17 May 2009
May Long Weekend Road Trip
The kids had a professional day on Friday, so I took a vacation day to make a 4-day weekend for Victoria Day. Friday started out nice and sunny and I managed to get a bunch of yard work done before we tossed overnight bags into the van and drove to Banff in the afternoon.
It was a nice drive out, there is still a lot of snow in the front ranges and the peaks were still crowned with white snow. We arrived into Banff and spent the afternoon poking in and out of the shops on Banff Avenue. By dinner time we were all pretty hungry and had the carb-lover’s special at The Olde Spaghetti Factory – we’d eaten there last year with the kids and that’s where they wanted to have supper!
After the obligatory hour to digest, we headed for the pool at the hotel. The kids vetoed the Upper Hot Springs, because it’s a “boring pool that you can’t play in”. Apparently they have not learned the value of a relaxing soak at the end of the day…
Saturday morning was bright and sunny and, after breakfast, we drove out to Lake Louise. I don’t think that I’ve been to the lake for about 20 years and I’ve never done any of the trails in the area, so we took a walk down the shoreline trail. The rest of the family turned back after awhile, but I went to the end of the lake – then had to hot-foot it back to meet up with the others.
We had lunch in Lake Louise village and then headed back home in the early evening. It was a pretty nice mini-vacation.