Canadian Beauty and Quirks

Our trip to Calgary, Canmore, and Banff Canada brought our travelling group into new and surprising realms of experience-some good and some not so good.

GOOD:

• Look at the first photo over there and you will what's best about Canada.  This random shot of the Bow River represents what's all nearly everywhere you can look as you walk your body around in a circle. I'm not kidding.  Big plus=no billboards, no advertising, no litter, few traffic or directional signs. You can drive and drive and see nothing but stunning views that bring instant calm and peace to your soul.
• Eating is truly fun. Not only is the food superb, the servers are all interesting people from all over Canada who have come to Canmore and Banff for snow sports, to make some travelling money, or just to enjoy the different life experience found in remote resort areas.
• And about the food mentioned above-we only had one mediocre meal in all our time there. Even though the food was just okay at one of our stops, the service was prompt, courteous, and saw to every serving detail.
• Imagine you just left the crowds of tourists at Lake Louise and don't care to spend top dollar at the chateau. Just a hop down the road and two left turns and following the short gravel road will bring you to the Railway Restaurant.  Too small to accommodate the herds of bus tourists, you'll find few diners here at this unique preserved RR station from old time Canada. The wooden floors creak, the lovely tables are set up beautifully, and you can gaze at all the historical items displayed in the cabinets here and there.  The food is fabulous.
• Check out the photo of the head. That's one of Canada's quirky things. This head is found near the footbridge in Canmore.  Canmore means "big head/smart person" in Gaelic. Ed's big head is also quirky in its own bald and likable way.
• Visit the Heritage Historic Park Village and enjoy the authentic buildings, whimsical costumed people who periodically break out in acting scenes of representations of street life back in the Canadian day.

NOT SO GOOD:

• READ all the small print on your passport. As we were picking up our boarding passes at PDX, Ed and Penny learned that their driver's license sized passports  only permit travel into Canada by land or by sea.  Uh-oh. Major disaster for all of us that called for quick brainstorming. We ruled out abandoning the trip. Canada Air helped them get a flight to Spokane where they rented a car and made the nine hour driving trip to meet us in Calgary. That surprising leg of their trip left them exhausted and anxious but brought us all back together for the rest of the trip.  And how did they get home? You cannot be denied entry into our own country so we all flew home together. Big, big WHEW.

SUGGESTION:  GO THE MINUTE YOU CAN.  YOU WILL NEVER REGRET SPENDING TIME IN THE BEAUTIFUL ROCKIES WITH THE KIND AND GENTLE CANADIANS.

BUT READ YOUR PASSPORT FIRST!