celebrating 3 years in the mountains!

I'm not going to lie, I'm missing my old life. I miss going places. I miss excitement, and constant change. I miss being so passionate about my career and being proud to tell people about it.  Ask me about my job now. I've found myself replying "Oh, I'm just a receptionist.." Did you catch the key word in there folks? Yeah... "just"... I'm "just" working because I have to these days... not because it's something that I genuinely love doing.  Up until a few months ago, I was living my dream... now, I'm just living. 

I'm still lucky. I've got a great, supportive person that I call my husband. He cheers me up when I'm feeling blue.  This weekend, we celebrated 3 years of togetherness, and he took me to the mountains because he understands how important it is to me to cram as much as I can into a weekend.  He gets that I'm not a normal person content with relaxing. What the heck is that? I want to go places, do things, and I'll happily pass up sleep if there is something more exciting happening.  

We woke up Saturday morning at a ridiculous hour. With caffeine, anything is possible. We drove Ryan's parents to the airport as they jetted off to the maritimes for 2 weeks. I was insanely jealous, but still excited for what was in store for us.  I drove as Ryan caught a bit more sleep... he's a bit of a grumpy boy without it. 

We switched over a few hours in to the drive, and headed into Banff National Park... yay! There is something about the mountains that makes me so happy.  Just past the park gates we spotted a big fuzzy black bear. I generally spend an entire mountain trip peering out the windows with hopes of seeing a bear, so I was thrilled to find one right away. It was a sure sign of a good trip ahead.

We carried on driving towards Lake Louise, with a slight detour at the Saskatchewan River Crossing store for  some ice cream. It may have been chilly outside, but you can't mess with tradition. 

Because I'm married to the greatest man ever, he drove to the Alberta-British Columbia border just so that we could take a photo with the sign and say that we'd went to BC. He doesn't  understand how such a small thing can make me so happy, and he doesn't try to. He just drives there because he loves me, and because he knows that I'm like a giddy little kid when it comes to crossing borders. We took our photos, and then turned around. I was satisfied just having left the province for all of 5 minutes.  

Eventually we made it to Lake Louise. It was much less busy than a typical weekend in spring or summer, thanks to a bit of rain.  We didn't complain, as this meant less tourists getting in the way of our photos. 

During a brief period of sunshine and no rain, we stopped to watch a bride walk down (up) the aisle (hill).   It was a gorgeous place to get married, although I certainly preferred my own barefoot beach type wedding. 

We carried on along the path around the lake, snapping photos of the beautiful blue water as we soaked up the sunshine. All of a sudden we heard a strange sound, like an incredibly strong wind that we couldn't feel. We looked across the lake to see an avalanche on the mountainside! So cool! It was a small one, but the sound was thunderous.  I took photos, Ryan took video, and as we carried on along the path we saw a few more... fuelled by a mixture of rainfall and warm sun melting the ice.  Avalanches are scary, but great to see from a distance. 

 As we made it to the far end of the path just in time to turn back, it began to rain.   By rain, I mean pour. By the time we made it back to the car, we were soaked and cold. I was so happy that we had Ryan's parents car for the weekend, complete with heated seats. I think that my new life goal is to one day own a vehicle with heated seats. 

We headed to Banff, where we warmed up with hot wings and French onion soup. Life was wonderful.  We finished off with Starbucks, and then made our way back to Canmore to check into our hotel after a long day. 

 After a short power nap, we were ready to carry on with the evening. We wandered the town, as I babbled on about how we should live there, if only there were job opportunities.  The town is overrun by rabbits, which annoys the locals... but thrilled me. Baby bunnies were all over the place, and I begged Ryan to catch one and let me take it home. He refused, much to my dismay. 

We made a quick loop through Canadian Tire, just because it's Ryan's favourite store, before heading onwards to Boston Pizza. We've got our traditions when we come to Canmore, and one of them is eating until our stomachs hurt and sipping caesars and beer. Great traditions, if you ask me! This time around we even splurged and ordered an incredible chocolate dessert... we were celebrating, after all. After an early morning, we opted for an early night, and retreated to our room for a wonderful sleep. 

The next morning we took in the free hotel breakfast before packing and hitting the road. I begged until Ryan gave in and stopped at Beamer's Coffee... a small local place that I've grown fond of in past visits. My caramel mocha was delicious, just as I'd anticipated.  We went for a short little tour around the Spray Lakes and then made our way back towards Calgary. So long, mountains. I'll certainly miss you.  

In Calgary we browsed the mall, stopping at our very favourite store... Homesense. Rarely does a weekend go by without a visit to that store. We left empty handed, which is a bit rare for us.

It was time to head north again, and for the first time in his life, Ryan drove the car straight through  Red Deer without stopping. We did, however, stop in Ponoka to visit my grandma and stuff ourselves with an amazing dinner of shrimp and crab. How spoiled we are! 

The weekend had been wonderful, but sadly it had to come to an end. We left Ponoka and headed home, headed to bed, and back to another long work week.  I felt so fortunate to have had our little getaway, as it helped a little bit with my restlessness and travel withdrawal. Still, if anybody cares to fund my travel, I'll gladly become a professional travel blogger. Heck, I'll write you a book. Any takers?  Just don't use my blog as an indication of my capabilities... I don't proofread here...