December 2019
For our first wedding anniversary, we wanted to go somewhere with a lot of snow and somewhere we could go snowmobiling. I’ve always wanted to visit Banff in the summer, but after doing a little research the winter there looked amazing too. It turns out that mid-December is the off season, but I would definitely recommend the “off season” due to fewer people and lower cost with the same amount of fun to be had. Plus there are three ski resorts near Banff known as Ski Big Three: Sunshine Village, Mt. Norquay and Lake Louise. So there is plenty to do and see in the winter!
We flew out of Nashville on December 8th to Denver where we had a pretty long layover before flying to Calgary. There were not any direct flights from Nashville and we had Southwest points so we flew Southwest to Denver and then changed to United for our flight to Calgary. This meant we had to go through baggage claim, recheck our luggage and go through security again in Denver, but with a basically free flight and time to kill why not.
Upon arrival in Calgary, we picked up our rental SUV and drove straight to Banff. We checked into our room with a loft at the Canalta Lodge before going to dinner at Eddie Burger + Bar and the burgers there were delicious.
On day one in Banff, we headed to Sunshine Village for my first attempt at skiing. We both signed up for lessons even though this wasn’t Jonathan’s first time skiing. We were paired up with our instructor James. After falling way too many times on the bunny slope, I finally started to get the hang of it and we got on the lift for my first attempt at a green run. James was a great teacher and even skied backwards in order to keep me upright by using the ski poles as a bar in front of me to hold onto on the way down. After more falling and more freaking out on my part we concluded our first day on the slopes.
We had a nice dinner at Buffalo Mountain Lodge and even though we were the only ones there due to it being the off season the food and the staff were great. After dinner, we walk down the main street to BeaverTails, makers of the world famous pastry, for dessert.
On Tuesday morning, we were picked up at 7:00am by Toby Creek Adventures for a two hour bus ride to Panorama, Canada which was mostly in the dark due to the time of the sunrise. After getting suited up and a brief instruction, we were ready for a full day of snowmobiling!
We rode through the Canadian Rockies up 8000 ft in elevation to the top where there was a tiny lodge. We had coffee and cookies before we went to play on the snowmobiles in Paradise Basin. Of course Jonathan had to upgrade the fastest one available and managed to get a snowmobile stuck in the snow… who would think that’s a possibility???
We then returned to the mountain top lodge for grilled burgers for lunch before driving back to the base. On the way down, we stopped to take a short hike to see two amazing frozen waterfalls. We’ve never been in such deep snow and it was awesome! We definitely want to go snowmobiling again someday!
For dinner, we decided to go to Tooloulou’s where we had some delicious cajun food.
Skiing lessons round two was on my agenda for Wednesday, but first we drove out to Two Jack Lake and Lake Minnewanka. We saw a lot of elk, which of course made Jonathan’s day. The lakes were beginning to freeze over and the scenery was breathtaking.
Then it was back to Sunshine Village to met up with James for lessons. Jonathan skipped lessons and went to ski on his own. My second day skiing was a lot better than day one. I did all the green runs and one blue run after a lot of convincing from James. Jonathan had a great day skiing too except for when he jumped off the ski lift and loss his skis because he missed his stop due to him chatting with a man on the lift and forgetting to get off. Oops!
Later we went to dinner at Park Distillery where I tried two local ciders with the ribs and Jonathan had the strip loin. The food and ciders were really good.
Thursday was our first wedding anniversary so we decided to spend the day driving a portion of the Icefields Parkway which was quite the adventure in the snow but was definitely worth doing.
We drove as far as Bow Lake but stopped a lot for pictures and to play in the snow of course.
On the way back from the Icefields Parkway, we went to Lake Louise which was completely frozen. People were ice skating on the lake, but after attempting to ski I decided not to try another new thing on this trip.
After spending some time at Lake Louise, we decided on a detour on the way back to Banff and took the Bow Valley Parkway. On the parkway, we made a stop at Johnson Canyon. We didn’t have time to do the whole hike, but the short distance we walked was really cool and if we ever go back it would be a must do on my list to see the whole thing.
We decided to do something fun for our anniversary dinner. We went to High Rollers for pizza, pints and pins! We bowled for a couple of hours and the pizza was good. It was a fantastic ending to a fun day.
Friday was our last day in Banff. We drove back to Two Jack Lake that morning to look for the elk, but sadly we only saw one this time.
Next we drove to Mt. Norquay where we spent the rest of the morning snow tubing which was fun and had just opened for the season.
Then it was time to hit the slopes at Mt. Norquay after grabbing a bite to eat at the lodge. We skied some of the green runs and overall it was a successful last day of skiing.
We said goodbye to Banff and headed back to Calgary to spend the night at a Hampton Inn close to the airport.
Saturday we had a super early flight from Calgary to Denver and then back home to Nashville!
So Many Places So Little Time 