Alberta: Vredenburg style

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Meet the Vredenburgs:

Harrie and Jen head up the Vredenburg clan and run a small "Travellers' fitness school", which caters exclusively to relatives who come to stay. After a nice family meal, which we later discovered was to ensure we had the necessary energy, they kindly took us hiking up Nihahi Ridge. To our joy, we discovered this was only the first of many adventures and healthy activities we joined them on.

Their daughter Vanessa is spending her summer taking kids hiking / camping / canoeing in and around Banff national park for a big summer school. Even though Vanessa's time at home mainly consisted of washing her clothes and preparing to return, she was kind enough to join us for a few beers whenever she could. For anyone who is starting to notice a theme: Lauren, the youngest, is on a month long canoe trip up through the remotest parts of Canada.

Jessica, the eldest daughter, with her boyfriend Matt took Dave to try skeleton. For those of you who don't know, skeleton is like the luge only faster and head first. They also invited us camping so we could join in on a five hour downhill mountain bike ride. We erred on the side of caution with this one and went shopping instead.

Banff

Dave's camera was having a pretty easy trip until we got to Banff National Park. For various reasons we tried to accomplish a week's sightseeing in one afternoon. This was a sad mistake as Banff is amazing. We took a trip up the gondola for magnificant views of the area and the Banff Springs Hotel, followed by a relaxing dip in the natural hot springs.

Lake Louise

You would be crazy to visit Alberta and not visit Lake Louise. Evidently there are countless other people who agree with this as the lake was jam packed with tourists. Some of whom, however, did appear to be crazy, which they demonstrated by swimming in the glacial-fed lake! After a lovely 2 hour race up to Lake Agnes and back down again, we joined the rather distinguished guests for a jolly nice beer at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Spiffing sweetie darlings.

Rafting the 'mighty' Kicking Horse River

After proving ourselves on the Tully river in Cairns (both certified experts), we thought we should try our hand at what we heard was one of the wildest rafting rivers in Canada, the 'mighty' Kicking Horse River. Unfortunately for us the water was very low, and we both reckon a better title for this experience might be "Floating down the Sleeping Donky".

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Photos

Dinner at the grizzly paw with the vredenburgs
Jessica, Harrie, Dave, Jen, Nic, Vanessa

Comments

[yvonne]

Great Pic's
Calgary,Banff and Lake Louise look really beautiful. Love the snow top mountains.Dave ,trying to train the grey squirrels to stay in the garden ready for your visit. I'm not sure they are cute !!!!!!!!!!!!See you both in New York .