The kids had the day off yesterday because of some kind of professional day for the teachers. It was also my compressed Friday, so the whole family was off on a weekday – not something that happens very often. Even though the weather this past week has been miserable for April (ten or twenty centimeters of snow and temperatures around -10°C most days), Friday morning was sunny and the forecast was for temperatures above zero. We decided that it would be an OK day for a family road trip to Banff.
As we got into the National Park, the sun was bright and the skies mostly clear. We drove up the 1A to Johnston’s Canyon – I hadn’t been to the falls since I was a kid. There was a fair bit of snow on the path and the catwalks and it was a little slippery, but not too bad. There were quite a few people on the trail but not so many that we couldn’t stop and toss snowballs into the open pools of water in the creek. The lower falls were covered in ice and the water was rushing down behind the ice – it was quite neat to see at this time of year.
After the hike we headed into Banff, ready for some lunch. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory and then afterwards walked down Banff Avenue. At one of the candy shops, a fellow was making a giant batch of maple fudge on a big marble table in the shop window, so we stopped and watched. It was really interesting and, of course, we had to go in and get sample to taste when the cook was done. And, of course, we had to buy some too!
Once we had bought our fudge and did a little more window shopping, we headed up Sulfur Mountain to the Upper Hot Springs and spent an hour soaking in the hot water. We were in the pool just before sun set and the fading light on the snow covered peaks was quite nice.
It was 10:00pm before we got back home and poured our tired kids into their beds after a great day in the mountains.
