Mom and Dad Skow Visit Calgary

Mom and Dad Skow made the trek up to Calgary, and we kept them busy while they were here.  First, we took a trip up to Lake Louise.  Lake Louise is about 45 minutes further west than Banff.  Along the way to Lake Louise, we stopped to take some photos.

When we arrived at Lake Louise, we took the "Plain of Six Glaciers" hike up to the high tea house near the glacier.  It was 5.5 km up to the tea house, 11 km round trip, and took us about 6 hours to make it back down to the lake.  Along the way, we heard several small avalanches!  The color of the water in the lake and the views on the way up the mountain were amazing!

When we arrived at the top, we had some really great, close-up views of Victoria Glacier.  We took a break and explored the tea house for a bit before we headed back down.

The glacier is the lower snowy part.

Once arriving back down at the bottom, we hopped in the car and drove to Banff, where we spent the night.  We stayed at the Rimrock Hotel, just as Matt and his parents did while they were visiting.  We had dinner out at the Banff Brewing Co. and walked around the town of Banff before calling it a night.  The next morning, we headed to Johnston Canyon to check out the water falls.  Matt and I had done the hike before, last winter.  During the winter, it's called the "Ice Walk" but in the summer, it's a completely different (and much easier) hike!

It's now a tradition...

After our hike in Johnston Canyon, we headed back to Calgary.  Throughout the rest of the week, we toured downtown Calgary.  We walked around Stephen Ave, window-shopped on 17th, had lunch at the Calgary Tower, and had dinner at Mercato.  Mom and Dad also got to check out one of our soccer games!  We also got to enjoy the Taste of Calgary celebration on Mom and Dad's last day.

We miss you guys already!  We love having visitors...who's next??

Mom and Pop Meyer Visit (July 2012)

*Guest-blogger, Matt Meyer *

It all started on the final day of my annual pilgrimage back to Indiana for the Indy 500. As we were packing up and getting ready to head for the airport, my mom was looking online and found some decently-priced flights to Calgary at the end of July. We quickly checked our calendars and it seemed like a perfect time to come visit Canada, so they pulled the trigger and bought the tickets right then.

A couple weeks passed, then Katie and I realized we overlooked her trip to Puerto Rico for Jaclyn's Bachelorette (or, as they say in Canada, Stagette) Party. The dates lined up almost exactly, leaving only 1 night for Katie to be here while they visited. So it was up to me to be the tour guide and cram as much as I could in to the 6 days they would be here.

On Thursday night, I picked Mom and Dad up at the Calgary Airport and drove them back to our house. It was already pretty late by then, so we stayed up for a little bit, gave them the house tour, and called it a night.

Mom and Pop Meyer at YYC.

On Friday, we decided to walk around the city - down by the river and through the core. Mom was amazed at all the flowers that were around town.

One of the flower displays around the city.

Mom loved the Canadian money!

Street-art?

That evening, we were scheduled to go out to eat at Mercato, but when the cab arrived, Penny snuck out the front door. Pandemonium ensued, as Dad and I chased after her down the street. We even asked the cab driver to help, but he wanted no part of it. He saw Penny running toward him, and he jumped back in the cab. Penny finally calmed down and gave up the chase. By this time, the original cab had left and so we had to call another one and hope Mercato did not give our reservation away. We had a nice dinner with plenty of food - mussels, steak, pasta, and wine. After dinner we headed to Wurst for a couple of drinks, then headed home.

Mercato for Mom's Birthday Dinner.

The next day, we took a little longer to get up and going, but after a while, we were ready to go again. Today was going to be another Canada-first for my Dad and I - our first CFL game. It was the Calgary Stampeders versus the British Columbia Lions. The stadium is shaped like a U and when we entered, we were not sure which way to turn - but if we went the wrong way - we would be screwed and would have have to walk all the way around the stadium to the correct side. As you could have guessed, we took a 'Meyer Shortcut' and ended up at the wrong side of the stadium. The game was interesting to say the least, but it seemed more like a high school or small college game rather than a professional football game. Calgary was getting blown out, so Dad and I decided to leave a bit early and head back home where Mom was working and dog-sitting.

Calgary Stampeders vs BC Lions.

On Sunday, we just relaxed around the house and went to to Wild Rose for a couple drinks. We had to take it easy because we would be heading to Banff and Lake Louise in the morning.

Safety first! Had to go home to let Penny out and returned on my bike.

Monday morning, I woke up early and got Penny to take her to Dogaholics so she could hang out there while we stayed overnight in the Canadian Rockies. We headed to Banff and Mom and Dad were in awe of the mountains as we made the 90 minute trip to Banff. Once there, we stopped in town for lunch at the Banff Brewery. After a quick bite, we went to go check in to our hotel - the Rimrock. I got lost again (sound familiar?) and we ended up at the swankiest hotel in the area - the Fairmont. Think of a castle in the middle of the mountains. After using the GPS, we were able to finally get to the Rimrock to check-in. After a little down-time we took the bus back in to town to walk around the shops and grab some dinner.

Dad and I on the balcony of the lobby of the Rimrock Hotel.

Mom insisted I try this on, haha!

Tuesday morning, we got up and drove 45 minutes NW to another Canada-first - to see the famous Lake Louise. When we arrived, the crowds were pretty crazy. We walked around the lake, took some pictures, then headed back to Calgary. Once we got back, I had to go pick up Penny, then go pick up Katie later that night. 

Dad and I at Lake Louise.

Mom and Dad on the shore of Lake Louise.

Katie was able to visit for a little bit that night, but everyone was exhausted from traveling, so we headed to bed relatively early.

Wednesday morning, Katie had to go in to the office, so I got up and dropped her off, and came back to the house to spend the last couple hours with the parents before they headed back to the States. A last lunch at Fergus and Bix, then it was time to head to the airport to see them off.

All-in-all, it was a great visit. I was so glad my parents were able to make it up here. Next time, I hope that the whole family can make it up together.

Mt. Yamnuska

Matt and I completed our 2nd official hike while living in Calgary: we conquered Mt. Yamnuska.  I think it was a bit more difficult than we originally anticipated, but it was amazing.  We arrived at the mountain at around 8 AM, fully prepared with our hiking boots, walking poles, camel packs, bear spray and trail mix.  From our online investigating and research, we planned on the hike lasting about 6 hours.  We headed to the base of the mountain from the parking lot and came upon the hiker sign-in book along with a warning sign:

But, that didn't stop us!  We continued on up the path.  The beginning of the trail was a breeze; nice and flat and shaded by the trees.  I thought to myself, this is pretty easy.  Little did I know I'd be eating those words a bit later.  We had a nice view of the mountain as we hiked up...yes, that's what we were about to climb!

Matt checking out the mountain

As we continued on our hike, we came to a sign that directed us where to go:  rock climbers to the left, hikers to the right.

So of course, we headed to the right.  We were making great time and enjoying the hike up to the tree line.  The views on the way up were unbelievable:

After about 2 and a half hours of hiking, we were approaching the tree line.  We were both starting to feel the burn in our calves and quads but continued on up the mountain.  Once passed the tree line, the path was significantly less obvious and Matt and I were a bit confused as to where to go.  Luckily, a few other hikers came along and pointed us in the right direction.

Finally, after about 3 hours of hiking, we made it to the first false summit.  We decided to relax for a bit, have a snack, and enjoy the view (as we hiked, we discovered that there were several "false" summits along the way).

While we were eating our snacks, a few other hikers passed us and continued on up the mountain.  We watched as they made their way toward the summit.  You can barely make out the hikers in the middle of the picture below (one was wearing a red backpack) - it gives you a bit of perspective on the size of the mountain....

After our snack and rest, Matt and I continued "onward and upward," as Matt liked to say during our hike.  We came to a part of the hike in which we were required to hold onto a large chain bolted into the mountain and we carefully walked along a small ledge.  We also had to use the large chain to scale down a bit of the rock to continue on the "path."

This part of the hike was quite terrifying but this picture makes it look worse than it really was...

After making it past the crux (technical mountain hiking term meaning the most difficult passage on the way up), we continued up to the second false summit (which we thought was the real summit).  This part of the hike was extremely unnerving and this is the point at which Matt and I freaked out a little.  We realized though, that continuing up was easier than turning back, so we pressed on.  We finally reached the second false summit after a bit of minor rock climbing.  The views were totally worth it:

At this point, we thought we had made it to the top but quickly realized that we hadn't as we looked to our right and saw the true summit up above.  I was really questioning whether or not to continue up but many other hikers that came by let us know that continuing on up and heading down the mountain on the other side was a much easier route back down than turning around. So, yet again, we pressed on.  After not too much more climbing/hiking, we made it to the very top!  Finally, we had reached the real summit!

As you can see, Matt had a very uneasy look on his face when we reached the summit.

Along the way, there were several "inukshuks" for us to follow - leading us in the right direction.

Once at the top, we took a minute to catch our breath and take in the amazing scenery.  We even enjoyed a vienna sausage with another hiker, who convinced us it was a long-celebrated tradition.  We also received some instructions from a family of hikers on the best method back down the mountain.  They basically explained to follow the "path" down, which would eventually curve around underneath the cliff of the summit.  Once around the other side, we could then "ski" down the scree (another technical mountaineering term referring to small bits of broken rock).  So, we headed down...

This is a view of the summit from below on our way down the mountain,  You can barely make out the other hikers at the very top...

As Matt and I took our time carefully trekking down the mountain, other hikers passed us by, practically running down.  It was helpful, though, so we could see where to go and better yet, how to go.  When we reached the scree, we watched as a family of hikers literally skated down the mountain.  It was literally straight down and Matt and I were extremely skeptical, but realized it was the only way down.  So, we started down, and once you start, there really is no stopping.  But, as you go, it really does feel like you are skating down because the scree allows you to slide your feet as you move down the side of the mountain.

In this photo, you can see the scree that we "skated" down - it looks like a line down the middle of the mountain.

Once reaching the path at the bottom of the scree, we had to sit down and empty out our boots that had filled with tiny bits of rock.  Our legs were white with powder and dirt from skating down, but it was such a crazy experience.  We then continued on the trail down the rest of the mountain and reached the tree line.

At this point, I was happy to be hiking through the trees because that was a sign that we were almost to the bottom.  We finally looped back around to the trail that we had started the hike on.  Eventually, we made it back to the sign-in book and were thrilled to sign-out.

We completed the hike to the summit and back in less than 6 hours!

We continued onto the parking lot to our car.  We were exhausted!  We were so glad we had made it all the way to the top but we both agreed that it was the craziest/scariest thing we'd ever done.

Yeah, we just climbed that.

The drive home was a long hour and half but the weather was so beautiful.  We were relieved to head home for a well-deserved nap.

Such a gorgeous day...

What mountain will we be climbing next, you might be wondering?  TBD...