Seriously, there was this calm that came over me somewhere around 40 km after leaving Calgary behind. That feeling of anticipation of driving into the Rockies took hold and there was nothing that was happening in the back seat that would keep me from finding my happy place. OK, fine, the kids were going crazy and were desperate to eat and settle in for the night. We had spent the entire morning and early afternoon at the Royal Tyrell, but thankfully, we had set ourselves up with the shortest driving day of the whole trip, ending up at the Rundlestone Lodge in Banff, AB. There were surprisingly few oohs and aahs from kids, but it didn't matter too much to me - the mountains were still and will always be beautiful to me. The first scenic lookout along Lac des Arcs before Canmore has to be one of the most used on the Trans-Canada. No bathroom or anything, but a great place to stretch, marvel at the beauty around you and breathe deeply. And change diaper on top of suitcases.
So apparently, Parks Canada coined the phrase "Proper Awesome" to refer to National Parks and Historic Sites in their marketing materials. As in "the word awesome is so overused…when you see what our parks have to offer, you'll know what PROPER awesome is." We used this phrase A LOT throughout the trip.
This could also be referred to as "proper awesome".
These cool wildlife overpasses have been built over the highway throughout the park. They're completely grown over with vegetation and allow the animals of the park to pass over the road safely. A fence runs along the top so that animals can't hurl themselves off the side.
The drive into Banff was relatively uneventful. After dumping our stuff in the hotel, we drove downtown and scoped out a place to eat. We settled on
The Bear Street Tavern, in part due to the yummy looking menu for Holly and me (it was a bit of a splurge, but I think Holly might have been in her happy place too) and in part due to the fact that it was nice and noisy so if the kids lost it, few people would notice. So we got set up in a corner booth by the window with a massive TV on the nearest wall. That TV happened to be showing competitive darts and Max was soon fascinated by the show. What are they doing? How do you win? Why does that guy keep saying "Wawn hawndred and IIIIIIIIIII-ty"? Is that guy's name really "
The Power"? Meanwhile, the other boys were suddenly into colouring and did a pretty good job with their placemats. Food came faster than expected and the kids managed to take down a fair amount. They naturally finished before our food arrived so we busted out the secret weapon and set them up in the corner of the booth with some Bubble Guppies on the iPad while Holly and I continued to work our way through our gourmet pizza and beer sampler.
Whichever one of these was the apricot beer was amazing.
This salad could also be referred to as "proper awesome". Holly reports that it tasted as good as it looked. After days and days of road food, eating salad was heaven.
Max, staring up at the darts competition on TV.
After dinner, we took the kids to one of the many candy stores along the main stretch as a thank you for a fantastic dinner experience. While they were snacking, we strolled down Banff Ave. to Cascade Gardens and then went for a walk along the Bow River. When we came back across the river, Leo looked down (as he is wont to do) and spied a PILE of change in the grass. I can't remember the exact total, but it was in the neighbourhood of
$3.75. Leo was ecstatic. Max was so jealous (and burnt out) that he had a meltdown that put an end to his day. We drove back to the hotel and I put Max and Henry to bed while Holly snuck out with Leo in search of a playground for a late night play (he was the only one to nap extensively that day). Eventually, we were all asleep and ready for a barnburner of a Thursday.
Leo and his money.
The above two pics are from Holly and Leo's late night tour of Banff.
Breakfast in the hotel room before setting off.
It's hard to compare certain days to certain others, because it's like comparing apples, oranges, kiwis, pineapples, pomegranates, coconut, seaweed, … you get the idea. But our post-Banff day had to rank as one of our most memorable. We ate a fruit and sandwich breakfast in our hotel room and then hit the road for Lake Louise. Rather than go into the town proper, we turned right off the highway to the ski area. After checking out a black bear on the road (!!!), we made our way to the
Lake Louise Gondola. Another bit of a splurge, but this was a particularly nostalgic activity for Holly and me and we figured it would blow some minds. On the way up, Holly rode with the big boys and snapped some pictures while I sat with Henry and played "find the water" with him (some streams trickled down the hillside and Henry was obsessed with trying to figure out where it was coming from). At the top, we took some time to look across the valley and see the actual Lake Louise before hiking down to the nature centre and picnic area. We started in on juice boxes and a pile of trail mix until we all realized that the mosquitoes were out in full force. Holly and Henry started taking some serious bites so we fled back to the chairlift. We paused just long enough to attempt to get a good group picture and then headed down the hill. We stopped in at the chalet just long enough to get the
Germany-U.S. World Cup score (tied) and then headed off to see the Lake up close.
Lake Louise, as seen from the ski hill.
That's me and Henry, riding up behind the other three goofs.
Really not sure what Leo is up to here.
One of the bug bites that drove us off the hill. Who knew that we would need bug spray that day?
Lake Louise was jumping. Lots of tourists, lots of cameras, lots of awesome license plates in the parking lot!! We ate lunch quickly as we were being harassed by animals again (birds this time -
Clark's Nutcrackers to be precise) before walking a bit of the way around the lake. Max was goofing around on the rocks beside the trail and wiped out, just about taking our visit down a la The Sliver. But we fired him in the stroller and that seemed to appease him. Until the other boys wanted in the stroller. Then they wanted to push the stroller. Then it was time to leave. But not before Leo decided to dunk his head in the glacial waters. Which, of course, started a trend. Sigh. The visit was a little manic, but the weather and view were both beautiful and the boys talked about the lake for days afterward.
After gassing up and grabbing some snacks for the road (sunflower seeds were my saviour on a number of opportunities. I don't know what it is about the focus required to eat them, but they were definitely responsible for keeping me lucid while driving a few times. I raise this toast to you,
Spitz.), we headed through the mountains on our way to Revelstoke.
Sigh. Leo and gun fingers.
Leo went from getting his hands wet, to getting his hair wet to convincing everyone to get their hair wet.
As per the camera's timestamp, the elapsed time between these last two pictures was less than 1 minute. Classic Henry (and Leo, actually).
The drive was just beautiful, due in no small part to the kids having an extended nap. We pulled over at Roger's Pass to find that the old restaurant there was closed down but not torn down, due to some legal battle over leasing the property. However, an interpretative centre had opened up next door and our park pass (which had technically expired but was back in effect due to the time change in the mountains. SWEET) got us in for free. The kids spent the most time checking out models of the area, the craft table loaded with animal footprint stamps, a train conductor's uniform and the dresser of poop. Yes, there was a dresser whose drawers were filled with models of scatological specimens for people to check out. This was of course a big hit.
Poop.
This is the same breed of hawk that nests around our house!
Later on, we pulled into Revelstoke and set out in search of food. We found this little Italian place and hooked the kids up with pasta madness. While we were in the restaurant we were reminiscing about the last time we were in town, driving across the country in 1999 to live in Vancouver. We told the kids about how the night we were in town the street was shut down for this concert and people were selling ice cream and it was really special for Mommy and Daddy. Then, while eating dinner, a group of bagpipers went blasting down the sidewalk and we asked the server what was going on. She said that the street festival season was about to kick off and that that night was the first night. No. Way. After dinner, we trotted over to the bandstand and pulled up some seats to enjoy the night's performances. After the pipers cleared out and we got some ice cream for the kids,
Kenny Holliday showed up. We weren't ready for Kenny Holiday. None of Revelstoke was ready for Kenny Holliday. KH opened with a smorgasbord of 70s and 80s rock covers, none of which were particularly good. But then, he got to the good stuff. You see, KH was billed as a Rod Stewart impersonator. We sent Max up with a toonie to request "Maggie May" for Holly (one of her all-time favourite songs) and he came over and sang it right at Holly (Holly adds that he sung it to her in a gross, leering manner that left her very creeped out but she LOVED Max for doing that for her.). Oh my. I'd wager the 70 year-olds in the crowd loved it. We left.
Not one, but TWO nights of Kenny!
Max is still figuring out how to get his finger out of the way.
I love this picture. It shows Kenny and his mate trying to play over the din of a train that had stopped on th tracks right behind the bandstand for about ten minutes. It eventually left until another train came along about 15 minutes later and did the same thing!
wow.
After spending a night in our super sweet
hotel (really, it might have been the nicest of our whole trip. Beautiful rooms, modern decor, great swimming and an amazing hot breakfast), I was using the TV to distract Max while I packed. Unfortunately, there were no channels for young kids in the hotel (strange) so I put on The Price is Right. Max was fascinated. Like darts, fascinated. He had all sorts of questions for me about the games and the rules. Then Leo came back from breakfast with Holly. Max immediately took it upon himself to explain TPIR to Leo who was stone-faced while soaking it all in. Then, Leo turned to me and asked "Daddy, is this real?". That was interesting to me - I never considered that the kids might think that this was scripted or something. I said "Yeah, it's all real. These are real people playing games to win real prizes." Max's head whipped around and he said "WHAT!? Dad! You never told me that! This is awesome!" and then Max and Leo both settled in to watch the end of the show.
Leaving Revelstoke, we had a couple of options as to how to get to my Dad's place. There was the standard route through Kelowna then south to Rock Creek before backtracking eastward through Midway and Greenwood to Grand Forks. However, we spotted an alternate route on the map and discussed it with one of the Parks Canada interpreters at Rogers Pass and it was highly recommended. So we set out due south to the Upper Arrow Lake, where one has to take a
ferry to cross between Galena Bay and Shelter Bay. Before reaching Nakusp, though, we pulled off at
Halcyon Hot Springs to spend some time soaking in the warm, warmer and hot pools while suffering through a bit of drizzle. The boys loved the swim, particularly the warmer pool that had a segment with a bit of a current, like a small lazy river. We could have stayed there at least two hours longer than we did. Maybe three. Back in the car, we soaked up the gorgeous drive southeast of Nakusp, around the shore of Slocan Lake (the descent into Slocan was STUNNING) and then south to Castlegar. There, we took a break to eat at Joey's Seafood. We didn't expect much but they totally nailed the kids meals: their kids' menus were laid out like icons on an iPad so when the server came around, the kids could point at the options they would like and they provided really cool activity toys for the kids to play with while waiting for the food to arrive. The kids enjoyed some fish and some Pogos followed by dirt dessert (chocolate pudding, Oreo crumble and gummy worms), a concoction that disgusted Henry. I think he really figured it was dirt and we could not get him to try any. Mad props to Joey's in Castlegar for one of the calmest restaurant meals on the trip.
Leo had just woken up and I wanted him to come out and see the view. Here's a video so that I can approximate sharing it with you as well…apologies for probably mispronouncing "Slocan".
DIRT DESSERT!
And that was pretty much it for this chunk of the trip. If we had driven direct to Grand Forks, BC along this route, it would have been 4,837 km to get there but with all of the local back-and-forths along the way, the total was actually up at around 5,250 km when we got there. Next up, the fifth portion of the trip: visiting with Grandpa and Grandma Karan in Grand Forks.
