We arrived into Banff at about 6.30, it had been a long days drive. We checked into the hotel and then waited in the lounge for Damien to finish work at 9.
Just after 9, Damo arrived at our hotel. We hadn’t seen him in over 8 months so it was pretty emotional. So nice to see him again.
Damo’s friend Alex was in town for a few days and he had joined us a little earlier. We all headed out for dinner at Magpie and Stump, a Mexican restaurant/bar, and did lots of catching up.
Damien was working the next few days. So Monday Bel and I took a day off from touring and site seeing and just explored the Banff village. A very pretty town in a valley along the Bow river and surrounded by mountains.
Bel wanted to do some shopping and needed to visit every shop so I decided to go back to the hotel and do some blogging. I didn’t want to slow her down.
We met up again for lunch at an Irish pub. Alex joined us, and then we headed off for a walk out to the Fairmont Banff Springs. It was about 2km to the hotel but you could see it a long way out. What a spectacular building. Like a castle from a fairy tale at the the base of the mountains overlooking the river.
We did a walk around and through and checked out the amenities and then checked the horse riding. I said to Bel that I bet the girl tending the horses was aussie, and sure enough she was. Lots of aussies working here like Damo. Pretty much every barista in town is an aussie. Canadians are rare, like trying to find a kiwi in Queenstown.
We started our walk back to town and found a big group of ground squirrels darting in and out of their holes and checking us out. Very cute, a bit like meercats.
That evening we met up with Damo again after work and took him out for some steak at The Keg. He has a limited budget so steak is rarely on his menu. We went all out and got ribs for entree and then he and I had steak and Alaskan king crab for main. Yum.
Saturday we met with Alex for breakfast at Tooloulous. It’s a very popular spot that always had a queue and does all combinations of waffles, pancakes, bacon, eggs, etc. Alex had fried chicken waffles!
We then went for a drive out to Lake Louise while Damo worked again. Being a weekend it was crazy busy. The car park was full and the overflow was 5km away with a shuttle. We decided to head back up the parkway first and come back. First stop was Bow Lake (we skipped this last time due to rain).
and then to Lake Peyto again now that the weather was improved.
Both were very pretty, and we were glad we came back.
On our way back we checked Lake Louise again, it was still packed so we went to the shuttle parking. There were too many people to fit on the shuttle so we were in a queue and it started to rain!! Enough was enough, we jumped in the car and drove up and Alex told the attendants we were going to the stables, he let us through and we parked illegally. We were in! The effort was worth it. So beautiful. There was another Fairmont chateau, but the main attraction was the lake set in the mountains.
We made it back to Banff at 3.30, Damo had finished early so we picked him up and went to the Hot springs to check out the cave and spring that were the reason Banff was initially established. Very interesting but also very smelly – lots of sulphur.
Damo then took us down to the canoe club, where he worked, and got out a couple of canoes for us to go for a paddle. Lots of fun. The first time we had been in a canoe, it was actually easier to paddle and steer than the kayak.
After a nice paddle Damo then took us to a Rooftop bar that he liked – Elk and Oarsman. A great spot.
A couple of drinks and we headed to Eddie Burger Bar for dinner. A great spot where you can design your own burgers. Bel thought hers was the best burger she has ever had.
Sunday was the first day of Damo’s weekend off so we all headed on a road trip to Kicking Horse river. On the way out of town we saw a bit herd of Elk sitting in someone’s front yard.
The river was an hour and half away near Golden, and we were going there to do some white water rafting. It was crazy, so much fun and a massive adrenaline rush. The course covered 20km of the river with lots of class 3, and a couple of class 4 rapids. We were thrown all over the boat but thankfully no one went in.
We arrived back in Banff at about 7, did a quick change and then went out for Pizza and ten pin bowling at High Rollers – Pints, Pizzas and Pins. We hadn’t bowled in years so it took a while to warm up but lots of fun. A very full day that didn’t finish until about midnight. We were exhausted, but really enjoying catching up with Damo.
