aka pastor guy: Mark & Shari's Excellent Adventure (Days 3 & 4)

Summary

In which our intrepid explorers actually, you know, explore.

Day Three

I woke up early and went for a walk to watch the sunrise. Banff was quiet - just some folks walking to their jobs - and the sun hit a cloud perfectly. It was an incredibly peaceful way to begin the day.

However, when I got back to the hotel room, I reached up to adjust my glasses… and they broke. The bridge snapped, leaving me with two half glasses. A trip (on foot) to a local optometrist was unsuccessful - she was kind & tried to help, but they were broken in a such a way that they could not be fixed. Thankfully, Shari had reminded both of us to bring an extra pair… so I wore my older prescription for the rest of the trip. It didn't affect driving or sightseeing, but it made reading small print more difficult.

After that mini-adventure, we went to grab lunch at Tommy’s Neighborhood Pub. We were a bit early for opening, so we wandered around some shops and scoped out more restaurants for later meals. (Turns out we are not really foodie people - lots of “interesting” choices on menus that are not interesting for us.) Tommy’s was worth the wait… excellent club sandwich.

For dessert, I finally got to try a beaver tail, which is a Canadian thing - a fried pastry shaped like a beaver tail on which a variety of toppings can be spread. Mine had chocolate hazelnut (aka generic Nutella) with bits of brownie and white chocolate. This Canadian thing is now a Mark thing as well - I foresee more of this delicacy in my future.

Our afternoon started well - I’d seen a picture in a shop window of the Vermillion Lakes area and found out it was just west of town. We drove along the road, enjoying the views… and then stopped at one point to take it all in. While I attempted (unsuccessfully) to get a good mountain picture from a swaying kayak dock, Shari struck up a conversation with a lovely cyclist from Canmore who’d stopped to rest her back. She gave us a number of tips about places to explore and was delightful. Her wonderful suggestions filled our afternoon.

Shari at Vermillion Lakes

We started by driving up towards the Norquay ski area… the view from the observation point was really something. On the way up (and the way back down), we saw a young-ish bear by the side of the road… along with the usual cars stopped to take pictures. Yes, there was one guy out of his car taking photos - of course. I just imagine the bear thinking to himself: “I’m just trying to eat here, people. There is no reason to block up the road - you tourists are causing a traffic jam. And you, sir… get back in your vehicle already. I ought to nibble on you as an object lesson to others but I’m busy right now.”

Yes, the elk was this close to our car

We then worked our back across town past the Bow Falls parking lot to the loop around the golf course our cyclist friend had told us about. The road wound through the forest, up close to one of the mountains… and we drove with a window partially down so we could hear the wind rustling the trees. Eventually, we were stopped by a pair of cyclists who were pointing ahead. There was a small herd (6-7) elk lunching on the underbrush near the road… and they were concerned a bull elk was nearby. We acted as their “decoy” and drove slowly down the road. The elk moved out of the way… but they were in no hurry. Our approach didn’t phase them.

Bow Falls

As we left the golf course circle, we stopped where we could see Bow Falls again. It’s a weird waterfall - not huge, but the way it cascades is fascinating. Interestingly, the rapids that lead up to the falls go back farther than you can see here... we didn't really understand that until our last day in Banff.

Dinner was at the Rose & Crown (yes, another pub)… followed by another trip out to Two Jack Lake near sunset. We got some nice pictures but the cold wind shooed us back to the hotel. (The plan had been to watch the sunset, but it was just a little too nippy for these two folks who've been living in the overheated Southern U.S. through the summer and early fall.)

Shari is cold and wants to get back in the car!

Day Four

Part of the charm of the gondola - exploring while sitting!

All the walking on day three meant we took it easy on the morning of day four… tired legs. Sheesh - getting older is not for wimps.

We had been passing a pizza joint in our courtyard cut-through behind our hotel and decided to give it a go for lunch. The calzone at Bear Street Tavern was excellent - and Shari was very positive about their dipping suggestion of chili sauce and local honey. Plus we had a very nice waitress and a nifty tucked-away two person booth to sit at.

Picture courtesy of nice British tourist

Our real adventure for the day was a trek to (and up) the Banff Gondola… which included our own personal guide in the empty shuttle bus. The driver was a transplant from Luxembourg… so we managed to talk about all sorts of things (history, our adjustments to kg/kmh/Ca$, the politics of Luxembourg, the Gimli Glider, etc.). It was a great conversation.

The gondola ride was smooth and the views were amazing - as were the views at the top of the mountain. The four-story summit building has multiple viewing platforms, a couple of restaurants, a few museum-like exhibits, and a snack bar - as well as a series of boardwalk trails over to the weather/cosmic ray research station on a slightly higher nearby peak. (We did not hike out to the aforementioned station.) The wind was impressive as well - I have to face the fact that I would not last 20 minutes as a mountain climber.

I did, however, take a picture with a bear... granted, a statue of a bear. Or maybe an actual bear who had stood up there in the wind so long that he was frozen. Who am I to say? I'm no scientist.

My favorite historical tidbit for the day: Tunnel Mountain (which is a small mountain right next to Banff) is named that for a failed project by the railroad company to put a tunnel through it.

From Wikipedia: "In 1882, a team of surveyors led by Major A.B. Rogers, of Rogers Pass fame, was surveying for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Rogers, likely in a hurry, assumed the easiest path for the railway to take would be to simply follow the Bow River. On account of the difficulties that would be faced with river crossings and the steepness of the cliffs between the northwestern edge of Mount Rundle and Tunnel Mountain, Rogers' team suggested the construction of a 275 m (902 ft) tunnel through the tiny mountain. CPR General Manager William Cornelius Van Horne was furious at the suggestion, exclaiming "Are we going to hold up this railway for a year and a half while they build their damned tunnel? Take it out!" An alternative route north of the mountain was found, which incidentally shortened the railway by a mile, and avoided two long hills, saving the CPR millions of dollars. Surveyor Charles Shaw described the suggestion of a tunnel as "the most extraordinary blunder I have ever known in the way of engineering." The idea of a tunnel was scrapped altogether, but the mountain is still called Tunnel Mountain to this day."

Tunnel Mountain is the low "hill" in the middle of the picture.

We came back down and shuttled back to town (seeing more elk just wandering in front of the bus like they owned the place). Dinner was at the excellent Maple Leaf Grille - we shared a perfectly cooked steak.