Two lakes and a waterfall

The previous post on this series is here..

The bus stopped at a waterfall that flows into a river (where they Freeway goes between the two). This was followed by two more stops at Bow lake and Waterfowl lakes. 

Both these lakes looked similar except for the extent of the "lake beaches" and the picnicing crowds. The scenery was just amazing!

This photograph is thanks to the Belgian professor.. his daughter was telling to him take some vertical and horizontal.. he goes "will even take some diagonal.. how about that?". Turned out great!

We met a large punjabi family of 30+ people with picnic blankets and food spread out in one of the little coves around the lake. We were given half an hour at the stop and everyone in the bus interested in taking photos at the lake had to walk through one of many trails to get to the shore and take pictures. We thought we were going to a quiet spot.. turned out not to be. so we went back around to find a quiet spot to take photos. 

Both these lakes are beautiful. Turqoise waters, clear enough for you to see the bottom pebbles for quite a distance, snow and ice covered mountains in the background..

San's candid shot of me at Waterfowl lakes

Surprisingly, she took a lot of photos of me on this trip and they were all good! Not out of focus, not contrasty, over or under exposed.. just right! That was a big bonus for me on this trip!

if you are not going by the bus tour, stop by both these lakes! There is enough parking in the parking lot at bow lake. For Waterfowl lake, you just stop at the vista point and walk down. 

A video of the stops 

The day wasn't over. We still had lot to do after being dropped off..

A weekend in the Canadian Rockies

We went...

scratch that.. 

My wife took me along,

on a wonderful weekend trip to the Canadian Rockies. She was sick and tired of not being able to go on a vacation. She had tried everything to beg the kids to come so all four of us could go somewhere for a few days, to no avail. Finally she snapped and said "We are going somewhere for two days. You give a choice from this list!". That was it. I picked Banff National park based on photos we had seen from friends and family who had visited from 4 years ago!

It was a last minute plan. We could not find cheap tickets for 4th of July weekend but found decent ones for last weekend. So took Friday and Monday off, flew into Calgary Friday, rented a car and drove to Banff. Monday afternoon to evening was the return back to SFO. We got a night , two full days and a morning to spend. 

San did everything. All I had to do was go with the flow and walk as fast as I could when prodded. 

Home to hotel was 7 1/2 hours! We were treated to amazing views on the drive there and I got to take a few photos and videos while she drove around exits that came rather abruptly while simultaneously getting used to speed limits in kmph! 

A few photos from the drive.

 

It kept reminding us of our trip to Swiss Alps.. the only thing missing was the cows and their bells! and the cottages with the spires in the middle of the fields!

This was a great Ad we saw on the way! 

As soon as we checked into the hotel, we went to find dinner. As usual, when I am hungry or worse case Hangry, we get to eat at an Indian restaurant. There were three options in the town of Banff all within a few minutes drive. The first two were full or had some server attitude problems. The third one was the charm. 

After the dinner, the owner told us that sunset was post 10PM and we have a good two hours left. He suggested that we hike up to see "surprise point" and then come back down and do the "bow falls" trail.  This was going to be a good 3+ miles of hiking after a travel day but we were up for it. The heavy food had to be put to use.. so off we went..

Here is a video of the beautiful drive to Banff!

The post on Bow falls and a separate restaurant review to follow..

ps. It is unlike me to wait for days to post things after a trip like this, but sadly got sick a day after getting back. Just recovering today. Till yesterday the headache would not allow me to stare at a screen at all.. keeping this blog short.. to be continued.. 

It is good to be back on the keyboard and sift though photos and videos. Right now 30 minutes seems to be the limit for staring at a screen before the eyes start watering!