17 July - Sunday - Lake Louise & Banff Revisited

G'day All,

Since the weather has cleared up a bit we decided to head back to Lake Louise and Banff today to see the lake in better lighting and use the voucher to do the Banff Gondola ride. Definitely much nicer in the sunshine and a nice hike around the lake.

Lake Louise - Looking from Fairmont

The Fairmont Lake Louise

Next it was back to Banff to jump on the Gondola and it was an impressive view from the very top.

Penny did very well up and down in the gondola as it is a very steep ride and very high. Not sure she wants to do too many more high altitude activities lol :-)

Banff Gondola - Going Up.

View from the top.

Safely at the top,

As we were leaving Banff there was some commotion just past an intersection which turned out to be everybody taking a look at a group of three elk not more than 10 metres from the road. This guy walked straight towards me and was abut 5 metres away before he decided to turn away.

An Elk watches me closely

On the return trip to Lake Louise we did a side hike to Johnston Canyon upper and lower falls.

Johnston Lower Falls

Johnston Upper Falls

A big day for my Garmin step tracker with almost 18km racked up buy the end of the day.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

15 July - Friday - Calgary to Banff

G'day All,
Today the two car were packed up ready for the road trip to Banff. Samantha and Oliver with the two dogs (Maverick and Arya) in their SUV and Gary and Penny in the Malibu sedan. The day was very dreary and unseasonably wet. Calgary has experienced flash flooding and had their total monthly rainfall in the first half of the month, breaking a 30 year record. Expectations were that perhaps by heading north the weather would improve . . . nope still a wet day to be had in Banff. The trip from Calgary to Banff was about an hour and a half and we made good time.

Banff Park Administration Building

Downtown Banff looking back at the clouds.

Banff - Since 1885

We had a pre-booked Gondola ride to the top of the mountain at Banff but even the operators said not to go up as it was completely covered in cloud and all we would see would be grey nothingness :-( but they would honour the voucher if we came back in a day or two. With the gondola ride on hold we decided to go to the Banff Cascade Gardens and look around the township before checking into the Juniper Hotel.

Accommodation for the night in Banff

Cascade Gardens, Banff

Bunked down for the night and made plans for tomorrow and saw our fist chipmunk run across the window sill so of course I hunted him down for a photo.

Chipmunk

Cheers
Gary and Penny

Preparing for Canada

It is early days yet as we don't officially depart Australia until the 01 July 2016, but time stops still for nobody and it won't be long before it's upon us.

The tickets are booked and the itinerary is starting to take shape. We'll be flying with Air Canada as they now fly direct and non-stop from Brisbane, Australia to Vancouver, Canada taking about 13.5 hours. Not a bad run really, well for me at least, as Penny is not that fussed on flying :-)

Once we hit Vancouver we'll have an hour or so before catching a connecting flight to Toronto before settling down there for a couple of days. From there it's off to Niagara Falls to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary for a few days before flying to Calgary to meet up with our eldest Samantha and her better half Oliver.

A couple of weeks in Calgary to meet some new friends and take in the Calgary Stampede, Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper before we head out on the next leg of the journey.

From Jasper its time to relax on the Rocky Mountaineer through Quesnel and on to Whistler and Vancouver. From here we hook up with Holland America cruises to head north to Alaska. Seven fun filled days of cruising on the ms Nieuw Amsterdam up the inside passage to Tracy Arm Inlet and back via Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay and Ketchikan before returning to Vancouver.

From Vancouver its off to Victoria for a couple of days before returning once again to Vancouver to spend the last couple of days in the city before finishing up the vacation. It's a midnight flight from Vancouver back to Brisbane, losing a day to the international date line and ending 5 weeks of fun and frivolity.

The aim will be to update this blog frequently throughout the trip to keep you up to date on the activities, fun times and I guess all those events that will make the trip one to remember.

So for now, it's time to sign off, finalise the itinerary and secure those bookings, until we get a little closer to the departure date.

P.S. All the bookings mostly done and the tickets, itinerary and paperwork picked up, a big thanks to Samantha at Booval Flight Centre for her insight, enthusiasm and great communication in assisting us with the planning for the trip. :-)

Cheers
Gary and Penny