Mount MacDonald

We Yelp'ed to find a good breakfast and found a place near our hotel called "The Summit Cafe" which turned out to be just delicious. It was a small, quirky place, but perfect for this mountain town.

Jackson's large coffee with
our random table marker: a dino

Mr. Dino tried to drink my hot cocoa

Pretty excited for my cocoa!

Breakfast quesadilla and burrito- YUM

After that amazing breakfast we headed for hike Jackson found online. It is safe to say that I had no idea where this handsome mountain man was taking me. We went pretty much straight up for about 3 miles. 

Petefish 

Heading up...

The view of 3 sisters from the hike

I'd follow this mountain man anywhere

But I get a little winded...

VIEWS.

Taking a break from climbing to take in the views

Again. Trying to breathe.

We spent about 2 hours on that mountain. I was certain we'd need to find protein sources. ;) We got nearly to the top and it started to storm. It was a tough place to be in that kind of weather. The trail was nearly all rock so when it got wet, we were doomed. It was so slick. We hated to not summit, but it was just not in the cards for us to finish this hike. We're pretty sure we've never done a harder hike.

"Trail chickens" or as I called them "possible lunch"

A quick snap from near the top- thanks, GoPro

Petefish.

Happy to be coming down. Finally.

Exhausted.

It was good to see the 3 sisters again!

We made it down successfully. Jackson slipped and fell on the way down, poor guy. He was fine, just a little hurt pride. 

We decided that the hardest hike ever deserved some carb-loading. We stopped in at a local pizza joint that turned out to be really great. We learned to stay away from the downtown area and stay up near our hotel's area for the best food and great views.

Pasta salad!!!

PIZZA

Mount Lady MacDonald from the pizza joint's parking lot

Safe to say, we slept well.

Moraine Lake

We had another early morning getting up to Moraine Lake. It was, again, about an hour from our hotel. We were bummed as on the drive up it was raining. We thought the day was going to be a wash. It turned out that the storm passed quickly and had cleared out all of the other people so we had an otherwise very popular place almost to ourselves. Awesome!

Moraine Lake

Look at that handsome mountain man

Another look

We decided to take a hike out from Moraine since the weather had cleared.

Jackson on the beginning of the hike.
It was a little rocky.

Taking a break by the raging river

Jackson taking a break, too.

The hike ended near another glacier. It was amazingly beautiful. The hike was pretty awesome, too.

Jackson's yoga on a rock

Picnic lunch on Moraine Lake

I love lunch with a view

Jackson looking outdoorsy. 

We had a great day of hiking and taking in the beauty of Banff National Park again. What an amazing place. We'd heard good things about a restaurant up the road from our hotel called "The Iron Goat" so we decided to get dinner there. That turned out to be an excellent choice. Our food was awesome and the views from the patio were incredible.

Dinner views

Pasta!

A pretty steak salad for me!

Dessert because we'd hiked a lot ;)

This mountain is called "Three Sisters"

We took a quick walk after that huge dinner and then retired for the evening. What an amazing place!

Lake Louise & Peyto

We woke up early and headed into Banff National Park. It took about an hour of gorgeous driving to make it to our morning hike's location: Lake Louise.

Lake Louise

Glaciers up in the distance

The view from our hike

Petefish

GORGEOUS hike.

We hiked about 6.5 miles up to a little tea house I'd read about online. The food was a bit of a disappointment, but it was still cool.

Biscuits and lemonade at the top!

Lunch with a view

Closer view of the glacier

Am I in a screensaver? 

Glacier.

Lake Louise through the mountains

The trail.

The resort on the Lake from afar

Rock climbers! 

The water color is unreal! 

Pano of the hike's view

We left Lake Louise at about 1 and we were glad we'd left the hotel early as the place was now PACKED with fellow tourists. Luckily, not many of them were up for a 13 mile hike so we didn't have any issues. :)

We took a quick 40 minute drive up the road to see Peyto Lake. It is another lovely sight in this gorgeous park. Of course, we had to hike a bit more to see it. 

Another trail?!

Worth the short hike: Peyto Lake

Jackson taking a quick selfie.

It was a gorgeous day and the views were incredible.

We stopped to see Bow Glacier on the way back down to Canmore. It was another gorgeous area.

Bow Glacier

Stunning,

The glacier was huge.

The water was so clear!

Jackson climbed down to the water's edge.

Even the drive was amazing.

We went back to the hotel and passed out for a bit. Ok, fine, we didn't do that. We just took showers and decided that we needed actual food, not just gross biscuits at the top of the hike. We headed to Banff (the town) which was about 20 minutes from our hotel. We were glad we didn't stay in the area as it was very touristy and pricey. 

My handsome date again!

Dinner! YUM!

After dinner we did officially pass out. That was a crazy, gorgeous and wonderful day.

Arriving in Canmore

We took a flight from Indy to Houston to Calgary because, you know, that make sense. Whatever, United, they were reward flights so one cannot complain much. The flights were on-time, our bags arrived quickly and all was well. We grabbed our rental car and made our way about an hour west of the city to Canmore. We opted to stay just outside of Banff National Park to save a few bucks and have more of the local experience. 

Jackson showing off the view from the hotel parking lot

We wanted to get out on the trails right away so we basically threw down our stuff and hopped on over to the trail called "Grassi Lakes." 

We got there and were the only people on the trails. It was early evening now. All was well until we saw the sign about bear activities and how hikers needed bear spray. We had no other people to use as "bear bait" so we did not make it far up the trail before I chickened out and made us hang it up for the day. 

Quick hike!

From there we headed into their little downtown area for dinner.

Could my date be more handsome?! 

Dinner with a view

An interesting take on Caprese salad 

Frozen pizza? No. Just gross.

We had checked the place out on TripAdvisor and it lead us astray. I did try a lemonade made with just lemons, water and maple syrup. It was actually good. Anyway, the dinner wasn't great, but the company and view was so it was all good. 

We strolled around town a bit before heading back to the room for the night. A big day of hiking awaits us!