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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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