This will have lots of pictures, so be forewarned. :D
So I visited a friend, let us call her J., who lives in Calgary. She was kind enough to pick me up from the airport at midnight as well as leave me a google map so that I could find a nearby plaza with cafes, etc. while she was at work!
The first day I was there, I found this place, a perfect writer's cafe, not to dissimilar to Espresso Cafe:
A nice, sunny atmosphere, lovely tomato-feta scone, and much writing brainstorming! I grew restless after a time and decided to seek out an ATM to get some Canadian money. What did I learn? Canadian drivers, at least where I am, are really, really polite to pedestrians. I was hovering on the side of a busy street with no lights in a short distance, with a road that sort of curved around so that if I went for it, I would likely take my life in my hands. And what happened? FOUR LANES OF TRAFFIC stopped for me so that I could cross. The difference between that and where I live? Where I live, I would stand there all day because even if some nice person stopped to let me cross, nobody else would. Or I'd get honked at. And not only did all this traffic stop, but I noticed after I came out of the atm that there had been a proper pedestrian crossing only about a block away and all the traffic was STILL nice enough to stop for me. :D Okay, so after that, I wandered about for a long time. I grew hungry in time and wanted to eat something locally, so I found a Brewery/lunch place and I went in.
Here was my lunch:
A pale ale mushroom soup (YUM!), a salad, and a local ale with raspberries in it. I couldn't finish it since I didn't want to be tipsy that early in the day, but it was good and I don't even like beer.
So I headed back to J's house, at which time I decided that I would meet her downtown, which involved following her map to the train station. This time I got a little turned around. In this town, in each neighborhood, streets are named very much the same. Let's say "Forest" was the name theme in a particular neighborhood. Well, then you would have "Forest St.", "Forest Blvd.," "Forest Crescent," "Forest Drive" all in the same neighborhood. So this can lead to much hilarity in getting lost. I think the city planners have a good laugh over that one.
Here's a random pic of a park I passed on that walk when I was on the wrong street:
Next I took the train into downtown Calgary. It took about 30 minutes, but it was a great tour. I met J and then we walked around the plaza:
We took the train back to J's area. I got a running tour guide as we went on. And I learned something else. People in Calgary think that a building that is 75 years old is historic.
The next day, we went to Banff National Park.
I had decided that since I was in Canada, that I MUST see a Mountie.
J and I set off into the blue. Then I saw mountains for the first time in a LONG time. Not since 2009 or so, the last time I was in California. These are impressive Rocky Mountains, with unique shapes and towering cliffs. We reached the park, and well, hmm, here we come upon a Ranger Hut where they will be very stern about letting us pass if we don't buy a day pass to the park:
Our first stop was one of the gems of the world, Lake Louise, a glacier-fed lake. Parking was a madhouse as everyone else in the world had the same idea as we did.
We parked and walked down to the lake, and behold the humble beauty. Yes, I'm going to show you multiple pictures of what I think might be one of the most beautiful spots in the world:
Take 2:
Take 3:
Proof that I am actually there...:D But what was missing?...Oh yes. Still no mounties.
Next stop was lunch and then Johnson's Canyon. This was about a mile hike on a scary catwalks to see some waterfalls.
Over the edge:
There is a sign that says "Do not run on the catwalk." Ya think?
Here are the falls. There were so many people swarming around the area that I turned down the opportunity to climb through the muddy cave-tunnel to go out on another observation deck that was closed in, small, and wet, with little kids scampering about in a precarious manner.
Mounties would have been impressed by my strength here, but alas, they were not here.
We left and went on down the road. Along with mounties, I had been hoping to see some kind of wildlife, such as grizzly bears, of which there are many in that area.
We did see elks:
We did what any smart people do. We got out of the car and got super close to LARGE WILD ANIMALS with antlers and took pictures. Give us some credit, though -- they were calm, chomping away on food, totally aware that we were there and unimpressed -- and they were not grizzly bears.
Another wild animal friend:
So we met some friends of J's and went to a restaurant with a roof patio in the village of Banff called the Rose and the Crown.
The sun would be setting soon at the late hour of 10 p.m., and still I had not found a real mountie.
And then...THEN...THEN:
