Banff Trip!

In preparation for our trip to the mountains, we invested some warm snow gear:

As you can see, Penny did not approve of my gloves.

Then, on the weekend we headed up for our first trip up to Banff National Park.  It was amazing!  We arrived at about 2:30 in the afternoon on Friday (successfully made the trip without snow tires!).  It was such a beautiful drive up there.

We checked into our hotel and then decided to do some shopping in downtown Banff.  We stopped for some dinner at The Grizzly House which was a fondue place with exotic food choices.  We ended up choosing the Hunter and Alberta Fondue Dinner which included wild boar, beef, buffalo, venison, and elk.  It was really delicious and I especially liked the boar and elk, surprisingly!  Also, the restaurant had phones by every table so that people could call other tables to chat during their meal!  It was really strange but fun.  I had never seen anything like that!  The views of the mountains from the town were unbelievable.

Matt called a table in the private room to have a chat before our food came!

Amazing view of the mountains from downtown Banff

After dinner, we went back to our hotel and took a dip in the heated pools that were in the courtyard just outside our room.

Then on Saturday morning, we got ready to head up to Sunshine Village to snowboard.  It was about a 20 minute drive from our hotel and once we got there, we rented all of our equipment and then hopped on the gondola up to the mountain.  On the way up, I was feeling really nervous about attempting to snowboard again after not doing it in such a long time.  I was also nervous for Matt, who was trying it for the very first time...with me as his "instructor".  Once we got up to the top of the mountain, we decided to take the lift up to the easier runs.  The lift, just as I remembered, is one of the hardest parts of the whole day. Getting on - easy, but getting off - not so easy.  The first few times getting off the lift, both of us fell.

At 7000 ft at the top of the Strawberry Lift

Our shadows and the mountains...

The first time down, Matt rated his experience as "miserable."  But, as the day went on, we got better.  We even made if off the lift without falling!  I discovered that snowboarding is kinda like riding a bike...it all came back to me and I didn't do too badly! 

After several hours of falling and fun, we decided that we'd had enough.  We hopped on the gondola and headed back down to the bottom.

Still smiling and still in one piece!

Later that day, we went to the "Hot Springs".  We were expecting caves and rocks around the hot springs but were surprised when we got there and it looked like a heated pool.  The water is from natural springs and has lots of minerals but they've made it into more of a pool atmosphere.  It was definitely an experience, but we felt really weird since it was really crowded.  We only stayed in the springs for about 10 minutes and then decided to get out.

After the hot springs, we were exhausted.  We grabbed some dinner and then were pretty much done for the night.  We got up early the next morning and came outside to a snow storm!  We decided to get back on the road as quickly as possible to get back to Calgary safely.  

The snow-covered town on Sunday morning

I still can't get over how amazing the mountains were!!

The drive home was a bit treacherous because of the fresh snow falling but we were careful and made it back to Calgary.  Although very sore from snowboarding, we had an amazing time.  We can't wait to go back and take visiting friends and family with us!

Snow Tires or No Snow Tires?....that is the question

It seems as though everyone in Calgary buys snow tires and puts them on their cars for the winter.  At first, I was thinking, I don't need snow tires, I've lived in PA, I have driven in the snow, I'll be fine.  BUT, after now having been through several snow falls this year, I am realizing that I may have to buy them.  Apparently, the snow removal in Calgary is almost non-existent, so when it snows, the roads stay snowy, and as people drive on them, the snow gets patted down tightly and so the roads just stay snow-covered.  And then a few days later, it snows again and adds to the snow already there.  This makes driving very tricky!  My poor little Jetta slides very well on the snow!  Matt and I ventured out the other day after a snowy night that left us about 5 or 6 inches of snow and it was more of an adventure than we planned!  The roads were scary and the parking lots not plowed.  So, we actually got stuck in a parking lot for about 5 minutes.  I think that I will start shopping for winter tires...

Another fun thing that comes with the snow is shoveling!  Matt has really started to take a liking to shoveling our roof-top deck.  You can see his enthusiasm in these pictures...

Last weekend we went to a neighborhood block party to get to know our neighbors!  Everyone was to bring a dessert or an appetizer.  So, I brought these Oreo Truffles (thanks for the recipe, mom!)!

It was really nice because we were able to meet a lot of our neighbors, who were all really friendly!  One guy that we met actually went to college at UT.  Another lady who lives a few houses down has a yoga studio in her garage so I might give that a try.  It's pretty amazing that I can just walk over there.  Also thanks to our landlord, I have a blind friend-date next Thursday for lunch!

This weekend, we have a trip up to the mountains planned!!  I am soooo excited for this.  We will be heading up Friday afternoon.  It will hopefully take about and hour and half to get there.  We booked a package deal that is called "Ski and Soak" which means that we get two nights in the hotel, two one-day lift tickets, and two passes to the hot springs.  This is our hotel and we are going to ski at Sunshine Village.  You can also check out the hot springs.  We are going to attempt snowboarding.  I have snowboarded before but only a few times about 10 years ago and Matt has never gone skiing or snowboarding before, so it should be fun!  Hopefully, we come back in one piece!

Penny isn't heading to the mountains with us this time but a lot of the places up there at Banff are dog friendly so maybe sometime we will take her up with us.