Weekend Retreat

Well Summer is almost officially here. We've been hearing reports from friends and family in Colorado and Oklahoma about the 90 degree temps and general heat wave they've been having. Seems we went from Winter to Summer. Meanwhile, Jill, Cooper and I are up in Calgary for a couple weeks where we've gone from Winter to 2nd Winter. The good weather has passed and today as we drove out of Calgary headed up to Banff National Park it was 1 degree Celsius, dumping snow and starting to accumulate. Yep, that is Calgary weather for you, where Summer just means more Winter.

Not to be deterred, we headed west and things started looking better. Temperatures started slowly rising as we made our way, and looked generally better than it did in Calgary. Not perfect weather, but certainly workable. As we sit in our nice accommodations looking up towards the peaks that encompass Lake Louise, a light snow is falling and creates a pretty peaceful environment for a much needed weekend mini-vacation.

We did get out enough to explore the area around Lake Moraine today, and I have to agree with some other's opinions that I've heard and say I think Lake Moraine is just a beautiful as Lake Louise. The nice part about the less than perfect weather was the crowds were very light, making it easy to park and get around. Cooper was quite anxious to get out of the car and run around, so we hiked around for a bit.


Cooper storming up the stairs to the overlook

From Lake Louise Weekend

We got the wild child to stop long enough for a picture with Momma

From Lake Louise Weekend

Cooper makes friends with everyone on the trail, calling out "Hi!" repeatedly until they acknowledge him.

From Lake Louise Weekend

Not thawed, but still gorgeous

From Lake Louise Weekend

From Lake Louise Weekend

Family picture

From Lake Louise Weekend

Suited up and ready to hit the trails (Dad's hat is a bit big but it kept him warm)

From Lake Louise Weekend

We found some cute huskies at Lake Louise that Cooper got to play with

From Lake Louise Weekend

Happy to be out of the car and free to roam

From Lake Louise Weekend

The canoes on Lake Louise will get a late start this year. As we walked around Lake Loise, a light snow started to fall.

From Lake Louise Weekend

After walking around Lake Louise for a bit, we went into the super fancy Fairmont ($500 and up per night) hotel on the banks to walk around. The employees there showed Cooper up to the desk where they had steps and a "Kid's checkin". He promptly made his way up the stairs and socialized for a bit. Then they led him around behind the desk, opened up a big chest full of toys and told him to pick one out. Jill told them we weren't staying at the hotel just looking around, but they insisted he pick one out anyway. Of course, he picked out a wind up puppy dog toy. He carried it around proudly. Certainly a very nice gesture from their staff.

From Lake Louise Weekend

Tomorrow we continue our journey westward, heading another couple hours up to Jasper. Lots of things to see on the way there plus the weather looks better the further west you go, so we're hoping for some warmer temps and blue skies tomorrow.

We've got a really nice place with two rooms and a big, soft bed that Jill appreciates so things are good. After a long work week, feels great to be somewhat unplugged from everything and just enjoying hanging out with Super Cooper and Jill. Despite the cool temps, we're off to a good start.

Not our normal Rocky Mountains.

As best as I can count, Canucks get about 34 - 36 holidays a year and Monday was one of those days. "May Long Weekend" means nothing to us in the states, but to the people in Calgary its a Monday off and when in Calgary take the day off like the locals. Despite a less than optimal looking weather forecast for the mountains, we loaded up and headed up with a first stop of Banff.

I had been to Banff a couple of times, and it doesn't disappoint. Sure its a bit over-touristed and kitschy, but step a block off the main through-way and the serene setting makes you feel a long way removed from all that. We walked around Banff along the main drag, stepping into the traps that caught our touristy eye or the one's that Cooper ran into yelling "Yah. Yah. Yah".

From Banff & Lake Louise

It didn't take us long to shed the touristed areas and find a nice park for Cooper to run and play in. It didn't take him long to find some other kids about his age to play with. We were talking to one of the kid's parents, who was asking us if we lived around the area when he told us he lived in Banff. That prompted me to ask "How does one afford to live in Banff?" His response, which I think range quite true was "It is really a lifestyle choice." which I interpreted to mean "We may not be able to retire at 60, but man its cool living here".

From Banff & Lake Louise

From Banff & Lake Louise

From Banff & Lake Louise

From Banff & Lake Louise

From Banff & Lake Louise

We took a short drive to a scenic overlook of the Bow River and Bow Valley Falls. We stopped took in the views, snapped some pics and Cooper proceeded to roll around in some dirt and get himself filthy. Pretty much standard issue stuff.

From Banff & Lake Louise

Mandatory "Big Arms"

From Banff & Lake Louise

From Banff & Lake Louise

From Banff & Lake Louise

From Banff, its a pretty quick 30km up to Lake Loise so we decided that since the weather had turned out gorgeous that we'd take advantage and head further West. We found a still frozen Lake Loise not ready to show its incredibly turquoise hues quite yet this season, but it won't be long.

We did a nice little 5 mile hike around the lake, taking in the views as we went. Cooper got a free ride in the backpack and was a big hit. I think he likes being up high where he can see everyone and he exchanged loads of hi's with the passers. I bet we heard "Oh isn't that cute" in about 10 different languages. Living in Boulder County, we sometimes forget that not everyone totes their toddlers around all over in a backpack.

From Banff & Lake Louise

From Banff & Lake Louise

Self portrait

From Banff & Lake Louise

Looking back at the Fairmont. Lake has a lot of filling to do with the impending meltoff

From Banff & Lake Louise

From Banff & Lake Louise

Some color starting to peak through

From Banff & Lake Louise

Jill at the southern end of Lake Loise

From Banff & Lake Louise

A couple of days of work in Calgary, and then a couple more days off and some more time up in the mountains. Hoping for warm temps all week to give us some melt on Lake Loise so we can get a glimpse of the colors I've always seen and been envious of in countless pictures.

Dinosaurs Alive Video

Here is a quick video clip of one of the dinosaurs at the Calgary Zoo.

Home away from home, feels a bit more like home this week

The never ending project in Calgary is soon about to end for me after 18 long months. I'd say its a bittersweet ending, but I'm pretty sure its just sweet. Before I roll off, we had to get Jill and Cooper up for a bit to hang out. It would be a crime if they didn't get up to the mountains here while I was around. We flew up to Calgary on Saturday, then on Sunday we headed over to the Calgary zoo.

I had pretty low expectations of the Calgary Zoo for no real reason, but it was impressive. The first thing we went to was the "Dinosaurs Alive" exhibit, where they had many life sized dinosaurs that would come to life, moving around and roaring out. We were a bit worried that Cooper would be scared of them, but he actually thought they were really neat. He kept saying "cool!", which is his new word.

Father and son with father and son.

Very life like, looking and sounding

From Calgary Zoo

Massive Brontosaurus clan

From Calgary Zoo

Cooper checking them out

From Calgary Zoo

Me and my boy

From Calgary Zoo

Even flying dinosaurs too

From Calgary Zoo

Walking around the zoo, checking out the non-animatronic animals

From Calgary Zoo

Probably a safe bet that it was indeed him

From Calgary Zoo

Then Jill tangled with some of the locals

From Calgary Zoo

We ended up spending over 3 hours walking around the zoo, which turned out to be really impressive. Dinosaur exhibit aside, they had a lot of really neat enclosures that let you be a lot closer to the animals than a lot of zoos. Now to find some plans on the internet for how to build my own animatronic dinosaur for the backyard.

Cooper Playing at the Park

Well I finally found some time to take and post up some new pics of the wonder kid playing around at the park. Sunday morning brought bright blue skies and warm temps, so we got up and around early and took Cooper over to the park to play.

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

I'm not sure what he is trying to say, but he definitely has something to say

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

This is what Sundays are for...

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

Then we went home to play in the backyard for a bit

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

Keeps the head down

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

Steady through the follow through

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park

Then it was time to throw the ball around for a bit. The kid has a big time arm already

From Cooper at Sandstone Ranch Park