We left for Calgary on Monday, July 23 and got home yesterday, July 28th. In those 6 days, we went to Calaway park, Banff, the Columbian Ice Fields, the top of Sulpher Mountain, the Calgary zoo, the Calgary Science centre and went to see Harry Potter and ate in wonderful places like Chucky Cheese.
Here are some of the pics that we took along the way.
This is the bus that took us onto the ice fields. These buses are specially made by a company in Canada and there are only about 25 in the world. The Columbian Ice Field Company owns all but one of them. If you ever decide to take a tour of Alberta, make sure this is on your list of must do. It is about a 4 hour drive from Calgary (2 from Banff) and it is well worth the drive. The Ice Field is located in Jasper National Park and the drive to get there is amazing. When you get to the pavillion and get your tickets for the ride, make sure you have lots of money as it is not cheap. We were lucky as we used our airmiles and were able to get the tickets for free. From the pavillion, we took a tour bus to the site where we got onto the bus you see pictured above. This is the bus that drove us right on to the ice fields. Part of the trek is going down an incline that is a 32 percent grade. This is one of the steepest grades around as most of the ones you drive on is only an 8 percent grade. This part freaked me out a bit but once we got going down that incline it really did feel safe. One woman behind us dropped her camera and it did a pretty good slide down the centre before it was stopped and handed back to her. The cool thing was the couple sitting in front of us were from North Carolina and I had a nice little chat with them. Note in the picture that the girls are wearing sweaters. The temperature that day got to 41 C but on the icefields, with the wind, it was a mite chillier.
This picture was taken at the Calgary Zoo before my camera decided it didn't want to work anymore. We love the Calgary Zoo and it has some of the most amazing animals there. My favorite being the giraffes and the hippos, which I didn't get pictures of, but am just as happy that we got to see them. My other favorite was of the anteater which was one of the coolest looking animals I have ever seen.
This is on top of Sulpher Mountain in Banff. To get to the top of the mountain we got to ride in a gondola. The gondolas are fairly small so we had to ride up in 2 seperate cars. To me, it is not a fun journey as I am totally paranoid during the 8 minute ride up that something is going to go wrong. When we were going down, it did stop for a few minutes which totally freaked me out, but I did my best to remain calm for Boo who was with me at the time. It was only a routine safety check which I am glad that they do but I wish they would have waited until I was off.
The Weeping Walls. This picture was taken on the drive from Banff to the Icefields. Along the drive, there are many points of interest that one can stop and have a look and take pictures. This one was my favorite and the cool thing is that the Saskatchewan River is formed just a few miles from this spot and we were able to go and put our hands in the water. The river there looks nothing like it does when it gets here. The river is formed from the runoff of a glacier rightly called the Saskatchewan Glacier. We got to see where it comes off the mountain in huge rush and meanders along the mountains getting bigger with every mile. There were some spots where the river was much wider than it is here but also much shallower. The colour of the water is amazing because of the rock flour that is mixed in with it that disapears after it leaves the mounains.
This is the picture of the Icefields that we were on. When you are standing on the glacier surrounded totally by these vast mountains, it sure makes you feel small. Where we stopped to get out and walk around a bit, there was a little creek of running water that we were allowed to fill our waterbottles up in. The water was amazing. There really is no taste as it is as fresh as you can get it and there are no pollutants or chemicals to give it any taste. And much colder than any icecube could make it. The kids got a kick out of that.It was all in all a wonderful trip, knowing this might be one of our last big family vacations before the girls, mostly Kat, become adults, made it all the more memerable.
Both Cor and I have another week of holidays before we have to go back to work so we are going to enjoy some more relaxing days, maybe get some of the work around the house finished and spend some afternoons in our pool in the backyard.
3 comments:
Sounds like you had a great time. We often drive through that area, on our way to visit hubby's family in BC, but have never stopped. We always talk about stopping some day, though!
oh, and I have a great picture of the Calgary Zoo hippo that I took last year - I'll have to email it to you! :o)
Cindy, that sounds like an awesome vacation! Glad you guys had a good time. We are trying to decide if we want to go back to Boone, or try Maine this year.
Oh, hey, don't think I told you, but we finally got an offer on the other house, and are in the process of getting stuff done before closing. Yeah!!!!
Hope all is well!
Okay, so like I'm thinking you should update this thing? Hmmm? :)
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