Snow Falling on Sneakers

Last week we took a friend on our package tour of Banff and Lake Louise (meals included). The calendar said Spring but the landscape still said Winter. 

That's OK with me. I love taking photos of snow on the mountains.

Especially when the sun hits it just right.

The ice on Lake Louise was finally starting to melt:

Even if you come home with wet sneakers, it's never a bad day when you get pictures like these.

Mother's Day in Banff

I wish I loved hiking. I love the payoff: the incredible views, the occasional wildlife, the silence. But I can't imagine any human (or mountain goat) loving the effort it takes to get there. Still, I agreed to go on a hike on Mother's Day with my husband and our friend, Steve because I want to experience everything Canada has to offer before our short time here is over. 

I picked a trail up Tunnel Mountain in Banff National Park. The first time we tackled this hike I absolutely hated it. There are several steep inclines which left me struggling to breathe. Since then, my doctor suggested I may have "exercise induced asthma." Never heard of it- but I was prescribed an inhaler which I used right before heading up the dirt path on Sunday. It helped! So the payoff for everyone that day was gorgeous weather, unbelievable views of Banff and a Mom who didn't act like a mutha. Yay!

And now your payoff for reading here: 

We made a few stops during the drive home.

Two Jack Lake:

Lake Minnewanka:

Three Sisters- three peaks named Big Sister (Faith), Middle Sister (Charity) and Little Sister (Hope). :

Bonus. We saw more sheep during the drive to Banff.

"OMG, what a snob! He didn't even say 'hi!"

The Really Real Housewives of Calgary

Photo from http://www.hmscommunications.net/calgary-seo.html

We do laundry. We raise children. We make sure there's food in the frig.  We don't take limos to the spa or organize parties that cost more than my wedding. We are wives who actually manage households. We are the Really Real Housewives of Calgary.

Our six husbands work together at jobs that require transfers all over the world. My situation is unusual in that my husband's first and only international assignment has been this one. The other Really Real Housewives have lived in countries I've only seen on my multi-colored globe. My family, on the other hand, has lived in four different cities in the southern US before moving to this exotic land the locals call "Canada."

I'm beginning to understand the language and the currency. When a native asks if I have my "toque" I no longer stare back, frightened. I merely show it to them and put it on my head. (Relax-it's a hat!). If a cashier should ask for another "looney," I understand that they mean a dollar coin. I'm navigating my way through this strange land and now have American friends to share the journey with me.

The Really Real Housewives of Calgary moved here at different times but we've all been here less than two years. We share the names of great places to shop or eat and offer suggestions for day trips on the weekends. It's nice to finally run in a circle of women who understand my life.

We are the women behind the men (making rabbit ears!). Their careers come first. Transfers come suddenly and often require our husbands be on the new job within a couple of weeks. We wives get left behind to deal with the house and the children. We are constantly starting over and have sacrificed everything to be with the men we love.

When the Really Real Housewives of Calgary get together and a topic comes up like paying international income tax or keeping in touch with children who live in another country, no long dialogue about how that came to be or how scary this life is sometimes is necessary. They already know. It's nice to just cut to the chase.

And a bonus that comes with being a Really Real Housewife is that in all the time I've known these women, no one has ever flipped a table.

Weekend in Banff National Park

One of the couples in our circle here in Calgary was suddenly transferred back to Houston a couple of months ago. It got me to thinking about all the things I'd better hurry up and do in case the same thing happens to us. This weekend we crossed two things off the list.

1. We spent the night at The Banff Springs Hotel. It was originally built for wealthy people who traveled from all over the world to "take the waters" in the Banff hot springs. It still usually costs mucho dinero to secure a room but we were able to take advantage of an off-season special rate. woo-hoo! 

From their official website:

THE CASTLE IN THE ROCKIES

Located in the heart of Banff National Park and styled after a Scottish Baronial Castle, The Fairmont Banff Springs hotel, a National Historical Site of Canada, has been turning moments into memories for our guests for over 125 years. The opening of the hotel in 1888 marked the birthplace of tourism in the Canadian Rockies. 

(Not my photo! It's from wikipedia. All other photos are mine.)

2. Being in the mountains at certain times of the year gives people magical powers which enables them to cross over any body of water without a flotation device. Number 2 on the list of "Things to Do Before We Move" involved  employing those powers. In other words, we walked across the ice on Lake Louise. Yes! It's late April and the ice is still thick enough to walk on.

We headed straight for Lake Louise from Calgary on Saturday morning along a scenic route. We were rewarded with a few animal sightings!

*TIP* If you want to see any of the photos larger, just click on them.

Rocky Mountain Sheep:

Lake Louise

Then off to the hotel in Banff! We checked in and then walked around the golf course behind the hotel:

Elk:

"Hey! No pictures!!"

Deer:

The view from our room. Or it might be a mural they taped up outside our window. Even in person, it didn't look real:

We had a fantastic meal at an Italian restaurant that evening and got up in the morning to walk along the golf course again:

Lunch in town and then we headed for home. More sheep!

"You looking at me?" Most of the sheep are looking at me!

Is he sticking his tongue out at me?

It was a really nice weekend. So glad we went.

Oh, by the way, did you know you can easily share any of my blog posts using those handy-dandy buttons down there? Cool, right?