It goes without saying, that skiing was not on the agenda. Photography (or something like it) was the focus. Maybe there would even be a bear or two this time around.

These animals, as you can tell, are not bears. I think that they are elk. I don’t even pretend to know anything about wildlife, so feel free to correct me if you want. In any event, I’m sure they aren’t mountain goats or long horned sheep. You can click on the thumbnails to see a larger version of the photos.

Definitely not as exciting as a mountain lion or grizzly, but wildlife just the same. They paid no attention to the fact that humans had invaded their territory, as our presence was acknowledged with little more than a passing glance.

more pages (mountain photos)

Ivy, Natasha, Bandit and I decided that a day trip to Banff was in order and set out at about 10:00 towards the mountains.

I had originally planned on doing the “tourist” thing in the town of Banff for a while (mostly for Ivy’s sake, because I thought she would like to look at some of the little shops there) but the Town of Banff decided that this was the week to literally rip up the main street from one end to the other to replace the storm sewer. It certainly didn’t resemble the scenic little village you see on the post cards and TV shows. After traveling through about six blocks of major construction, I was fed up, and just wanted to move on. We managed to find our way to the Gondola lift, and Ivy bought a post card.

I could spend days in the mountains, but we only had a few hours, so we grabbed some lunch at MacDonald’s and headed towards Lake Louise. I wanted to know if the water was as bright blue as I seemed to remember it from years ago.

The scenery was fantastic, and I decided it would be wise if I wasn’t trying to drive, eat a Big Mac, and take photos all at the same time. I stopped at a roadside turnout to eat my sandwich, and take a couple of pictures.

(more on next page)