Skoki Lodge, Lake Louise

 Porcupine!

At the start of the trail up to Skoki lodge we saw a porcupine on the trail. It is the first porcupine that I have seen! It was a lot bigger than I thought and I didn't realise that they can climb trees.

 Creek on the way up

The weather was overcast and about 13 degrees for the hike up to Skoki, which made it a little easier to hike up with a backpack on.

Hidden Lake

This lake is about 2km off from the main trail. 

Ptarmigan Lake

In January, this lake was frozen over and we snowshoed across it. This time we walked / hiked up around to the left of the photograph. 

Hoary Marmot

We heard this little guy before we saw it. It whistles or calls at a high pitch and at first we thought that it was someone blowing a whistle. It sat on the rock for a long time and wasn't that fussed about us edging closer to get a photo.

Ptarmigan Lake

 The lodge

The trail up to the lodge is about 13 km from the Lake Louise ski area. It is open in winter and in summer, and closes for the shoulder seasons between. They provide bedding, food and drinking water for the guests. There is no running water or electricity (and no mobile phone reception) so it feels like a good (but short) getaway!

 The lodge

 Our cabin

Last time we came, we stayed in the main lodge (dorm rooms), but this time we got a cabin between 4 of us to share. 

View from Merlin Pass 

Once up at the lodge, we had access to more hikes and beautiful scenery.

 Merlin Lake

Despite it being late June, there was still snow around in places and ice in parts of the lakes. After the first day, we had gorgeous sunny weather with temperatures in the low 20s.

Lake Agnes Hike, June 2014

 Lake Agnes

View down to Lake Louise and the chateau 

Cuba 2014

 Plaza de Revolucion (Plaza of Revolution) - which has a large Che Guevera tribute.

 Cuba is full of old cars from the 1950s. The green car here with the door open, is the car that took me from my hotel into Havana. 

 Square in old town Havana

 This is in the old town of Havana. Lots of the buildings are old and falling apart, but they are (bit by bit) renovating the old buildings in Havana. It is a beautiful old town and I wish that I had more time there.

 Hotel Ambos Mundos, Cuba - this is the hotel where Hemingway rented a room in the 1930s and (I think) did a lot of writing.

 Beach at the door step of my hotel in a place called, Jibacoa. The hotel that I stayed at was half way between Havana and a popular resort area called Veradero. I was about 1 hour from each area (by car), so relaxation and quite is what I got!

This is another shot from Jibacoa beach where I stayed.

Moraine and Eiffel Lake

 

Eiffel Lake (hike around and above Moraine Lake)... we did this hike in June... I think!

Eiffel Lake

Eiffel Lake

Moraine Lake (from above)

Moraine Lake

Moraine Lake

Sorry.... no commentary.... I was taking too long to add commentary, but at least you can see some pics!

Lake Louise

Hi all!

Sorry about the delay between posts... 

Over the weekend, I went up to Lake Louise with a few friends. 

We travelled into the mountains on Saturday and went skiing at the Lake Louise ski hill. We had good weather for most of the morning (not too cold or windy), but just before lunch it started to snow a little. But after lunch, it cleared and was even more gorgeous than the morning!! We had sunny blue skies and no wind. It was gorgeous!

A few of us booked ourselves into The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, which is situated on the edge of the lake. 
For those of you who don't know, there are a number of hotels that make up The Fairmont Hotel chain (and includes The Savoy in London). In Canada, the hotels were built close to the Canada Pacific railway. There are a number of them in Canada (Vancouver, Calgary, Banff, Toronto, Montreal) and the hotels in the mountains were apparently built to attract tourists from the east to come to the Rockies. The Chateau Lake Louise opened in 1890. 
It has beautiful decor and large windows that overlook the lake. 
It is a fancy hotel, but we managed to get discounted rates for the rooms. It was lovely! I didn't want to leave my room! Except the hotel has gorgeous tea rooms, dining rooms and bar areas. 
In Calgary, before Christmas, a group of friends and I had an afternoon tea at the Fairmont Hotel in Calgary. The food at these hotels is fantastic!! 

Anyway! Sunday morning we went for an ice skate on the lake and had a look at the ice sculptures that are sculpted every winter and on display. The lake is a popular tourist destination, so it wasn't exactly quiet skating around and the area was smaller than expected, but it is now ticked off my list! It is a truly beautiful location too.

(Taken with my phone during the evening)

After a lazy cup of tea, a couple of us went to Johnston Canyon on the way back to Calgary. Johnston Canyon has an easily traversable pathway that follows the canyon and is accessible most of the year. The creek and falls freeze over in parts of the creek (and parts of the year), and when we were there, the face / outside of the falls were frozen, with water still falling / running behind the wall of frozen ice... it was incredible to see.
The Canyon is split into upper falls and lower falls, and at the upper falls, there is a wall of ice where a lot of people go ice climbing.
Once again, we were spoilt with beautiful sunny weather.

After a weekend like that, I didn't want to have to return to Calgary and the reality of work on Monday, but sadly, it was necessary!
This coming weekend will be very quiet in comparison! I will save up the adventures & site-seeing for another weekend.

Love Kate
xoxo

Photos below are of Johnston Canyon (playing with the settings of my new camera!)

 Water falling behind frozen wall (Lower Falls)

 Upper Falls

 Upper Falls

People ice climbing at the upper falls

More photos at Lake Louise...

 View from my hotel room (ski runs in the distance)

At Lake Louise... thought that it looked cool with the sun behind the mountain

Vancouver

Hi again,
We had a long weekend here in Canada recently for Thanksgiving (5-8 October), so a friend and I took the opportunity to fly over to Vancouver (Van) and check out the sites.
Before we left, I had people telling me that it rains all the time in Van and that even if the forecast was for good weather, that it will still rain at least once (kinda sounds like Melbourne! ?) :)
But we were blessed and had such PERFECT weather! It was sunny and 18 degrees all weekend, and the evenings were gorgeous too (not warm, but not too cold). The weather was perfect for walking the streets of Van, checking out the sites, etc, etc. I think we had just about every meal outside.
Vancouver reminded me of Sydney a little, actually.
I think it's because it is a city set on the water, many little coves & harbours, as well as lots of apartments on the water, with parks & paths along the edge. The streets and buildings also reminded me of Sydney - it felt pretty surreal. 
It is a more lively city than Calgary - bigger, more restaurants, more shopping, more diversity, greener and beautifully situated with the mountains set close in the distance (closer than Calgary).
But I have heard that the people in Vancouver are not as open or friendly as people in Calgary.
I am happy in Calgary, but I could definitely live in Vancouver!!

(a quick apology to those who are on Facebook - you would have seen most of these photos already)

Flight from Calgary to Vancouver over the Rocky Mountains 

Vancouver Public Library

On the 'aquabus' to Granville Island 

On the aquabus 

A quick drink outside in a lovely old area called Gastown. I loved this area. It was the 'old' part of town and is the old port area (I guess Fremantle is an equivalent city). There are some great little shops, cafes, bars and eateries. We had dinner down here one night and loved it! 

 Autumn / Fall leaves (maple tree)

View from Stanley Park toward north Vancouver

Gastown again 

Stanley Park - we cycled around the park, which is kind of a little peninsula off Vancouver, but right at the end of downtown. I absolutely loved the smell of the sea air when I got off the plane from Calgary! I actually couldn't quite work out what it was that was different and then when I realised, I was so excited! I kept taking big gulps of air over the weekend, just to get my fill! 

Pretty street on the edge of downtown 

Street art 

More Autumn leaves - we found this amazing Wholefood Store where we could buy gluten free, cheap and tasty meals. We were pretty happy to find it! 

Coal Harbour

So now I need to go back to Vancouver when the weather isn't so fine to see if I still love it as much. But because that was my first visit, I think that I will always think positively of Vancouver! Next trip will include a visit out to Vancouver Island, which is about 3hrs drive from Vancouver and is a fairly large, and apparently very beautiful island.

I will try to update again soon! We've had all sorts of beautiful changes to the scenery here around Calgary - with the colours of Autumn / Fall and a few snowy days. We're back to sunny weather (it's currently 16 degrees), but it's forecast to cool down and possibly more snow later this week.

And soon it'll be Halloween, which is a big deal here in Canada! Should be fun!

xoxoxoxo