Anna's Awesome Adventures!!!: Jasper to Calgary

Today I woke up at 8:30, got ready, took some stuff to the car, then went with Matthew to eat breakfast at the hotel. It wasn't a free breakfast, but we had only snack-type foods left...and since we weren't just driving all day, I needed more than a cereal bar! So I had a sausage, bacon, French Toast, a croissant, a cranberry scone, and apple juice. It was so filling! There was also eggs, hash browns, pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, muffins, orange juice, and milk. It was a buffet and we went away very satisfied.

Then we finished loading up the car, checked out, drove through town a bit, and were on the Icefields Parkway, heading south, at 10:15. It was a beautiful drive along a glacier-fed stream, lots of trees, and snow-covered mountains (some were "rippled" -- very unique). We came to the Columbia Icefields, where we stopped and took pictures. Matthew and I also walked up to the Athabasca Glacier (about 3/4 mile roundtrip)...you can't actually touch it (unless you are on a tour bus group), but we did enjoy the walk. There were signs along the way talking about glaciers, and little posts saying where Athabasca had been at certain years, so it was kind of interesting to see its retreating path. It was a good stop.

At 2 PM, we arrived at Lake Louise, where we had lunch (I had a summer sausage sandwich, Pringles, and pineapple juice) and looked at the ski area. We also went into the lodge and looked around...see, whenever we visit a ski area, it is top priority for Matthew to find a trail map, so that was our quest. It's kinda fun to see a ski area in the non-skiing season because all the trails are silent and green, and everything is just quiet. Of course, I was sad because I couldn't ski on any of the beautiful runs! After our stop there, we went to Sunshine Village, in Banff. That's another ski area, but unlike Lake Louise, there was no activity at all...everything was locked up and shut down. We still took pictures before continuing into the town of Banff. And how overwhelming that was! There was bumper-to-bumper traffic, people overfilling the sidewalks, one lone horse-and-carriage trotting down the streets (I said I wouldn't want to be driving anything in this craziness!), the biggest hotel I've ever seen in my life, so busy and crowded...it was scary! I'm so used to little Nome, where you might meet five people walking down Front Street. This was so crazy, I was happy when we had driven through and said good-bye. Can you tell I REALLY need my empty country around me?!

After Banff, we drove on to Calgary, arriving at our hotel (this monstrous Residence Inn with a shower you could get lost in, an Olympic-sized swimming pool...almost, a huge exercise room, and so much more that I could go on forever about) at 6:45. We checked in, brought our bags in, went out to get some groceries, and came back to our hotel to make a special supper. We have a full kitchen, so I fixed cannelloni, chicken lasagna for Grandma, and stove-made crescent rolls. We thought we had an oven, but we didn't, so I had to figure out how to do them on the stove in a saucepan. They were kind of like pancakes, but they actually tasted pretty good! Matthew and I also had a blast cutting up a really cheap pineapple. Grandma made corn on the cob, Matthew served the mango-passionfruit juice, and we had a full-course meal! After supper and clean-up, we all watched the Olympics while Grandma and I wrote postcards and Matthew blogged. Then, after awhile, I served up dessert -- special chocolate-chip cookies with peanut butter-chocolate ice cream. Then I showered, and now I'm going to bed...it's 1:30 here! Tomorrow, my mom flies into Calgary's airport around 11 AM, we pick her up...and in 10 days, I will be home. Where did all the time go?! Thanks for sticking with me, everyone, and God bless you!