Road Trip Continued: Part II - Party on, Patricia
I think I sort of ran out of steam with that last extended report of our first day. Anyway, we got back on the road after lunch on Friday and made it to Jasper without incident. Views were absolutely amazing on the drive, especially once we hit the Rockies. My car performed just great; it was such a pleasure to be able to drive as fast as the law would let us (no, we had no run-ins; I just didn't want to tangle with Provincial Authorities, so was a bit conservative re: the speed limit).
We drove through the town of Jasper around 6 pm mountain time and to our lodging on Patricia Lake. I couldn't resist making reservations at a place with my first name. Most of the cabins they rent were booked up by the time I made our last-minute reservations, so I was talked into staying in one of their new luxury suites. A little more spendy, but once we arrived I realized that the extra $'s (only $.92's, really) was worth it. Our "room" was half of a duplex cabin in the woods that contained a small kitchen with full sized fridge and appliances, a living room with wide-screened plasma tv with DVD player and gas fireplace, a bedroom, also with a small plasma tv, bath with granite / tile everything and heated towel rack, and patio overlooking the lake and the mountains with a gas grill. Since we were only going to be able to stay one night here instead of the two we'd originally booked, we decided to spend as much time there as possible and picked up steaks and trimmings for the grill. The next morning we went on a short (and breathless - it's the altitude!) run to the next lake over, checked out just in time, and then got back on the road to Banff.
Some notes: I'm used to a noon checkout, but everywhere we stayed in Canada had 11 am. While this wouldn't normally be an issue, there were several days where we wanted to sleep in, then go for a run or bike ride, and then take our time eating breakfast and packing all of our stuff (and we brought way too much stuff that I was continually reorganizing), which made it tough to fit all that in by 11. Fortunately, most folks were forgiving of a few minutes and/or would extend the time a bit when asked.
The water in all of the lakes and rivers in all of the National Parks we traveled through was an amazing turquiose blue color. The color was due to the silt run-off caused by the glacier movement; it never failed to amaze, especially when the sun was out (about half the time we were there).
You can find some pictures of the trip here at Jeff's new Photoworks.com page.
I think I sort of ran out of steam with that last extended report of our first day. Anyway, we got back on the road after lunch on Friday and made it to Jasper without incident. Views were absolutely amazing on the drive, especially once we hit the Rockies. My car performed just great; it was such a pleasure to be able to drive as fast as the law would let us (no, we had no run-ins; I just didn't want to tangle with Provincial Authorities, so was a bit conservative re: the speed limit).
We drove through the town of Jasper around 6 pm mountain time and to our lodging on Patricia Lake. I couldn't resist making reservations at a place with my first name. Most of the cabins they rent were booked up by the time I made our last-minute reservations, so I was talked into staying in one of their new luxury suites. A little more spendy, but once we arrived I realized that the extra $'s (only $.92's, really) was worth it. Our "room" was half of a duplex cabin in the woods that contained a small kitchen with full sized fridge and appliances, a living room with wide-screened plasma tv with DVD player and gas fireplace, a bedroom, also with a small plasma tv, bath with granite / tile everything and heated towel rack, and patio overlooking the lake and the mountains with a gas grill. Since we were only going to be able to stay one night here instead of the two we'd originally booked, we decided to spend as much time there as possible and picked up steaks and trimmings for the grill. The next morning we went on a short (and breathless - it's the altitude!) run to the next lake over, checked out just in time, and then got back on the road to Banff.
Some notes: I'm used to a noon checkout, but everywhere we stayed in Canada had 11 am. While this wouldn't normally be an issue, there were several days where we wanted to sleep in, then go for a run or bike ride, and then take our time eating breakfast and packing all of our stuff (and we brought way too much stuff that I was continually reorganizing), which made it tough to fit all that in by 11. Fortunately, most folks were forgiving of a few minutes and/or would extend the time a bit when asked.
The water in all of the lakes and rivers in all of the National Parks we traveled through was an amazing turquiose blue color. The color was due to the silt run-off caused by the glacier movement; it never failed to amaze, especially when the sun was out (about half the time we were there).
You can find some pictures of the trip here at Jeff's new Photoworks.com page.
posted by Tricia at 7:36 AM
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