Our First Escape from Adult Life

We typically like heading up north in our Summers for our vacation.  About by August we are over the heat.   My parents so kindly agreed to watch Cam for a week while we explore the Canadian Rockies.  

 Here we are, Chris dropping off Cam , I and my Mom at TPA so we can make the journey to Ohio.   There I will leave Cameron in Ohio and meet Chris in Dallas on a connection.​

Of course this happens when I'm traveling with help.  Someone was this sleepy angel on the flight.  ​

A few tears were shed when Cameron and my Mom walked away.   It's harder than you think to leave your child behind for the first time.   Two minutes later I'm enjoying my freedom!   ​

And we meet again!

It was rough getting to Calgary.   My first flight was delayed by 30 minutes or so.  My second flight was a hour late, and the third flight was delayed for hours because a flight attendant did not show up.   It could have been much worse, and we made it.     The bonus was we ended up seeing sunset in route. ​

As I sit watching the electricity dance across the sky, I cannot pull myself away from watching.  35,000 feet in the sky reflecting on the day.   Minutes turn into hours, hours days, days become years in a second.  Today was the exception, minutes felt like hours.   Reflecting on the past and looking into the future.  The older I become the more I'm realizing the truth to "you'll regret more the things you didn't do than what you do."   Seize the moment, live for the day, take risks and have fun doing what you love. Tomorrow is unknown.  Stuck in this cycle of wash and repeat I needed some excitement in life. 

 Lets to go Canada and then immediately go back into the States.   Thats exactly what we did.  Welcome to Montana with these two car parts statues. ​

We did have a good reason for doing this.  How could you pass up a trip to Glacier when only 2 hours away?   So we spent a day driving through and I'm glad we did.   Within our first hour we spotted a bear and two long horn sheep blocking traffic in the park.   Entertaining for us.    

  It tried to rain on my parade, but didn't bother me.  Fortunately only lasted a few minutes and the sun shined shortly after.   The size and beauty is just astonishing.  Pictures do not even come close to doing this justice.   

See, here is the sun! ​

 One of the many spots along the way to stop and view in Glacier National Park.

Towards the end of day we did a hike to a small waterfall.  Was worth it.

 Default photo of the both of us. ​

Enough of that, back to Alberta Canada we go.

Catching Sunset's along the way. ​

We rested our heads in Pincher Creek for the night before moving on.

Canadian Pacific Trains running through the mountains. ​

We never do things the standard way and always try to go the road less traveled.  We picked this Route 40 to take through the center of the mountain range also called the Alberta Highway or Kananaskis Trail.    I did look it up prior to us taking this route and found an article stating this was considered one of the most dangerous highways (we now understand why).   Great, right up our alley.    We start off and it's great, then all of the sudden, we hit dirt roads for over 60 miles!    So awesome, we did see a few cars, but it was few and far.   Our poor rental car, served us well. ​

After we survived one of the most dangerous roads,  We were back in some sort of civilization and then these guys kept holding up traffic.

brief stop to take a breather.   Beautiful scenery everywhere. 

Herds of the long horn sheep were everywhere. 

I'm not sure why he let me take this photo, but it's funny. ​

Enjoying the kid free life again. ​

Okay, maybe now I'm really enjoying it. ​

 Moraine Lake at 7:30am.   We go an early start to go do some hiking. ​

This is not FL.  I'm not sure Floridians even know what rock is.  The trail was a bit of a surprise for us.

The hike out to Consolation Lakes. - Again pictures do not even come close to doing this justice.   We had to crawl over the boulders to go to the lake.  And we did it. ​

It certainly was worth it.  we learned afterwards that you can keep climbing/crawling over boulders and eventually will get to another lake.   I had enough boulder climbing for the day. ​

 Back to Moraine lake and now the Sun is showing it's face.   Look at that amazing blue water.  It was just remarkable.  I would attempt to describe it here, but it has to do with how the light is reflected (or not reflected) off of the materials that travel down with the melting snow and glaciers.      ​

My Photo with pretty blue water and mountains!

The both of us ​!

You wanted to see our Selfie, right?  Well you did click on this link.  What did you expect?

After we were done with Moraine, we ran over to Banff national park area and visited Lake Minnewanka.   Back to crawling around since we scaled a 45ft cliff area to get right on the shore.  ​

Just absolutely stunning.  Would this ever get old?  yes it would, covered under 5' of snow!  ​

We made it to the shore, but I did rip my pants :(   

 I could not stop taking photos.  Just so gorgeous.  ​

An old Coal Train in Banff.   

Up viewing the top of Sulphur Mountain but we cheated and took the skytram.  Much easier than hiking!

I guess technically we did not earn this reward of a view since we cheated and took the easy way up. ​

Lake Louise around 7:30am.  You have to get there early to beat the crowds.     This is us before hiking.

Almost to Lake Agnes, you come across Mirror lake on the way.

Finally, we made it to Lake Agnes.

Get the Tuna, It's actually good here.

Lake Agnus with the Teahouse in the far background.

Leaving the tea house....boy we are up here high.

Back to Lake Louise

See how happy we look after hiking!? ​

Next visit was the icefields parkway.  Described as one of the most beautiful drives in the world.   We do not disagree with that statement.

This was the scenery along the way.    Icefield Parkway is a 144 mile stretch of traveling with vast elevation changes winding along mountains following the Continental Divide with Mountains and Glaciers along the way. 

My attempt at capturing the elevation and winding roads in a photo.

This thing right here was pretty insane.  The Athabasca Glacier considered one of North America's most visited glacier due to relatively accessibility.     The size is incredible, and we are very fortunate that we had this opportunity in life to experience it.

One of the many channels of water traveling down the Glacier.  

So I should be honest.  I was terrified, this thing is massive, melting with rivers flowing all over it.     I made sure that my point of view was clear to Chris and was being a scaredy -cat the whole time while on it.

Holding some ice.  The other neat thing about this was the air today was relatively warm, maybe 65 degrees.   As you get closer to the Glacier, that changes.   The air blowing over it cools down fast and probably was in the 40's

The Beauty of Athabasca Glacier.

Okay, so it looks little in the photo, but this river was MOVING and was large!

Sediments left behind by the moving glacier.     I'm pretty sure that in the winter or prior to a river forming that you can find an Ice Cave in this area.  The pictures I've seen posted of the cave are stunning, so it's something you wanted to see, visit in winter.

Our "rustic" Cabin and sweet ride in Jasper.   I loved this little place.  We had a small kitchen and did all of our cooking right here. I do not think we ate one meal out while in Jasper.  

I just had to post this selfie since this as the view we had from the cabin.

We did a little geo hunting which took us up another mountain to find this old coal cart and some mine ruins to explore.

Wildlife was everywhere and we were not disappointed in that category.

This Female Elk was just hanging out around the Cabin was stayed in.

Her Boyfriend was there too.

Chris was so amused with this.   I think it was the highlight of the trip for him, or the squirrels. 

He is just a little excited.

More of the long horn sheep out and about.

Herd of Elk with some burnt trees in the background.

A young Doe we ran across in the woods.   There was another one, but it kept it's distance from us.

I was pretty excited to see a bear in the wild while in the car.   While hiking on unpopular trails we were sure to make lots of noise to not encounter one there.   Grizzly bears are also in this area.

More Elk.  there were so many of them that I did not feel bad having an Elk burger on our last day before leaving.

I was not kidding. This is my Elk Burger.   Using Yelp it lead us to The Rock Cafe and Restaurant in Calgary.  The food was outstanding.   Good job Yelp!

What a beautiful Animal.   I think he was posing for everyone along side the road, or maybe this was his way of hitch hiking.

His Buddy was also posing for photos.

The first animal we saw on this trip was the Black Bear way up on the hillside.  

Along the dirt road we took as we stopped for a moment, someone was watching us.

The Canadian Rockies deepest and widest Canyon.  Oh please, I hiked the Grand Canyon.  What is this little crack in the dirt?   It's called Athabasca Canyon and was pretty.  We enjoyed hiking along it.

Still part of Athabasca Canyon with some water trickling down. 

This is where we stayed in Jasper.  I like the "rustic" resorts mascot guarding the sign.

Chris's attempt at sand art.

Athabasca Falls.    There was Athabasca Glacier, Canyon and Falls.  We must have missed Athabasca lake.

Our time has come to and end and now to take one of the most beautiful highways back to Calgary.   Guess we cannot complain about this one bit.

If you made it this far, Thanks!!   I'm doing posting photos for now.    Make it a great day.