Signs of the Times

My weekend was amazing! Friday, we picked up our rental car, loaded her up and headed west to the mountains. We arrived in Banff around three in the afternoon and checked into our hotel. Once settled we went for a walk around town, stopping to have a beer and burger on a patio. The weather was unbelievable-- at least 25 degrees Celsius.
Saturday morning we woke up early, packed our lunch and headed off to Sulpher Mountain. We started the climb to the summit and ignored the avalanche warnings (city folk….). Half way through our walk, we were greeted with four feet of endless snow. It was mostly packed snow, but occasionally while inching along, one of us would fall through a soft spot. We did not dress for this excursion at all. 20 degrees Celsius in town means nothing to the mountains. After two hours of hiking, we arrived on top of the world and it was amazing! The view was more than breath taking. I believed I was in heaven. There was a restaurant up there, so we sat and enjoyed a beer on top of the world. We took the gondola down, as there was no way we could walk safely down the mountain in all of that snow (not in sneakers anyway).
On Sunday, we explored the cave and basin hot springs where the smell of thermal energy knocked us off of our feet. It was really neat to see this stream coming out of the mountain and the steam coming off of the stream. Nothing I would consider relaxing in though as the “debris” that covered the hot spring and the smell were anything but tranquil. We then went over to the Spray river corral where we were matched up with a horse and went on an hour long trail ride.
This was my first time riding a horse (I know, and you thought everyone in Cowtown had been on one!) and I was a little nervous. Our trail ride included crossing the Spray River, and my horse decided he didn’t want to follow in line anymore and possibly knew a quicker way across. Good thing I just let him do what he wanted. He got us across safely and back into line with the other horses. There were other parts of that trail ride that made me anxious too, like going down hills or when the trail seemed too narrow for my horse to get through. But, he was obviously used to this excursion so I let him do what he had to do. I can’t wait to ride a horse again. There is a ranch near Cochrane that has a sunset ride through the mountains that I think would be awesome.
Sunday night we went for Fondue. We started with a cheese fondue appetizer, followed by an entrée that we cooked on a hot rock. A ordered scallops and beef (scallops are so yummy) and I ordered the hunter’s platter with venison, buffalo, and wild boar…quite delectable. Our dessert was melted Toblerone chocolate and fresh fruit. I am salivating thinking about it. We also had a really nice bottle of white wine with dinner that the waiter picked out. It was a great compliment to the cheese fondue as it contained a white wine in it as well.
Monday, we drove back to reality and got home around noon. I hate reality…I wish I could be on vacation forever. I did get everything planted in my container garden yesterday afternoon though. All of the pots are sitting in my kitchen under a bright light waiting for consistent warm days to be brought outside. I hope my kitty doesn’t think I made him a new play area!