Blair's Blog

The little princess had her birthday the other day – it was quite the event. Alyssa turned 6 on the 21st of November and a few weeks ahead of the day, we asked her what she’d like to do to celebrate. Her answer? Alyssa wanted to drive to Banff, buy some fudge, build a stuffed animal, have lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory and then have a swim at the Upper Hot Springs! She was very definite about it all.

Fortunately, the weather cooperated and Alyssa’s birthday was a fine, sunny day. The roads were bare and dry and the temperature reasonable for the time of year. We picked up Gram and Gramps and were in Banff just at mid-day. We got started right in on Alyssa’s to-do list and, once fueled with some candy from the fudge shop, got busy with the shopping.

There were only two flaws in the day, the first was the van devouring its own front brakes while driving about town (Alyssa managed to soldier on, but I had a stabbing pain in the wallet for the rest of the day!). The second was that the Old Spaghetti Factory was closed for renovations and we had to substitute Chili’s instead. After we had our late lunch, we headed for the hot springs and had a nice soak in the mineral waters before heading back home.

Interestingly enough, it turns out to be possible to go from the last traffic light in Banff, through Calgary and on to Chestermere and use the brakes just half-a-dozen times! Hooray for downshifting and the emergency brake!