A Day in Banff

Going to the mountains is going home.

~John Muir

This morning we headed for Lake Minnewanka near Banff, AB. We made it in time for the boat cruise. The lake has beautiful scenery although we still have haze from the fires in northern Alberta. (We cannot smell smoke though.)

There's our boat - we had about 50 people on our cruise.

Here is a picture from the dock.

That's us on the boat.

In front of us were 3-year-old Abby and her 12-year-old brother. We enjoyed watching Abby's reactions to things especially when the boat started.

We learned some pretty interesting stuff. Did you know that one grizzly bear eats about 200,000 buffalo berries a day? Even more interesting - how does anyone know that? Someone counts the berry seeds in the bear scat. What a crappy job!

We enjoyed the mountains and the very calm lake.

When the cruise ended, we headed into Banff for the Banff Mountain Market. You might recall that I love farmer's markets. This one did not disappoint and it was all day - 10AM to 6PM. My only problem was that I couldn't buy much because we head south tomorrow and cross the US-Canadian border - the customs agents aren't happy if you have produce.

We bought a small container of strawberries that came from British Columbia. (Most produce today was from BC.) When I thought to take a picture, this is all we had left. They were wonderful!

We ordered lunch from one of the food trucks at the market. I had a specialty grilled cheese on sourdough - two LARGE pieces of sourdough bread, Gouda cheese, strawberries, and fresh basil. Ray also had a specialty grilled cheese on sourdough - two LARGE pieces of sourdough bread, aged cheddar cheese and bacon. We'd definitely order there again!

We sat on the side of Bow Creek to eat. It was a gorgeous day. It was sunny and in the 70s. This guy and his dog were enjoying their canoe.

The market is in Banff's Central Park. There were many people sitting and enjoying lunch.

The only parking we could find for the market was the parkade downtown. We were trying to figure out where to pay. Well, if you are displaying a National Parks pass in your vehicle, it is free. Nice! If you don't have a pass, you get fined. Banff is in the Banff National Park. Since we had a parking place for up to 8 hours, we decided to spend a little more time and walk down Banff Avenue. It is so pretty with the neat buildings and the mountains.

It was very warm so after a few blocks, we found the jeep and headed to Bow Falls Viewpoint. This is the Bow River. The temperature was 10-15 degrees cooler at the viewpoint. 

This is looking the other way.

Now it's time to pack up and get ready to return to the states. We both both feel very at home in the mountains - it doesn't matter what country. We have loved our time in the Canadian Rockies.