 4 seasons in one day. Good thing we had all packed and dressed in layers! Clay, of course, did not sleep in and went out for a long walk and lots of photos.

The morning drive was billed as a wildlife excursion, sadly all we got was a glimpse of 2 deer. To kill the suspense, I will say right now that in our week in Canada we never saw a living moose! According to Amy, there have been no caribou in the area we traveled for several years, the last known herd was killed by an avalanche. Sad! We did see some scenic landscapes though.

We stopped first at Two Jack Lake and then went on to Lake Minnewanka for a potty break. They had a build your own inukshuk playground surrounding their modern, ecofriendly toilets.

Then, we drove back to Banff and toured the Cascades of Time Garden and from there we saw the famous view of Banff that was on the Starbucks mug. Huh. The gardens were spectacular and it would have been really stunning had the water works been running. The weeds in the pools at the top were so tall, that I would guess the ponds had been empty all summer. Too bad.

It started really raining here and by the time we got in the bus on our way to our Bow River Float trip, it was raining sideways with a cold gusting wind. I may not have mentioned it before, but Amy had this on-going joke. I guess she thought it was a joke. Clay called it her schtick. Anyway, from the first minute of the first day, she went on and on about how lucky we were that we all got to travel with the love of her life, her man, her fiance, our bus driver Brian. She probably never went an hour without mentioning that this was a great place for a wedding, or this was a great place for engagement photos, or here for wedding photos, where they were planning to do all these things themselves. Amy told us she was 24 and had been doing guide work for 5-6 years. Brian was in his 50s. It was clear to me that he was old enough to be her father and he did not appear to be amused by it, though as the week went by, he started making jokes too. But first we learned by asking him, that he was married to someone else, had a daughter Amy's age and was in fact already a grandfather. By the end of the trip, I think everyone had figured out that it wasn't true, but in the beginning people just took her at her word. They believed it and were not amused later. It wasn't amusing to start with either. I am not sure what the point of all the effort was except that without it, she'd have had very little to say. You can never know what goes on in another's head, but my feeling was that it amused her and she didn't care how we felt because she just didn't like us very much. She was there for herself and we were just so much baggage. For example, she rarely ever answered a direct question. If anyone asked a question, the response was usually, I'll answer that later. You might have guessed, that later hardly ever came. Again, I don't know why except to think that she didn't care about us or our getting answers to our questions. Anyway, that is the reason for the pose in the photo of Brian and Amy pretending to be in love.

We went past the Fairmont Banff Springs to get to the Float Trip loading area which was just across the river from the base of the Bow River Falls. It is probably a very scenic area! We were all just holding on to our clothes! Trying to keep the rain out of our eyes or off our glasses! So, we lined up, or clustered up, and the river guides came around and suited each of us up with a lifevest and a plastic poncho over that. We wound up at the end of the line, mostly because people bolted back to the bus as the wind and rain picked up as we were loading the rafts. We were the last ones to load the 3rd and final raft. At least an entire raft load bailed out on the float trip. Too bad.

Our river guide, Dean, a real Canadian rowed towards the falls as we launched and told us he was going upstream for a few minutes until the rain broke. True to his word, within minutes the sun was out. This created individual steam saunas with us in our wet ponchos! We mostly stripped out of ours. The rafting trip was interesting and we enjoyed it once the sun came out, which was almost the whole trip.

We were on the HooDoo trip. We rafted past the hoodoos on the river and then unloaded back into the bus. The water was low as we could see just below the hoodoos. But, the most exciting thing was spotting a small black bear right in front of the first hoodoo. Clay just happened to have his telephoto lens on the camera at the moment I spotted it, or we'd never have gotten a photo of it. Dean thought I was joking when I first called out bear! Once we all started hollering and pointing, the little bear took off through the woods and we lost sight of him. Pretty exciting though. I had been hoping to have a non-threatening bear encounter and this was a good one. As the last raft, we were the only ones to see the bear.

The rest of the afternoon was at independent leisure. We could get a ride back to our hotel or we could be left at the Fairmont Banff Springs to have lunch or otherwise make our own way back to the Mount Royal in Banff. According to the map, it looked like there was a riverside trail from the falls, behind the Fairmont and into Banff. We decided to try to get a drink or snack in the Fairmont with a view and then walk back. As soon as we got off the bus, I asked Amy how to find the trail behind the Fairmont and she answered directly for once, saying there is no trail, you have to walk on the road to get back. OK, nevermind, first direct answer and it is either wrong or untrue. We went into the Fairmont and toured some of the public areas looking for restrooms and a place to sit and have a break. All the seats were taken, except for some dark, interior ones and that was not what we had in mind. They were not using outdoor seating because everything was still pretty wet. It was right between noon and 1pm, so it was peak time and we just missed out. None of us were interested in sitting in a restaurant for a full meal. When we were ready to start walking back, I went to the Concierge and asked how to find the riverside trail and he told me to turn left at the palm, follow the hall and signs all the way to the spa, go outside to the restaurant down by the river and go behind the restaurant and turn left on the path. That was pretty much the way it worked. Though, we would never have gone through all the little halls and doors without his instructions. The walk started at the bottom of the falls, so there were lots and lots of stairs to start our walk back. Good thing we had protein bars and nabs again to eat on the way down!

We walked at a leisurely pace to sightsee and it took us about an hour to get back to the bridge to Banff. We stopped at the Indian Trading Post for some shopping. Mom bought some gifts and we crossed the bridge and luckily found the Post Office still open at 2pm on Saturday so she could mail herself a package. After that, Mom and Judy went back to their room. Clay and I walked on over to Safeway again, so I could get the Starbucks Banff mug now that I had seen the view and a bear. Clay and I also checked out some menus on the way there and back to scout locations for dinner. We choose Earl's, a Canadian chain. We also got trapped at candy shop window across the street from our hotel. We later realized that the delicious aromas were being blown out by a fan from a grill above that window! It lured us right in and we could scarcely pull ourselves away!

About 5pm, we all went out to get dinner. We got to Earl's in time to get a table in the bar without a wait. We had drinks, with 2 pizzas to share and Clay had a sandwich. This was the first night that I felt energetic enough to drink any alcohol! Two hours in time difference and it took me 5 days to get over it. We shared a chocolate sticky toffee pudding for dessert. I can't believe we didn't get a photo. I seem to recall that Clay also got a sundae of his own.

We wandered and shopped some more and then went back to the Mount Royal Hotel and to bed. We have to pack up again tonight.

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To Banff

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Photos are out of order. Sorry! Photobucket sucks!

August 31, 2012 - Breakfast is at 7am at the Lakeside Chophouse again this morning. Bags out at 7am. Bus departs at 8am.We have a full day's drive ahead of us heading North to Banff. We drove a little tour of Pincher Creek on our way in order to view their many building-side murals. We drove North up the Cowboy Trail, or 22, to Hwy. 40 at Longview, then on the Trans-Canada Hwy. to Banff.

At 10am, we stopped at the Bar U Ranch Historic Site. We had a guided tour with Cowboy Mike. Mike wore spurs. They jingled as he walked. Mom and I were walking directly behind him and Mom said, He can't sneak up on anyone. Without turning around, Mike replied, You get me mounted and I'm pretty quiet. I heard Mom make a little noise and I could imagine what she was imagining, looking at Mike's butt sticking out of his chaps... I very quietly said, Calm down. We all got pretty quiet then. Mike turned around and looked at us a little red-faced and sheepishly with no further comment. We had a good laugh over that later when we told Judy and Clay about it. Mike gave our group an overview, followed by a roping demonstration. After the guided tour, we had free time to enter buildings and have a cup of coffee from the cook's campfire and meet the Percherons. We spent the most time in the cookhouse. They had a costumed cook portrayer in there as well as the outdoor cook, a tack man and a wagon driver with Percherons. They were huge. They left hoof prints the size of dinner plates. Here is a tip, coffee boiled over a fire is nasty! It was all very interesting. Judy picked up a National Geographic Crown of the Continent Map here and after I and others saw it, we emptied out the rack of them. They promptly refilled it! Look for one. The map stops just above Canmore, so it doesn't cover the northern part of this Caravan Tour of the Canadian Rockies, but it is excellent for the southern part.

At 11:30am, it was time for lunch. They served a $13 cold box lunch that we had an option to pre-order the day before. Amy advised us that it was not mandatory nor obligatory and we could instead take anything we wanted on the bus to have a picnic at the Bar U during the time set aside for lunch. Subway was by Wieners and both were open early this morning before we left. We had protein bars and Lance Nabs as well as a foot long Italian sub from Subway to share. We had our water and Clay went to a machine inside and bought some sodas. Peanut M&Ms for dessert. We were saving our money for an extra expensive meal tonight in Banff. We have been hearing a lot about how good Alberta beef is and we have seen miles of cattle ranches, so tonight we plan to find a good steakhouse and give it a try. Comparing these green grazing lands and all the hay baled up for winter feed to the miles and miles of dirt and rocks of West Texas cattle ranches, we have high expectations!

Oh, I forgot to mention that Caravan provided each participant a half-liter bottle of water everyday at their seat on the bus. Clay and I also always carry 2 wide-mouthed reusable bottles in neoprene carriers so that we can have iced water. We did have access to ice and either a bucket in the room, or a refrigerator. So, in addition to the complimentary bottle of water everyday, all the hotels had potable water and ice available.

At 12:15pm, we reloaded the bus and started driving North again towards Banff. We drove through Longview and Amy pointed out the world famous beef jerky shop there, but that was as close as we got. We looked everywhere for it in stores, but evidently they only sell direct and not through retailers. Too bad! That would have made an interesting stop for us.

We had about a 20-30 minute outhouse potty stop at the Ptarmigan Trailhead before Highwood Pass on Hwy. 40. Then, we drove about another 2 hours to Banff. We had an overview drive through town on the way to the Banff Gondola. As with the Red Jammers yesterday, this was included in our Caravan Tour cost. It was worth about $30 pp. We had over an hour to spend at the top. We boarded at 3:20pm and had to be back at the bus at 5pm. Clay went to walk on the Banff Skywalk alone. We thought that we understood we would all meet back up in the area where we separated before going back down on the Gondola. The 3 of us ladies walked all the way around the observation station at the top, used the restrooms, went through the giftshop, went up to the top observation level and then waited and looked for Clay. Clay evidently did not understand, missed us while we were on top of the observation station and chose not to wait for us. He came back from the Skywalk, walked around the observation station and did not see us, so he rode the Gondola back down alone. He stood at the exit into the gift shop where they were displaying the photos they took at the top. He was upset because we left him again. We did not leave him, again. We were a little upset too that he went down alone. We were a little stressed out as 4:30pm became 4:45pm and we had to go down without him. Oh, well. We all reboarded the bus on time at 5pm. We drove back through Banff to review dining and shopping options and then went to Mount Royal Hotel, our home for the next 2 nights.

Clay and I were in room 305 which had a view of the parking lot. It was 3 rooms from the end of the building and so also had a 2 to 3am wakeup call from the people leaving the closing bars and nightclub down that street. It was not great. We were in Banff over Labour Day weekend and there were big crowds. There were evidently a lot of noisy night owls! Mom & Judy were a few doors more central and on the other side of the hall and had a view of Banff's main street. They said they didn't hear any noise at night. We just got another bad draw, I guess. No room refrigerators here either.

After we checked in and received our luggage, we went out to find dinner. We headed for the Saltlik, which Brian and Amy both said would be their first choice for a special dinner. It was good steak and expensive and I think we all liked our food. Except maybe Clay, his came with some sauce he didn't like. If he had thought about it, he probably could have asked them to leave it off or put it on the side. It was kind of like Ruth's Chris. The steaks came alone. You had to order sides to share. We got garlic buttered broccoli and scalloped potatoes. The mashed potatoes came with lobster in them! It turns out that is the main reason both Brian and Amy would go or refer people to Saltlik! I hate that! I had to pick the chives off the scalloped potatoes after the waiter assured me it was only potatoes, butter, cream and cheese with no weird toppings. Oh, well. We were all too full and none of the desserts tempted us so we only had the one course. We all liked Alberta beef. It is funny how different beef tastes from different places. Clay likes it all. Mom & I liked Argentine beef okay, but not Wagyu for example. Anyway, it was very good, we liked it and it was filling. Mom talked a lot about it afterwards and never got the name right! She called it Split Lick or Slit Lick and then commented that was an awful name for a restaurant! Either would be, but those were not the name! Now, though, you have to wonder about the choice of Saltlik too, don't you?

We took a walk on the way back. I checked the Safeway's Starbucks for souvenir mugs but didn't buy one. It had a picture of Banff from a perspective I had not seen and a bear, which I had not seen. It was better than the generic Canada Starbucks mug I had previously seen, but I didn't get it. Clay bought some Diet Cokes along the way. We looked for Longview beef jerky. Weirdly, we found massive amounts of beef jerky for sale and nearly all from the USA. What is up with that? We also found massive amounts of Slurpee or Icee machines in convenience or mini-mart type places. We had never seen such a large variety of slushies before. What is up with that, too? Some t-shirts got purchased, but mostly we just drifted with the crowds of people out on the streets and browsed.  Cows of Banff, an ice cream shop, was right next door to Mount Royal Hotel and Clay got a cone before we all turned in for the night.

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A Day in Montana

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Sorry I can't get the photos properly organized. If you are seeing this apology for the first time, let me explain. Almost 7 years after I signed up and started using PhotoBucket, in July of 2017 they changed their terms of usage and broke all my embedded photo links overnight with no advance notice. I am trying to do the minimum required to get into compliance now and recover the pics. It is slow going since PhotoBucket has blocked my images.

August 30, 2012 - No bags out this morning, so that was a good start to the day. Breakfast was a buffet back in the Lakeside Chophouse at 7am. They had the most delicious maple syrup and a whole water pitcher of it! I also really liked the crispy cinnamon rolls. I know too many carbs! We had time to go back to the room to brush our teeth before the bus left at 8am.

We had to have our passports with us today for the border crossing into Montana. There was no direct road within the park between the 2 countries, so for some of our route today we crossed Blackfeet Indian Reservations.We crossed into the USA at the Chief Mountain border crossing. Oranges cannot cross the border here! Our passports got stamped and we had to fill out customs forms and an inspector came aboard to check each of us. It went quickly and we were on our way to Glacier National Park.

We had a quick potty break at the St. Mary Visitor's Center and then took the bus as far into the park as allowed before loading into 3 Red Jammers. We rode the Going-to-the-Sun Road in the Red Jammers as far as the Logan Pass Visitor's Center. There we unloaded to use restrooms, take a quick walk or see the Visitor's Center. We only had about 15 minutes, so it was a quick stop. On the way there, we had one other photo stop overlooking a lake. We stopped twice more without unloading for Jackson Glacier Overlook and right before the tunnel. We drove mostly alongside Goat Mountain. Our guide saw me constantly scanning the heights of it with binoculars and he asked what I was doing. I told him I was looking for goats, Goat Mountain. He told me to forget it that he had been doing this for 5-6 summers and never saw any goats! Returning to the Red Jammer from the Logan Pass Visitor's Center there were lots of people standing with binoculars and big-lensed cameras all pointing at the hillside over the parking lot. I stopped and asked what they were looking at of a couple of the groups with different guides. The guides were pointing out a small cluster of big horn sheep up there. It was like trying to find a pile of rocks in a big pile of rocks, but I found them with my binoculars and hustled down to our Red Jammer to tell everyone else. I don't think anyone would ever have seen them there if the first one with the biggest horns hadn't been casting a shadow! Wouldn't you know that our guide was loading us up while our other 2 guides were pointing out the big horn sheep. I stopped that! When our guide asked what we were looking at and we pointed out the big horn sheep, he replied Oh those are always up there in that same spot, I think they must have them staked out up there. Really?  They were really far away and hard to see, but still it was exciting for some of us!

We didn't really see anything fresh on the way back from Logan Pass. We reloaded the bus and drove back to St. Mary for our lunch stop. Amy was unclear here on what was happening. She told us to go inside to the Snowgoose Grill restaurant and sit at any table with a glass of water and be back on the bus at a set time. The restaurant asked us to come back in a few minutes as they weren't ready, so most of us went to the restrooms or the gift shop. In the ladies room, people were asking each other if they misunderstood and lunch was included today. In fact, it was not included and we could have skipped it, but Amy did not explain in advance or at the stop what was happening. It turned out to be another unfortunate stop. We were the first table seated and placed our drink order immediately on sitting. 2 Moose Drool beers and 2 Red Jammer Root Beers. However, the waiter did not return to take our food order until he had been to every other table! We were last to order and it was 45 minutes from the time we got our drinks until we got our food. We had 15 minutes left and no food. We flagged down our waiter and he told us there had been a mixup and our food had been delivered to another table and was being recooked! He never apologized and acted quite put out with us and stated his facts rather rudely. Thankfully, Clay and I had gone to visit the gift shop after placing our food order while waiting patiently. We tried to quickly eat some of our lunch and pay our bill, but we were the last ones out of the restaurant. It wasn't very good food either. If we had known in advance, we might have planned to eat protein bars or something else to just hold us until we had a chance to eat somewhere of our choosing and without a short time limit attached. Amy must have taken some heat from others on this point, because it didn't happen again. After that she would give us up to 24-hours notice about "picnic opportunities" for lunch.

After lunch, we drove to Many Glacier Hotel. I am still not sure why, it was about an hour roundtrip drive and we only unloaded the bus there for about 20 minutes. We passed and briefly glimpsed a grizzly bear in the distance from the bus on the way out. We also saw a black bear briefly at a distance from the bus. Neither close enough or clear enough view or long enough stop for photos. Sorry! We passed a waterfall right before Many Glacier Hotel. When we unloaded the bus, I asked Amy if we had time to walk there and back and she said no, go in the hotel, use the restrooms and see the view over the lake and go downstairs and get some huckleberry ice cream. So, that is what we did. The huckleberry ice cream was hard to find even with directions and signage. It was from a self-service soft-serve machine. It was good. We all shared 2 of them and that was plenty.

Nothing remarkable to report on the rest of the drive. We crossed back into Canada with the same routine as this morning on the way out.

We got back to Waterton and the Bayshore Inn around 3-4pm. Judy was waiting to see her sister and her friend and planned to spend the evening alone with them. The rest of us went for a walk up the hill with the goal of seeing the Newt Underpass. As we were driving out of Waterton this morning, Amy pointed out a couple of rumbles as we drove over them and explained that there was a sign with a newt on it coming into Waterton. It seems these newts only live here and they go down to the lake to breed and then live up on the mountain the rest of the time. After the road was built, there were a lot of squished newts. So, they built a diverter up the mountain, above the road to steer the newts into a couple of tunnels under the road. Same thing below the road. Success for the newts! As we walked in that direction, Clay spotted some big horn sheep right here near home. There was a group of females and youngsters right on the edge of the cliff over the road into Waterton. We learned today that only the males have the big curled horns. The female big horn sheep, just have long narrow horns that sweep back, but they don't get big and curl around. Mom and I stood there for a while as Clay walked on to the Newt Underpass and back. We pointed out the sheep to lots of passersby and a lot of folks got photos they would otherwise have missed! On the way back to the hotel, we found a public wildflower garden used to generate seeds.

We came back to the hotel and saw another group of mule deer right at the hotel and met Judy's sister and her friend. As it was getting dark, we headed over to Wieners for dinner. It was good. We all had the Nathan's dog. Amy had advised us to get the sweet potato fries with Parmesan rosemary dip and we got an order to share. Another passenger had recommended the crushed potato chips as a topping. So, I had special sauce (spicy ketchup) and mustard with crushed salt and vinegar potato chips. It was all very good. We all really liked the dip with the fries and usually none of us are fans of sweet potato fries. After we walked down the main street to get an ice cream cone for Clay. Mom and I went inside a shop to try on a shirt and missed the herd of mule deer crossing the road. Clay left us there and we found him on the swing in front of the hotel. Tomorrow is a bags out morning, so we all went to bed pretty early.

One note about Bayshore Inn. There are no refrigerators in the rooms. There is an ice bucket and the machine is in the parking lot behind the office. You have to take your room key with you to get ice!

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Drive to Waterton

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August 29, 2012 - Clay and I went to breakfast at 6am. They were still setting up the buffet. There weren't many people there yet and I was able to get an omelet to order. Mom & Judy came in around 7am and had a bad experience with cold, hot food on the buffet as well as no eggs to order. Just sayin'. We went back upstairs to brush our teeth and put out our bags at 7am. Everyone was checked out of the hotel and waiting in the lobby before 8am. This would be a pattern for our group of 46. No one was ever late. We were all either early or right on time.

We drove into downtown Calgary first for a quick overview. Then we headed South to Waterton. We were never in the bus for more than 2 hours at a stretch without some kind of stop to get out and see something, eat or use the restrooms. So, while we had some long travel days, they never felt that long.

We drove today through prairies, wheatfields, cattle farms, wind farms and mountains. We had one highway truck stop for a potty break, a drive by photo op from the bus pause at Lancaster Air Museum in Nanton, and then a lunch time stop at the historic little town of Fort Macleod. Something wrong happened with this stop. We had neither time to visit the Fort Museum or eat lunch and yet we were told to do both here. It was badly bungled. Also, Fort Macleod was where Brokeback Mountain was filmed. We picked poorly for lunch at the Silver Grill. It was run by Asians who seemed not to speak or really understand English and they were overwhelmed by the small number of Caravaners who arrived. We did manage to have some lunch though. They had Chinese food along with burgers and sandwiches and soups. They had poutine on the menu. We got an order for the table and it was probably the most interesting thing we had there. It was just a stressful and therefore mostly unpleasant stop and that was unfortunate.

We drove through a small town called Pincher Creek shortly before we entered Waterton Lakes Park. This is where Judy's sister is staying tomorrow night when she and a friend are coming to visit Judy. Sadly, we have no pictures of their motel or of them! Our next stop was at the Prince of Wales Hotel to see the amazing building and get a great view of Waterton, our home for the next 2 nights. We are not staying at the Prince of Wales! We are staying down in town at the Bayshore Inn.

We arrived in Waterton in the late afternoon. Our rooms were ready and they handed out our keys as we exited the bus in the parking lot of the Bayshore Inn. One thing to note is that Caravan has one of these tours starting every 2 days during the season, so they pretty much turn over the same hotel rooms constantly. They have it down pat! We have some hours of free time before our first group dinner at the nearby Lakeside Chophouse at 6pm. On arrival in Waterton, Brian gave us a quick orientation drive through as Amy pointed out things of interest and restaurants. We saw a herd of mule deer that we wanted to get a closer look at and found out how to get to Cameron Falls. We also heard that the best place for dinner tomorrow night is Wieners, a hot dog place near our hotel!

Dinner at Lakeside Chophouse was disappointing. Evidently, the salmon was better than the chicken, but I'm not sure that is saying much. We had placed our orders onboard the bus for chicken, salmon or vegetarian. Once at the restaurant, we just had to repeat what we had ordered. It just seemed like someone in the kitchen was trying too hard. The bundles were attractive, but hard to eat and not too tasty. The chicken was both too much and too little. Too many competing flavors and too few bites of chicken.  Dessert was chocolate mousse. It was too bland. We left hungry. The wieners were a big hit starting after our dinner tonight! But, we waited for them until tomorrow! On checkin with our keys we each received a coupon for Lakeside Chophouse to get 50% off a second entree but we didn't use our coupons. It was a nice touch, but no one wanted to return.

This is the world's first International Peace Park. It was formed by combining Alberta Canada's Waterton Lakes National Park with Montana USA's Glacier National Park. You still have to cross the border with your passport! Anyway, there is a little neglected pavilion with a lot of signage about the combined parks right at the end of the Bayshore Inn. It is between the Bayshore Inn and the marina where the sightseeing boats are. There is a great deck there for viewing sunset and sunrise over the lake.

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It started with a rabbit, or is it a hare?

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August 28, 2012 - Clay's first photo from this trip was actually out our bedroom window of a rabbit that has been hanging out around our yard. Our first wildlife sighting of the trip was walking back from dinner by the airport. I'm not sure I know the difference between a rabbit and a hare!

Thus began our Caravan Tour Canadian Rockies and Glacier Park 2012. This is our 2nd Caravan Tour. We did the Copper Canyon in 2009. Sadly, Caravan has discontinued that tour. Anyway, we went again with Caravan with Debbie's Mom, Margie and her friend, Judy.

We all flew on Delta and all flights were on time and we all flew with only carry on luggage, so no problems there. We all cleared customs and immigration into Canada without a hitch. We met up at the hotel in Calgary, Alberta in the afternoon of August 28th. Caravan had us at the Airport Hilton Garden Inn for one night. They provide a complimentary shuttle from the airport. You go outside from baggage claim and look across the street for a yellow column with a 10 on it. You go across and pick up the phone there to call the shuttle. The shuttle runs about every 45 minutes all day as best we could tell. The hotel is right next to the airport, but evidently because of the way the roads run or construction, it takes between 20 and 40 minutes to drive between the two. There is not much near the HGI. In walking distance to the left as you exit are Tim Hortons and the Aerospace Museum and to the right is Moxie's Bar & Grill. We were all pretty exhausted from the flights, jet lag and knowing we had an early morning tomorrow, so we did not go to the museum. Clay and I were in room 409, which had a view of a warehouse and parking lot. Mom and Judy were a couple of doors down and across the hall and they had a much nicer view of downtown Calgary's skyline.

At 7pm, we met our group of 46 (a sold out group!) and our tour director, Amy. It was about a 5 minute meeting. We learned to redeem our breakfast coupons in the hotel lobby between 6am and departure. To have our bags outside our doors at 7am. Bus loaded in front of the building and departure by 8am. We learned that we would learn about the rotation of seats on boarding the bus. I'll spare you the suspense. Amy hung an index card with our names on it above the seat we were assigned each day. We got to freely choose the first day and then she made up the cards and moved us 1 to 3 rows forward or back each day. So, for example, Clay and I lucked into the first row due to a misunderstanding the first day and by the last day we had worked our way all the way to the back of the bus, around to the other side of the aisle and were 6 to 8 rows from the front on that side.

Regarding our dining choice, we were to learn very soon, that Canada or at least Alberta, has strict controls on the sales of alcoholic beverages including wine and beer. Since that is all any of us drink, that is all that impacted us. But, there are very limited places to buy beer and wine. You can be served in bars, in some restaurants, and in state controlled specialty stores. Therefore, while we could have had about the same meal choices for late lunch/early dinner at Tim Hortons, we could not have gotten the beers. (Go to Tim Hortons and get a Canadian Maple! Yum!)

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An Ethnic Dining Weekend

I know. You're probably wondering where are the Caravan Tour Canadian Rockies entries. Sorry! I promise I will get to it unforgivably late. I have been laboring away on Shutterfly to produce an 8x8 photobook of that trip since I had a deadline to get a free one with Coke Rewards.

In the meantime, though we've had some culinary adventures without leaving home. On Thursday, we walked down to the Brookside Deli for their new Indian food from 5 to 8pm on Thursdays. You can get a combo plate for $7.99 that would feed 2. It comes with 2 items plus Basmati rice and a naan. I had butter chicken and dal. For $1, you can add an extra item or naan. They gave us a punch card to earn a free meal. At the price and quality, you can hardly cook at home. We may doing this again on a takeout basis, since that is how they serve it whether you eat in or out.

This weekend was the 31st annual Greek Festival at the NC State Fairgrounds. Great as always. Crazy crowds today with NC State having a football game as well! They had NC artist, Bob Rankin design their t-shirt this year! Very nice. Clay bought one yesterday and the artist was on hand then to hand autograph purchases. So, we go for the food and the t-shirts! The shirts were the best since we've been attending in 1990 and the green beans the worst! Go figure.