Family vacation to Glacier and Banff National Parks

Friday, August 5, Mom, Dad, Bob, and Josh drove to Rexburg, ID to pick Amy up from EFY. As they approached Rawlins, Mom thought she had left her passport at home, so they turned around and drove back nearly 70 miles before realizing that Mom had it in the car door compartment. They ate dinner at Uncle Perry's restaurant, Teriyaki Express, where you can get 2 days of food for $6. As they were driving around BYU-I campus looking for the restaurant, they passed a group of EFY kids walking. They looked, and it was Amy's group.

On Saturday morning, Mom and Dad picked Amy up at 6:30 am, in front of her apartment. We headed up to Kalispell, MT and had dinner at a delicious pizzeria.

On Sunday morning, we woke up and went to sacrament meeting. Bob ran into an old friend who was also visiting the ward. We changed clothes and drove through Glacier National Park on the Going-to-the-Sun highway, a really thin road that was an impressive engineering feat. We saw the Weeping Wall, waterfalls, glaciers, and mountains. We hiked to Hidden Lake on treacherous, snow-covered trails that were terrifying. Just ask Mom. :) We saw several mountain goats and a big horn sheep.
Here's the Weeping Wall:

Mom and Dad on the hike:

Here's Hidden Lake:

                                               
After that hike, we took another short hike to waterfalls near St. Mary's lake. Here's Bob and Josh:

That night, we stayed at St. Mary's lodge and ate at their restaurant. This one waiter crashed coming up a step and dropped a tray full of plates. Then, continually during our dinner, we would hear a random crash and every time, it was the same waiter. It was hilarious!

On Monday, we drove to Alberta and stopped at the Cardston, Alberta temple.

 We checked into our hotel, then drove an hour to see Lake Louise, which is stunning. We ate dinner at the Lake Louise chateau deli, then returned to the hotel and swam. We shared the hot tub with a local Canadian who kept saying "eh?" after everything he said. :)

On Tuesday, we hiked from the lake to a teahouse, 4.4 miles total. We ordered snacks at the teahouse and looked at Lake Agnes. We hiked back, then drove to Moraine Lake, where we rented two canoes. The water color there is so beautiful.

After we canoed, Bob jumped into the lake, which is 39 degrees Fahrenheit.

We also stopped at Banff upper hot springs to soak our sore arm and leg muscles. Bob rented a historic 1920's swimsuit there.

For dinner that night, we ate at a fancy French restaurant called Chez Francois, but Josh and Amy got bagels and donuts from Tim Horton's because they were sick of fancy food. We ate our desserts so fast that our waiter asked if we even tasted them. :) Mom's favorite part was the duck pate, a.k.a. duck liver.

On Wednesday, we drove from Banff to Jasper along the icefield parkway, and stopped at multiple gorgeous lakes and saw dozens of glaciers. Our favorite was Peyto Lake:

We also went to the Columbia icefield and rode in a snowcoach over Athabasca glacier. We were able to get out and walk around on the glacial ice. We also filled our water bottles with glacier water.

 Here's Josh next to the snowcoach wheel:

As we were driving back, we saw a grizzly bear and her cub, eating berries. Everyone was getting out of their cars to take pictures. Then we drove back to Lake Louise and checked into the chateau. Our room was one of the 5 in the hotel that had a balcony, with a gorgeous view of the lake. Here's the view from our balcony:

We swam and then ate dinner at Walliser Stube, a German fondue restaurant. We ordered cheese, beef, and chocolate fondue. The beds were the most comfortable that any of us have ever slept in, even Josh's rollaway! Here's a picture of us on our balcony:

And here's Josh and Dad on our balcony:

On Thursday, we swam and checked out at noon from our paradisiacal room, at the last possible minute. We then drove to Great Falls, MT.

On Friday, we drove to Sheridan. Mom and Dad saw some deer while the kids swam. Then we ate frozen yogurt at Good Times.

On Saturday, we ate at a local bagel place, then drove to Thermopolis. We spent a couple hours in the hot springs there, going down the slides and jumping off the high dive. It was a lot of fun. Then we arrived home in Laramie at about 9:00 pm. It was an awesome trip!