Monday, May 28, 2007

Brief Stay In Banff, Alberta and Grandma's Potty Mouth

So after stopping in at Canmore for coffee and Mark's first and only Italian Soda, it became very apparent that we weren't going to make it much farther. Our flight had left Toronto at 7am and we decided that we should get to the airport at about 5:30am, which turned out to be the exact right time because we weren't rushed but we definitley did not have time to lolligag either. So we caught an express coach from the Westin Harbour Castle at some crazy time like 4:50am. The coach was excellent. It cost $17 per person, one way and made the rush to the airport much more relaxing. The night before we had dropped Stella and Nellie off at my mother's and then went home to finish packing. We ended up getting less than three hours sleep!

We pushed on to Banff despite our quickly draining energy. We arrived at about 5pm, Alberta time. It was just in time, actually to see a forest fire in cation. Some kids' campfire got away from them. A helicopter awas called in to drop water on the fire and we left when it became apparent that it would quickly be under control.

After briefly considering a $150 stay at the Hot Springs resort, we chose an $85 dollar room at the other end of town. The hotel was clean and comfortable. Our room had two double beds and we promptly fell asleep on top of the covers, horizontally across the one farthest from the window. We woke up fully clothed the next morning. So much for our plans to enjoy the spring weather and quaint town with a leisurely stroll to one of Mark's favourite Banff restaurants. We had ambitiously hoped to enjoy the Hot Springs after dinner.

In the morning Mark and I did visit the hot springs but they were closed until 10am so we just went for a mini hike and headed out. We have both been to Banff before (although not together) so I wrote a review of Banff on Helium, please check it out.

Last night we went to Mark's Mom's for a big family dinner and were telling some of our vacation stories. Other people started telling their vacation stories and that is when I remembered that vacation stories are rarely fun for anyone other than the people who were actually on the vacation (yet here I am insisting on blogging about my holiday in great detail). Mark's grandmother started to get bored with the conversation. I must of looked bored too because she started whispering jokes to me. At first they were kind of lame and I giggled mostly to be polite. Encouraged by my giggling, she told more and more and they proceeded to get dirtier and dirtier! This 82 year old woman was telling me the most uncomfortably dirty jokes ever! I am not going to go into detail but several involved May West and one invoved both May West and a cow....yucky.

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