The New Year in High School

Lots on the schedule this year.  High School is in full swing.  But before we hit our full stride we took a long weekend to get some sun in FL.  I decided a couple of years ago that I'd reached the point in my life where I need to get some summer during the winter.

Pete didn't have much time and we didn't want to waste money and time getting to Cali, so he suggested the Keys.  The airfare to FL always seems to be cheap, so the Keys it was.

The best thing we did was to follow Pete's whim that we stop on the drive from Miami to Key Largo at Everglades National Park.  As always at the Nat'l Parks, we wanted more time, but it was still a great day.

The "resort" we stayed in at Key Largo was fine, but really phoney.  They had created a beach-like area, but the actual piece of real beach they had was some sort of concrete covered in sand.  But the views were great, from the fake beach and from our room and we were able to rent stand up paddle boards on site--absolutely the best part of the trip for me.

**note**

Completely forgot that I had stared this post and thought it had been published long ago!  Now we have to rely on my sketchy memory--oh no!

OK, so maybe the next day we went to the glass bottom boat.  We had hoped to snorkle but it was very windy for the whole trip so strong swimmers only and Katie and Pete are not that strong in swimming.  But Katie needed to get out to the coral reef--she loves that stuff, so the glass bottom boat was the only option.  Again, Pete saved the day buying enough dramamine for us.  3-5 foot swells in a flat bottomed boat is a nauseating combination.  Katie and I had to go up for air a couple of times but then got used to it.

We stop for Rhinos!

The last full day we went out to Key West, which was about what I expected except for the Super Bowl wrinkle.  I check the guide books to be sure that the town didn't shut down on a Sunday but didn't realize that on Superbowl Sunday, everything closes by 1pm!  Lots of places had ticketed events to watch the game, but getting lunch was a major undertaking.

There was a cool fort and interesting beach but it was a very long walk and then lunch turned into a death march through town!  If you ever go--grab bikes or scooters the minute you get there and you'll have a much better time than we did.  Still--the pay off was a pretty fine panini shop and ice cream bigger than your head after.

And--then there was the sunset:

Greatest find by far was Harriette's which we ate at every morning for breakfast and the most amazing biscuits--and the muffins were to die for.

Now whenever we go out to breakfast we mourn Harriette's.

Last day we headed to Miami for our flight, but got there very early and hung out at the beach for a while.  It was very funny to see a school group go by.  We were dressed in light summer clothes.  The FL kids were bundled up in sweaters and hoodies and looked very put out that they were expected to be outside in the winter. 

If we ever go back, we decided that Key Biscayne was a better choice for us, for its proximity to Miami and Biscayne NP, which we didn't have time to hit. There's always next year.  The sun did us all good.

***

Banff/Jasper pt 2

Well, sure enough--there WAS a draft hanging there in the drafts folder.  So, here it is in all its unedited glory.  Sheesh, at least I'm not crazy,  I knew I'd written more about that trip.



BACKING UP
Back to Day 2--Completely forgot about Moraine Lake!

The first real hike.

We had breakfast in the room and then planned to hike Tunnel Mountain.  Sadly, there isn't a tunnel on the mountain, but there was supposed to be, thus the name.

It was a moderate hike and a good chance for Pete and me to get used to our new hiking poles.  We took a nice scenic route to get to the trailhead, stopping along the way to take in the views even from the foothills.

We stopped here on the way to the trailhead, without realizing that it was right below us and we'd end up crossing this road again to get up the mtn

The view BEFORE climbing!

 The hike was challenging enough.  We took it easy, knowing that there was a LOT more hiking coming up on this trip so no need to push it.  Everyone's shoes worked out well and I had mixed feelings about the poles.  Great to have when I wanted them and a hassle to carry around when I didn't.  Still, important to save my knees overall.

This was on the way up.

 There are a lot of signs along the route warning you not to throw anything off the sides of the mountain.  Here's why:

Just before the top, we notice this person, taking a slightly more challenging route than ours ;-)

 We made it!

And then, ofcourse, we had to climb down.  We had brought a large bag of trail mix and plenty of water but were pretty famished when we got back down.

Went into Banff for lunch and the guide book suggested the Eddie Burger Bar. Sounded like our kind of place.  Lots of good burgers, from Bison to Veggie and gluten free buns!  We ordered up and waiting for our drinks.  Then we waited some more.  Drinks came.  We waited.  And waited and-well, you get the idea.  It took over an hour to get our food.  Then, we discovered that in Canada all beef is cooked well done.  I don't mean done well, I mean dead dry as a bone done.  The prices were exorbitant and the food was beyond disappointing.  EXCEPT- for the poutine.  Amazing Canadian gravy cheese fries that almost made the wait worth it.  OMG I could live on those.

Back to the room for some hang time.

The Banff Trip pt 1

This was Pete's trip.  He has long dreamed of spending time in the Canadian Rockies and it was about time we got him there.  Plus, if you want to hike on a glacier, you'd better get to it!

I'm not so much for mountains (see post on the holes in the ground trip--that's me).  Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful but then I've seen them and lose interest.  Pete is much better about going on trips that I want to take that he's not as interested in.  I am kind of a pain in the butt.  I did do better as we went along and I think it was because I just didn't care for the town of Banff and it didn't help me to enjoy the trip.  Once we got out of Banff I had a better time and was surely better to be around.  Definitely some work for me to do on myself about letting others enjoy what they enjoy while being pleasant while they do it.  :-/

Day 1 (Sept 1)
Up for an extremely early flight to Calgary.  I don't like early flights but I do enjoy having a whole day at my destination.  I forget though, that the rest of the family is then exhausted the next day and I have to deal with being someplace with snoozers.  Have to re-think this plan for future trips.

Driving through Calgary to  get to the hotel reminded me so much of Fort Worth.  It really is a cow town.  I don't know why I was surprised by this, since the stampede is a major event there.  So I was very glad that I had changed our original plan from staying the next day in Calgary and instead heading to Banff right away.

It happened to be some kind of open gallery day in Calgary, so after window shopping, especially at the Fluvog store, we tooled around the galleries munching on chocolates and chatting with the owners.  Somewhere in there we stopped at a book store.  I had forgotten all of my guide books and most of my notes (duh) and wanted to get a little book to help out my memory.  I got Frommer's Banff & the Rockies Day by Day and it was just what I needed.

The Marriott was great.  Got the room on my points and the gold level concierge lounge was terrific.  Free dinner with shrimp, pasta, plenty of veggies for Pete and dessert.  We were pretty beat and not having to go out for dinner was perfect for us.  Not all the Marriotts have a lounge, so this was my first time being spoiled and it was great!

Pete was really fascinated with this building.

The Calgary Tower, right next to our hotel.

Day 2
Breakfast in the lounge and a fairly leisurely morning before heading off to Banff.  None of us were especially interested in sight seeing in Calgary so figured we'd head out into the mountains.

Got to Banff in the afternoon and bought a 6 day pass, as advised by the staffer at the gate to the park.  Canadian National Parks are very different from the US parks (at least the ones I've seen so far).  There is a town site inside the park with shops and homes.  Hotels are outrageously expensive, the park service doesn't oversee pricing at all.  So it was strange to pay to enter the park but then feel like I was driving into a resort town.

I think we checked into the hotel first.  The Banff Rocky Mountain Resort.  Just what we wanted.  Out of the bustle of town and a surprisingly large room with a fridge and free wifi.  We basically dropped our stuff and headed into town to stop in at the visitors center and grab lunch.

The visitors center was nice and we got some good advice on how to handle bears, which freaked Zack out a bit, but not as much info or advice on moderate trails to try.  Good thing we had researched in our guide books before getting there and I picked up my little Frommer's book.

To the Coyotes Grill for lunch. Great food but over the moon prices--we THOUGHT, that was before all the other mediocre meals we had during the rest of the trip, all at exorbitant prices.  We decided it would be a good idea to stop in at a grocery store and pick up breakfast, lunch and snack supplies.  We did this at some point, but have waited too long after the trip to write this and I've forgotten a lot of the details.

We headed back to the room after lunch where everyone (but me) fell asleep and slugged around for the rest of the day.  See, this is where the early morning flight of the day before backfired on me. I was antsy and eager to go see stuff, but I begrudgingly yielded to the will of the rest of the family.

 Up and back to Banff townsite for dinner.  Pete found a really reasonable place that served sushi and large bowls of soup.  The waitress brought my late-in-coming soup with a wonderful sing song of thank you for waiting won ton sou-oup!  Which made us all smile.

I think it was as we stepped out of the room to go to dinner, we noticed a few people standing outside our door and realized they had spotted some deer across the street.  We all ran over to grab some photos of our first wildlife encounter!

OK, it's possible this happened the next day, but I don't think so...

Next Up--Day 3