Back to Stirling today and hoping to be on the road between 9 and 10 am. We left at 9:30 am and took the same road through the Kootenay National Park until the Lake Louise/Banff turn off. We headed toward Banff today.
Since we didn't stop along the road as we did yesterday, we made it through the park in a lot faster time. We did stop at Johnston Canyon Falls. It had been raining throughout the morning, but let up just as we were getting out of the car. Kristen brought along an umbrella just in case. Misha and Amy stayed in the car to sleep. Some day they'll read this and think, "Man, we sure were stick in the muds!"
Grandma, Grandpa, Chris, Kristen, and I went on without them to hike the lower falls. The trail was packed with people. Every one in awhile we encountered these doofus people taking pictures with their iPads totally clueless that they were inconveniencing everyone else on the trail while they posed here and there and this way and that way. We tried to go around them as quickly as possible.
I would have liked to hike to the Upper Falls, but we chose the easier hike with my parents. On our way down, Kristen was looking over the edge and dangling the umbrella when the carrying strap suddenly broke and the umbrella plunged to the base of the canyon. She was pretty devastated since it was our only umbrella. She cried for a time until I tried to joke her out of her sorrow by having a moment of silence with Chris and her and saying nice things in remembrance of our beloved umbrella.
The sad news, after driving for awhile, my mom realized that her fitbit was no longer on her wrist. We looked through jackets, but it was nowhere to be found; she urged us to keep going and not to worry about going back. We didn't know if she had lost it at the falls or earlier at the condo.
We pulled in to Banff for lunch around 1:30 pm. We went for a simple lunch at Subway, and even then it was busy. We decided to split up and meet back by the van in an hour. The girls searched for the perfect souvenir. The town itself was busy. We didn't stay too long. I think we were all just anxious to be on our way.
Misha is definitely a hat girl. And a cute one at that.
Chris stopped next at the Calgary, Alberta temple. There was no visitor center; however, there were people at the adjacent LDS church decorating for a wedding. They definitely did not like that we came in to the church to use the restroom.
Mom and Dad chose a Wendy's for dinner and Chris and I took the girls to a burrito shop. The cool thing about the Wendy's was the Tim Horton's that it shared a store front with. Chris indulged and bought the girls a donut each.
We stopped at "the farm" on our way home from Calgary outside of Claresholm, Alberta. This was where my dad grew up. I hadn't been there in years and it had changed a lot and was a lot run down. I'm sure it was disheartening for my dad to see it in this shape. He and his dad had worked hard to keep it in good working order.
We arrived home by 10 pm, unloaded all of our stuff, and headed off to bed. Great trip. My parents thanked us profusely for taking them with us and helping them to see and do things they would not normally do on their own.