Alberta Part Two: A Very Special Visitor

The day finally arrived, the one we've been counting down for since we left home. This was the day we picked up Mamma Sue from the Edmonton airport! Right after picking her up, we made our way to the West Edmonton Inn hotel, just across the street from the West Edmonton Mall, checked ourselves in for the night and spent the afternoon at the West Edmonton Mall. When people say your going to need a map for this mall, there not kidding. Your going to want to get yourself a map! Its massive, with two levels! We spent the entire day in this mall. We started off window shopping, and made our way through what we think was the entire mall, it may or may not have been. Then we spent the afternoon in the mall's indoor water park, where we enjoyed the wave pool, rode some water

slides, and my mamma and I checked an item

off her bucket list and zip lined down the longest indoor zip line in Canada, at 470 ft long! Although Mamma was scared, she braved it out, and rode it like a champ! I'm proud of her for facing a fear. After all the fun in the water park, we walked through the mall until we stumbled upon the Old Spaghetti Factory, for a well earned dinner. But, the fun didn't stop there! After dinner, we went down to Ed's bowling alley for Ladies night. Ladies bowl free ;). Yes, this bowling alley was located IN the mall! We had such a great time, 10 pin bowling, but again, the fun didn't stop there. We had to make a stop for some winnings down at the Casino, which again was located right in the mall. I'm telling you, this place has everything you could think of. Oh! I almost forgot to mention, right in the center of the mall is a massive Pirate Ship. Everything about this mall was amazing! We easily made a full day out of the mall, and had a fantastic first day together!

Icefields Parkway: Jasper National Park to Banff National Park

Day Two: We woke up super early so that we could make the full drive down the Icefields parkway, from Edmonton, all the way through both Jasper, and Banff, to our final destination in Calgary to check into our Airbnb. The drive took us from first thing in the morning until 10:30 pm, keeping in mind that we made several stops along the way. With no stops, the drive from Jasper to Banff is a three and a half hour drive, and voted in the top 10 of Canada's most scenic drives. Just after entering the park, we pulled off onto the side of the road to watch the mountain goats climbing along the rock on the side of the highway. It appeared to be a family of 8, with three adorable little babies. Our first official stop along the Icefields, was to Athabasca Falls in Jasper, a short 200 m hike, to an amazing cascading waterfall, with stunning mountain views! This

waterfall is huge! While we were exploring, and taking in the incredible waterfall views, a rainbow appeared just above the waterfall. The hike takes you to the top of the waterfall to viewing platforms, and also down to the bottom, along canyons and eventually down to the lake which the waterfall runs into. Definitely worth the stop! Our next stop was the Athabasca Glacier. Although we didn't hike on the glacier (due to lack of proper footwear/gear) itself, we

walked up a steady incline to get to the base of the glacier. Along the way up, the temperature gradually changed from nice and warm, to a very cool rainy walk up.

Along our hike up to the glacier, we passed several signs with dates on them, showing how much the glacier had moved over the last hundreds of years. The glacier has lost about 2 km of its length since 1844, and continues to retreat each year. It was incredible to see how much the glacier has moved over time. These were our two hiking stops for the day, but we still made several road side stops to take in the amazing mountains views! There are countless road side stops made available because the views are just too amazing to drive past. The Icefields parkway is absolutely a must experience at least once in your life. Whether it be to drive through or backpack, there are so many landscapes, and hikes to experience, its absolutely beautiful! By this point of our drive, we were starving!! So we finished the drive to Banff, and stopped downtown Banff to grab some dinner. We all agreed on Earl's for dinner! A classy, super delicious restaurant, with great mountain views. Honestly, the food is amazing! The town of Banff though, is stunning! Although SUPER busy, its the cutest town. The best way to enjoy the town is to find a side street to park on, and walk the streets. There are tons of really cute shops, worth browsing through. From Banff, we still had an hour and a half drive to our Airbnb in Calgary.

But.. A very scenic drive back to Calgary :)

We had a very full day of driving, and exploring, but the views we were able to experience were beyond worth it. Late that night, we finally checked into the cutest little character home we found on Airbnb. And we all slept like babies that night! The next day was another fun filled day. We made the drive back into Banff to explore Lake Minnewanka. We spent the day paddling the clear turquoise waters, among the beautiful mountain peaks. Once our paddle was complete, we found a cute little

private spot along the water, where we had a picnic, and Jesse braved the cold waters for some snorkeling. It wasn't long before Jesse was crawling out of the glacier waters ;) Before heading on to our next endeavors, we stopped to check out a stop called Cascade Pond. Which was a picnic area, with ponds, and beaches, etc. We arrived just in time to watch Elk grazing in the fields. It was pretty magical. In addition to the Elk, we got to sit and watch the gophers popping in and out of their burrows while we took in the amazing scenery surrounding us. Once we

had our fill we continued 20 minutes further into Banff to check Johnston Canyon off our list. Johnston Canyon was an hour long hike

each way, and an additional hour if you were to continue to the ink pots, which Jesse and I went back and did after mom left. Its absolutely worth the additional hour hike. If you haven't heard of Johnston Canyon, I suggest you look it up and add it to your bucket list ;) Its such a stunning hike, along the clearest, bluest waters I've seen, which leads to three separate waterfalls. Its such a beautiful hike.

If your able to find the hidden canyon, along the Johnston Canyon between the middle and upper falls, your in for a real treat. You'll find another waterfall, along with a HUGE rock. Its a magical place. We weren't able to find the path the first time we hiked with mamma, but we went back for a second hike and found it on our second try! After our amazing hike, we headed back to our Airbnb for dinner and relaxation.

We had the perfect day! Our fourth day was spent in Banff, again! :) We took part on an interpretive hike at Upper Bank head. This was an hour long hike which took us through the remains of the old mining town of Bank head. An important part of the hike, had to do with a donated oil lamp. We later heard on the radio, that the oil lamp was stolen from the hike a couple days after we visited. Who would want to steal that?! Insane! After our hike, we went downtown Banff to explore the historic Cave and Basin site. This was the first of the national park sites in Canada to be established! The Cave and Basin is an indoor cave, with a natural spring, the waters in the cave are home to the endangered Banff Springs Snail, so the waters are protected.

We had a nice picnic at the site, before soaking ourselves in the Upper Banff Hot Springs! The spring waters were SO warm, and amazing! It was a super refreshing experience, and we all enjoyed it. We spent about an hour here, before we were ready to pack up and start driving back to Calgary. Day Five was a very exciting, and thrilling day! We booked a tour with Wild Water

Adventures for an amazing white water rafting experience. This was each of our first time, Mamma, and I were placed in the front row, while Jesse got to sit just behind us and help with paddling. Mamma, and I took all the water for everyone on board. I'm not kidding when I say that either, we got SOAKED! We went rafting down the kicking horse river on rapids between classes 3-5. It was the most exciting thing I've ever done. AND another bucket list item crossed off for us! After all the excitement rafting, we spent the second portion of our day at the

Lake Louise Gondola, and exploring the famous Lake Louise! The Lake Louise Gondola was a 7 minute ride up to an elevation of 2088 m and another 7 minute ride down. We chose to ride the open ski lift, rather than the enclosed gondola. The ride offered incredible views of the Rocky Mountains, and hidden lake. Although the lake Louise gondola is home to the best grizzly bear viewings in the area, we unfortunately did not see any. Once we reached the bottom, we took the free shuttle over to the

famous Lake Louise. The waters really are as blue as they appear in the photos. It really is such a picturesque lake. We walked about 45 minutes along the beautiful lake, before turning back and catching the shuttle back to the truck. The only downfall, was the endless crowds of people. Jesse and I returned to Lake Louise after Mamma left, and hiked up to little bee. The views from this peak were just stunning, and completely worth the steep hike up. When we reached the peak, we were overlooking the entire

Lake Louise. It was incredible! After a super busy week exploring Banff with Mom, we spent

the weekend laying low at our Airbnb, where

we played board games, and watched movies. It was actually so nice! Once Monday rolled around, we decided to spend one last day in Banff before it was time for Mom to leave. On our last day in Banff we spent the afternoon at Bow Lake. We paddled the breathtaking lake for a couple of hours, and took in the outstanding mountain views. Then enjoyed a picnic along the water

before making our way back to Calgary. On our way back to Calgary, we passed a "bear jam" and were able to see a black bear off the side of the road from the truck as we drove by. This was one of the last things Mom wanted to see before leaving, and she did! Our week together with Mom went by SO fast! We all had the most amazing week, filled with so much excitement! We were sad to see her leave, but so happy that we got to experience such a beautiful part of Canada with her. Time really does fly when your having fun! Thanks for braving the 4 hour flight on your own to visit us Mamma. We hope you had as much fun as we did! And thanks again to each and every one of you reading this right now. We hope you enjoyed our adventures as much as we did!

Stay Wild,

Jesse & Jessica.