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Tree Trek 2000
Itinerary
September 8- Calgary, Alberta Calgary - home of the famous Calgary Stampede and host to the 1988 Winter Olympics (check date) was our jumping off point for Tree Trek 2000, John's introduction to both wilderness and winter.
We didn't have a chance to do Calgary justice; spending just one morning seeing the city. Calgary has joined the international downtown bovine movement: life-size fiberglass cows decorated by local artists scattered through the downtown. We've seen these before in Chicago and other cities and they are such fun.
We
left Calgary in the early afternoon headed for Banff National Park. We paused
briefly in the highly commercial town of Canby, located just outside park
boundaries. Here we discovered Robeez, colorful elasticized leather slippers
available in an infinite variety of whimsical patterns. These are quite
simply the best solution we've discovered yet to combat John's propensity for
shucking footware. The first pair we called his Merlin shoes - navy blue with yellow celestial
designs. September
9-11 Rundlestone
Lodge
Late afternoon, under threatening skies, we arrived in Banff. Imagine a high class ski resort town plunked down in the middle of a protected wilderness and you've got a good picture of Banff. The Canadians have done an excellent job of combining things tourists need, like lodging, restaurants, and selected retail, with protecting the park environment. With the exception of the few permanent communities in the park, the rest is almost untouched wilderness, and spectacular beyond words.
Our home away from home was the Rundlestone Lodge, quite nice but highly paranoid on the subject of towel theft. In our studio unit, there were no less than four signs warning against stealing the towels, and I was required to sign for an extra set of towels for John. If you can deal with the towel paranoia, it is a lovely place to stay for either the childless or those with a kid too young to get into trouble with the fireplace, staircase or balcony in our unit.
We ventured out on foot and stroller that first afternoon in town to find dinner, and more importantly, a hat for John, because it was literally FREEZING! John saw his fist falling snow that September afternoon. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that we were a full mile from the main business district and we had one very cold little boy before we found a place selling kid's hats and mittens. Believe me, that cold weather gear saw a lot of use on our SUMMER vacation! At dinner that night John made a most exciting discovery: ceiling fans! We dined at Earl’s, a mid-range Canadian chain restaurant, that had a big, slowly spinning fan just where a curious little boy could see it and spend ages pointing it out to his parents and babbling all about it.Mornings were pretty much a non-event for us on this trip - by the time we got a nine month old and two adults ready to face the day, it was close to noon. Jay spent the afternoon of our first full day in the Rockies hiking up to the top of a peak called Tunnel Mountain while John and Maureen strollered around town. We met up again quite accidentally at the best ice cream stand in town.That evening a sitter came to the hotel for John, and Jay and Maureen had a Parent’s Night Out. First we took a stroll along the riverbank, and then through the Banff Springs golf course for some quality elk viewing, Later we dined at Grizzly House, a fondue place with attitude, and fairly good food. Monday morning we checked out of Rundlestone Lodge and moved on to grander things: brunch at the Banff Springs Hotel, one of the truly wonderful Canadian Pacific mountain lodges. Both the food and the service were five star - the chef prepared a batch of oatmeal just for John’s lunch! After lunch we did a guided tour of the hotel, and dreamed about staying there on our next trip.
J's mountain climb sitter / fondue / park / river hike Banff Springs Hotel brunch and tour September
11-13 Johnston
Canyon Resort
Box
875 Banff, Alberta, Canada Phone
403 762-2971 Fax 403 762-0868
Email:
info@johnstoncanyon.com September
13-15 Bear
Hill Lodge Street
address: 100 Bonhomme Street Mailing
address: Box 700 Jasper,
Alberta, Canada.
T0E 1E0 tel:
780-852-3209, fax: 780-852-3099 Email:
info@BearHillLodge.com September
15-17 Best
Western Westwood Inn 18035
Stony Plain Rd. Edmonton,
AB 1-800-557-4767 $89.10
+ Tax
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