South is better than north, Eh? . . .

I know it's been a while since my last post, but we are just SO busy vacationing that I have a hard time finding the time! It's a hard life!

In our week in Canmore/Banff we’ve had a mix of weather: mostly nice but a couple of miserable days—the locals deserve all the great weather they can get as they have been literally deluged over the past three or so weeks. The last couple of days were nice so we drove to Jasper (500km return) on the Icefields Parkway. This highway is best driven, we think, from Jasper to Banff (north to south) because the scenery becomes more and more spectacular the farther south you go; the other way it starts out spectacular and fades to merely incredible by the time you get to Jasper.

Pam, waiting impatiently for our beer in Jasper

We had a great lunch in Jasper with some local beers and our timeshare is pretty nice but the scenery in this area is the real draw. When we drove to Alaska and back in 2002 we thought the Alaska mountains were just spectacular and we had gotten pretty blasé about scenery by the time we finished our time in Alaska. (We also thought the mosquitos were pretty spectacular, but that’s another story.) Until, that is, we got to the Jasper area and drove the Icefields Parkway. There is no way to adequately describe the mountains of eastern Alberta/western British Columbia, they have to be experienced to be appreciated. And the glacial lakes. And the Columbia Icefield. And and and. . .

In Banff we also had a great time wandering around the town, window shopping, art gallery looking, and drinking local beer!

Our little guide who lives in the electronics in our car, courtesy of GyPSy Guides http://gypsyguide.com/, was so FABULOUS! If you are going to drive in this part of Canada, you must get this for your car! I downloaded the guide for the trip from Banff to Lake Louise and the guide for the Icefields Parkway drive to my Android phone (they have them for Apple, too) and it was wonderful to listen to our little electronic guide, every few minutes, telling us about the history, the scenery, the wildlife, all the stuff we would never have known otherwise. And we could stop and we didn’t have to buy the guide a beer or coffee! For less than $5 for each tour, it’s a wonderful bargain!

From our little electronic guide we learned, for instance, that bears come out of hibernation (OK, OK, I KNOW they come out of hibernation!) and start digging at the base of avalanches. Why? Because of all the animals that get trapped and killed by the avalanches are frozen and thus preserved and the bears fresh out of hibernation dig them out. You might call them Bear Popsicles!

And we learned that lakes are to rivers as icefields are to glaciers (doesn’t that sound like a question on the SATs or GREs?); that is, lakes and icefields are stationary and rivers and glaciers flow. I love learning this stuff!

What the guide didn’t tell us was to start early—but we have to be told that! We got to Peyto (pronounced PEE-toe) Lake early (around 8am) and there were only three cars in the lot! This, in SUMMER, in the Banff area! And no busses!

I think most people know that Canada has a lot of French-Canadians. So many that, if the area is a government area (e.g., national parks [or parcs]), everything—EVERYTHING—has to be in both languages. So every sign (Exit/Sortie, Park/Parc—OK, that exhausts my knowledge of French) in a federal area has to be in both French and English. And EVERY thing you buy, no matter where in Canada, has to be in both French and English. Try imagining how difficult it is to read the label on a small bottle of (pick a thing—medicine? Food? You name it); well, now imagine squashing two languages worth of information into the label and then try reading it! If it has a label written in English, then the identical information must be there in French also.

I really don’t want to live in Canada, I just like to tour their beautiful country and then go home where everything is in English! But it is cool up there! And they have beautiful mountains—almost as beautiful as where we’re going next, Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park.

Oh, Canada! Eh? That's the show we went to in Canmore. It was pretty good, but I think they were just trying to show the Americans how many entertainment personalities WE thought were American, are actually Canadian. I mean, really, "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds" is CANADIAN???

One of the picnic areas that is still underwater outside Canmore.

Guess who took this picture? Randy or Pam?

The Banff Fairmont Springs Hotel

They have dandelions in Canada, too.

Flood damage along the road near Canmore.

The Crowfoot Glacier has lost one of its toes! Yes, there is global warming.

It's spring and the berries are delicious!

Peyto Lake, my absolute favoritest lake in Canada. It always looks as if it had been photoshopped, but that's the normal color, caused by suspended rock "flour" in the water