Day 1 of vacation – here we go! It has been a whirlwind leading up to this vacation. The girls had soccer tournaments the last 2 weekends, then soccer tryouts Monday through Friday along with Wednesday being the last day of their school. This all resulted in us being extra delayed in our usual packing and trip preparations, so we all were up late the night before packing frantically. I went to bed around midnight, and Noelle went to sleep at 2:30am. Sleep is probably an exaggeration – it was more of a nap, since we were back awake at 4:00am to get out of there at 5. Everyone did well getting the bags (4 carry-ons + 4 backpacks) in the car and getting out the door right on time.
We parked the car at the parking spot (airport parking) in the international section. It’s probably been 10 years since I did an international flight and didn’t realize how long the drive was from there to the international terminal at the airport. It felt like 15-20 minutes of back roads to get there. We had plenty of buffer time in the schedule, so I wasn’t worried, but will note for the future.
Check-in was fairly easy. We just signed up for pre-check this year to let you go in the shorter security line, but we arrived at 6am and it doesn’t open till 7. We didn’t need it though since the line was short and we made it through without any cavity checks. We even had enough time to grab some food and coffee at the starbucks there that already had a massive line of people waiting to order. Quick tip for any other starbucks fans out there: always do a mobile order from your app to skip to the ordering line. The airport spots are in there also. I don’t know why anyone waits in line anymore.
The flight was on WestJet that has direct service from Atlanta to Calgary. We got a little bit hosed with boarding. The audio there was terrible and everything the guy said was muffled and I couldn’t here the process clearly. They had zones, but they apparently didn’t use them for boarding so everyone just can line up after the families with little kids board. We got in line a little late and had to check our carry-ons as a result.
The amenities reminded me a little bit of SouthWest airlines. No TV’s, but they had WIFI and movies / TV that you could watch on your phone. They came by twice for drinks and snacks on the flight, which I appreciate as a snack enthusiast. I also snagged the only seat on the plane that had an open middle seat so I had all the space I could ever want. Look how relaxed and cozy I look below! Noelle was only a little jealous sitting next to bratty girls that poked her every time they felt she was due for a poke. She compensated by taking all of their leftover trash and putting it on my tray table since I had SO MUCH extra room. Fun fact – all cabin announcements are in English and French.
After ~4.5 flight that went by quickly with all the sleeping we did, we landed in Calgary. They have a beautiful airport, spacious airport and we were quickly over to go through customs. The customs process there was interesting. I guess everything is digital now, so they don’t stamp passports. We just had to scan our passports in a digital kiosk, take a picture, and answer a few questions for declarations. Luckily Lydia and Victoria didn’t bring any cigarettes, alcohol, or live animals for this trip, so we answered no everything and they print a little piece of paper and wave you’re basically out the door with no fuss. I was so confused that it could be that easy that I double-checked with the border agents working the door (and randomly questioning people going through) if I needed anything else – “Nope, you’re good”. The bag carrousels were right there, and we grabbed our bags and out of there.
Next stop was the rental car center to grab a car. Avis was one of the only companies that let’s you pickup in Canada, but drop-off in the U.S. I only paid for a mid-size sedan (chevy malibu equivalent) but they gave me a new 4×4 Jeep Laredo suv that had Android car-play. This trip is already going well!
Now we just need to eat since we’re all starving. I had a food truck scouted out, but the family got impatient and we saw a costco along the way, so we decided to go there for lunch instead and maybe do a little grocery shopping while we’re at it. I was excited to see what kind of canadian treasures a costco in calgary might have. The food options were fairly similar – although they had a few different things like chicken tenders and fries. They also love brown gravy here in canada and you can get that as a dipping sauce for your fries (which I ordered). We went to pay and ran into a problem… the Costco’s in Canada only accept MasterCard! I do not have a MasterCard and I didn’t convert any of my U.S. cash to Canadian dollars, so we had to take the walk of shame out of costco with no food or canadian treasure. I just googled this a day later, and apparently all retailers in Canada will take U.S. currency so I probably could have used cash if I found a cashier somewhere. Oh well – the girls may starve if this mastercard thing is a trend everywhere.
When God closes one door, he opens another and we got lunch at A&W with root beer for everyone. My visa credit card did work here and we had a nice Canadian meal of hamburgers and chicken tenders. The girls also wanted me to drive back to the lululemon in downtown calgary since lululemon is cheaper in canada. Overpriced shorts that are normally $60 are $40, but we’re here to have an adventure, not shop. Let’s see Canada!
Properly fed, we started our trek out west. Driving in Canada is fairly normal. All the same traffic lights/signs as the U.S. except things are in kilometers. I don’t know how stringent the Canadian police (Mounties?) are with the speed limits, so I stayed fairly close to the maximum. I doubt they can chase me down mounted on their horses anyway.
The rocky mountains that were partially covered in snow and clouds started coming into view and looked more epic the closer we got.
They do a really detailed job of trying to protect the wildlife here from being hit on the highways. They were even building special wildlife only bridges across with dirt/grass and trees planted so the animals could use that to cross the street and get to the greener grass on the other side. Why did the chicken cross the road in Canada? It didn’t, it crossed the bridge.
Our first planned hike of many planned on this trip was going to be our second stop here in Canada – Grassi Lakes Trail. The only problem was the rain. It was pouring rain all the way on the drive. It was going to be too cold to do a hike like this in pouring rain, so I had all but given up and was adjusting the navigation to just go over to the city when the clouds suddenly parted right as we got to the exit, and I pulled off to see if hopefully we could squeeze it between the rainshowers that looked like they were dotted everywhere on radar.
We parked in the parking lot right when the rain stopped and started up the trail. Victoria just woke up and was a little grouchy and cold, so it was starting to feel like a mistake to hike with her whining, but we continued up the steep path. It was listed as 1.7 km one way with a 1.7 km loop back a different way.
We were rewarded for the efforts at the top with one of the most beautiful turquise pools you’ve ever seen. The snow melt was still going strong and it’s doing a constant feed on the water here, along with the algae that makes it a beautiful sparkling blue that was clear all the way to the bottom. I took a sip – tasted great as well! If all of banff is similar to this, we are going to be
The hike down was great also, and much easier than the hike up. You had some great views of the towering snow covered mountains and waterfalls coming down with a distant view of the man-made pool at the bottom and the city further out.
Noelle has been doing a lot (maybe too much) research on bears, bear attacks, how to avoid bear attacks, what to do if you are attacked by bears, etc. We spent the whole time making noise to make sure any bears thought twice about eating an annoying group of tourists. No bears today, but that is still a dream of Noelle (to see one, not be eaten by one).
We made it back down a little muddy and tired, and jump in for a short ride to our Airbnb in Canmore. Canmore was a cute little city, under major construction to build a larger road. It’s nestled between multiple sets of massive mountains and have some incredible views that make you want to turn your head and gawk instead of watch the road when they aren’t covered by clouds. The clouds just hug to them like they don’t want you to see what’s behind.
I started having some digestive issues we the burger/fries from earlier, so it was critical to get into this Airbnb ASAP. We parked underground and ran upstairs with our luggage to the floor an got to a door with our room number on it, but there was a door with a key card and we didn’t have a keycard. Maybe I missed a step and there’s a lockbox with cards? I’m getting more a little bit closer to full digestive breakdown and start sprinting off to look for some kind of lockbox thing (or plan B options if explosion is imminent. As I was about to leave the floor, I asked if the girls tried the door handle. They turned it, and it opened up (it was an open door in front of our actual door that had the key pad on it)… Crisis averted and we’re into our pad.
Accommodations were perfect for us – 2 queen beds and a pull out if we needed it with full kitchen and laundry machine. The only issue with it is the dryer knob is broken and can’t be turned. We may have to resort to hanging clothes outside to dry.
We chilled out for a few minutes, then grabbed bathing suits to head over to the famous Banff Upper Hot Springs. It’s a very interesting spot in Banff up next to Sulfur mountain where they created a swimming pool using sprint water that is heated by underground thermal vents. You change into your swim suit in the locker room, shower off the much before you go in, then jump in a big hot tub swimming pool and soak in the heat with 70 other friends. It was a very diverse group of people and body types, but everyone is there just relaxing together and enjoying the views.
After a day of flights and hiking, it felt great. We saw one lady that stayed in the hot too long (you’re supposed to cool down after ~10 minutes in the hot) and had to be helped out, looking a little like she was about to lose her lunch. She cooled off for a bit and was ok though. The girls like jumping between a cold shower that was there and jump back in the hot water. We relaxed there for ~45 minutes then headed back to the locker rooms to change (girls to the womens room, me to the mens). This was the first time for the girls in a locker room with adults and was very surprised that some of the foreign ladies in there strip down to their birthday suits and walked around like it’s no big deal. Lydia described the situation as “No game, no shame.” The same was true for the men’s locker room.
We left there relaxed, but were tired and starving. We ordered a pizza and mac & cheese from a local spot (Red Rock Pizza) and Noelle ran in to get some groceries at the Safeway. The pizza was some kind of pepperoni pizza with maple syrup infused bacon and was one of the best pizza’s (and mac & cheese) i’ve ever had. We went to sleep around 10pm (midnight home time) and are looking forward to whatever the next adventure will be.
Swimming?