Banff downtown tour

7/8/11
However, in the morning, the icy wind woke me up (I forgot to close the window), and I couldn’t get enough warmth. The whole mattress and our blanket were freezing cold, and so were my feet, my nose, my belly, and my hands. Soon we had breakfast, and everyone (except Judy, who was asleep when the couple was fighting) complained about our neighbors upstairs. My parents found out that the couple was on their honeymoon (lovely way to begin a marriage!). They are probably going to file for divorce today.

We checked out and went to Cascade Garden first. It was very beautiful, and I learned many flower names: pansy, geranium, and snapdragon. I also saw petunias (Harry Potter’s horrible aunt) and a kind of lovely grayish green plant called “silver dust”. They looked magical. We walked along the paths looking at the lovely flowers.

After emptying our bladders in their clean restroom, we headed for Bow Falls. It is wider than it is tall, but it is impressive. However, it is too cold for our liking, so we did not stay there for a long time. Instead, we went to Upper Hot Springs and saw Sulphur Mountain. It is said to be really beautiful, but all we could see was a fog hidden mountain. Therefore, we decided to drive around, and went back to Banff downtown. Our plan was to go to their information center to empty our bladders once again. We couldn’t find a parking place, so we parked on the street. On our way to the info center, we saw a public restroom, so we decided to go there instead. There was a high school beside the restroom.

Our next stop was the train station. Dad took many pictures, but because it was very windy, we didn’t stay for long. We quickly drove to Lake Minnewanka, where we attempted to have lunch at the picnic table beside the lake. I (poor me!) sat on some unidentified liquid (probably last night’s thunderstorm) and went back to the car to change into another pair of pants. When Mom and I got out of the car, we saw Dad and Judy carrying our lunch. They said that it was too cold, so we had lunch in the car instead. We ate chicken sandwiches and the roasted chicken.

After lunch, Dad drove to Two Jack Lake, where we saw a seagull. On the way to Johnson Lake, we saw some big horn sheep along the road eating grass. The babies look cute, but the adult sheep looked dirty. Then we went to Johnson Lake, where Dad took a few pictures.

We left Banff, and drove for an hour or so to Calgary. I fell asleep when we got to downtown, and woke up in Best Western Village Park Inn. Mom cooked us a dinner of instant noodles with canned tuna and chicken breast. After the tasty meal, Judy stayed in the room while Mom, Dad, and I went out. We walked around, and saw a few restaurants. At the door of a restaurant, Mom asked us (in Taiwanese) what the restaurant was selling, and a Canadian answered her, “fish and chips.” It really astonished me; how did he understand what Mom was saying? Or was it just coincidence? We decided that we will eat the cheapest thing for dinner tomorrow: pizza, exactly what we had for dinner two years ago when we stayed here.