Day 8 - Columbian Icefields

We had such a fun-filled and packed day, I was on the move all the way until I went to bed, so I'm writing this post at 6AM from the Calgary Airport. Day 9 is going to be interesting as a result of being at an airport, but we'll get to that later. Back to day 8 - the glacier day.

After I ate a delicious breakfast of homemade oatmeal with brown sugar, we departed Jasper and headed in the direction of Calgary seeing glaciers, bears and elk along the way.

Our first stop was a photo stop at Stetfield Glacier - one of the glaciers along the Columbia Icefield we were eventually going to walk out on. We snapped a few quick photos of the rocky ice and jumped back on the bus. A quick trip down the Icefields Parkway and we were parking at the Athabascea Glacier and prepared to take very large trucks up to a summit to get out and take in first hand. These glaciers are part of the Columbia Icefield that has a main plateau of glacier and then six glacier shoots that stick out like fingers between the peaks. The water the flows from this icefield eventually makes it's way to the Artic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. This is a uniuqe element to this icefield since it's odd to have a tri-watershed.

We hopped into our giant buses that drove down a 18% grade hill and up into the glacier dropping us off at a safe level. We were encouraged to bring water bottles to take a taste of the glacier water when we got off to walk around for 20 minutes. I must say the glacier water was rather refeshing and tastey. I brought it back with me in my toiletry bag, so let's hope it survives the handling of the Calgary, Chicago and Cincinnati airports - otherwise my toothbrush will be doused in glacier water.

We took some fun photos while on the glacier and enjoyed the scenery. I must say, for being in the 60s it was certainly chilly on top of the glacier. I was glad I dress appropriately, but I would have liked to have gloves. My cousin Dana tried to drink directly from the glacier stream for a photo, but was unable to get close enough. A pair of gloves would have helped lower her to the ice a bit better.

We rode back down the glacier and had lunch at the bottom. By far the most un-healty meal I ate on the trip because I was in the mood from some junk food. Grilled cheese, split fries with Uncle Lenox and Aunt Dottie and then a piece of blueberry pie (good, but if you are keeping track - the piece at the Bar U Ranch was better).

After a short journey we made our last stop before arriving in Calgary, which was totally worth it, a great way to end the week and so unbelieveable that pictures barely do it justice - Peyto Lake. The amazing part of this lake was the shade of blue the rock flour projected. it was a small lake situated between mountain peaks and shined like a bright swimming pool. It was the brightest blue we have seen yet and even our tour guide said he hasn't seen it that blue in years. The rock flour produced from glacier movements determine the color, it's sometimes a bit more green.

We took a long sleepy ride into Calgary. Yes, Uncle Lenox did capture a shot of me sleeping on the bus with my mouth open, but I got him back when he fell asleep too. They said I'm officially initiated into family traveling when your photo gets taken asleep! We also saw two black bears at two different points of the driving bringing our bear total to 5 - 4 black bears and 1 grizzly. Beautiful animals.

We checked back into our first hotel in Calgary and had a bit of free time before dinner. I got in a nice phone call with Paul and enjoyed some leisure time with my family. Aunt Dottie found Monopoly at the Hotel, which was the downfall to my hours of sleep. We enjoyed a nice farewell dinner together, where we reminisced about our favorite sites and tales from our trip.

June 15th is Aunt Edwina's birthday, so we had the hotel bring cake complete with a sparkler and presented her with the gift we picked out for her on the trip - Canada, Eh pajamas that we suggested she model for all of us. She enjoyed the pjs and smiled cheerfully as we sang and embaressed her. We were heading back upstairs to get our Monopoly on and one of the gentlemen from our trip joked with Aunt Edwina that he did want to see her model those pjs and to come by his room. Upon realizing what he was saying he started laughing and saying "Ohh geeze- that sounded bad, don't worry my wife's there, my wife's there!!" We just hit the floor laughing, their faces were priceless - both Aunt Edwina's and our fellow traveler.

My family also presented me with an adorable pair of moose socks that features the moose in a pink robe and sunglasses and the feet say "I don't do mornings." After spending 8 days with me, they picked up on my distaste for waking up, but did say I did great getting up everyday at 6:30, even though I opted out of the early morning trips for pie and coffee in Waterton. The socks are great and I really appreciated the thoughtfulness of my family. It was great to spend 8 days with them in Canada.

After dinner, Aunt Dottie, Uncle Lenox, Zeke and myself sat down to play a friendly (aka HIGHLY competitive) game of Monopoly with Aunt Edwina regulating and ensuring fair play. The Kelley's tend to be a little (a lot) competitive as previously displayed every time we play a game whether it be a sport of board game. We were in for a doozie. After Zeke took an early lead picking up the light blue properties and putting down some real estate and Aunt Dottie spent three trips in jail, the tables turned and Zeke was about bankrupt before the game ended. Uncle Lenox was the first out and then Zeke was right behind him. I gave Aunt Dottie a run for her money doing quite alright myself, but she put out some hotels and put me in the dust. We're sorry to anyone we woke up with our howls of laughter everytime Aunt Dottie missed an opportunity to collect because she wasn't paying attentiong to the game and was busy counting her money. Not to mention the big howl she let out the first time someone landed on her red hotel properties. Zeke holds strong that he won a game of Scrabble and then we reminded him the three of us also beat him hands down at canoeing.

We crawled sleepily into bed mere hours before I had to wake up and jump on the 5am shuttle to the airport. It was a great week and a fanstastic time with a great group of travelers. Uncle Lenox is already plotting out three options for next year and I am going to start saving now!

Day 7 - Jasper & the Wicked Lake

Breakfast today was by far the best we had the whole trip - I had grapes, pancakes, and crispy bacon. The oatmeal with brown sugar was temping, but I already had a plateful. After breakfast, we loaded the coaches for a half day of touring and and an afternoon off in Jasper.

The first stop brought a new look to the Rockies - a canyon with a beautiful river cutting across river rock, tall pines concealing much of the sun but allowing individual beams to shoot down. We walked along the trail of Maligne Canyon and caught new sights along every turn. This was the highlight viewpoint of the day for me.

The second stop was a quick photo opportunity at Medicine Lake. This is an odd lake that drains into underwater caves and drains underground. The glaciers melt and pour into this bowl in the spring and by fall the lake is down to small braided river channels. The First Nations were baffled by this and assumed it was something to do with bad medicine, which is how they originally earned its name that was later shortened to Medicine Lake. The sun was real bright this morning and the mountains almost fad into the distance, but the water was a nice shade of green and smooth as glass.

The last stop earned it's name - the Wicked Lake. Well, it's actually the Maligne Lake, but Malign means Wicked and it sure was. While it was pretty and I'm sure enjoyable for other visitors - I was miserable. The entire North American population of mosquitos was on vacation at Maligne lake and swarming around us. I swatted back and forth trying to take in the lake, but finally gave up and went inside and had ice cream. The ice cream was fantastic - a Rolo, carmel ice cream with a carmel center dipped in chocolate, but the mosquitos were miserable. Then to top it off, somewhere at this lake my sunglasses disappeared. I don't remember taking them off or putting them down, but some how I made it back to the bus without them. I'll be fine if I don't ever make it back to Wicked Lake.

The coach dropped us off in the downtown area of Jasper for some lunch and shopping of course! Uncle Lenox, John and Ginger all found our way to North Face Pizza for a delicious lunch. Uncle Lenox and I split a medium pizza and it had a great crispy crust with gooey cheese. After lunch we hit the shops where I found my purchase of the trip - new coasters. I know, it doesn't sound that thrilling, but they are beautiful dark slate pieces that will look soo pretty on my table. I going to add a little mountain look to my house - a crisp pine green, dark slate, pebble grey and my dark wood. The coasters are the first step! I also finished off my gift-shopping as well. I hope everyone likes what I picked out!

We made our way back to our bungalow at 4pm and had some time before dinner to relax and read in nature. I had a nice 30-minute nap as well after I read outside for an hour. We went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner and then spent the evening outside as a family. We watched Cailyn and the boys play horseshoes, I'm blogging outside with my power cord coming out of the bathroom window to my chair outside and I'm about to stop for a roasted marshmallow - one of my favorites! It's a wonderful evening and I have a feeling we'll be having a scrabble re-match this evening. We all had to hear Zeke gloat all day about using all 7 of his tiles on quarries last night and winning the game. He's going down.

Editors Note: Zeke did have a good game of scrabble - he played words such as movie, gazebo, infinite and his game winning quarries. He would like this added to today's post and he does another victory song and dance. Uncle Lenox would like me to add that we had to tell Zeke how to spell each of his words.

Day 6 - Banff to Jasper

Another fun - filled day of travel from Banff to Jasper with picturesque mountains, lakes and even a canoe trip through glacier waters.

We started our morning with our usual breakfast at 7am for an 8am departure from Banff to Jasper. We loaded the coach and started out of town and got a great treat early in the morning - a grizzly bear munching on some dandelions on the side of the road. Our first stops were at Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. Both amazing lakes with pure water as crystal as ice and rich jewel-tone colors. We stopped for a short photo and washroom visit at Moraine Lake. We had great light and the photos turned out great.

We had a bit more time at Lake Louise - enough to take out a canoe and travel the length of the lake circle back and head back to the dock. This was by far the best way to view this lake. Once you got about 40 yards off of the waters' edge, the water was the most amazing and unrealistic color of blue - just like a swimming pool. Uncle Lenox, Aunt Dottie and I were in one canoe and Zeke, Cailyn and Jeremy were in the other. We completely smoked them to the other end of the lake and then again going back. They even admitted that they couldn't quite figure out how to catch us. We managed to have better paddling skills which gave us the edge of their strength advantage. If they could figure out how to not be zig zagging all over the lake they might have had a shot. I sat in the middle of the canoe and got splashed from either side so that when I got out of the canoe I was sitting in a puddle of glacier water. I can fully attest to how cold the water is coming off the glaciers! We had the best views and took in the unique experience of floating out in the glass waters surrounded by mountains, tall pines and glaciers.

After canoeing, we stopped for lunch at the Chateau of Lake Louise and I had a nice meat lasagna and delicious sweet pepper and sour cream chips. Delicious.

We boarded the coach and headed up the Icefields Parkway that connects Lake Louise and Jasper. This stretch of road is known for wildlife and amazing sites along the way and we took in both. Our first stop was at Crowfoot Mountain and Crowfoot Glacier and then over to the Bow Lake and Bow River. Just stopped for some photos, but again, great scenery. We continued north on the Icefields Parkway and took in the Weeping Wall, Big Hill, Bridal Falls and even some Rocky Mountain Goats.

After making a few quick photo stops, we make a long stop with the Athabasca Falls that tumble down the Athabasca River from the Athabasca Glacier. The most amazing mist blows off of the Falls and a bridge stands right over the falls so I could stand right in front of the falls and feel the power and wind off the glacier water. We took a few trails around the area and enjoyed the trails and rocks cut into the land.

We rolled into Jasper after the falls and checked into our hotel - the Jasper Springs Bungalows, which are adorable wood cabins with a fantastic view of the river. The area is tremendous and the wood cabins fit perfectly in the pines. I must admit though, the bathroom doors are tricky and I managed to lock myself in and thought for a while I was going to be in there through dinner. Luckily my aunts managed to free me, but it was still amusing.

We had dinner as a group at the hotel restaurant, where we learned all sorts of fun family stories. Dana told the story of Zeke, Christopher, Jeremy and Joe's firework battle, where as you image, the teamed up and shot fireworks at each other. Zeke and Jeremy were putting bottle rockets in pipes and shooting them at Christopher and Joe from a tree house, so they retaliated by lighting the trees under the tree house on fire to smoke them out. They attempted to put the fire out by peeing on the fire, but they just made it bigger, so they had to leap out of the treehouse and tuck and roll. Zeke says this was the best time they'd ever had. This story triggered Uncle Lenox's memory when he and some of my other uncles held a bee-bee gun fight where they had a similar battle, but with bee-bee guns. He also reminisced about how they used to put cherry bombs down in the pipes and put C-batteries in and shoot them off like canons. I'm glad I'm not a boy.

After dinner we played a few rounds of Scrabble from the hotel and I caught the end of the Stanley Cup Finals - yay Pens!