| Wed., June 26 We’re really figuring out the drill on when to get up in order to have our luggage ready to roll out to the next town! We then go downstairs and have the worst bowls of oatmeal ever rumored to be cooked. Before leaving Banff, our bus climbs a high hill to give us one last look at the beautiful little town. While we’ve almost never repeated a vacation, I dare say we’d be happy to come back to Banff (via train!) for another trip if the opportunity came up. After an underwhelming picture stop at another glacier lake (Peyto Lake), we head toward the Columbia Icefield. Now it needs to be said that up to this point, the “glaciers” we’ve seen have been large –when compared to the icemaker in our kitchen freezer—but not the glaciers that we envision as having carved out much of central Wisconsin. We see ice shelves hanging over some mountains, much like the ice shelves that hung out of our refrigerator in Rice Lake. Big, sure, but not something you could actually “visit.” The Athabasca Glacier changed that. Now the Athabasca, at first glance, is impressive but again not overwhelming. It’s a long strip of ice that has spilled over the side of a mountain and come down to the bottom of the slope. Then comes the first hint that you will become overwhelmed. You see little black dots out on the glacier, and that’s when your sense of proportion is whacked into its proper place. Those aren’t just people way out there, those are buses too! You finally understand just how big the mountains are, and how big this glacier is. After a crammed cafeteria lunch, it’s our group’s turn to board their “snow coach.” Our good-natured driver (who’s also deciding it’s about time to go back to school for “whatever”) takes us up the mountain slope, then down a very steep morraine of glacial rock debris. Then he explains that we’re on the glacier… which is nothing but ice for 1,000 feet below us! We’ve become one of the little black dots. We head higher up the slope and stop at a man-made clearing still far away from where the ice spills over the mountain (where the big crevasses are). A long time ago, the person who created these glacier trips had to realize he wasn’t selling a sight; he was selling “moments.” He was selling a lifetime thrill. There was something that felt like magic for everyone the moment they stepped off the snow coach. Everyone looked like kids from the tropics who were seeing their first snowfall. People spread their arms, turned in circles, let out large sighs upon realizing how big those ice shelves were up on the mountain peaks… shelves that were suddenly much closer than they were way back on the highway. And it was all so pure. Magic moment ended, we headed back to our bus and worked our way toward Jasper. More mountains. I remembered the words of one of the gals who worked on the horse ranch in Banff. Like many workers there, she wasn’t a native of the area, but was often asked if the mountains just became part of the scenery, taken for granted by locals. She said everyone was told “the day you stop looking at the mountains, it’s time to go home.” Who could ever take this scenery for granted? It’s like a non-stop church. Well, we didn’t really see Jasper. Our hotel was on the outskirts of a very small town, and by this point in the trip we didn’t have the energy or desire to hike the mile or so back into another collection of souvenir shops. Plus, this hotel –a beautiful lodge—had the one feature that had been missing from every other hotel up to this point. The pool! The girls swam for a couple of hours, reluctantly changed for another dinner/dumpster filler, then swam for another hour or more. The room was spacious and comfortable. Put this is Banff, arrive by train and bring the glacier a little closer and you, my friend, have a vacation! The only difficult part was accepting that this would be our last evening with a view of the Rockies. |
| Thr., June 27 It must be near the end of our vacation, Chelsea’s been fed so much she wouldn’t even touch the pancakes at the breakfast buffet! Just a half-eaten bowl of cereal and we were off for Maligne Lake. We took a side trip to see another waterfall, this one even more spectacular for the way that it carved so deeply through the rock as it wound its way to the Athabasca River. Maligne Lake was discovered “late” because it was so well hidden by surrounding mountains and ice shelves. We rode to the end of this 5-mile lake. We rode back. Ate lunch. Left. Drove 250km to Edmonton. Got real good at multiplying km by .0625 to figure the miles! Said a silent goodbye to the Rockies which had almost none of the beautiful foothills on its eastern side. Oh, but this trip still holds some spectacular views… in a mall! The West Edmonton Mall remains the largest in the world and makes MOA look like a scrawny little sibling. We hurried through a farewell dinner in a blank banquet room and headed into the mall just before it closed. Chelsea quickly found where the dolphins were housed and tried to make friends, but they were tired from a day of performing. Still, it was pleasant to walk around in more familiar faux-urban surroundings. A Kreitlow and his natural habitat; where’s the food court?! The adjoining Fantasyland Hotel room was small but included a deep whirlpool tub next to the beds for the girls to get in one last use of their swimsuits before we did our final packing for the trip home. |
| Fri., June 28 After putting our luggage outside, we hurried back into the mall for our ritual vacation travel breakfast, the sausage mcmuffin! Then, we headed back to the dolphin tank. Sharry and Chelsea started clapping when the first dolphin appeared near the surface, hoping it would encourage him/her to do more. That’s when both dolphins began to do little things, like blowing air at the surface, flicking a tail, doing little half-jumps. Chelsea was thrilled beyond speech, taking in this private show! Sam and I just enjoyed watching her reaction from the other end of the tank. The vacation was now officially a success! The travel gods were on our side at the Edmonton airport. No crowds at all. The flight home was speedy. The drive home was hot and humid. While we were still dealing with temps in the 90’s, Canada didn’t have oppressive dewpoints. We got to Eau Claire by 6pm, and Jan picked us up in Chippewa Falls for the final journey home. We unloaded the largest load of laundry in family history! And we ended a trip that had perfect weather, adorable daughters and just the right amount of time off together to make this a perfect family vacation. |