On June 11th, we left for Canada. We were kind of doomed from the beginning, as far as the travel aspect goes. We were up at 3:30 ready to head to the airport on the 11th. Dad got a call at 3:00 about the cancelled flight. So, our only realistic option was driving to Columbia to fly out at 2:15. They mixed up D and Andy's passport somehow, and we were RUNNING to the plane. But, we landed in Calgary, Alberta, Canada at about 11:30 our time. We rented a house in Canmore, which is the Canadian's preferred vacation spot. It's a smaller mountain town that is very laid-back. The house was gorgeous, and we were very happy having a house versus a hotel room.
Our adventure began first thing the next morning with a few hikes. This picture is at Maligne Lake, which we visited the last time we went to Canada. The water was turquoise, and it was FREEZING!
We kept right on truckin' the following day. We finished our longest hike...we're in an on-going debate about the length. We can't figure out if it was 16 miles or 8 miles. Andy, Abbey, D, and Reid are in agreement that it is 16 miles, but we're not all together in that. We did a few more hikes as the trip went on, to see waterfalls, rivers, mountains, etc. Here's some pictures of some random hikes that we did.
Here's Andy being...well, Andy!
Near the end of the trip, some of us were hiked out, so we rented a boat at the nearby Lake Minnewanka. It's a very blue-green lake that just finished thawing out at the end of May. The weather was minute-by-minute, but we had fun!
Ha! Funny story about this picture of Andy...we were heading out of Banff, which is a resort town about 15 miles from where we were staying. School is still in up there, and the school speed zones are still enforced. Well, they use the metric system up in Canada, so it was a little hard for us to gauge distance and speed. Anyway, the school speed zone calls for 30 km. per hour. Andy was driving Reid, D, and Abbey and got "pulled" by a cop standing on the side of the road with a radar device that looked like binoculars. He told Andy he was going 49 in a 30. At first, we were very surprised and worried. Then, we looked at the speedometer and figured that 49 km per hour is roughly 12 miles per hour! Needless to say, he got off with a warning!
Here's some pictures of the different wildlife we saw...on the side of the road or in the road. We saw grizzlies, elk, deer, and a marmot. It was so wild to see all of these animals!
Our one night out on the town was in Banff. Here's D and Andy on the street with Mt. Rundle in the background. Also, there's a picture of all of us at the dinner table.
We really had fun in Canada. We were very happy to get back to the heat, humidity, and the lake, though! Hope y'all enjoy our pictures and memories!!
