We wake up bright and early and meet for breakfast at 9 am. I wanted to be on our way by 10 so we wouldn't get to Banff too late to enjoy our swanky hotel. We also had some other activities planned along the way, so I was itching to get going.
Today my mom also started snapping photos with my dinky dslr while I was driving, so we have more in motion photos than any other day.
We awaken to cloudy skies. Oy. The weather report indicated that we'd hit rain on our way to Banff and we'd spend the next few days stuck in the rain, but as this was what we expected anyway for our entire trip, it didn't put a damper on us. We'd already had two incredibly unexpected beautiful days in Jasper and really couldn't ask for more.
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| I took a picture before getting into Marge for our trip to Banff. Cloudy and dark. |
As the resort (I use that word loosely even though we very much enjoyed our time there, but it's in the name) did not have any sexy or exciting means of checking out other than to wait in line and do it old school, I had to go and wait my turn in the main lodge. As I returned to the car after checking out, I notice just how calm the lake is - the reflection of the trees and mountains are incredible!
We get going and head south towards Banff. The first stop I had to make was at Bear Paw Bakery where we purchased sandwiches (yay! We were early enough to get them!) and some pastries and lattes to make it through the day. There wasn't going to be a place to really stop for lunch, so we decided to just buy sandwiches and eat them in the car. The next stop I had planned was for Sunwapta Falls.
I had to memorialize the location with a lopsided super fuzzy photo guaranteed to make us dizzy. But this was a pretty big stop. They had a large gift shop, lodge/motel, and restaurant there. It looks like a big tour bus stop. We were there pretty early so we didn't run into too many other people. Other tourists yes, but none of the big buses were there yet.
There were some different viewpoints for the falls, and it wasn't a hard walk at all - distance wise, everything was very close, but some of the viewpoints are a little steep to get to, though everything was fenced off and felt very safe.
And of course we had to take an awesome selfie. Where I cut off a part of my face. And most of the falls.
We get back on the road after spending maybe 20 minutes at Sunwapta. I wanted to get to Columbia Icefield as soon as possible because I wanted to make sure we got on a tour and I didn't want to get to Banff too late. I anticipated spending about 3 hours at the Icefield, so I wanted to get there around noon - it was still a 2.5 to 3 hour drive to Banff from there.
While I drove, my mama took lots and lots of photos. Maybe it was the company and we chatted (by we I mean the woman. The men - including the dog - all fell asleep) and snacked, but the drive was lovely. I knew we'd be in for rain though, so even though I was afraid to drive too fast (I didn't want to hit any wild animals) I pushed it a bit trying to outrun the clouds. By pushing it, I mean Canadian pushing it. American pushing it (on the drive to Vegas) is driving like, 95mph. Canadian pushing it was driving 60mph. Yes, I rocked the Marge like a blue haired granny.
Thankfully I had the Gypsy app going, otherwise I would have totally missed the mini-pullout for Tangle Falls. It's small, and literally on the side of the road, but it was a beautiful waterfall that just randomly surprises you around the corner! It's on the side of the road, and unless you knew it was there, you don't see it under you already drive past it. Which is what happened to us on the way to Jasper, because I forgot to play the Gypsy app then. Doh!
So we pull off to this little dirt area off the side of the road with a few other cars and we snap photos. We're not intrepid enough to run across the road because well, we don't want to die on vacation, so we snap photos from across the street. Good enough!
And we continue onwards. One of the sucky ass things about driving long distances on a one lane road is when you get stuck behind a big ass lumbering (Chinese) tour bus. And oh, did we get stuck behind a few of those. Because the speed limit is so low, and we're winding through some mountains, it's hard to pass them. But eventually, we slowly do. Which is why when we stop for some photos, we gotta get hopping back into the car before the tour bus catches up and passes us so we're stuck behind them again (sob!).
We're not speed racing, but we're driving fast enough at the moment to outrun the clouds in Jasper (which we know will make its way to Banff with us - double sob!). When we see the fantastic weather at Bow Lake, where we stopped when it was overcast and drizzling a few days before, we had to stop to see what it looked like while sunny. So we did.
And we weren't the only ones. We stayed for a few minutes to take some photos and admire the view - but once the big ass bus pulled in and the hordes disgorged from the bus, we ran back to Marge, hopped in and zoomed off!
We still had a glacier to meet!
Meanwhile, the drive is still gorgeous.
Look! We see snow! Lots of snow! Mayhaps, could that be? Could that be a glacier???!!!
We pull into the lot of the Columbia Icefield Glacier Discovery Center, which is directly across from the Athabasca Glacier. Hello Athabasca Glacier!
From this side of the parking lot, there are a lot of stairs to reach the center itself, which I need to so I could swap our vouchers for actual tickets. I book it all the way up the stairs (and it's cold! The wind is freaking cold!) and because we have 5, we can't make the 12:30 bus, they don't have enough seats. But they get us on the 1:00 pm bus! It's just after noon when we arrive, so it's actually fantastic. We have time to eat our lunch, take Bendi for a walk before he naps the afternoon away (it was cold outside, and with the windows barely cracked, it was quite comfortable in the car for him. We know because that's how we ate lunch), use the restroom, and meander over. So I go all the way down the stairs and wave off my people. So back into the car we went. And we ate from our stash of deliciousness.
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| A nice view for lunch, eh? |
It was fun! It was like a picnic in the car. It was warm and snug in the car, we had plenty to eat, bottled water, AND we all had carafes of coffee in our travel mugs - so we had fun talking about what we've seen so far, admiring the glacier before us, and just having fun together while we stuffed our faces. Bendi walked around the parking lot and emptied his bladder, ate some lunch and snacks, drank plenty of water from his bottle, and settled down and napped when we bundled up and took off towards the Discovery Center to head off towards our glacier adventure. Oh, sorry, our Glacier Adventure. Because that's the official fancy title, capitalized and all.
We head into the center, all use the restroom, and bundled up, head towards the other end of the center and get in line for our tour. They scan our tickets and we're waved outside, where we wait to be let on the bus under a tent. Right as we're under the tent...it starts raining. And it starts HAILING. WHAT. THE. HELL. But we run into the bus, which only takes us to the stop to get on the real bus, the ones with the gigantor tires that could climb onto the glacier. We are let off of the dinky regular bus and get in line to get onto the real gigantor ice climbing bus. The ice climbing bus has windows now just to the side, but above as well. See?
The beauty of having had to wait (aside from eating lunch), is that it was cloudy and raining on the glacier while we were eating lunch, but once our big bus made its way through the dry dirt, then puddles, then mud, then actually climb onto the glacier, it was gorgeous and sunny on the glacier!
It was a rocky ride, made more fun by the fact that we did not have seat belts! Yay! And we arrive. And we're there with about 5-6 other buses, all full of people. Chinese people. Yup, LOTS AND LOTS of Chinese people, who love the selfie sticks and to jump their way in front or our cameras. And they're loud. Oh well. We're Chinese too, so we too can be loud. Though we did NOT bust out our own selfie stick on the glacier. We've got some class, ya know?
It was stunning, even with the crowds. The sky was this intense blue (too bad I'm not an awesome photographer) and the bright white snow/ice contrasted with the the dark granite cliffs and the sky...it was gorgeous. So we took lots of pictures. Lots. See?
Off to the side/corner, you could see where the glacial melt was flowing down. I got very excited seeing this. Also, I had saved an empty water bottle and washed it and stuck it in my backpack because I wanted a bottle of glacier water!
I told my dad I wanted glacier water, so he gamely squatted down (I was worried he was going to fall in though) and filled up my bottle for me.
And of course I have to take a photo of my feet. In my ugly - but waterproof - hiking shoes. I'm standing on a GLACIER!!!!!
After I stopped taking photos of the glacier and the water and the sky and the mountains and the people, I started taking photos of other random things. Like the snow bus.
Our driver had told us that we could be there for about 20 minutes before he'd leave, but we could stay if we wanted to and catch another bus back. It's a new thing they're doing this season - you could stay as long as you want to, just grab any old bus back. We actually tried to get back on the bus before he tooted his warning horn, but uh...people had taken our spots. Our bus was full (sob!)!
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| Uncle Eddie with the bus, just before the driver told us it was too full for us. |
Um, what? We can't get on? So my parents give up their seat and come back down and we go and look for a white dude who looks like he works there. He finds a bus for us (a few are booked privately - the Chinese ones - and don't run on the regular schedule) that will go back, and instead of risking it be full again, we just get on the bus and it there for about 10-15 minutes before the bus fills up and heads back. And yes, the bus was full and the driver had to turn people away as well. Score!
While waiting, I see this. I was intrigued. The guy who worked there says this isn't necessary, but just something they do to pass the time - they make little streams from the melting glacier. Um, okay.
You wanna know how full it was? It was this full.
There are more people, this is just a quick snapshot I took. It was hard to grab a photo without anyone else in the background.
We lumber out way up the dirt hill and I get my camera and my face dusty and dirty to take intrepid and fantastic photos like this:
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| not that intrepid |
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| not that fantastic |
We switch buses, and this bus, instead of taking us back to the Discovery Center, drops us off at the Skywalk! Yay! People who don't have tickets don't get off, because after Skywalk the bus does loop back to the Discovery Center.
On the way there, we see a ram with a broken horn just trotting alongside the bus.
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| fabulous blurry picture of the ram |
And we see the Skywalk.
We dutifully climb off the bus, and line up to scan our tickets for entry. This was a lot bigger and a lot more than I thought it was going to be. There are displays and exhibits and people there to teach tourists who no speaky engrish about animals and showing us bear claws and skulls and other fanciness.
Me, I was admiring the walls. Rocks held back by wires and other awesomeness!
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| hello bear! |
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| looking at the Skywalk |
Here's the thing about me. I'm seriously afraid of heights. I'm CRAZY afraid of heights. So I was ambivalent about doing it. But the thing is, it wasn't scary. You know why? Because the glass is all scratched up you could barely even see through it, so it wasn't like you were looking straight down into a freaking canyon. You could sorta make out a canyon if you concentrated and looked past all the scratches on the glass. My mom, who is also afraid of heights like me (though not as much as me) - also not scared.
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| see distinct lack of fright on my face |
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| See? Glass is blurry |
You wanna see?
Not that scary, right?
After hanging around for about 20 minutes, we decide to head back and line up for the next bus.
A bus left not so long before, so we only have about 4 people in front of us. They sit on the bench alongside the wall while I stand in front of them with my (short) legs spread to prevent people (Chinese people) from cutting in front of us. Fortunately, enough people line up and follow the rules that I didn't have to beat down on anyone. Yay!
We get on the bus, we go back to the Discovery Center, we use their (clean!) restrooms once again, I'm disappointed by their souvenir offerings, we take Bendi out to pee and walk, and we're on our way again!
In about 2 hours, we pull up to the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel! Hello big hotel! The town of Banff is adorable. Adorably expensive and fancy. Not that I've ever been to Aspen, but this is what I imagine it to be like: clean, fancy, adorable, and crazy ass expensive.
Being super cheapos who like freedom of movement and hate waiting on valets (because self parking runs about $25/night on its own), we opt to park in the garage so no one can 1) judge us about Marge and 2) monitor our movements - Canadian Big Brother is watching, you know - we lug our suitcases from the 2nd floor to the first. Um, Canadians also don't have the equivalent of the ADA because we had to walk down the stairs with our luggage, there were no elevators in their expensive parking structure. It wasn't far, probably a 4 minute stroll from the backdoor (by the gallery of shops), but with stairs, wrangling a dog, and big ass suitcases...it seemed like we were embarking on an epic journey. We manage to roll our way with a hyperactive dog inside the hotel. Of course, I could have gone in the back way (pictured below), but did I do that? Nope. I like to make things harder, so I went AROUND the building to the front entrance, so all the fancy uniformed valets could judge my cheapness. Because not only did I not want a bell dude to haul my crap, I didn't pay for a valet. Yes, I am a cheap ass. Hello! I'm Chinese!
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| The view from the back door. Look past the statue to the right, behind it there's an archway that leads to the parking garage where the poor and cheap like me park. |
Because we booked the gold floor, we didn't check in at the front desk. We had to take the elevator to the 4th floor to a super teeny tiny desk with two chicks working it rather than the large ass lobby with 10 people working it. Uh, it smelled nice and looked nice, but considering the loud ass rowdy crew of teenagers in front of us blocking our way and acting like asses, I was not impressed. And I know I look less than impressive generally, particularly in travel clothes, but the people who worked there looked a little confused to see me. Once they realized that yes, I did pay money to stay there, they became super nice. I was speedily checked in, they gave me a quick tour of the fantastic lounge, and we headed to our rooms. We had rooms on the 5th floor instead, but there was a back stairwell that linked the two floors so we didn't have to wait for the elevator. Also, right by the elevators, there were always bottles of water and fruit for us to take. The Banff Springs is pricey (SOOOO pricey) but worth it for a splurge.
Bendi was not allowed in the lounge because they are doggist, so we settled him in, then ran down (it was past 6, and the evening canapes were served between 5 to 7 pm) to the lounge to partake of free food. And the free food was delicious!
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| hearty beef stew, BBQ pork buns, a charcuterie platter, assorted breads and spreads (garlic, hummus, etc), and beverages are available. The evening spread was different each night on the three nights we were there. |
After we ate our fill of free food (and drank - a lot - of lattes from their fancy machine) and oh, stuffed some juices and bottled water in our bags, we made our way upstairs to our room again to relax a bit. Wanna see our overpriced room? (it ended up being over $500/night)
It's suuuuuper small. Like, almost cruise ship small. I could have gotten a larger room for less money, but we decided having access to the gold lounge trumped being in the Stanley Thompson wing with its much larger rooms with living areas (food > sofa and moving space in rooms). So here's our very expensive teeny tiny room:
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| very fancy toilettries |
Very cozy, eh? If Raymond had come along, the four of us would NOT have fit in this room. It was two queen sized beds, but we don't share beds and there's literally no room for another bed. We'd have to forgo the fabulousness of the Gold Lounge then and slum it in a regular junior suite (sob!).
You know who's also enjoying his time in the fancy hotel room? Mr. Bendi. Since he's so small, he thought the space was positively luxurious. It doesn't hurt they gave him his own little dog bed, bowls (though the size of basins) and his very own iced gourmet cookie. Bendi was very suspicious about the cookie though.
You know who else got cookies? We did! These were so freaking good. And they were oatmeal raisin! I hate raisins, but I LURVED these cookies.
We ate so much, we weren't even hungry for dinner. Instead, we decided to walk around and get the lay of the land. I also just wanted to wander around and check out the hotel.
We walk through the arcade of shops (there weren't that many, this ain't like Caesars Palace with its big ass mall of "shoppes" - because you know, adding an extra P and E and S makes it fancy) out the backdoor. We can see the Stanley Thompson wing from here as well as the annex with the art gallery.
The backside. The above picture was taken behind the dual staircases.
Pretending to be adventurous, we walk halfway up the stairs and snap some photos.
We then walk through the hotel (the entire place is dog friendly, except for restaurant) and go out the back. We are above the gym and indoor swimming pool by the spa. From here we get a view of Mount Rundle.
While the menfolk return to our rooms, the three of us (plus Bendi) wander around a little more. We see the lobby, the staircase where some bride fell and burned to death or something many moons ago (there are ghost stories that I saw online before I went. But since I didn't want to be scared after paying so much money, I ignored them) and looked at the restaurants.
The (supposedly) haunted staircase. No, there was no draft when I walked by. It seemed like any normal staircase.
After chatting for awhile, we decide to go back up and sleep, because we had a long day. Tomorrow, we get to visit Moraine Lake!
Oh, my mom was charmed by how old fashioned these payphone booths are. I'm surprised they even have any of these left - I can't remember the last time I actually saw a pay phone!
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