Sunset was a bit of a washout last night. What seems like a beautiful evening to most people is totally rubbish when you want colour in the sky…..no clouds. I stood out there in -11C temperatures waiting….waiting…freezing…waiting. Nothing. Pah! Ended up having an early night to catch up on some sleep.
Today we ventured out in the car and as we went down the hill towards the main road a rather large bear crossed in front of us. Of course being the photographer, I had no camera to hand so grabbed a few with my iPhone. Not perfect but hey. This was easily the biggest bear we’ve seen in the wild.
We checked beforehand with the concierge and found that several places we otherwise would have liked to stop at were shut for the season…of course. We drove over the border into BC and into Yoho National Park heading towards Emerald Lake…definitely open. Emerald Lake was open…but the lovely tearoom/cafe was definitely not. We also encountered tickboxers. We first came across this species in New Zealand. They move around the countryside in coaches, stopping at places of interest, disembark and literally swarm around taking photos before running back to the coach having ‘ticked that box’. I’m assuming that the Chinese tickboxers had trouble reading english signs as they ignored ‘closed’ signs, jumping over barriers and standing having their photos taken next to a sign saying ‘DO NOT STAND HERE. DANGER’, not to mention walking across the bridge on the wrong side and causing a small coach to come to standstill while they took selfies. Once they appeared where I was, I retreated quietly and took some photos elsewhere. On the way back, they were also leaving and desperately trying to find a loo as they were being called back to the coach. Sadly for them several of the toilets were closed for the season leaving a single loo. One lady decided that wasn’t good enough so had a pee behind it instead. Charming.
We stopped at another location and guess who pulled up right behind us? Arghhhh. This time I loitered and waited until they’d gone before taking photos, except this one. The herd had thinned out by this point but it captures the scene.
Anyway, I got some nice shots and then we headed back for lazy lunch.
Yesterday, Amanda and I had lunch in the Hotel. I had a club sandwich and Amanda had a chorizo burger. Mine was delicious, hers was cold. Amanda sent it back and although I’d finished mine by the time her new one had arrived, it seemed to be pretty nice. However, because of the inconvenience the food was removed from the bill and all we were charged for was the drinks.
Today, I had a salad with a salmon fillet and Amanda had a chicken Caesar salad. Hers looked awesome but mine was sans salmon. Many apologies later and within 5 mins a salmon fillet appeared. Also someone came over and apologised once again about problems happening twice in a row. Desserts and coffee was on then. Nice. When the bill arrived, once again we weren’t charged for the food, just the wine. If anyone asks about good service, this is the standard to which we base everything on 🙂
Wanna see some pics?
Tomorrow we hit the road and head towards Jasper. Lake Louise has been wonderful.
Off To Canada (Again) 