Six AM, day 1.
So it begins.
BANFF.
B-A-N-F-F.
Not an acronym.
Not to be confused with B-A-M-F BANFF.
A pretty awesome looking national park in Alberta, Canada.
And Bobby, Nichole, and I are going there today.
But first, Calgary.
You can’t fly direct.
Made it to Canada!
We’re in Canada.
Eh, made it to Canada, eh.
This is the first time we’ve traveled internationally together.
It is.
Are you excited about that?
I’m excited for the brewery.
I mean that’s fair, and it was a great brewery.
But because this video is not about beers or the great city of Calgary, we’re going
speed through first part so we can get to BANFF.
Here’s what you need to know.
Calgary is very clean, seems pretty walkable, and is very modern.
Calgarians, look, I know there’s probably more to your city than 3 things, but we were
only there for a few hours.
Also, your walk sign guys are the most cheerful I’ve ever seen.
Dude’s got some pep in his step.
Oh and this is Nichole’s first time having Tim Horton’s, ever.
She liked it.
Alright Calgary, it’s been fun
The drive from Calgary to Banff is just over an hour.
And it’s beautiful the whole way.
Let’s see this place.
It smells like a cabin.
It does.
You ready for the reveal?
Yeah let’s see this view, mountain view!
Oh!
I call that a mountain view.
Me too.
That’s pretty.
Show them the spa, Randy.
No it doesn’t make for a good video.
There’s the spa.
Wait, redemption.
There’s an indoor one.
No that’s the only spa that there is.
No.
There’s an inside one.
5 days here?
And a steam room.
This is gonna be good.
It’s about 4am in the morning.
Day two.
Getting ready to do this sunrise cruise on Lake Louise.
I don’t know, you take some canoe out to the lake and it’s supposed to be really
nice.
Looking forward to it!
Day 2 was all about checking off some of our must-see spots: Lake Louise, Moraine Lake,
and a gondola ride up to the summit of Sulphur Mountain.
These are some of the parks most popular places.
Normally my biggest concern would be crowds.
But this morning, it was the weather.
It had rained all night and I was a little worried if we’d even get to have our sunrise
cruise on the lake.
Things weren’t looking very good.
Wet roads and big dark clouds followed us the whole way.
But, no rain yet, so fingers crossed.
Wow.
That’s a nice hotel.
The Fairmont Chateau.
This is where the directions sent us.
So, we were in the right place, but - where’s the lake?
Right there.
There it is.
Lake Louise.
Yeah.
The clouds started to clear and the sun started to peak through.
No rain for us this morning!
With that out of mind, all that was left to do was enjoy.
Getting our own canoe, paddling around- just us, in some crazy turquoise colored water
- it felt pretty special.
And we all agreed, this was a great way to start the day.
Wow that’s so pretty.
You’re going to notice a pattern in this park if you haven’t already: amazing mountain
scenery followed by ridiculously turquoise lakes.
Moraine Lake was our next stop, and if it’s even possible, it seemed more Turquoise than
Lake Louise.
There’s a main lookout spot, but it doesn’t really matter where you stand, the whole place
is beautiful.
We spent some time enjoying the view from the rocks and then started walking around
the shoreline.
And that’s when the clouds rolled in.
Reporting from Lake Moraine, it is raining.
It’s actually, like, really raining now.
It looks nice.
So we missed rain when we were on the lake, but these people- thank goodness- but these
people unfortunately did not.
There they are.
Getting soaked.
We got pretty lucky at both lakes.
But rain was still in the forecast for the whole week.
We are heading to a gondola now.
We have to take a bus to get there though.
Bobby, why don’t you like to sit with us?
On public transit?
I just like my room, you know?
You’ve got plenty of it.
Oh my gosh.
Remember, remember how I’m really afraid of heights?
I think camera should just be on Nichole the whole trip.
No, I’ll be okay.
I’ve done worse than this.
I’m a big fan of gondolas.
It’s hard to beat getting a direct shot up a mountain with 360 degrees of amazing
views.
Nichole, on the other hand, is not a fan of them.
This is the part I don’t like, is the change overs.
Wait, hold on, hold on, wait til we do the little thingy.
Okay.
But the higher you go, the more you get to see just how massive this park is.
What’s not to like?
Oh my.
Guys, that was really fun.
When you get to the top of Sulphur Mountain there’s the main building with a museum,
restaurants, and a beer deck- right here.
Then there’s a wooden pathway that takes you to an old lookout tower.
And everything else in between is, again, that full 360 degree view of awesomeness.
Bobby and I are taking this trail but I think it’s going to lead us to nowhere.
It’s supposed to have a really nice view but pretty much everywhere is a nice view
so we can’t tell where the end is.
Are we going to get rained on?
Yup.
The storm seemed to be getting closer, so we headed straight the lookout tower and then
called it a day.
Meanwhile, Nichole stayed pretty dry and comfortable on the drink deck.
We ended the day in town.
It’s a much bigger town than I pictured.
I guess I was expecting just a quaint little street.
Waiting for dinner.
We’re hungry.
There’s a whole community here.
Plenty of touristy shops and restaurants, but also schools and neighborhoods.
Big ole piece of bacon in there.
Also, Banff’s got a great bus system for tourists and locals alike.
But tonight…
55 minutes later and we’re still waiting for the bus.
No, like 30.
Nichole, Three hours later, right?
It’s not been 50 minutes.
Four hours later the bus came.
57 minutes later.
Alright, I’ll end with this.
There is something really cool about Banff in the summer time.
Randy, what time is it?
It’s 10pm. 10pm everybody.
The sun doesn’t set until after 10pm.
BANFF treated us pretty well today.
And tomorrow, well, there’s more of that.
Tomorrow, we're road tripping one of the most scenic drives in the world
The Icefields Parkway
We’ve gone off trail.
I think we could do it.
We’ve left Randy behind.
Randy!