We enjoyed a week in Banff and Calgary, which was originally supposed to be Banff and Jasper but Jasper was actually evacuated due to an enormous wildfire the day before we were set to arrive. The wildfire ended up engulfing about 30% of the city of Jasper which is really sad.
We did love Banff and it was atypically warm when we were there. We played quite a few games (Catchphrase, Bank - a dice game, and a Brain Quiz game at a coffee store) and some of the answers and clues that were given were hilarious, such as:
Olin trying to get Babz to say the name David Beckham and his clue was "Babz, your other name!"
Dae asking the kids "what does mom do a lot" and Christian guesses "fart?" when the answer was Online Shopping. Terrible.
Dae trying to descibe "Belt" without using key words and says, painfully slowly because he was trying to think "what...I....use....to....keep....my.....pant.....up". Note the use of singular pant rather than the correct word pants. LOL
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| We went to Upper Falls. This trail was VERY busy and touristy. Banff itself was incredibly touristy but it didn't bother us |
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| Big line to get photos |
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| Lounging at our basement airbnb in Banff that we loved. |
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| Great Italian restaurant with the cutest interior in Banff. We ate at great restaurants in Banff. |
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| Last day in Banff we did a short hike to Grassi Lakes which are two translucent, neon ish lakes that are small but so different than Moraine and Louise and so pretty |
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| Out of order, but our airbnb in Calgary had a nice view and good light. We got it last minute on airbnb. |
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| Science Center in Calgary - we were really looking for stuff to do so we went to Costco, Science Center, the Mall, and downhill karting at the Olympic area from 1988. |
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| White water rafting on the Kananaskis River! This was really fun - we did the family run so it wasn't very strong rapids and all of us agreed we'd love to do stronger rapids. |
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| Downhill Karting at the Olympic village from 1988. This was pretty fun. I was done after 2 runs but the kids enjoyed doing 4 runs and said it kept getting more and more fun as you get used to the course and can go super fast. |
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| haha |
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| Olin tired on the flight home |
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| Breakfast set up on the drive home |
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| Hilariously this building's roof in Calgary had the exact same shape as a Pringles chip, of which we had one |
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| More Johnston Canyon Hike outside Banff |
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| Banff Gondola was pretty, but it was starting to get smokey at this point. I made a huge error in maps and We got off the bus one crucial stop short of the gondola, which ended up being probably 2 miles of uphill. We lucked out that a taxi turned around and took us to the correct place! |
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| We did take the correct bus back |
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| Moraine Lake! Our favorite! So pretty, so turqoise, We even splurged and rented these canoes. We had to rent two and they were $160 canadian per canoe per hour. The exchange rate was .73 USD to $1 canadian so that was nice, for us. |
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| The turqoise looks so much less turqoise at ground level, but this area of Moraine Lake was also shallow and looked pretty normal close up. |
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| Streets of Banff. It was so lively in Banff! |
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| Lake Louise! Very pretty, not as turqoise at Moraine. |
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| We hiked 2 miles up from Lake Louise to Agnes Lake and a teahouse they have up there, where they have food and drink. They have no eletricity and no running water! They haul all their food and garbage, except for 2 helicopter supply trips per year, and they make all their own food, bread there. It was cool. |
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| More Banff. We also dined at Block Bar and Grill (delicious) and Zyka Indian (delicious) |
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| Inside Banff Gondola |
