Canada: Day 3

Day 3, A.K.A. June 13th was our actual wedding anniversary. It was also Friday the 13th. It's a good thing I'm not superstitious and didn't have to worry about walking under ladders and dooming our next decade of marriage with bad luck. We drove into Banff first thing in the morning to shop the main downtown area. I got tired of walking after a while so we stopped on a park bench next to the river to read for about an hour. I had picked up the novel Twilight the day before. (I finished it on the plane ride home...good book.) After a while we shopped some more and got three perfect gifts for our kids: a Canadian hockey jersey for Nate, a puzzle of Canada for Ava, and The ABC's of Canada board book for Lucas. We ate lunch in a small restaurant there in downtown Banff and they had amazing fish tacos. The best part was the avocado lime dressing.

After lunch we drove a few miles to the Banff Hot Springs because Cody wanted to take a soak. I decided to read a bit more in the car. He said it was a really nice place, though the pool was small. The water temperature was naturally 104 degrees.

Then, before checking into our hotel, we drove around the hotel grounds. They have a famous golf course that is known for having elk all over it. We drove a large loop around the course that was thick with trees and had pretty views. Ours was the only car around, and we did stumble upon a herd of elk crossing the road.

I loved the tall, straight trunks of the aspen and pine trees. So I tried to get a photo of them reaching toward the sky.


The Fairmont Banff Springs is truly a sight to behold. It looks like a castle and is luxurious inside.



This was taken on one of the several hotel balconies that offer incredible views of the mountains. We enjoyed wandering around the hotel. There were large common rooms, cozy corners, and historic furnishings.



That evening, we celebrated our anniversary with dinner at the hotel's Italian restaurant Castello Ristarante. We started with fried calamari. Cody ate steak and I had the butternut squash stuffed ravioli. My dish was so sweet it would almost qualify for dessert. It was in a creamy sauce with shaved truffles on top. It was so delicious I savored every bite. For dessert we had the Trio of Chocolate which featured a brownie, tart and ice cream. That sounds so mundane, because I can't really describe the elegance of this dessert or its richness. And we had the best red wine I have ever tasted. It was full-flavored, fruity, with a hint of spice- a peppery taste- to it. Dinner stretched over a couple of hours, and it felt like a true celebration of our first 10 years of marriage.