Urban Outcast Music #33 - Flowers by Cross Canadian Ragweed. I'm still kicking myself for not ditching a college class to go see these guys at Denver's Grizzly Rose in 2006 and then they cancelled their 2010 tour which would have swung through San Francisco. That broke up the band (and my heart).
Received a very pointed grilling from the Canadian border agent about my relationship with guns. I tried to allay his concerns by confirming in multiple ways that the guns were back home in the safe but then it was time to discuss if I had forgotten to take everything out of the car on my last hunting trip, where would that gun be hiding... Part of me was concerned about what got me blacklisted but it was gratifying to know the blog is catching on with the Canucks!
From there it was on to Kamloops for a Buskers Festival (learned a new word). Orrin was unimpressed but the playground was built by someone without the fear of overly aggressive ambulance chasers so he had a blast before we strapped him down for the final hour to reach Salmon Arm. Not as cool a place as the name would suggest but a relaxed little town on a massive lake.
The bonus at the top was a youngish grizzly bear rumbling back and forth in the valley as he stuffed himself on Canadian muesli - berries and grubs.
No stupid stunts for these photos, just enjoying finally having a 50x230 zoom lens. Below is the true story, a little less life threatening but what a spot to spend your days.
Back on the road we had to drive by a lot of beautiful country without stopping to gape as the little man is not a fan of car napping and you must endure a fair amount of screaming before he goes down for 40 minutes and wakes back up screaming...belly sleepers.
Our next stop was the Disneyland of Banff - Lake Louise. This was not the quiet stop I remember witnessing with my grandparents on the back end of our Alaska roadtrip (the top picture below). On that trip we got to see an icefall at the far end of the lake and then had to wait an eternity to hear the crash. This time we crawled by overflowing parking lots while being waved along by a horde of park attendants before we won the lottery and got the wave to take a primo spot at the very top!
From Lake Louise we skipped Banff and headed for the hotel in Canmore. I wish the picture below had turned out better because the kiddo woke up when I stopped the car. Negative parenting points for subpar pictures could have made for a tense rest of the drive but luckily grapes solve many ills.
With only 1.5 hours to Calgary, we had a little more time to explore the local dog park, a disc golf course in the Nordic center and the less famous but still stunning provincial parks.
The final hour of driving on the plains was when it was time to cruise and relax the eyes but instead things got very real as the wife said "he is playing with it!" Wiser parents would probably not put a pant-less mega pooper in a car seat but experience is a harsh teacher. Our wipes stockpile took a significant hit as the seat and kid were coated head to toe... industrious little bugger. I know that I vowed to avoid poop topics but this was by far the most disgusting incident to date and I wouldn't want the pictures to imply it was all sunshine and puppies.
Calgary itself was a cool town and there were plenty of parks to keep us busy while the responsible adults worked. My favorite was Nose Hill Park, 4.2 square miles of prairie in the middle of town with several square miles of dog heaven in the middle. The bright nights meant that Oak and I also checked off three more disc golf courses including an absurdly difficult course where I relied on an Oak retrieve for almost every drive due to the waist high grasses.
Westbound:
For the drive home we only had two days and opted for the southern route through Kootenay National Park, Radium Hot Springs, Invermere, etc. Our hike for the day was near Fairmont Hot Springs up to some hoodoos above Columbia Lake. We had to drive right through Fort Steele as it was during that magical 40 minutes of snoring and we eventually made it to Sandpoint to grab the last room in town (but no hot water).
The final day was just booking it home on the freeway so nothing exciting to share. If we had one more day to spare it would have been ideal to stay just north of the border and take Hwy 3 back. For now its back to the grind and daydreaming of getting back to Glacier, Banff, etc when the little man's legs are a little longer.