Banff part 2

The 2nd day of the Banff trip was the most exciting day. We went to see Mount Robson, the highest rocky in Canada. It looks great but may not be as speculator as the other rockies.

It's where I realised that the Chinese family from Australia actually spoke the same language as me. They're a bit excited and told everyone "we speak the same language." Oh my, I was a bit embarrassed. They had a long journey too, went to Hong Kong to see some relatives first and ocntinued their trip in Canada.

We took a walk around the town of Jasper, a small town, to pick up 10 additional people and lunch. The train station doesn't look like a train station at all. Don't mix up with the Whisters Mountains in Jasper and the one in Vancouver. These Whisters Mountains are part of the Rockies and are signature backdrop of Jasper town.

We didn't go to Morraine Lake. A disappointment but it's still frozen,so we went to Maligne Lake instead. Lakes in Canada are always so big that is really hard for me to picture the look of a lake.

The highlight of the day was exploring the Columbia Icefield. I remember seeing those pictures of the giant automobile a few times. Now it's my turn to ride on this giant truck to go up the Icefield. Haha, I shouldn't be major in Geography. I still couldn't figure out the difference between Icefield and glacier no matter how many times the guide explained.

Well, we supposed not to take anything from Banff National Park but each of us brough the water bottle and got the glacier water from the Icefield. You know what, it tasted really good, much better than the bottled water that you bought! The Icefield was cold but it's a sunny day so we're overjoyed with the view around us. When we got on the Icefield bus back to the station, the guide (the driver of the Icefield automobile) was really hilarious. He is a courteous young lad from Quebec. Lisa, the English gal, thought he's cute and sweet. He simply found nothing to say but tried really hard to enlighten us - the passengers.

Don't ever try to go to the Colunmbia Icefield in the winter. The tourist tower (indoor) is - 30C, so it's hard to imagine how cold it's up the hill to the Icefield. It was closed anyway.

We're told Canada is a bear country and we should expect a lot of wild animals along the National Park. So we kept watching black bears, gizzy bears or bighorn sheeps along the way. We really spot them out on and off. Thanks to the driver Spence, we got some good pictures of hte bighorn sheeps. It's better for us to stay away from the bears. They could be unfriendly.

It was a beautiful day. I started to have sunburnt but that made the mountains look more speculator and the scenary a lot more pretty. Sometimes I really felt that nature is a magic hand shaping those mountains into great pieces of sculpture and unique pieces of arts.

I stayed in lake Lousie Inn for two nights. Again, it's a small place but a much better place to stay. Brad is more thoughtful this time, letting me and Lisa staying on the ground floor, so we didn't need to bring our luggage up the floor.

There is a youth hostel opposite the road and it's quite nice. the English couple from Australia stayed in a youth hostel in Vancouver and they kept telling me stories that how good it was. Maybe I should give it a try some other time.

A better place to stay means that I could have a better sleep. After all, I had to get up at 6:30am again the next day.