Hello everyone! As you may know, Ethan and I took our first non-Disney vacation together a few weeks ago! We headed to Calgary, Alberta to visit family and explore the mountains! My Aunt and Uncle were kind enough to let us stay with them the entire trip :). I thought I would share a trip recap with lots of pictures from the trip, as well as what we did every day! Pictures are randomly added to break up the text, but the captions say where it was taken :). We were super lucky with the weather, and only had about 5 minutes of rain! Okay, let’s jump in!
Sunday May 28th
Our trip started at 4am when our alarm went off. It was early, but there was zero traffic, and we made it through airport security the fastest I ever have! Our flight was at 8 am, and landed at 10am Calgary time (12pm for us). We spent most of the day relaxing, and went for a walk with my Aunt to the grocery store. We got to meet her new puppy Teddy, and so we spent lots of time hanging out with him!
Monday May 29th
My Aunt had to work a little bit on Monday, so we spent the day relaxing! I read two and a half books while we were away, so I spent a lot of time reading! Ethan and I walked to Starbucks for a treat, and enjoyed the gorgeous weather! My Aunt and Uncle have a gazebo in their backyard with a sofa and chairs, so we were comfortable :).
Tuesday May 30th
Tuesday was another relaxing day for Ethan and I. Unfortunately a few weeks before we arrived my Aunt and Uncle’s puppy Teddy broke his leg! He’s all good now, but he had to go to the vet and animal hospital Tuesday morning to make sure everything was okay. After lunch, we headed out with my Aunt to Bragg Creek, and got some ice cream! After that we visited Elbow falls before heading home. It was beautiful! The water during our trip was very brown with the run-off from the mountains, but we got that and lower crowds so we were okay with it!
Wednesday May 31st
Wednesday was the first of our days in the mountains! We headed out around 8:30 am for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Banff. I loved driving through the mountains! We explored the Banff Springs hotel, walked along the Bow River, and walked into the town centre of Banff. We enjoyed lunch on the rooftop patio at a pub, and I think it was one of the best views I’ve ever had at a restaurant! Funny story: when we got up on the roof, we saw some scary looking clouds coming at us, and were worried we would have to dash inside! The clouds parted and went all the way around us, which was wonderful!
After lunch we headed to Sulphur Mountain and went up the Gondola! My Aunt decided to stay inside the visitors centre up there, while Ethan and I walked the path to the very top! It was amazing how much you felt the altitude while up there! We spent about an hour between walking to the top and at the visitors centre, before heading back down. I stopped at the Starbucks there to grab the Banff “You Are Here” mug (my collection is growing!).
After that we headed out to Lake Minnewanka. I remember going up Sulphur mountain on a previous trip and seeing mountain goats, but I didn’t see any up there on that day! Wouldn’t you know it, that as we were walking to Lake Minnewanka and there was a mountain goat staring at us! I was so excited!
The lake was beautiful and crystal clear!
After that we headed home, and got ready to do it all again tomorrow!
Thursday June 1st
On the road again to Lake Louise, which was about a 2 1/2 hour drive. We definitely noticed how much they are preparing for the summer season, and Canada’s 150th birthday celebration. Lake Louise was beautiful as always, although still mostly frozen. It’s amazing how popular of a spot it is, considering that’s about all that’s there!
After that we drove the 11kms to Moraine Lake (the picture at the top of the post), which was just as beautiful and surrounded more closely by the mountains! It is really hard to explain just how beautiful everything is, so hopefully my pictures do the beauty justice!
After that we headed back into Banff for lunch, before heading to Johnston Canyon, the one thing Ethan said he wanted to do while we were there! The water was flowing, and it was a pretty easy 1 1/2 mile hike. On our way walking back, we got the 5 minutes of rain, but we took it!
We then headed home again, after two whirlwind days in the mountains!
Friday June 2nd
Friday was a more low-key day. We got to see my Aunt’s new office downtown, and visited the Calgary tower. We had lunch at a really nice spot, and all three of us got the veggie burger! It was delicious, and huge. After that we went to the local mall so I could buy some more books (I had already read the 2 I brought at this point), and so my Aunt could get her phone screen repaired. We also grabbed some Marble Slab. Yum!
Saturday June 3rd
Our last full day! We visited an outlet mall, and everyone got something but me! I’ve been looking for a new spring/fall jacket since the one I have now is also from Calgary, so it’s at least 7 years old. Unfortunately what I liked they didn’t have in my size. We spent the rest of our day relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather!
Sunday June 4th
Sunday we pretty much got up and relaxed for a while before heading to the airport around 10am. The time in the airport flew by, and all of a sudden we were on our way home! We lost 2 hours on the way back, so that day felt like it went by quickly! We watched Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates on the plane, and I thought it was pretty funny! We got home around 7 and couldn’t believe how fast the week went by.
The trip really came up quickly, and I think we really did a lot for not having planned every minute (like I do when I’m going to Disney). Shout-out to my amazing Aunt who let us stay with her! I don’t get to see her very often, by we Skype all the time and it was so much fun to spend the week with her! People say we look more alike than I do to my parents!
If you wanted to see more of a look of the mountains, check out the Travel Vlog I posted last week below! If you want to receive notifications when I post a video to YouTube (I now have over 70 videos posted :O ), subscribe to my channel here!
I hope you enjoyed today’s trip recap, because I definitely enjoyed sharing it! When I created my blog I thought about sharing adventures like these, so I hope you liked coming along!
Thank you so much for reading!
Great blog! Love the photos, especially of Mr. Teddy Bear.