Anniversary Trip: Cave & Basin National Historic Site

Hi, remember me?  I know, it's been a while!  It has been a busy summer filled with lots of good and bad.  Eep(!), and now it's Fall!!  Holy cow, where has the time gone?!  I haven't been taking many pictures lately (not that I don't have a couple thousand backlogged all the way to last December that I still need to edit), I've been either too busy, not feeling well, or living more in the moment and forgetting my camera.  Or just too lazy!  But of all the photos I still have to edit the ones from our anniversary trip to Canada are at the top of the list, and I'm happy to say that after 4+ months of no editing, I've finally started chipping away at them!

This was our first anniversary trip as married folks, but our 7th(!) anniversary together!  When we were trying to figure out where we wanted to go for this trip we were a little spastic in our planning.  First, we were going to the UK.  Antoine has never been and what's not to like?  Then we changed our minds again...we were going to the West Coast: San Fran, Big Sur & Yosemite.  Then we changed our minds again...we were going to the Banff area!  To be fair, we did start planning as soon as we got back from our wedding/honeymoon, because that's what we do...dream about where we want to go and then start planning like we're leaving in the following month.  Anyway, we finally landed on Canada: Banff National Park, Jasper National Park, and Yoho National Park.  The Banff area has been on my traveling wishlist for a long time now and once I showed Antoine pictures of the area and told him we would probably see bears he was totally on board.

We flew into Calgary, AB and then drove a little over an hour to the city of Banff.  We spent our first two nights in Banff before heading several hours north to the Jasper area, but more on that later.  The city of Banff is kind of touristy and kitschy, but in a fun way.  And it's in the middle of the park so it's a convenient home-base for exploring the park.  We started off our first official morning in Banff with a visit to the Cave & Basin National Historic Site, just on the edge of town.  Though, by my mistake, we got there an hour before they actually opened...so we walked around and explored the area for a bit.

The Historic site is part of a cluster of hot springs, and was used at a bathhouse/swimming pool until the mid-90s.  This is now the visitor center and museum and the access tunnel to the cave.

This is the ridiculously pretty view from the visitor's center.

From the visitor's center you can take wooden stairs up to the higher hot springs and woods or down to the marsh and valley.  We opted to go up first.

A vent down into the cave.

One of the weird, sulphur-y hot springs that creates this strange frothy, fungus stuff.

Then, since the visitor center still wasn't open and I was panicked about going too far into the woods by ourselves and encountering a bear, we headed down toward the marshy area and the valley...

There was this nice trail running just above the marsh that for some reason made me a little less panicked about bears...but only a little!

These pretty little flowers were everywhere.  After a little research I found out they are Calypso orchids, also known as Fairy Slipper orchids!

Finally the visitor center opened, so we immediately headed to the cave...

It's not very big, but still it's pretty cool! 

I'm sorry, I could resist posting this ridiculous photo from the museum....doesn't the guy on the left look like Mario Lopez!?!?

After the cave we explored the center a bit more.  Next to this crazy, blue pool we talked with one of the site's employees for a bit about the area and about our travel plans.  He was super helpful and promised that we would see bears once we headed up to Jasper...which thrilled Antoine and terrified me!

Alrighty, so that's the first peek into our anniversary trip...literally just the first couple hours of it.  Yes, this is going to take forever, but I'm hopeful that I can get everything blogged before our next anniversary!  Maybe.  I'm definitely not going to make that promise...but fingers crossed.  Have a great Friday everyone and a great weekend!  We're going pumpkin picking, which is my most favorite day of the year!  It's going to be magical!

Vancouver: Other Highlights

So, you've made it, my last official recap of our trip to Vancouver!  In a nutshell, it's an awesome city surrounded by nature with such exciting cultural diversity (read: awesome food!) that I'd visit again in a heart beat!

Oddly enough, for my last post on Vancouver I'm going to take you back to the first two days of our trip. For the last three nights of our trip we stayed in the heart of downtown, but for our first two nights we stayed in the northern bit of downtown near the harbor.  While staying in the heart of downtown offers tons of food options, staying a little north near the harbor off you easy access to Stanley Park and the Seawall. Stanley Park is pretty much this gigantic island park full of hiking trails, little lakes, and a variety of sights to see.

The view of Stanley Park from our hotel room.

On our first full day in Vancouver, we put on our raincoats and set out to explore Stanley Park.  First on our list was a trip to the Aquarium.  I have this theory that there are zoo people and there are aquarium people, and you're either one or the other.  Antoine and I are definitely aquarium person.  I personally prefer going to aquariums over zoos.  I find them more interesting and they tend to make me feel less guilty (caged animals and whatnot).  Anyway, the Vancouver Aquarium certainly did not disappoint!  It had a great selection and setup, including an excellent array of local/Pacific Northwest fish.  And some great jellyfish, which are my favorite!

After our visit to the aquarium, we walked along the Seawall and through a bit of the park, stopping at Brockton Point to see the totem poles.

On Thanksgiving day, when we were driving up to Lynn Canyon, we decided to stop in Stanley Park (again) on the way and check out Beaver Lake.  It's a little lake surrounded by trees and filled with lily pads with a great stone trail wrapping around it.  It was beautiful and quiet, great for a morning walk.  And the wildlife seemed to be very friendly...maybe a little too curious for my liking (a squirrel attempted to follow us...I don't like squirrels. They are evil!).

Now, I've saved the best for last!  Get in close and listen to my absolute favorite thing we did in Vancouver...Edible Canada's Granville Market tour.  I know what you're thinking, I thought the same thing myself, but it was awesome!  My sister, who is a kick-ass travel agent, said that we had to do this.  She had gone a couple years before and loved it.  I was skeptical, but I thought, "Sure, why not".  Holy bananas, it was pretty freaking rad.  The tour started at 9am, so I made Antoine get up super early because I wanted to make sure we weren't late, and I wasn't 100% sure how to get there.  Lucky for us, because we ended up getting a bit lost, but then we found it (the market is, no joke, under a bridge...plus, buses confuse me!) and we waited in the rain for the Edible Canada storefront to open up.

Since it was November and the Friday after Thanksgiving (apparently a good number of locals drive south to Washington state to go shopping), the place was pretty dead.  And we shortly found out that we were the only two people on the tour.  For two hours, our tour-guide Chef Bob (an outstanding guide), took us around the market, talking about food, introducing us to vendors, and, best of all, guiding us through a sampling tour of this killer farmer's market.  I don't have any pictures of the tour because I was too busy stuffing my face with food and laughing and having a good time.  We tasted so many delicious things (smoked salmon maple nuggets, locally roasted coffee, locally produced cheese, warm-out-of-the-oven focaccia, beautiful artisan chocolates, etc.) from so many outstanding vendors that I'd do it again without a second thought.

Antoine and I aren't typically "tour people", we'd prefer to be on our own and go at our own pace.  But we both agreed that this one was phenomenal and we would recommend it to anyone.  ANYONE!  Actually, I think we'd skip the whole "suggesting" and just tell them had to do it!  Also, this is something that is probably one of the best activities to do during the off season.  We were able to get out of the rain, and since it was just the two of us, the tour was super intimate and so much fun.  Plus, the market wasn't as packed.  Though, one word of warning, if you take the tour, make sure to give yourself at least 3 to 4 hours of time, 2 hours for the tour and 1-2 hours to explore, buy some goodies, and maybe have lunch...that's what we did!

I hope you've enjoyed my Vancouver recap.  It's a great place to visit that I'd recommend to pretty much anyone.  I know I'll definitely be going back in the future!