Adventures and times in the life...: Rewinding and Unwinding

August has been grand. I have had such a great summer. The weekend prior to the 15th we threw somewhat of a housewarming/backyard party for my brother and my Aunt who were celebrating their birthdays, it was a success, quite a large turnout too. I really enjoyed myself, I believe most everyone did. One thing I forgot to do was snap photo's of everyone, I was running around quite a bit so it was kinda hard. There is always next time.

On the 15th I set off on my trip to the west, I had to be at the airport for 6am (boarding was 6:15), you can only guess what kind of a morning approached. I didn't get to sleep until late (which isn't a huge suprise). I had a leave a key for my friend to get in and feed Storm over the course of the 10 days I was away and I forgot where I placed the key I had made the day before. I purposly left it on a wrist coil and put it out of sight while packing so I didn't accidentally pack it in my suitcase or carry-on. I rechecked all my bags three times, checked the car, checked under the plant pot... no where was this key to be found. So here I was driving to grab a coffee to wake up and head to the airport (time was running short and I had to park 'N fly), so what do I do when I'm in the drivethru to get my coffee? Look up at my rearview and see the damn key hanging from it on the coil. I bolted out of the parking lot, all the way back to my place (2 blocks away) and placed it where I told JK she could find it. Once that was settled I finally made it to park n' fly it was already 6am, I asked the rest of the people waiting for the shuttle how long it would take and they said their flight was at 7am (mine was 6:50) so if I wasn't going to make my flight neither were they, but they were confident we'd have plenty of time. I wouldn't say I had plenty of time, but I did make it and I was some glad.
Also worth noting - when/if you park 'n fly look for deals online, the cost without it is double, I woudl have paid $160 for 10 days where I actually only paid $87.

The flight was 4 hours and some, there is a 3 hour time change flying to Edmonton, so in one sense you feel like you gain some of your day back, but it totally catches up to you at night and when you return home. I couldn't believe how long the flight was, getting out of Ontario was the longest part, and boy is it flat across the praries. Quite a few pretty skylines I captured, but I fell asleep as it was so early. I also had to block out the grumpy couple beside me, it was one of those days where the man can say nothing right and the woman makes him very aware (LOL).

So I landed, Jacq picked me up, it was so great to see her! She gave me a tour of Edmonton, we took Will (her hubby) some coffee, picked up groceries for camping, made the salads, packed everything, drank some wine and relaxed. We set out early Friday morning (6:30am 'ish), made it to Banff around 11:30/12 we stopped a few times, couldn't get a campsite at Two Jack Lakeside but got one at the main campground, it was nice, lots of privacy. The weather held nice for the first day, it rained at night. There was a grizzly feeding on a black bear carcass in the sunshine meadows area so we didn't really want to be too close to the water or hike in lots anyway. We fit in the upper and lower canyon of Johnson falls - what a great steep hike for day 1 and beautiful set of water falls. We saw bighorn sheep the first day, some eagles, Lake Minnewanka and Two Jake Lake, also part of Bow Valley river/summit which was beautiful.

setting out

Setting up camp was fun, building a fire was a bit of a challange as the wood was a bit damp, making food was the challange. The campstove Jacq's ex-coworker gave us didn't work properly, so we had to make our ravioli over the campfire, this was after multiple attempts of getting the campstove to work and the fire going out. So after restarting the fire, getting the food hot, you could only imagine how greatful we were to have a warm meal, the fire roaring, and to be able to relax. I'm attaching some of our shots from the day I arrived and from the first day in the mountains, enjoy, the best part was Johnston Falls - super pretty.