Parents & Ian's trip out: Part 2: Banff, Day 1 and 2

So I need to break Banff up. We spent three days there. I'll cover day 1 and 2 in this post.

Day 1
We decided on day 1 (Friday) to start off with a trip to the Columbia Icefields. Google said it was 2.5 hours from Calgary...turns out it was 2.5 hours from Banff. On the way, we saw the first of our wildlife:
The Icefields itself was really cool. They took you out on an ice explorer, down the steepest drive-able hill (only by these machines) in the world and onto the toe of the glacier. The area we were on made up only 2% of the entire icefield, which you couldn't seen beyond the top ridges. The part of the glacier we stood on was the deepest, and it was as deep as the Eiffel Tower is tall! They were also very concerned with the glacier, the tires were really soft rubber so it wouldn't damage the glacier, and they plowed a road out there through the snow. Every few years they moved the road so it wasn't in the same spot, so it wouldn't weaken the glacier. They also said the glacier receding was a natural process, and that it has been receding gradually forever. We also got to try the glacier water. All in all, it was a great experience. Oh, and we saw big-horned sheep on the way to the glacier (females and their babies).


On the way home from the icefields, we stopped to look at Peyto lake. Yet another pretty glacier lake in the mountains.


We checked into our hotel in Canmore, which was brand new and actually was a condominium with a fully equipped kitchen. It was so awesome, we immediately booked for a 2nd night. It looked like this:
It also happened to be Mom's birthday (she turned 52), so we gave her her presents, and then took her out for dinner in Canmore. We came back to the hotel for a swim, and then went out to buy dinner to bbq for the 2nd night.

Day 2
We drove out to Lake Minnewanka (spelling?) on the way to see Lake Louise. By the lake, we saw another big horned sheep and did some exploring on a trail down the hill overlooking the lake. It was very pretty. Then we headed out to the Lake Louise Gondola, hoping to see some grizzly bears since it was a hotspot for them. We didn't see one, but there was one in the area and as a result we weren't even allowed to walk down the road to the interpretation centre, the gondola people drove us down. After the gondola, we took Ian to see Lake Louise. Sadly, it started raining so we didn't get many photo opps, nor did we get to explore with Ian around Lake Louise. So we headed off to Lake Moraine, my parents really wanted to see it and the rain let up for it! Mom and Dad liked it better than Lake Moraine, Ian too since he could climb up rocks with Stephan and do manly guy tough stuff.


We also saw another black bear, but he ran across the road too quickly to get a picture of.

We also made a stop in Banff to show Mom and Dad the Cascade Gardens. Since me and Stephan found it the first time I've been wanting to show them, I knew its something they would really love. And they did! Dad has quite a few pictures from the garden that he would like to turn into puzzles.
Then we headed back to our lodgings for the night and had a wonderful BBQ overlooking the mountains, and a swim in the pool. We finished the night off with a few drinks and a movie.