Beautiful Banff

Alberta, Canada

April 25-May 9, 2009-05-12

(Matt)

Since returning from our around-the-world trip in September 2008, this was my first vacation, though I took about a week off over Christmas. Money was in short supply when we returned, and over the past eight months I have worked pretty diligently to acquire clients and get their cases moving along. So I really needed a break from the action.

I saw the coast of British Columbia when my fishing boat went through the inside passage to go to Southeast Alaska in 1998—and I have often claimed to be from Canada when traveling through places where Americans are hated—but I had never actually been to Canada until now.

It had been about 90 degrees Fahrenheit when we left Austin, and carrying a coat onto the plane seemed a little silly, but when we got to Calgary, and the snow storm hit, it seemed wholly inadequate. It was frigid for the first few days.

We rented a blue, four door Toyota Yaris for our trip and headed straight from the airport (with a quick stop in Calgary for Vietnamese food) to Banff town in Banff National Park. On the way, a blizzard hit us. High winds and low visibility due to dense snow flurries made us realize that we were not in Texas anymore, where we have been gardening since mid-March.

After arriving in Banff, thick clouds obscured most of the mountains around the town, and it was cold. For the first three days and night, the snow fell hard. In speaking to man from Calgary on the ski slopes later in the week, he said that such a snow so late in the spring was unusual.

(Amber)

Even, and maybe especially, in the snow…this is some of the most beautiful mountain land on Earth. The scenery from every vista is astonishing. It's like living in a post card.

(Matt)

Despite the snow, which was fairly constant for the first few days, we did the things that you should do in Banff, including a day hike up the Johnston Canyon (which was very slippery with ice and snow; I fell flat on my back, both feet above my head, and almost slid over the side of a hill and down into the river, but I grabbed the railing with my arms before going over), touring Cave & Basin National Historic Site (which was the first national park in Canada and has a snail unique in all the world), soaking in the medicinal waters of Banff Upper Hot Springs (which I had to soak in alone because Amber was pregnant), riding the Banff Gondola up to the top of Sulpher Mountain (which has great views of the Bow River and Banff town), having drinks in the Fairmont hotel (I drank a Molson Canadian, referred to as a "Canadian" and Amber had a hot chocolate), and driving to several lakes, such as Lakes Louise, Peyto, and Minnewanka, all of which were frozen solid.

Banff was a very cute picturesque town, though touristy. The restaurants in Banff town were excellent. Alberta is famous for its beef, being cowboy country, and I ate maybe the best steak that I've ever had in Banff at Melissa's restaurant. Seriously, it melted in my mouth. We had great Indian food at a restaurant called Masala's and awesome Greek food at the only Greek place on Banff Ave….we can't remember the name.  

(Amber)

Matt really enjoyed the food. Food and I have a dysfunctional relationship at the moment, so I thought it ranged between terrible and tolerable. The service in the mountain towns (where you find lots of Kiwis, Canadians, Asians, and Australians working) was impeccable. It's the first country I've been to where the standards blew the typical U.S. standards out of the water.

Matt and I can agree that the burgers are bad…which is true everywhere on Earth other than the U.S. Sounds like a broad statement, but it's well-tested and true. We've tried burgers in more than 40 countries on five continents…all to no avail. We thought Canada would be different, only to confirm that for what we consider a good (non-mushy, non-seasoned) burger, you need to be in the U.S. The only exception I can think of is the burgers that Matt, Nate, Tobin, Mariela, Megan, and I had at a stand in San Cristobal, Chiapas at 3am. That was delectable. So many Mexico is the exception. Canada is not.

(Matt)

As soon as we arrived in Banff, we were driving down Tunnel Mountain Road and came upon several elk, which are at least twice the size of Texas deer. They were huge. While driving down Bow Valley Parkway, a gorgeous stretch of winding mountain road, we saw our first big horn sheep standing in the snow. We saw a lot of giant crows and several hawks and eagles and deer, but no bears, wolfs, or moose.    

After watching it snow for three days and nights straight, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to go snowboarding. After asking around, I was directed to Sunshine Village in Banff National Park, rather than Lake Louise's ski resort.

As a kid, my family made a point of going skiing at least once per year, which isn't nearly enough if you ask me. But it had actually been SIX YEARS since the last time I strapped on a snowboard, which is shameful.

Like this trip, the last time I went snowboarding was a solo mission. While living in the Netherlands, my friends from law school at the University of Leiden all went on a trip to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day, and I caught a train to Austria to snowboard the Alps in Kitzbuhel. Until Banff, it was some of the best skiing that I've ever done. That was in 2003!

The first run in Banff was like a dream. The powder, which I have not had a lot of experience with, was perfect and I sliced and diced the mountain effortlessly. It is the perfect skiing condition, though it was a little cold. I took a camelback (a rubber bladder filled with water) in a backpack, and it was frozen solid after my first run.

As the day went on, the sun came out for the first time since we arrived in Canada, and the skies turned bright blue over the white-capped peaks that surrounded the three mountains comprising Sunshine Village ski area. The truth is, though all of Banff and Jasper national parks are some of the most beautiful mountains in the world, the best vantage point to see this wilderness is at the top of the three uppermost lifts at Sunshine Village, but you have to be skiing to see them. I tried to take pictures for Amber, but I don't know that I was able to capture it.

The second day of snowboarding was not so dreamy. It didn't snow the night before, and much of the mountain was not groomed. So the snow that melted the day before when the sun came out was frozen solid. Ridges created by skis and snowboards in snow that had been powder the day before were like icy curbs. It was brutal.

My inflated self confidence from the previous day caused me to head straight for an ungroomed black diamond, which I intended to shred. I'm only proud that I didn't break anything on that first run. I may have fallen a few times the first day of skiing, but I probably took five bad spills on the first run the second day. I fell on my back, my butt, my front, went end over end on solid ice. It sucked. I still feel that first run in my wrists a week later as I type this. That was when I realized why there is a list of groomed runs at the top of most lifts in Sunshine. It makes a big difference, and I tried to avoid ungroomed slopes after that, but I did hit others that day. I fell much more on the icy second day, but it was still a blast.

(Amber)

Ordinarily, I would have loved to be with Matt on the slopes. Second only to scuba-diving, skiing is one of my true loves in regards to nature and sport. I'm not great and not terrible…and I love it. I find it peaceful and beautiful and almost spiritual when I do it, so it was tough (especially since our last trip was so long ago) not to join. But it's all for a good cause. I spent the days reading, napping, and walking around town trying to find food that I could eat and then picked Matt up at the end of both days. 

(Matt)

After snowboarding for two days, Amber wanted me to hang out with her. I was pretty beat up after the second day, and it wasn't snowing anymore. So I was alright doing something else.

We headed up to Jasper National Park, which has a small town also called Jasper. It is smaller and less frequented than Banff. It was nice. We stayed in Jasper at a place that rented log cabins called Alpine Village. The cabins were all booked up because we don't really book things in advance, so we ended up in a second floor apartment that overlooked the other cabins. It looked like a cabin inside and was nice.

While in Jasper, I read Three Cups of Tea, which was a tremendous true story of an American, Greg Mortenson, who builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He actually was in Pakistan in the Northern Areas while I was there hiking in the summer of 2001. We weren't that far from each other. The book's descriptions of the country made reading it as much a trip down memory lane for me as it was a story of his life. In addition to his time in Pakistan, Mortenson grew up in Moshi, Tanzania with missionary parents. I spent some time in Moshi with a view of Kilimanjaro after leaving Pakistan and Kenya in 2001. And, of course, Amber and I went to Tanzania (stopping briefly to pick up other bus passengers in Moshi) last year on our way to Arusha to go on safari. It was a very inspiring book. It made me wonder about what is going on now in those villages, as the Taliban is driving many people out of the Northern Area.

(Amber)

We basically lounged in the cabin with occasional walks in the woods or trips to "town" and read, watched half-tuned in Wheel of Fortune, and napped. We've never in our lives had such a lazy, slovenly vacation. It was a perfect setting for it though. Stunning.

(Matt)

The plan for our second week, when we planned this trip originally, was to camp in one of the national parks. This seemed an impossibility during the snow storm of the first week in Banff, but by the time we arrived in Jasper, it was perfectly plausible to camp. The weather warmed up, and it was not snowing. But Amber's pregnancy changed the plan.

Pregnancy symptoms have hit hard, and Amber is exhausted. She also seems as hungry after a meal as she is before a meal. She moans and groans about her discomfort even in her sleep. Her feelings and symptoms are the main topics on her mind, and she has been a combination of nauseated, hungry, tired, exhausted, famished, about to puke, about to sleep, about to eat, tired, hungry, and/or anxious…in no particular order.

So the notion that I was going to drag pregnant Amber out into the woods to hike up mountains and camp in the cold is kind of laughable in hindsight. But, nevertheless, that was the plan when we left for the Canadian Rockies. So I packed all of our camping gear and lugged it from place to place, much like I did on the around the world trip. If we get a baby out of the deal, hot tubbing alone, skiing alone, and watching Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud on a half-tuned-in TV while in Jasper National Park will be well worth it.        

After getting cabin fever in Jasper, we headed to Edmonton, mainly to see our friend Jamaal, who we met on the Blue Cruise in Turkey. He took us to a nice Canadian restaurant called Moxie's Grill. It was good to see him. He is an engineer but is about to take to the LSAT and may be going the lawyer route. It was cool to see him, but we forgot to get a picture.

Edmonton is the capital of the Province of Alberta. Edmonton's cool area is called Old Strathcona, and we stayed nearby at a Days Inn. We walked around this area and ate at a pub called O'Byrne's, which had good meat pie.

(Amber)

Edmonton is really not worth a visit unless it's just for transit. It's a relatively dreary (in terms of the weather and the architecture) place, and we're really easy to please. It was great to see Jamaal though…and to go to H&M.

(Matt)

Old Strathcona was pretty small, and we had some time to kill before heading to Calgary. We headed to a museum, and it was closed for renovation. We then headed to the Muttard Conservatory, and it too was closed for renovation. We saw the Alberta legislative building and decided it was not something worthy of stopping to see. So, with heads hung low, I have to admit that Amber and I went to the West Edmonton Mall, in which there is a full-sized water park, a lake with a huge replica of a pirate boat in a lake with submarines and sea creatures, and an H&M. Amber made a beeline for the H&M. We walked around the mall, ate bad Greek food at a chain restaurant called Opa! and called it a day.

We spent one night in Calgary, which seemed more cosmopolitan than Edmonton. Its downtown area had a cool China/Vietnam town that we walked around. We walked around and went to see a movie during our last night in Calgary.

(Amber)

Calgary, while also not one of the world's great cities, is better than Edmonton as far as I'm concerned. There's a vibrant Asian community, which is fun to see and walk around in.

We went to a theater and saw State of Play (we saw the Soloist in Banff), drank several great fruit juices, ate, walked, slept, etc….

(Matt)

Differences between Texas and Alberta were few. In fact, outside of the mountainous areas, I've never been anywhere more similar to rural Texas than rural Alberta. You could drop most Texans into Alberta's plains, and they wouldn't know that they were in another state, much less another country. There are tons of enormous trucks, big ranches, horses, oil companies, and small towns in between comprised of strip malls with fast food joints, such as Wendy's, KFC, A&W, McDonald's, Arby's, Subway, Boston Pizza, etc…..you get the picture.

Here are a few interesting things we noticed, but all-in-all, it's very similar to the U.S.

Canadians love a fast food restaurant that we have never heard of called Tom Hortons, which has combo meals that all include a sandwich, an old crusty donut, and coffee.

Canada is the only country I've been to outside the U.S. where they love peanut butter. They love it so much that it's available at every breakfast for your toast. Yum.

They, like most of the unlucky world, don't have biscuits at McD's. Other than that though, the menu is the same as ours.

They love something called Poutine….which is fries smothered in gravy and cheese. Sounds like something that would fly in Texas. Maybe Matt and I should import the idea.

I had the best fish and chips I've ever had anywhere, hands down, at a pub in Jasper. The fish was Haddock, and it was delightful.

They seem to watch American movies, American TV shows, and follow American politics. Most, by the way, are very happy with the election of Barack Obama to the White House.

Distance is in kilometers, weight is in pounds, and gas is sold by the liter…so it's a bit of a mixed bag.