Day 9 - Canmore to Kalowna
After wrapping up our short one-day layover in Canmore, it
was time to get back on the road towards Seattle - enroute a 3-day mini-vacation with Grandma
& Grandpa Versaw in Seattle.
Starting out with the familiar journey towards the Banff
entrance (free admission again, thank you Canada Day!), Banff decided to give us the
grand finale of our wildlife sightings.
We came upon a long line of cars parked on the side of the highway,
which can only mean on thing in these parts, amazing wildlife to see. As we came upon a small field, we
noticed a mama grizzly and he three cubs just hanging out munching on grass not
more than 75 yards away. The
little family had attracted quite an audience. Despite our intention of making good time on this 300+ mile
day, we couldn’t pass up this opportunity and stopped for a good 30 minutes to
take a few dozen pictures and just admire the view…a very cool start to another
beautiful day, if I haven’t mentioned before, has been one perfect weather day
after another.
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| Grizzly sow with three cubs in a field at Banff National Park |
Satisfied with our Banff experience, we returned to the car and weaved through the Rocky Mountains
to Kelowna, a town Aimee discovered in the Okanagan Valley, the "Napa Valley of
the North." About 2/3 of the way
there, we came across an unexpected site, apparently a massive amount of rain
fell in the community of Mara Lake a week before we came and had completely
flooded the area. We saw many
houses with their first levels completely underwater, and a area where dozens
of cars had apparently washed away together to accumulate in a rocky field, all
either flipped over or smashed in after being swept by the rising waters.
After arriving in Kelowna we decided to visit the Calona
winery in the downtown area. We
did a brief tasting and settled on two bottles to bring with us for the rest of
the trip. As we make our way to
the Virginian winery country, we thought it’d be neat to bring some Canadian
wines with us to compare.
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| Small inlet off Lake Okanagan in lakeside town of Kelowna. |
After their wines, Kelowna is also known for having a very
impressive beach scene, we took a quick drive to the shores and walked along
the boardwalk. Although not as
lively as we expected, it was still a very cool experience. As it was starting to get late, and with the kids itching to spend some time in yet another hotel pool with a cool two-story waterside, we headed back to the hotel to wind down for the day.
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| Alex hanging out on the boardwalk off Lake Okanagan |
After an hour or so of riding down the slide, the kids were
done and ready to go to bed.
Unfortunately, even while being exhausted, the anticipation of being at
Grandma and Grandpa Versaw’s tomorrow was a difficult adversary to face. The excitement led to another night of
tossing & turning, both kids unable to close their eyes, it took about an
hour for both kids to finally submit to their fatigue.
Tomorrow: Seattle
Wildlife sightings:
4 Grizzly Bears (1 sow, 3 cubs)
5 big horn sheep (4 males, 1 female)
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