Banff: A great place to visit, and a fun word to say...

Last week before the hustle and bustle of premier week (especially for Jim, who took over for Seth as Music Director), we decided to use our free time and drive to Banff National Park. We stopped at Lake Minnewanka to stretch our legs and have a look-see. It was pretty gorgeous, but, like Calgary, a bit chilly.





























We were hungry so we drove a little bit more to Banff and we spotted a little hotel restaurant named "The Meatball." I got the margherita pizza to split with Sophie, and Jim got the homestyle macaroni and cheese. Both were super spicy and I'm glad I remembered to pack extra snacks that day, as Sophie didn't really like it either. The bartender was super nice, but I wouldn't recommend it for the food. We decided to drive through the village of Banff, and it was a cute, quaint little ski town. It almost reminded me of Frankenmuth in Michigan, but with mountains and junk. We went to the falls and took a few pictures. There was a [drunk] wedding party there taking pictures, climbing up the rocks, and yelling in Russian. Here are a few pictures of what it looked like. The falls, not the drunk Russians.










You can see the bride in the corner, so I kinda lied...











































We then went to the gondola to go to the top of the mountain. It was chilly so we put on Sophie's new winter coat. She didn't really like that, but she didn't really have a say either.



































Notice the impressive beard growth. On Jim, not me!







We went outside to look around and to look for any wildlife. Apparently they all got the memo that we were coming that day and to stay home.











We did see a chipmunquirrel running around. Sophie kept yelling "HI!" at it, but it still wouldn't let Sophie give it a hug. His loss!















We noticed the clouds were getting grayer and grayer, so we decided to head to Tim Horton's for a hot chocolate and then home before the rain got us.














When we got inside to take the gondola down, I wanted to take Sophie's jacket off, but she wouldn't have that either. And the Taiwanese tourists were very taken with Sophie! They couldn't keep their hands off of her! We drove home, missing the rain and savoring the rest of our break. It was a good day!