Banff National Park - Lake Louise

Lake Louise, Banff National Park

We've spent the weekend exploring the Banff National Park area and Calgary.  Above is a picture of Lake Louise at Banff.  It you look closely you can see Victoria Glacier in the background.

While in Banff, we ate lunch at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise with Ron and Nancy.  The original chateau was built in the 1890s by the Canadian Pacific Railroad, but burned in a fire in 1924. The hotel as it stands today is an impressive resort with beautiful views of Lake Louise. (http://www.fairmont.com/lakelouise)

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

We also took a dip at the Upper Hot Springs.
(http://www.pc.gc.ca/regional/sourcesthermales-hotsprings/itm2-/banff_e.asp)

It's a restored 1930s bath house where you can even rent 1930s style bathing suites.  We thought the rented bathing suite idea was kind of strange, so we took our own.  The place is basically a large swimming pool fed by a natural hot springs.  The day we were there, it was raining softly and the outside temperature was 48.  The pool temp was a steamy 102.

Rainbow in the mountains, on the drive to Upper Hot Springs, Banff National Park

It's been rainy here, off and on.  We tried to visit the Calgary Zoo today, but were rained out within half an hour.  We were pleased to find that they have a refund policy if you're rained out.  That was really nice. Maybe we'll get back there again before we leave.  We're expecting a package from home tomorrow.  Provided it arrives on time, we'll be headed north again towards Alaska on Tuesday.