Yesterday, January 13, was a full Banff exploration day. I went on a bus tour and then to the Banff Gondola. Both were great and what I would highly recommend if visiting Banff.

I’m going to admit that I was starting to feel a bit rundown. I woke up several times the night before, partly because I have to shift positions frequently because of my back and partly because I had a nightmare about work. Not a good sign at all.

I had spent some of Thursday submitting timesheets and addressing student requests for emergency funding. I was also reminded of the board committee meeting I missed. The guilt probably was the cause of the nightmare, but I resolved to try NOT to think about work anymore after checking messages in the morning.

Working on the blog was a mind cleanse, and while I reread it to try to see if I found any errors, I ate breakfast.

When I stopped by IGA the day before, I bought a two small cartons of milk, two bananas (the apples were 3X as expensive), and spanish rolls. I would have bought muffins, but IGA doesn’t sell fewer than 4 large size muffins, which I did not need.

I had never had spanish rolls before, so I looked them up. They are also called Seniorita Bread and is a type of Filipino bread roll. Even though the filling is made of butter and brown sugar, it really isn’t that sweet. When I looked at recipes (of course I did), many of them had fillings much lighter than the ones I bought, but I’m wondering if it was because of the kind of brown sugar used.

I went downstairs to the lobby early, but there were quite a number of people already there. In fact, when I first got to the lobby, there wasn’t anywhere free to sit. There were people in their ski gear on each one of the sofas.

When I went out to the curb at my pick up time, I was confused by the fairly large crowd–around 40 people–standing there with their ski gear because I couldn’t tell what line anyone was in, and there were two buses. One was my tour bus. The other was one of the free busses in town that will take people to the ski slopes.

When I got on the tour bus, there were already three people on it. There was a couple from Florida, and the third was a woman who had just started working for the company and wanted to go on all the tours so she would know how to answer questions that people asked. We went and picked up three more people: a woman in her 20s and a couple in their 20s. The couple were from Manitoba, and the woman was originally from Germany but had just moved to Canada about a couple of months ago (?) and was traveling to get to know her new country.

Erin, our tour guide, then proceeded to drive along the road I had walked the day before, crossing the Bow bridge and turning left to take us through the wealthier neighborhood of Banff to the Banff Springs Hotel.

The Banff Springs Hotel offical name is the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and is part of the Fairmont Luxery Hotel brand. It was originally built in 1888, with additions in 1911 and then major renovations when the wood building (the portion built in 1888) burnt down.

In the middle, you can see a statue. It is of Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, the person who oversaw the building of the trancontinental railroad in Canada and many of the luxery hotels along the route, including the Banff Springs hotel. He believed that with the natural springs and the beauty of the location, people would want to come visit and stay. He was obviously right.

As you can see from the pictures, it was just starting to get light when we got there. My pick up time was at 8:12, so we really began the tour around 8:40.

Our next stop was to see Bow Falls, which is a class 6 rapid when it’s not frozen. You can still see some water flowing. Erin told us that the 1953 movie River of No Return was filmed there, and people said that Marilyn Monroe sprained her ankle while filming the scene where she goes over the falls, but Erin told us that isn’t true. They used dummies for that scene. Marilyn Monroe sprained her ankle playing golf.

The best part about the story is that Marilyn Monroe was going to need help getting around, and the young men of the staff were told that there was a special guest who was going to need help being carried in a chair up and down the stairs, and they all complained among themselves. But then the next day when they found out who it was, fights broke out in the servant area over who was going to get the priviledge of carrying around Marilyn Monroe!

We headed out more on our way to see more lakes, but on the way we got to see some elk by the side of the road.

And then we also got to stop at a great lookout point to get a better view of the Banff Springs Hotel.

As you can see, it looks like every one of those rooms has a view.

As we headed toward Lake Minnewanka, we got to stop at yet another good viewpoint. They actually put these adirondack chairs in spots where they think the view of Cascade Mountain is good.

If you click and squint, you can see the top of my head in the left chair in the picture on the right.

When we got to the lake, we not only got more history of the place and more information about the wildlife, but it’s also the place where we got our snack of hot chocolate and cookies. Some of the people took their cocoa out to the lake to drink while walking around.

Of course, Lake Minnewanka was gorgeous.

The new tour recruit took a picture of me, and I tried another selfie. What I’ve learned from traveling alone is that people are always offering to take a picture of you for you. It’s really great.

I chose not get my hot chocolate and walk around, but I had my snack when I got back on the bus. I am not that coordinated to drink and walk at the same time!

Because I was the last person, my hot chocolate was from the bottom. Such rich chocolately goodness that I didn’t need to eat the cookies. I put them in pocket to save for later.

It was time to head back to town, but not before stopping to take note of the frozen Cascade Falls.

After that we went back into town to drop off people at their hotels. The couple from Florida were done for the day, but they were staying for a week in Banff and were doing one thing a day. The other group got dropped off at their hotels, too, but they were joining our tour guide again in the afternoon for another tour.

I remained on the bus because I was the only person from the group going to the Banff Gondola, and I was really excited. It was such a beautiful day, and this was one of the things I really wanted to do from the outset and had believed that I wouldn’t be able to because we thought they were still doing renovations. I just felt so lucky!

I was pretty early for my time, so I walked around to look at the sale items in the gift shop. Once again, I would have liked to buy more things, but the restriction of luggage space has really kept me on budget.

It wasn’t really busy, so they were letting people travel only with their party, and since I am a party of one, I got a gondola car all to myself! I’m still surprised that there weren’t busy. I guess everyone else is just too busy skiing.

The Banff Gondola has four levels. I walked through the Interpretive Centre only for a little bit, which is really a museum about the place. I needed to be back at the bus at 2, and I didn’t want to use too much time inside. I knew if I started reading all about the park, I wouldn’t get to see everything outside that I wanted.

I also walked up the stairs past level 3. It’s the kind of place that I might have stopped if I had the day, especially if I had hiked the mountain to the top, something which seems to be a fairly gentle hike with over 20 switchbacks to make the assent not that challenging just beautiful. It would also be a great place to go on a date once it gets dark.

Instead, I headed straight to level four and the observation deck.

I was in love with the wind. I always say that one of the things I miss the most about Kansas living in Massachusetts is the constant wind. It was especially glorious up here.

I also saw the two couples from Texas that are traveling together–the ones I met in Vancouver and who traveled to Jasper with me on the train. They are leaving Banff today, though. I think I am staying longer than anyone from the original group.

See that couple in the corner of the picture on the bottom right? They were not enjoying the wind, but kept laughing at trying to keep their hoods up. We were all trying to take selfies. I didn’t bother worry about my hood..

I also didn’t think it was cold enough for a hood. When I was talking to one of the couples from the train about the Maligne Icewalk, the hood couple approached and asked if we could take their picture. Of course, I said yes. It’s like a rule when you are at these places. When I was done, I asked them to take a picture of me, which turned out to be very funny.

Please see below the perfectly fine picture the woman took of me.

Look at the sky. Look at the mountain. Look at my happy grin.

However, her partner was not having it. He was shaking his head at the pictures, and finally just took her phone.

Here are two of his.

We had laughed at him, but then had to admit that his pictures were better. Mattea is probably nodding. She, too, has asked my why I don’t use the portrait feature on my phone.

I just never think about it.

I want you to look again at the bigger picture. Scroll bag up, and look at the tiny peak behind me. It’s Sanson peak, also park of Suphur Mountain. It used to be a weather station and then a cosmic ray station. Now there is a boardwalk to the peak.

I have to say, I was tired. And the idea of going down to level one and then going back up the peak was not as appealing as it might have been when I was in better shape. But I was also reminded of when I almost quit clmbing Mt. Hala halfway through and admonished myself knowing that I might never get the chance again. I had a similar thought. When would I ever come back to Banff?

I had also spent a lot of time looking out over the landscape in the windy quiet of the observation deck thinking of a very dear friend of mine who was having surgery while I was on this mountain. She would have said, “Get your ass up there, Lorretta.”

So, I did. And I wasn’t sorry.

Look at the center picture with all the trees. The building you see is the Banf Gondola observation deck that I was on before from here as well.

Finally, I got to the very top. I almost didn’t go up the last bit because the boards stop, and it was just snow until you go to the old weather building. There was this moment when I thought, “Hmm. I could slip and then slide right through the openings in that fence. But then I realized that my butt was now too big for me to be able to do that, and I went ahead. Sometimes, there are benefits to not being thin.

It actually wasn’t that slippery since it was really just packed snow not ice. The view was great.

Then it was time to hustle back.

Right in the middle of the picture in the bottom right, you can see a jogger on one of the trails I mentioned earlier.

I got to the bottom and met a driver who took me back to town. She wanted to know if I was going to my hotel or if she could drop me off somewhere else. I had decided to go to Eddie’s Burger & Bar, so she took me closer to it which was nice. Not that anything is really far in downtown Banff, but I appreciated it because I was tired and really hungry.

I was definitely ready to eat since I had nothing but the hot chocolate on the tour and the spanish roll and banana at 6 am.

Eddie’s Burger & Bar was one of the places that our tour guide recommended. It’s the reason why I started texting people for the burger poll before I was even on the gondola. I specifically asked her if it was a place that would be fine for someone eating alone. For example, I wanted to treat myself to fondue, but that place only serves two or more.

As you can see, Eddie’s is a tiny place and really laid back. I spent my time watching shows about extreme skiers while waiting for my food. I don’t know if I was just starving, but it was delicious.

The poll voters overwhelming picked elk burger as the burger of choice. Several people talked about how they liked bison, but that you can get bison burgers in Massachusetts.

I’m also going to say that it would have never occurred to me to put blueberry chutney on a burger. But the combination–burger, grilled onions, lettuce, sauce, and blueberry chutney–was inspritational. The only thing I was sad about was that I was too full to order a milkshake like I had planned.

That’s it for yesterday. I went back to the hotel and was in bed by 5:30. I was asleep probably by 7. Ideal vacation day for me. The whole thing couldn’t have been more perfect.