Fairmont Banff Springs Sunday 21st

And so the fun continues for us all here in Banff, breakfast was in the Bow Valley Restaurant, very fancy, and a huge buffet of all sorts of yummy goodies, and wait staff everywhere to attend to your every whim, we then had a bit of a look around this castle..I find it very hard to explain just how special it is here, while the rooms are very small, they are very very elegant, and small is good when "one is in a castle" no complaints from us, just cant stop looking around in awe.. Next stop was Alpine Helicopters for our scenic flight over this awesomely spectaularly wonderful place ( I just invented a couple of new words..) The flight was so good, we all got off with grins like kids in a lolly shop. Thanks Scenic for making this a part of our package..Al dropped us in town, and we walked around in our quest to seek our more animals, no luck today. But we did have a great walk along the vivid Bow River Trail, and put our hands in to feel how cold it was...very cold mate, very cold. The river is fed from the Glaciers, so yeah,, I guess its gotta be cold.
Lake Minnewanka was calling out to us, so hey lets go on a cruise on the largest lake in the National Park,(28klms long 1.2 klms wide) the color of the water is "nice" get what I mean here ?? UNBELIEVABLE...The cruise was so relaxing, I was once again rocked off to sleep...how embarrasing..even though my senses were swimming, my brain was in relax and chill mode. We were transferred back to town and walked home via the very very lovely Bow River white water river and climbed 7 million stairs up to our castle in the sky, well Wazza said to be accurate there were more than 3 stairs !! As I type this, I am looking at that view you have seen, and still takes my breath away. Called mum, and she was excited for us, as she has been to Banff also, I heard Bonnie barking, evry time I see a puppy I think of Bonnie, we do miss her, there are dogs everywhere here.
Tonight we have chosen to have dinner at the Costello Restaurant, (Italian grub) we all had choices of where to dine, Wazza loves Italian food, so it was his call tonight. We had a really little lunch to be able to fit in dinner.
Tomorrow, we take on Lake Louise, are they ready for us ?????

Banff...B for beautiful

Going On Holiday Countdown

Today on our tour from Sun Peaks to Banff we had a competition on board the coach organised by the tour guide of the year to think of words that can help me to describe the "stuff" we see, great effor from our team, we also played a game of drawing a moose, how we laughed at that one..who would have thought to specify gender meant antlers...photos are so painfully slow to load, but I will keep on trying, just at the moment I want to try and get the info up and running, one pic loads fast, more than that, I can vacume the floors of the Banff Springs hotel and they are still not loaded. Did I say how wonderful this place is ?? OH MY GOSH, the view from our room, is just a fairy tale picture, my breath was taken away, even Wazza was jumping out of his skin too !We are on the 9th floor, and I am getting used to the lifts, scared of nothing me !
OK so this morning we left Sun Peaks @ 7.30 and travelled highway 1 we passed many lovely places, the scenery has changed already, we travelled through Jade Mountain, Little Schswop Lake, Sorrento (gorgeous) Salmon Arm,(where we expected a welcoming committe..thanks for nothing Heathers sister !!) Caneo Sicamouse where we saw a baby deer Malakwa which means mosquito! We stopped for a picnic which our amazing tour guide organised and had sangers at a lovely stop called Craigellachie,, Lachlan I kept thinking of you here, you and pop would have loved to be here to watch a train go by a station with half your name in it, the train was ENORMOUSLY long ! then though 3 Valley Gap Rebelstoke, here we left the Columbia Mountain Range, yes Barbara, British Columbia is just amazing. I am in love with this place, we both are. Next is our first view of the Rocky Mountains and the start of the Glacier National Park, we went through Rogers Pass 1330 mts, where avalances are a common occurance, we saw lots of evidence of this, here can get between 50 and 60 feet of snow..Then Kicking Horse River, where the color of the water was wonderful. Stopped for afternoon tea, and and ice cream, the girl promised it was a weight watchers jenny craig no sugar special..yeah sure !! The past Field just before entering Banff National Park, in Alberta ..ther was great excitement in the camp when we saw the Rocky Mountaineer go past us, though lets not get too far ahead. When we arrived here at Banff Springs Hotel it was a bit overwhelming, this place is HUGE HUGE HUGE and FABULOUS, we settled in ( read that as chucking stuff on the floor and bolting out the door) and explored Banff, oh did I mention we saw a deer in town tonight, as one does when one is in Banff??We walked and walked and walked a bit more, had a drink at the Irish Pub, met some of the "family" in town and had a quick shared meal at Tony Romas a wonderful Rib joint we last went to 19 years ago in Honolulu, yummmmm, and then home to "our castle" where no good fairy came and made my mess pretty, but thats OK, cos they probably would have called the police thinking this place had been trashed...So tomorrow we are up and at it early for a walk, brekky and then a helicopter flight over the Mountain, the forecast is for 28 degrees, so so so lucky with the weather, the Gods are on our side..Pardon if I have made spelling mistakes, I have barely time to post, let alone proof read. Some amazing footage on the iPad and phone, just gotta get it on here to share, if you are smart, you will decline an invite to our slide night...
Keep well,till we talk again, and thanks again for coming along on our amazing journey to the top of the world..xx

Whistler to Sun Peaks

Going On Holiday Countdown

Thursday 18th August Victoria to Whistler..We left the very beautiful Empress Hotel to begin our journey to the Rocky Mountain Country. We boarded the BC Ferry Coastal Renaissance to Horseshoe Bay, the scenery was lovely, and the ferry was huge, and quite new. It took about an hour and a half. Next stop was Shannon Falls, awesome sight . On to Whistler Village, where we had a walk around the area, stopped for a drink of Dutch Courage, before we got on the Peak to Peak Gondola from Whistler to Blackcombe Mountain.... I was nearly soiling my underwear, but so so glad we did this we were 1850 meters up and the mountain had snow all over it, loads of nut bags ride there bikes down the mountain at 100kms an hour, jump on the lift and come back up and do it all again !! Just before we got off the last chair lift we got lucky, just below us were 2 black bears just moseying around...awesome.....We checked into the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, another really beautiful hotel, and had dinner (lobster for me..wooooo hooooo!!) The meal was delicious, as was the complimentary glass of wine ! We walked dinner off, trying to spot more bears,, then we had a presentation by a black bear expert Michael Allen, seemed to be a good time for me to have a snooze, my head was falling off, so I left Warren and went to our room to try to get some more work done on my photos. Thanks to our wonderful tour guide Heather who told me to sign up for Scenic Gold Club, I can now get free internet at all the hotels...yay for Heather. She is a wonderful tour guide, and our driver, Al is also a great bloke, and a really good driver. This really is an amazing journey, and today on the gondola, I felt like we were on the top of the world !~!!

Going On Holiday Countdown

Thursday 18th August Victoria to Whistler..We left the very beautiful Empress Hotel to begin our journey to the Rocky Mountain Country. We boarded the BC Ferry Coastal Renaissance to Horseshoe Bay, the scenery was lovely, and the ferry was huge, and quite new. It took about an hour and a half. Next stop was Shannon Falls, awesome sight . On to Whistler Village, where we had a walk around the area, stopped for a drink of Dutch Courage, before we got on the Peak to Peak Gondola from Whistler to Blackcombe Mountain.... I was nearly soiling my underwear, but so so glad we did this we were 1850 meters up and the mountain had snow all over it, loads of nut bags ride there bikes down the mountain at 100kms an hour, jump on the lift and come back up and do it all again !! Just before we got off the last chair lift we got lucky, just below us were 2 black bears just moseying around...awesome.....We checked into the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, another really beautiful hotel, and had dinner (lobster for me..wooooo hooooo!!) The meal was delicious, as was the complimentary glass of wine ! We walked dinner off, trying to spot more bears,, then we had a presentation by a black bear expert Michael Allen, seemed to be a good time for me to have a snooze, my head was falling off, so I left Warren and went to our room to try to get some more work done on my photos. Thanks to our wonderful tour guide Heather who told me to sign up for Scenic Gold Club, I can now get free internet at all the hotels...yay for Heather. She is a wonderful tour guide, and our driver, Al is also a great bloke, and a really good driver. This really is an amazing journey, and today on the gondola, I felt like we were on the top of the world !~!!

Saturday

Going On Holiday Countdown

good morning from Delta Sun Peaks Resort, where we are still having the most wonderful time, this country has some spectacular scenery, today we head to Banff Springs, I have some blogs to post from the other putter, so will get that all sorted tonight, no free wi fi in our rooms here, so I am in the lobby posting this.Still not enough hours in the day to do all we want to do.lol..cheers for now...xx