Rocky Mounty High

Hey there loyal readers of this blog o' mine. The visit by Emilie to Calgary continues. Some of you may remember that I promised the first person to visit me in Calgary a free night at a resort in Canmore, Alberta. Well the obvious recipient of this fabulous prize was my friend Emilie. So the adventures continue and we are on our way to Canmore and the Rocky Mountains. We took off early Tuesday morning to get to the hotel, check in and check out the room. The place wasn't half bad, but some of the excitement was quelled by the fact that this was the NHL trade deadline day. The biggest news was Ryan Smyth being traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the New York Islanders, but Emilie didn't care. After enjoying the hotel and some trade deadline highlights for a bit we were back on the road and making our way to Lake Louise, Alberta. You readers of the blog may remember me and my folks checking out Lake Louise in the summer.



It is pretty cool in the summer because of how green the water is, but snow capped mountains are still pretty darn impressive. The only problem is that you have to actually get their to enjoy them. On the way to Lake Louise, Em and I got to talking about the way french appears on signs and how the translations seem a bit too complicated. Well while reading the sign for the turn off to Lake Louise I actually missed the turn off, but I did not realize this, and a few short minutes it said we were in Yoho National Park. That was a bit unusual considering that Lake Louise is in Banff National Park. Soon after the Yoho sign we were being welcomed to BC. So unintentionally I have now been to 9 of Canada's 10 provinces with only Newfoundland being the odd man out. Anyway we only spent a few minutes in BC before turning around and going to Lake Louise. It was good time. After we had our fill of Lake Louise we headed back down the highway and made a stop in Banff where we toured some of the gift shops and took in the experience of a mountain town. So we had a good time seeing the Rockies and it would only get better the next day.
After enjoying a complimentary buffet style breakfast at the Chateau Canmore I was convinced by Emilie that going on a hike in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains would some how be a good idea. Em was overly excited by the prospect of just walking into the mountains and didn't seem to have any worries about the type of wildlife we may encounter. I have to say that the hike was pretty cool and despite the 10 or 12 falls we took during the adventure it was still a good time. You see we went on the Grotto Canyon hike.It took us along a frozen river up into the mountains. Now if we knew what we were doing we may have actually went and got the proper spikes sandals to make the walk along the ice easier, but where is the challenge in that. No instead we went just with the shoes we had and it made for some exciting times. I think Em went down at least 8 times during the hike, but there were no serious injuries. I had a couple of falls myself and luckily no injuries. The best part of the hike is how it just didn't want to end. If I didn't become a curmudgeon and complain about going on I think we may still be walking. Sure the map said the trail ended, but I doubt it. We saw some cool rock formations, but did not get to see the rock paintings we attracted by, but I know Emilie definitely enjoyed the experience. Still I don't know if this was the highlight of her trip.

Thursday would be the last full day that Emilie would be in Calgary so I thought we should check out the zoo. That place can really smell at times, but that spoil our fun. Like any zoo visit we saw animals and enjoyed their antics. This zoo visit though would have an added bonus. The zoo was about the shut down for the day and we were seeing the last of the animals when the camel trainer asked us if we wanted a closer look. We moved in and were allowed to feed some nuggets to the pair of female two humps. The trainer then asked if we wanted a kiss. Oh not from her, from the camels. Although it could have made one of fantasies to make out with a camel trainer come true. Anyway no we got kissed by camels. Can you believe it? Anyway that was it the trip of Emilie. Em would leave the next day and I couldn't believe how quick everything went. Thanks for visiting Emilie. I really enjoyed your company and hope you can visit again. Hey bring some friends.

Well that was the adventures with Emilie. I know I keep promising the adventure of Bingi ja Ryanii and the ferocious Karhu, but something even more amazing happened to me recently. I was able to meet a WWE diva and insult a Canadian Comedy legend all in one day. So stay tuned as I go on a quest for the next comedy legend.


Later