Road Trip in a Road Trip!

We went on a road trip last week. Last Tuesday while the rest of the weavers were actually weaving!!!, my sister, niece and I went on a short road trip. Blogger isn't letting me put the pictures where I really want them to go so you have to look up to that first picture to see what waited until we just got into our hotel room in Calgary before dropping. Yup, they got one of those hail, rain, tons of wind storms like we get in East Tennessee. Power outages, some trees uprooted, roof issues, etc. We were glad our cousin picked us up in his truck to take us to dinner! Thanks for the ride, Edwin. Too bad Ruth was babysitting that wonderful grandchild down in Lethbridge so she couldn't join us but we had a good time catching up.  

Then Wednesday morning we headed to the mountains. The picture above is out the car window as my sister drove and I could take pictures while we were going into the mountains! I've missed them. 

Our first stop was Canmore. It's a nice tourist town, tons of views and a place I'd kind of like to come and stay for awhile someday. I'm trying to talk DH into us renting a hotel room for a few days up here but that would mean he'd have to fly up here but I know he'd love that.....wishes....

The reason we stopped in Canmore was to go to a quilt shop. It's a nice big shop and the fabrics are nice but I like to look at the patterns there. They have local designers that do scenes of mountains and wild animals. I did buy a couple of kits of mountain scenes. Something to remember of a different mountain from what I have out my window back in Knoxville.

 Then on to Banff. Banff has changed since we were there last, many years ago. More people and shops than I remembered. I took this picture of the Banff Springs Hotel. We stayed there one night years ago, treating my parents to a night there as well. It was a blast. Now, since we weren't staying there, we just drove up to it and around and back out.

 Near the hotel is a waterfall. Bow Falls is nearby and a popular stop. Since I wasn't alone on this trip, my picture got taken a few times.

 It wasn't a clear, sunny day. We had lots of periods of rain during the day but never when it really mattered. This is downtown Banff. Mountains all around....

 Just outside Banff is an overlook. You drive up a road that eventually goes to a ski lift and stop at a lookout field that's really pretty. Back in those woods, 28 years ago, my brother's ashes were spread there after he passed away following heart surgery.

 It's sad to lose a brother and we know he's in a much better place. However, it's a comfort to know that his ashes overlook a beautiful scene. We've always come up to this overlook every time we came to Banff as children so now we have a good reason to come up here.

 On to Lake Louise. It rained shortly after this but we still took some good pictures of the lake. What you don't really see in this picture are the couple of dozen canoes in the background. You can rent a canoe and go out into the peaceful lake. With the thunder in the background, we weren't tempted. Plus there was a long line waiting to go out.

 Not everyone was impressed with the scenery. The family was tho. They were nice people, happy to be together and excited to have their picture taken as a group.

 
 We didn't see any wild life this trip except these birds. Whiskey Jacks are beautiful birds. That blue was striking on their wings. They posed long enough for me to focus and take several pictures of them. I guess they see alot of people.

 Driving back toward Banff, we stopped for this picture. This overpass is not for cars or people. It's for animals. The trees have grown on top of the overpass. Several years ago they fenced off the road area and built these overpasses and some underpasses for the animals to cross from one side to the other. That's one of the reasons we didn't see any of the wildlife we used to see. They have pictures, using motion cameras, showing animals going from one side of the road to the other going over the top. I think it's cool and much safer for everyone but you do miss seeing the animals. In Jasper you see alot more but not in Banff. We didn't have time to go all the way to Jasper. That's for the next time...

 One more stop was at Lake Minnewanka. This is a really deep lake and years ago we went on a boat tour of the lake. You can see the clouds are getting lower but the lake is still beautiful.

About this time, my camera chip was full but we were headed back to Calgary anyway. We got back about 10pm, just in time to sleep.
Thursday we were at a quilt shop just as it was opening and ended up going to 3 shops. It's a great way to spend a morning. Heading back to Moose Jaw took about 7 hours and we made it back late in the evening.
It was a good road trip, something we all needed. Now it's back to what I came here to do, sew on a quilt. At least that's the plan for this week.
Until next week, keep weaving!!
Carol