banff to golden

The closer we get the bigger they are...............

Leaving the flatlands behind and with the Rocky's in view the anticipation of reaching our final destination was at large. The infinite boundless range that is growing larger with every kilo we drive has left me speechless through the drive. It was a blessed ethereal feeling, one like none other that I have ever felt. An overwhelming load of what my eyes can take in while driving into and through the Rocky's was amazing and to enjoy it in silence. My favorite part of these particular pictures is that my eye starts at the blue tint of the peaks then is drawn down to our uhaul driving right towards them.

Yes! I did say that my admiration of this fragment of the drive was in silence, both kiddies were asleep. Caleb was exhausted from his couple of days of pure kid fun in the drum, he was wiped.





Approaching Banff at the end of along weekend we were defiantly going in the right direction, as the other way was bumper to bumper for hours. Stopping at the park entrance booths awaiting our turn to answer " No ticket needed today, we are moving to BC" The smiling ticket man was happy to wave us through to the "new world" of the Canadian Alps........




We took our time and stopped in the village of Banff and found a park to stretch our legs ad take these beautiful photos. The closest I have been to mountains other then holding a picture and fantasizing that this day will come........as the boys run around, charlie and I take up a piece of green to chill and enjoy this moment. The pooch and I did some catching up, snuggling, which is the obvious invite to lay right on me:) Our animal family members are stellar and just doing so well!

As the weeins slip back into slumber and the rain has joined us for the drive I settle in on what I am told is the treacherous part of the of the drive. This is where the white knuckling starts, maybe the sweats will arrive. So the pit of stomach tells me to get going already. BUT I still managed to take the needed welcome sign photo op. And still debating if a camera would be considered a hand held device and frowned upon to use while driving. ( which is another picture I deleted by accident)

Rolling on through driving between the Rocky's and the Columbia Mountain Range requesting that the walkie talkies be used at a minimum as I wanted total concentration in hitting these hills, dips, valley's with all I got. Preparing for tunnels, gearing down with accuracy and becoming more confident with each tire round, I hear some tussling around.

"MOM".......... he's awake....lol "Look how close we are to the mountains, the closer we get to the snowy mountains the bigger they get" Yes hunny we are almost there!

Nearing our day of driving we need to make one last descend into Golden, it was called something like the 20 kilo descend. Geeze this hill went forever, we even found our hotel before we hit the bottom. The above picture was from our balcony in Golden.

At this time I want to thank everyone for the good thoughts, prayers of safety as we could feel them upon us like bubble wrap. We had a smooth road to Golden town. I had this idea to keep very open to bad luck, waiting for it to show it's face. But was very happy that we did not have to meet. I want to thank those who scared the begeezers out of me about the risky, scary, nail biting drive! I expected the worst and got the better! Happy to rest our bones and mind with some food and good cheer as we are here!

The wanting of food helped get the kids back in the car to scope out the town and get our first dining experience under our belts. Picking a local establishment that had good food paired with food drink and that much needed shot of tequila. A pretty trendy eatery with a bar turned us away.......No kids allowed....pfft, really it like only 5:30 no where near the time where we may meet a messy bar patron....but Ya NO KIDS. We moved along to a grizzly pub that was able to accommodate our baggage.

A little dishearten by our first dining experience, we will sleep on it and start fresh in the morning. Starting our day with our tag along coffee maker perking it's heart out, lounging with the fam and planning our day of exploring the mountain town of Golden. We head to the Info Centre that was brand spankin new and happy to hand out an abundance of brochures on local fare.

Finding a lovely bridge over the kicking horse river, a river you can see the beautiful clean green-blue water...amazing! It is nice being able to see in person what I have been researching
and the familiar sights coming to life. Picking a deli for lunch which is detrimental to our survival in any town, well for this family anyways, we walked into a authentic deli. I really mean authentic, like right out of NYC baby. The busy front counter of patrons ordering the line up growing out the door, the pastries making there way into our senses it was all very intoxicating, until we were brought back to reality by a quite annoyed abrupt counter gal who was clearly not happy to serve us. Short with her answer, barbaric in her expressions and just pissed off we showed up to order food. Anyone with hungry kids will know, I cannot possibly leave this restaurant for another....AGAIN

So I ordered as fast as I could and after being shot down with curt answers, I dare not ask anymore. In the pictures below you will see two happy kids eating and papa was so agitated by this young lady he could not possibly order food as their sandwich's were premade ALL with mayo. Except for the ones she made for other more familiar customers while we were sitting right there.

oopsy I deleted a photo of our little dude eating a sausage roll :(

Soooo our next stop is another restaurant or some take out....poor guy! At this point Jeff was ready to hit the road to Rev......Golden was not so golden and our sparkly shade of emerald green turned to a shade of black and quick. These mishaps could of happened anywhere, however we as a family never got that feeling that Golden was for us. We gave it an extra day to drive around but nope just not for us.

A variety of hot sauce........seems to be big deal in these parts

A well developed Ski Resort of ten years couldn't of even changed our minds.

We woke the next day bright and early and relieved for the comfort of the open road that we have grown to love.

Andrea

is the grass greener?

Having done the moving around from various cities, to tiny towns in lots of county's in Ontario for 17 yrs finding various renditions of the perfect shade of green to snatch up, dig up and to settle down on, this has led me, my hubby and two kids to call Huntsville home. For the first few years THIS WAS IT! We had found that particular shade that was the MOST appealing to our eye and our roots had spread through the ground nicely with our cozy group of friends, ideal country school and the house, the yard.....Until I get this feeling of being "TOO" settled. A feeling that for 17 yrs I've never had as I change when then the mood strikes but.....BAM there it is!

This shade of green that I loved so much has turned a little dull, that oh so lovely sparkle has been diluted by the hustle and bustle of settling into our community. As the question arise "Life.....Is this it?"
By putting the little bug in my hubby's ear, that whole life is short gig, your time is limited and the big question that I find a lot of people don't ask themselves "Are you happy in life?" (probably because they fear of the answer)

The only answer we could come up with is " Yep, but we could be happier" lol

It's no secret we love the outdoors as much in the winter as in the summer and Canada is our Home and Native Land which for me has not been explored outside of this province. We chose to head for the mountains, hot springs, vineyards of the west coast...... BC baby! And also that years Warren Miller movie was quite inspiring for all including our 4yr old at the time who says quite loud "I wanna ski down big mountains" So in keeping of the spirit of adventure we went home opened the map and told our baby ski bum "close your eyes and point"

Our instincts, with loads of research has led us to The Kootenay Rockies....anywhere will do as long as there is mountain to ski on, hot spring to slide into and a glass of vino in my hand. However the road to this new shiny patch of green, still needs to be travelled. It is a well beaten path that many have and will travel in this lifetime AND we are going to be one of them. As this is the second time that this idea has been visited....the first being 12 yrs ago by a guy I started to recently date who wanted me to head out west with him in his white van, which I declined as white vans are creepy. From that time on the thought of greener grass has always been in the back in my head.

So will we find that shade of green that is suppose to be on the other side?

As this adventure is now being revisited....the guy....well he has stayed the same....the van.....has slightly changed. Oh I have no doubts at all that we will find that perfect shade. It will be vibrant, shiny thick foliage....that in time COULD thin and dull just like the rest of colors, but it will be a blast!

Andrea