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

Good time to visit Japan! . . .

Friday, July 5, 2013 Banff! Well, we’re actually staying in Canmore, but who the heck knows what or where Canmore is? (It’s about 15km south of Banff and is just as pretty.)

These are the goats that make the wonderful cheeses at Carmelis, outside of Kelowna AB

And this is where the goats live.

Mt. Lemmon has nothing on Kelowna in terms of confusing street names!

And so we get to Canmore. What a welcome!

Before we arrived we got a message that we would have to boil water at the timeshare where we were staying because of the flooding. Flooding? What flooding? We had heard NOTHING in the US news about flooding in Alberta but they have had nothing short of a disaster because of the heavy rain. The Calgary Stampede, even, was almost a no-go because of the water damage of the rodeo grounds. The news here (Alberta station) said that the water in a stadium that was going to be used for concerts was flooded to the 14^th row! They did not get that cleaned up but they did get the water damage in the arena (over two meters deep in water two weeks ago) cleaned up and they expect the Stampede will go on mostly as usual.

Canmore has a lot of damage also. Several feet of debris around the pillars supporting the TransCanada Highway. Lots of mud coating everything. And the reason for the “Boil Water” edict? E coli levels in the Bow River are at 8000 times allowable levels. Aside from the ick factor of there being ANY allowable level of E coli, that is an astounding level of bacteria!

However, the day we arrived the “Boil Water” edict had been lifted. Color me skeptical. With that 8000 times bacteria level, I’m not sure I want to drink the water from the tap. And just think, that is a way of life in many countries of the world!

The drive here from Kelowna was beautiful. Our days of blue skies and puffy clouds are ending, but we’re enjoying it while we can!

Sunday, July 07, 2013 Yesterday rained and rained so we stayed in and rested Randy’s knee, which is still swollen and painful. But today dawned (oh so early at 5:36; somewhat made up for by sunset [why don’t we say “sunsetted”?] being at 21:58) absolutely beautiful and cloudless so we decided to drive the Icefields Parkway (http://www.icefieldsparkway.ca/; Pay attention, Donna and Steve, we think you could—should!— do all this when you have the rental car in Vancouver!).

Pam, doing her photography thing.

And this is what she was photographing.

Well, the Icefields Parkway WAS the plan. The nice thing about having a car is that you can change your mind. And we did. Partway, just past Lake Louise, we thought spending time in Banff and Lake Louise would be better today and plan the Icefields Parkway for maybe tomorrow (depending on the weather).

As an aside, we checked four different weather forecasting websites about weather. Now, I know that weathermen can differ a bit on minor parts of a forecast, but complete opposite forecasts? Two websites said Monday and Tuesday will be overcast and rainy, but sunny by Wednesday and Thursday; two others said sunny and warm on Monday and Tuesday, but rainy on Wednesday and Thursday!

One of the apps I have to recommend are the Smart Phone guides that you can get if you are in an area served by GyPSy Guides; in our case, Banff–Lake Louise and Icefields Parkway. They are especially fabulous if you have the ability to hook your phone to the car’s audio system. It’s a GPS-based system so it knows exactly where you are and it tells you what you are seeing on the road you are on. Trip Advisor rates it pretty highly and so do we! 

The beautiful old hotel right on the shores of Lake Louise, the Fairmont Banff Springs. This is the place to stay if you want to avoid quite so many tourists! However, high season rates start at $469!

Got to have the tourist photo at Lake Louise!

We canoed on Lake Louise several years ago, but not this time.

Moraine Lake

So, what did we see today? Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. An unnamed lake with a beautiful mirror image of the mountain. And about a gazillion Japanese tourists. I really don’t want to tar a wonderful nation, and I will probably hear about this from lots of people, but the Japanese tourists that we saw today were a disgrace to their country. They crowded others off pathways, they refused to move so others could take pictures, they ignored the unspoken rules of tourism (allow others to take pictures, don’t walk in front of those taking pictures, don’t jump the queues; in short, Be nice). They were not nice and they spoiled lots of other people’s enjoyment of whatever sight they were trying to see. There were so many Japanese tourists that there can’t be many left in Japan! Must be a good time to visit Japan!

What a beautiful geologic feature. I'm no geologist (as my docent friends can attest!) but this (just outside Banff) looks like something just pushed up one edge of a rocky plain.

Lake Louise was overrun with Japanese tourists. It was difficult to find a tourist who spoke English. Moraine Lake was also. The birthplace of the Canadian National Parks, the Cave and Basin Historical Site http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/ab/caveandbasin/index.aspx, was not. We did not see a single Japanese tourist there. Why? I have no idea. The site of the origin of Canadian National Parks is beautiful, interesting, and extremely well done with “a massive 4 screen HD visual experience that takes you across Canada’s network of protected places.” 

The "Basin" part of the Cave & Basin Historic Site

One of the exhibits at the Cave & Basin Historic Site

More of the exhibit at the Cave & Basin; we used to have a VW bug of this vintage, white, even! Looked just like this one. Don't you hate it when stuff you u sed to use is in a museum? No way they'll fit all that stuff in the trunk!

The view while travelling

Although this is more likely to be your closeup view, at least in summer!

The growing season in the Canadian Rockies is very short; these small trees are actually over 16 years old, it just takes them a long time to get as big as the ones behind the new growth. The bigger ones are over a hundred years old.

An example, to me, of very poor exhibit design. That is actually a large, VERY sturdy ring binder with five pages. But it means that only one or two people can look at the exhibit at a time.

This is for Randy's cousin, Sherry, for remembering visits with their grandparents to the Saguenay River, 3272km away.