Days 44-47: Canadian Rockies

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Jane and I left Canmore and headed for Banff. This was the beginning of a truly mountainous trip. We arrived to our hotel in Banff and were greeted with a free upgrade to a junior suite: king size bed (check), double bathroom (check), giant jacuzzi bath (check!). The following day we visited the Banff Hot Springs and had a good soak in the thermal pools. We toured the Fairmount Banff Hot Spring Hotel, a literal castle. We ended the night with a delicious, authentic fondue dinner. One note about Banff: it is a very pretty little town, but incredibly touristy. The next day we drove out to Lake Louise to see the famous lake and Fairmount Chateau, and hike the mountain to have lunch at the summit tea house. It was quite a hike up, but the scenery was beautiful. I will not delve into details about how much food we ate when we got to the tea house, but it was a lot (especially on my part). We met Steve on our way down from the mountain and headed out in separate cars to Yoho National Park, where we would spend the night. In a scheduling coincidence, Jane's mom and her boyfriend were at the same campground as us that night, Takakkaw Falls. In the morning, we went to see the falls, then had lunch at Emerald Lake, and finally made our way to Revelstoke, where Steve lives. Steve took us up to the top of Mt. Revelstoke, where we had an amazing view of the town and the surrounding mountain chains. That night we had an incredible dinner at one of Steve's favourite spots, and literally closed the restaurant down (the chef was hanging out with the last remaining server). We stayed at the Revelstoke Mountain Resort, which was beautiful and very empty due to the time of the year. The next morning we took the gondola up the mountain to have breakfast at their restaurant. After breakfast, Jane and I continued on to begin our Okanagan Valley wine adventure.

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