5 star Living

With the nicer weather the views on the Icefield Parkway were even more incredible. The ice caves, frozen waterfalls and glaciers could be seen more vividly. In the summer they take these huge 4-wheeled drive buses out on the glaciers for tours. Three hours later we were in Lake Louise-an acclaimed World Heritage Site. Basically the townspeople live amongst the wildlife, much like Jasper but more so. We pulled up to the Chateau and I think the employees thought the Clampetts had arrived. The bellboy/valet wanted to help us with our luggage but we let him know it would be easier by ourselves. The truck was not a pretty site. Our bike clothes were strewn across our bags in the backseat trying to air out and it was not a pretty site to see or smell!! The truck is filled to the brim and it takes us a few minutes to decipher what is in there at times so we told the valet we would grab our own bags. He was more than willing to oblige.

As we walked into the Hotel, I felt like Cinderella before the Fairy Godmother came and turned her into a princess. I had on my hiking pants, ball cap and had not had a shower for a few days. But I guess our money was good enough for them and they let us in. Not only, but they upgraded us to a room with a view of the Lake. We were definitely styling. We decided to live it up for the night, no holds bar. We even got a bit of a show from our bedroom window-an avalanche on the glacier across from the Lake. A spectacular site to witness.

Our next order of business-a shower. No worrying on how long we took compared to the coin operated showers at the campground. We were going over 6 minutes whether they liked it or not. (but really 6 minutes is a long time for a shower we found out). Squeaky clean we put on our "fancy clothes" (synonym for clean jeans) we headed to the Tom Wilson Steakhouse. It was named after the first non-aboriginal who discovered Lake Louise and helped establish the town. I think we broke one of the commandments-gluttony. We had appetizers, dinners and dessert. Roby was wondering why it took us over 2 hours for dinner. We had visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads as we slept on the big warm comfy king sized bed. We did not have to wear our long underwear and fleece to keep ourselves warm this night.

We awoke to sunshine and a beautiful day. After a leisurely breakfast we took a tour with the in-house nature expert. He gave us the history of the hotel, Lake Louise and the climbing routes on Mt. Victoria and Mt. Fierd. To attract tourists, they sold the area as the only mountains which had not been summited. Europeans and Americans flocked to the area to be the first. An American doctor was so close but due to weather and darkness he miscalculated and fell to his death. At least he got an area named after him on the mountain called Abbott's Alley. A year later some Swiss climbers summited on the anniversary of his death to commemorate it. Not only is it a famous area for climbing but another tidbit of information-The Lake is one of the most photographed landscapes in the world. Very rarely do you see vast mountains come right down to a lake's edge. Just spectacular. Our photos do not do it justice and everyone needs to go. This being the first "long weekend" for Canada tons of tourist were out and about. The town normally has 1500 inhabitants but during peak season it swells to over 15,000.

After our tour it was unfortunately time to check out of our room. In fact we were a bit late getting back and our passkey did not work. We had to get the housekeeper to open our door. As we were leaving our "castle" and our fairy tale coming to an end, Roby was carrying the luggage to the car. He passed a young woman playing classical music on the harp in the lounge area and she saw that he was carrying a guitar with him. She stopped playing and turned to him and asked him if he wanted to "jam". He cracked a huge grin and said sure as he walked by. A perfect way to end our all "American Day".