Day 8-Saturday, May 8, 2017-Day in Banff

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Woke early at 6 AM to another beautiful day although temperature is 28°, expected to warm up later today. Both Al and Tom move their RVs to new space at Tunnel Mountain to join Dorrie and I at a primo side overlooking the Canadian Rockies. Great to have breakfast overlooking such a beautiful scene. Plan "A" for the day had Al chauffeuring us all into Banff in his RV and we left at 8:30 to park in Banff at the train station. Arrived just in time to catch one of the first shuttle buses to Lake Louise. Our ride from Banff to Lake Louise through scenic Valley in between mountain ranges. Tom and I both have Gypsy apps for this part of the route. Great to have someone describe in detail as you pass the various locations along the road… Great app! We arrived at village of Lake Louise around 10 AM and greeted by representatives from "Celebrate150 Canada year… Very efficient set up for shuttles up to Lake Louise from the village. Crowds were pretty heavy and Lake Louise even this early in the day, so suggest if you visit that you plan on getting to the lake before 11 AM. (Brad & Diane). This is one of those times when a picture is worth 1000 words. Although the Lake was 95% still frozen over the beauty and majesty of the site is unbelievable and the view of the glacier off in the distance was impressive. Although the signs to the Fairmont Hotel said "guests only" we pushed on into a massive lobby and walked around to see how those who don't have an RV travel. We continue to walk around the lake a bit and Peggy insisted on testing the water, so she took off her shoes and stood in the ice cold water to pose for pictures to prove her "feat". We're headed back to the shuttle bus to take us back to the village where we picked up sandwiches for the ride back to Banff. After struggling a bit around Banff we decided to split up and do any shopping with mounted on our own. We agreed to meet back up in a couple of hours to head back to tunnel mountain. We got back to camp around 4 o'clock and we all filled our water tanks and dumped black/gray water… Then met up for cocktails ( camouflaged because of the ban on alcohol in the camp as ginger ale and grape juice... back to RVs for dinner and later get together for cards until around 9 o'clock when we "hit the hay". Tomorrow we're off for Hinton and trip through the Icefields Parkway.
Sunset today at 9:30 PM!

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