Words cannot adequately describe the beauty that we experienced today!
We woke up very early to catch the first shuttle to Lake Louise. There were a very limited amount of tickets and with so many people, we wanted to be sure we didn’t miss it.
Early morning canoe rentals
When we arrived, it was raining, but that did not deter us in the least. It was misty and cool but so beautiful. The clouds gave way to a brilliant view of the lake and Chateau Lake Louise – and then, it was a gorgeous day with perfectly clear views.
I had waited so many years to see this view!
Our photos do not even do it justice. I have had photos of this location on my dream board for so many years and to see it in person was better than I ever imagined!
We hiked and walked along the trails beside the lake for several hours and then purchased shuttle tickets to Lake Moraine.
Lake Moraine, Banff National Park, Canada
As the bus pulled up beside Lake Moraine, I was mesmerized. Such incredible beauty! The water is a brilliant teal green and crystal clear. It had turned into a beautiful day and the sun was reflecting off every surface. It was a photographer’s paradise.
I cannot describe my feelings as I hiked the paths up the rocks to the overlooks. The view was like nothing I have ever seen. We spent many hours enjoying the environment and soaking up the warm sun and amazing views. If you have ever wanted to see the Lake Louise area, I definitely suggest you add this to your bucket list!
We returned to our hostel. We were exhausted from the day’s adventures, but so very happy that we had the opportunity to see this amazing part of Canada.
This is the space that I worked from in the Lake Louise Hostel
We slept well in our first hostel. We were in a 4 person room with a young couple from Germany. They were very quiet and kind and spoke English very well. Anna was funny – she walked up to the sink and said, “where’s the soap?”. Lol – Hostels don’t typically provide soap, shampoo and towels. Some do, but you can’t count on it. She was in trouble because not only did she not have hand soap, she didn’t have a towel either…guess I will have to share mine!
We attended Sunday service at St. Paul’s Presbyterian church and loved it! The congregation was 90 percent visitors and the entire service was geared around making us feel comfortable and welcome in their faith community. It was VERY informal and very different from what I am used to. The minister came around and introduced himself to everyone and then remembered where we were all from and incorporated it into his sermon. Because of Labor Day, his talk was focused on the work in our lives and how we can make it sacred. He used a lot of media and there was a lot of joyful singing. It was a great start to our day.
It was still drizzling when we located our first waterfall of the day, but it cleared up quickly. That is one thing about this region of Canada. It can be raining and 5 min later it is over. Of course, it works the other way around too.
Our amazing view from the picnic table
We ate our picnic lunch at a park with an amazing view. We are getting very good at living out of a cooler. The hostels and Airbnb’s have freezers where we refreeze our water/ice. We also have had access to full kitchens each day and cook all of our meals.
Our picnic scavenger… The full extent of the “wild-life” we have seen so far!
We then headed to Johnston Canyon to hike into an area with a larger waterfall and river with multiple bridges and crossings. There were SO many people because of the holiday, but it was also worth the hike.
We talked with a park ranger named Amy who was carrying around a rack of horns from an Elk. They weighed almost 50 pounds! She explained how they are illegal to remove from the park if you find them and how they are filled with calcium and are good for the other animals to chew on in the winter months. She also told Anna about the Banff Mountain Film Festival that is held in October of each year. Film makers and students come from all over to share their documentaries. She encouraged Anna to participate.
We then drove down Bow Valley Scenic Parkway and enjoyed more spectacular views.
I LOVE listening to all of the different languages. Everywhere we go, we hear German, French and Oriental dialects. One thing unique to Banff is the pedestrian traffic crossings. They cross in an X pattern as well as the usual pattern – at the same time. Pedestrians have a traffic signal just for them and when it turns green, the streets are filled with people coming from every direction.
Those are some ominous clouds huh?
One sadness I am finding is that I cannot buy any souvenirs. I have absolutely no room to collect anything from anywhere. I have decided to collect patches from the places I go and sew them on to my backpack. However, being in these beautiful mountain towns, I have seen so many sweatshirts, cards, etc. that I normally would have bought to remember my trip. I am so glad I have photos. One day next year, you will see them on note cards. Be looking for them!
And finally, our day concluded with a wonderful dinner at the Lake Louise hostel. We arrived at dinner time and heard that the best restaurant in town was at our Hostel. It was fabulous. We had a hearty homemade vegetable soup with fresh baguettes. Yummy! But the best part was our dinner companions. We were seated with a couple from Bath, England and a young man from China. We had the most interesting conversation! Given the current political situation in all three of our countries, we were able to share how it is affecting the citizens. I learned so much about China. Our friend, Bo, was 30 years old and was traveling for the first time outside China for two weeks. He was not married and did not plan to ever have children. He described how both men and women typically have a 10 hour work day with a one hour commute each way due to high housing costs. That leaves no time for family time or teaching children. He also described the pressure he feels as an only child to care for his aging parents and if he was married, they would have 4 to care for. He lamented over the seriousness of the situation for generation to come. We definitely had the most fun at our table that night!
We slept great in our pristine, beautifully furnished apartment and headed into town to find Red’s Bakery where we were told we would locate the best fresh raspberry scones and kolaches for miles. It did not disappoint! The people in this tiny town are very laid back and relaxed. This town reminds me of Berea, Kentucky.
Anna had wanted to create a You Tube video about the slang terms that she and I had been discussing during our trip. It was fun! If you would like to check it out follow this link for a good laugh.
After our change of lodging plans, we decided to go on to Banff National Park for a few days, despite the very high lodging rates due to the long weekend. We did not realize that Canada celebrates Labor Day the same weekend as the US. We mistakenly thought we would be escaping the holiday rates. However, Banff and Lake Louise have been on my bucket list for many years, and I didn’t know if I would ever be this close again, so I definitely didn’t want to miss my chance.
Before leaving Kootenay Lake, we hiked up to the lighthouse at the end of the point. It was built in 1905 and originally had an oil lamp to guide the paddlewheel steamers into the bay. It was another beautiful day and we enjoyed our hike and photographing.
View from the Lighthouse
It was a very long day of driving. Much of it was in the rain and we pulled into Banff late in the evening, tired and grateful for the availability at the International Hostel.
Before leaving Cardston, I realized that we would be crossing Canada without our GPS. I spent some time in the morning pouring over the maps so we would be familiar with the road ahead. We left Cardston so grateful to have made new friends and met a distant relative. Brother Cahoon is an accomplished, professional flutist and gave us one of his CD’s for the trip. Beautiful music to travel by!
Another day of nothing. At one intersection, we thought we would stop for gas, but on further inspection, thought it would make a better picture than a stop!
We stopped in Sparwood, in the heart of Elk Valley. Sparwood is the Eastern entrance to British Columbia and marked the end of farming and the beginning of mountains and trees. These giant Titans are still used for mining in the area and are HUGE.
We made our way into Nelson around early evening. Our first impression of the town was that it was beautiful. The downtown area is along a lovely waterfront with lots of sailboats. Unfortunately our accommodations fell through and we chose to move on to the next closest town for the night.
We had to take a ferry across to the town of Crawford Bay and found a fantastic Airbnb.
It was brand new and we were the first guests. As you can see from the house next door – they were renovating the area! Lol.
The area turned out to be safe and friendly and full of artisans. We loved our little apartment and could have stayed longer.
I worked all morning and then we had a temple session scheduled with Brother Cahoon in the early afternoon. He made all of the arrangements for us to do our male ancestors endowments and sealings. It was a very sacred and special day. We discovered by accident (through Family Tree) that he is actually related to the VERY relative that he performed the work for and both Anna (through her father’s line) AND to me through my mother’s line. Wow! It turns out we are cousins! It made our instant connection even more special.
Anna posted a photo of the Cardston temple and by chance (there are no coincidences in this story today), her former mission companion /trainer was living 30 minutes away! She invited us to go horseback riding on her grandparent’s farm in Cardston. Anna was able to live out one of her bucket list dreams that night. She has an amazing video of her riding through the fields at sunset on a farm in Canada.
What a great day! We were very sad to see out time in Cardston come to an end. There had been lots of miracles here.
We began the day by attending the Billing’s Temple. I think this is my new favorite temple. The rock wall that the temple backs up to is so beautiful. Rugged, with so much character, like the country in that area. The interior is so unusual. There are skylights in the middle of entry and you can see the statue of Moroni as you look up. Very cool. The office is in the open – large and spacious. Anna was happy because the dress sizes were by length and she finally had a dress long enough. Lol
Looking very tired at this point…
We then drove all day through Montana. It was a difficult day. Most of the day, we didn’t see another car or person. It was like being the only people left alone on earth. Strangely isolating – it was not a good feeling. And then, as we crossed into the Blackfoot Indian Reserve, even the farm machinery disappeared. Nothing for miles. Not even cattle. Nothing. No homes, no windmills. Nothing. It was a relief to see the border at Canada. The customs officer turned out to be a jerk. I think he has been alone at his outpost too long. Lol. He had a sarcastic – not funny sense of humor – and I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Have I mentioned that we are traveling with a live plant?! Who does that? Anna. She had a cute little succulent/cactus that she named Lena. We were worried that they would confiscate Lena upon entering Canada, but no – she continues to be our sidekick, safely tucked into the cup holder mile after mile.
We struggled to convert miles to kilometers, and trying to figure out what the speed limit really was – assuming the sign for 100 wasn’t miles per hour!
We arrived in Cardston at dark. We had begun to make the adjustment to not having ATT at our fingertips anytime we want wifi or to make a call. That is an adjustment all in it self. We did not have accommodations scheduled for the night. Everything was booked and VERY expensive. We were a bit anxious after a stressful driving day. There were only 3 motels in town and none of them looked like a place we would stay for the night. It was getting late and not looking good. I said a prayer that we would be directed to the right place and then decided to go to the visitor’s center to see if there was anyone who could help.
We met a sweet missionary couple, Marie and Grant Cahoon. It turned out the THEY had an Airbnb that was not booked for the night but it was way out of our price range too. We realized that even Canada recognizes Labor Day Weekend and we had arrived at the worst possible time. We negotiated a deal with the Cahoons to clean their apartment before we left and felt like we had a deal we could live with until we realized that we were negotiating in Canadian currency!!! We had just landed ourselves a SWEET deal with the conversion rate. We are idiots. Well, probably just very tired. We completely forgot to convert all of those rates that were advertised. Things were not as bad as it seemed after all. The Cahoons recommended a Chinese restaurant (there were only 4 in town) and we ordered our food to go and took it back to our new Airbnb.
To our surprise – it was AWESOME. A completely renovated, basement apartment with al full kitchen, two bedrooms, washer and dryer and living room with every amenity we could have hoped for. We had SO much food (twice what we would have been provided in Crestwood – way too much for just us). We invited the Cahoons to join us at our (their) kitchen table. It was great and we became fast friends. Brother Cahoon offered to perform the male endowment ordinances we needed the next day at the temple and we ended the day grateful for prayer, the protecting hand of the Lord and our new friends.
We headed out early in the morning to see a waterfall about an hour down the road. We met a cute couple at a rest stop that lived in the area and told us all the best stops and which falls to skip and which to be sure and not miss. Great advice – It was beautiful! A short hike down to multiple waterfalls converging. Got to love locals!
Our first “bleep” in our trip…As Anna videoed the waterfall, her camera battery died and at that moment, she realized we left the camera charger and battery plugged into the hotel room outlet! Ugh…. We lost two hours that day backtracking but housekeeping found it. Yay!
We pulled into Billings right before sunset. We found a great park with an amazing overlook. (The snake warning didn’t stop us! Nothing comes between us and a good photo opportunity). We had fun exploring and watching the sun go down over Billings.
A shout out to our friend, Chelsey who arranged for us to stay with a family she loved from her mission. Tom and Gail Miller invited us to stay with them in their home. We had some trouble finding them – the house was very remote on lots of acreage in a farming community. (Gotta love wandering without wifi.) While we were lost, we stopped to pet the horses and video a calf that was chasing our car. We know how to make the best of wandering!
Our time with the Miller’s was so special. We became instant friends. Tom surprised us with a great breakfast and then as we were leaving, Tom offered to give Anna a blessing for school and me one for my travels. So grateful for the priesthood.
We are so happy to see mountains and feel the cool, dry air! It has been a magnificent day. We found a fantastic room (suite) that included a full size refrigerator and freezer, a dishwasher, a partitioned work space and two queen beds. We have access to a washer and dryer and free full breakfast all for $64 a night! When we saw how awesome our room was, we booked a second night.
I got up early (5am) and worked out on the treadmill for an hour and then began working. We are now in mountain time, so I was beginning the work day along with everyone else in Kentucky. I worked for 5 hours and then Anna and I headed to Mount Rushmore which was about 30 minutes from the hotel.
Mount Rushmore TOTALLY exceeded my expectations in every way! It was magnificent. We bought devices that led us on a self-guided tour and explained why the monument was built and how it was accomplished. It was fascinating. We also ran into a set of sister missionaries who were trying out a new way of reaching people in National parks. It was so nice to spend time learning about the changes in their mission.
It was such a perfect, beautiful day. 65 degrees and sunny skies. We hiked to the base of the sculptures and took a million photos. It was such a fun day. We had plans to return for the 8pm lighting ceremony but we were too tired and instead headed back to the hotel for a 3 hour nap! Lol Yikes… I guess we were tired. We made a quick trip to Walmart for washing machine detergent and returned to do a load of laundry. Only having 4 items of clothing is getting old already!
I’m going to miss our big, awesome, clean, private room, but we are headed to Billings Montana tomorrow and I am excited to see where Chelsey Styer served her mission and meet some of the people she loves.
It has been a wonderful couple of days on the road. We are off to a great start!
Anna and I arrived in Omaha, Nebraska with excitement and high expectations. We had heard that there was a historical visitor’s center at the Winter Quarter’s temple. The temple was small and “tucked” into the existing geography. It was small but ornate. It was designed with additional details such as silver door handles with intricate flowers and vine designs. The outside doors were brass with vines (symbolizing Christ as the vine) with references to the Living Waters and the Tree of Life throughout the temple including a beautiful 3-pane stained glass window in the celestial room. We did an endowment session and the session was completely filled. There were many beautiful paintings that I had never seen such as the “bluffs” over looking the Missouri that hung in the garden room. Everything else was very similar to our Louisville temple in size and ceremony. We met with the temple president who gave us lots of insight into the symbolism in the temple and the things that made it unique. He gave us good ideas for activities in the city and a restaurant for dinner.
We left the temple and went to the Visitor’s Center next door. We had a tour by a cute missionary and learned a lot about the history of Winter Quarters and what the saints suffered during the winter of 1864. We went across the street to the cemetery where many of the early saints were buried. It was not what I expected. There seemed to be a heavy feeling throughout the property. A sadness maybe? Not like touring Nauvoo or Salt Lake. Very different.
Anna and I went downtown to see the life-size sculptures by the LDS artist who creates the busts of the prophets. They were made of bronze and were magnificent! We rented electric scooters and zipped all over the streets of downtown! We had such a good time.
We then treated ourself to an Omaha steak in Omaha. YUM… But nothing is as good as one of Dad’s steaks from the grill!
We stayed at an AirBnB with a cute young couple as our hosts. They had a 2 year old little boy who was darling. Our room had a rustic “barn” wall and was very comfortable. We had access to a private bathroom and use of their kitchen and living room.
We attended Sacrament meeting on Sunday morning and then stopped about 30 minutes down the road at a Sunflower Festival! It was AWESOME!! So cute! Sunflowers taller than me – rows and rows and rows of them. We took lots of photos and videos and played in the sunflower maze. It was a wonderful way to spend the day. We then jumped in the car for the long (7-1/2hrs ) drive to Mount Rushmore. We stayed in a small town about 30 minutes from the park due to the outrageous prices for hotel rooms. The drive was nothing but fields, windmills and sunflower fields. Flat. Flat. Most of the day was overcast and cool (67 degrees) but now at the end of the day the sun has come out and it has warmed to 86 degrees. Anna and I continue to enjoy one another’s company. We are good travel partners and are making the most of our time together.
Anna and I finished all of our packing and cleaning and after a tearful goodbye and last hug on Capri (our dog), we ventured out on our 3 week road trip to take her back to BYUI . As the miles between us and Louisville grew by the hour, I felt increased relief and excitement. I had been a bundle of blocked emotions and energy for weeks – all culminating as I closed up my house and blessed it for the new tenants.
We enjoyed our ride. We sang songs – both old and new. Talked about Anna’s mission and a million other things. We headed to the Kansas City, MO Temple. It had rained early in the day but then the clouds gave way to a beautiful afternoon and we arrived to a magnificent evening at the temple.
We then headed to our first Airbnb experience. Not bad. Cute homeowner in a middle class neighborhood (with a dog Lili and Hugo the cat). There were three other rooms of guests but our room was clean and comfortable and had a lock. We brought in our snacks from the car and watched “Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood”. Fun night but a bit hot. We had no control over the temperature (like we would in a hotel room) so we opened the window for the cooler night air. Seems worth the inconvenience for $43 a night. It was an excellent start to our adventure!
This is my very cool Osprey backpack. (Shout out to my amazing friend Michelle who heard of my plans and surprised me with the very pack I had planned to purchase myself!) That is all I have with me for the next year. There are more electronics than clothing! I plan to buy clothes as I go from place to place – depending on the weather and the need and then give them away as I no longer need them. We’ll see how that goes! Haha
Living All In 