I've been on the lam

Well, not really on the lam, but I've been away for a couple of weeks. So has my husband. So have our good friends, Jim and Lynn.

The four of us flew to Seattle on September 8, rented a car, and headed for Canada.

Ken and I have been to the Canadian Rockies several times, and also to Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

 Jim and Lynn, though, had never been that far west, nor that far north.

When they asked us in August if we'd be interested in traveling with them to the Canadian Rockies, which Jim has dreamed of seeing for decades, we immediately said yes.

Ken did all the driving, simply because he wanted to. Also, he said he wanted to let Jim sit back and enjoy the scenery, since Jim was seeing it all for the first time. We drove into British Columbia then headed east to Kamloops and on to Banff and Jasper in Alberta.

Here we are with our first glimpse of snow-capped  mountains behind us.

 

Lake Louise is always beautiful. On this particular day, though, it was crowded. I don't remember dealing with large crowds when we used to drive out to BC from Maine in the '70's and 80's.

We'd thought, naively, that the crowds would not be too bad in September. Wrong! We circled the parking lots several times before giving up and parking at a distance and walking to the lake.

Actually we visited Lake Moraine first, although I have it out of order here.

This is probably my very favorite photo taken in the Rockies, and I don't even remember the name of this lake. It's between Banff and Jasper, closer to the former than the latter. As you can see, we visited it on a crystal-clear morning when the reflection in the lake was stunning. We spent a lot of time here, taking in the scenery.

I got a chuckle out of this photo. Actually it's one of fourteen identical photos. I asked a stranger at this spot if she would mind taking a picture of the four of us with my iPad.

She seemed a bit hesitant, as if she didn't know how to take a photo with an iPad, but she kindly agreed to give it a try.

When she handed the iPad back to me, I discovered she's managed to take fourteen shots all in a space of a couple of seconds. So I have thirteen more of this photo, in case you'd like to buy one!

More to come: Jasper, Whistler, Vancouver, and Victoria. Wait'll you see the Butchart Gardens!