DAY 8 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY WAYNE

Today was our chill day. My body clock woke me up about seven which was pretty annoying because I have been very tired this week. But I lay in bed until about 10:30 just reading, replying to messages, dozing. Then I got up, had a shower and Ali made me some toast. (yay) I did some journaling, looked through some photos and then lay outside on the swinging chair reading my book in the sun, which was extra hot today.

Margaret came home from work and her grandkids, Natalie, Julia & Kate came round again. They are just the sweetest girls and I love hanging out with them, talking about Disney and feeling young again. It was Wayne’s birthday so all the family came round and we had pulled pork, salad and corn which was so fresh and tasty.

We all hung out and laughed and caught up and got to know each other and I quizzed the girls on princesses and we talked about our favourite animals… you know, the important things in life.

And then Wayne, Margaret, Ali & I all watched ‘Act of Faith’ because they’ve heard all about it but haven’t seen the DVD yet so that was a really good way to spend the evening for all four of us and it always makes me feel so nostalgic.

It was great to rest because we’ve been so busy. I feel a recharged and am really excited to get away and go to Banff tomorrow with Ali.

 

 

 

 

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DAY 9 – FOREST FIRES

The smoke from the forest fires in Washington state are coming up to Calgary and Banff. That’s around 600 miles for smoke to travel. Now, I’m not a scientist but that seems pretty ridiculous. There aren’t any fires or even threats of fires near Banff, yet we are getting so much smoke that the pollution levels in Calgary are 12/10 and we can’t see any of the amazing views.

We got up at 5 this morning to catch our 8am flight. It was only an hour long and I slept the whole way. Ali kept making fun of me and checking on me every 2 seconds to make sure I hadn’t passed out again.

 

 

 

When we arrived, we went to pick up our rental car. The guy offered us an upgrade because apparently the one we had chosen wasn’t good for ‘mountain driving‘ even though every single road we drove on that week was straight and flat.

“I’m on my holiday!” was Ali’s justifcation for the $100 upgrade which would have been fair if he hadn’t asked me for $50 towards it.

During our two hour drive to Banff, we had dance music on and were jamming the whole way watching the mountains slowly (and pathetically) come in to view. If there were no smoke, you would see all of them at once but since there is, suddenly they just appear up close like big rocky monsters out of nowhere. They don’t gradually get bigger from a distance, they just appear out of the hazy smoke. And even at that, they are blurry behind layers of grey.

 

 

 

 

We got to Lake Louise and couldn’t find it our hostel right away so we drove around the same 2 mile stretch of road for about 20 minutes looking for it. Finally we found it, checked in and got the wifi set up which is always really important. Ali and I are in two totally different buildings and we’re sharing a suitcase so this will be interesting…

 

 

I’ve got a room with 4 other girls. I’ve awkwardly met one so far. She is German. And Ali has met a guy from his dorm who has invited us to hang out with him tonight because he’s alone. Why can guys become friends so much quicker than girls????

We are a couple minutes from Lake Louise which is Ali’s top destination in his life. We drove there today just to check it out and you can barely see it. The air is so grey and smoky and makes the water a dusty colour rather than the clear liquidy green colour it is supposed to be. It is really disappointing but I’m just sitting here praying that the air clears and that there is some wind and rain so we can see the colours we’ve been googling for the last eight months. I never thought I’d pray for stormy weather on a holiday.