Just a quick recap of a significant event from Day 20, After arriving in Banff after our big day of driving we checked into our hotel and headed out for some dinner, we grabbed some pizza that was average at best. However it was after dinner we really let our hair down, we had the quintessential Canadian 'sometimes food' known as Beavertails!! A Beavertail is a fried dough pastry that is stretched out into the shape of a beavertail (hence the name) and then deep fried and topped with variety of goodies. We indulged in a Beavertail with chocolate hazelnut spread (Nutella), peanut butter and Reece's Pieces. It was disgustingly delicious.
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| Mmmm delish |
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| What's your choice of toppings |
Day 21 kicked off slowly due to our big day the day before. We headed to a local cafe, The Wild Flour and had a delicious breakfast and a great coffee!! We have decided to go for a hike to try and get away from the overcrowded tourist spots.
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| Banff |
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| Waffles for breakfast |
In close proximity to Banff is Lake Minnewanka (and no it's not pronounced Mini Wanker) where we headed out on the hike. It was a 2km hike up Stewart Canyon through bear infested woodlands. There was also a howling wind blowing that was causing all the trees above us to creak and crack adding to the excitement (or tension). Now we are not only on the lookout for bears but also falling trees!!
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| Lake Minnewanka |
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| Filling up our drink bottle in the Cascade River |
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| We weren't allowed to do the longer trail, too many bears. |
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| Stewart Canyon |
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| Lake Minnewanka |
Post hike we had lunch in a central park, Banff (
flight of the concords reference) where we made some delicious bread rolls and then threw our new Canadian frisbee.
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| Playing with the frisbee |
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| Bow River, Banff |
Back on the road and we are off to Canmore, (approx 20km east of Banff) I didn't have very high expectations but very pleasantly surprised. Even though not in the national park the town still maintains a very natural and friendly feel. The town is surrounded by multiple gorgeous mountains, most notably and our personal favourite was the Three Sisters Range.
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| On our way to Canmore. Can't get enough of these mountains |
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| Canmore guarded by the Three Sisters |
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| Our view from our hotel room |
The township itself is very quaint with a large range of restaurants, cafes, watering holes and boutique clothes and furniture shops all housed in 'mountain style' buildings. We really liked Canmore as it was not as busy as Banff and still had a great range of things to offer.
We shared burgers for dinner in Canmore, We had the standard beef burger and the Elk burger. The Elk burger was very nice, the meat was tender and juicy especially compared to the beef and had a beef/venison taste.
On Day 22 we headed out to Grassi Lakes in Canmore to do another hike. It was a more difficult hike than the previous days, but was a great way to start the day. We had to hike around 2km up steep, rocky terrain to get to Grassi Lakes. The lakes were a very beautiful emerald green colour.
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| Lake Grassi |
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| Lake Grassi Waterfalls |
After our walk we went back into town and grabbed a coffee and some bagels. In Canmore there is the Rocky Mountain Bagel Co. which is were we brought 6 bagels to have for lunch, breakfast and snack for the next couple of days. We got 2 sesame seed, 2 cheese and jalepeno and 2 maple flavoured bagels. They are delicious and I think i'm starting to go a little looooopy for bagels. (loooopy get it? cause they are round??)
Next stop Calgary and after around an hour on the Trans Canada Highway we arrive. It was amazing how quickly the landscape changed shortly after leaving Canmore, the mountains become hills and more and more flat farming style pastures arise. After realising that we were staying at the Best Western Hotel and not the Westin Hotel, we easily found the hotel and checked-in. While we were still in possession of our adventure mobile we thought we would go Downtown and check out the 'haps' in the city. We pounded the pavement and checked out a few shops, including Lamelle's. We boot-scooted around the store checking out the boots, hats and excessively sized belt buckles, Yeeeeeeha.
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| Jo rocking the cowgirl hat |
After wearing the rubber out of our havaianas (traveller tip; thongs aren't good to walk around in!) we did a little research about Calgary and found out that a stable of the Canadian cocktail scene - The Caesar, was
invented (invented seems fairly elaborate, let's go with developed, yeah developed is better) developed in Calgary. In 1969, the restaurant manager at the Calgary Inn (now the Westin Hotel) devised the Caesar after being asked to create a signature drink for the hotel's new Italian restaurant. He mixed Vodka, Clamato (a blend of tomato juice and clam broth), hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce and is served over ice in a large salt-rimmed glass, garnished with celery and a wedge of lime. So we thought what better place to have a Caesar than the home - The Westin Hotel. So off we trot to the hotel, we march proudly into the lobby and through to the restaurant/bar getting more and more excited about our first impending Caesar-perience. Ok enough build up, the Caesar cocktail was undrinkable!! I politely grimaced my way through half the glass of spicy, salty, saucy liquid, while Jo managed to have 3 sips and then enjoy her stick of celery. However, like everything written in this blog is only our opinion and as mentioned previously, who really cares what we think.
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| Caesars |
Post Caesar we headed back to the hotel. Oh, hotel you say I think it might be time to do a little bit of a review of our recent accommodation.
- HI Whistler Hostel - This hotel was the former site of the Olympic athletes village during the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010. The hostel is basically brand new, we had a private room that was large, clean and comfortable. The hostel had all the other expected amenities - kitchen, theatre room etc. On the downside, the hostel was almost 10km from Whistler Village but this didn't bother us because we had a car.
- Kamloops Guesthouse - B&B style Hostel run out of house on the Northshore of Kamloops, This was a hostel owned by a very homely Taiwanese man. We had our own private room with our own single beds, but had to share a bathroom with 4 others. The house had a large kitchen, living room and dining area. It had good WiFi, clean sheets and towels and a comfy bed. The best thing about this place is the price, I think it was around $50, which is by far the cheapest night of the trip
- Jasper B&B - Similar to Kamloops Guesthouse, but more B&B style (without the breakfast) we had our own bathroom. Again we had WiFi, clean sheets and towels and our own double beds. (You may be able to tell it doesn't take much to impress us, in terms of accommodation) This B&? was a stone's throw away from the main restaurant and cafe strip. Nothing to complain about here, oh maybe that in the bathroom when you turned the light on that the exhaust fan came on also, I'd prefer to have separate switches for those midnight trips to the toilet.
- Spruce Grove Inn (Banff) - Hotel style accommodation. It was about 20 mins walk from main strip, so we drove. The WiFi here was fairly slow but all the other boxes were ticked here. We didn't have a mini fridge in our room, which was a bit of a pain because we were carrying yogurt, fruit and mayonnaise around with us.
- Rocky Mountain Ski Lodge (Canmore) - An older style motel with the beautiful pine wood wall coverings and the timeless emerald green carpet. We got a fridge again, crisis adverted! The rooms were Clean, tidy, and large.The hotel was a little way from the town, but so is all the other accommodation and we have a car so, all is good. We were able to park our car right outside our room, which means we were able to clean out the car of all the road trip rubbish and paraphernalia. The hotel also had a laundromat that we used to clean our clothes, which was much over due, some of my socks were almost grew legs and walked themselves to the machine.
Westin Best Western Hotel (Calgary) - Not much to say here, nice room, fridge, WiFi and all the other mod cons you would expect from a large hotel chain. The hotel isn't in town but out near the airport which is where we need to be. A unexpected surprise upon checkin was that we get breakfast, hopefully it is ok - more to come on this developing story in tomorrow exciting edition of Mitch & Jo's Canadian Adventure.
We didn't have the highest expectation for our accommodation due to finding them by looking for the cheapest places on Trip Advisor, but we have both been pleasantly surprised by all the accommodation!!
Hail Caesar!!
Mitch and Jo
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