This was a lovely working vacation. I had to go to the Regulators Conference called CNAR, which I really love, and this year it was in Calgary. The conference itself was on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so we bolted to the airport the previous Friday after work, landed in Calgary, went straight to the car rental and drove straight to Banff.
OMG, Banff is just as beautiful as they say. We were staying in a lovely spot called the Brewster Mountain Lodge. Our room had two floors and a balcony and a lovely view of the mountains. We didn’t arrive until about midnight on Friday so we crashed and between that and the time change, i think we slept until maybe 9am. Grabbed a quick breakfast and jumped in the car to head for Lake Louise.
Rich has already been to these places but it was many years ago for him. We got to Lake Louise parked and headed for the path to the lake. When you sort of round the corner on the path and see the Lake, it is absolutely breathtaking! We hiked around the lake for a couple of kilometres and then hit a nearby lunch spot and headed back to Banff. Banff itself is sort of like Niagara on the Lake, except with mountains, and cowboy hats (worn unironically).
We got to walk all around Banff because we didn’t have a dinner reservation which meant we got turned away from a bunch of places, but that was actually great because we got to really see the whole town, and the place where we did end up was SO GOOD!
The next day we headed for the Gondola. I do love me a gondola. They are super fun and the view from up there and the boardwalk walk out to the weather station followed by a fancy lunch in the bistro there was just perfect. And we had great weather the whole time so that was an added bonus. It was pretty cold. I’m glad I brought my hiking boots and my heated vest.
Sunday afternoon, we headed back to Calgary and after returning the car got settled into the hotel. My work put us in the Fairmont Palliser. Holy crap what a swanky hotel! After a nap, we connected with a former colleague of Rich’s and she and her husband took us out for a lovely dinner. Alberta beef!!! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday were my conference days. And it was so good!
The keynote speakers were amazing, particularly Mark Tewksbury, who I chased down to ask why he was the only one in the 1992 Olympics who was not wearing a swim cap during the race. The CNAR rep who helped me get to him to ask the question found it so interesting that she incorporated it into the 20 question trivia game that was part of the last session. a thousand people there and our table was the only table that knew the answer! That was awesome.
Oh, and I put my name into a contest box on the Trade Floor and won a $100 best buy gift certificate, so a very lovely and successful trip all around!
