Anniversary Trip: Emerald Lake

We're almost done with anniversary trip posts.  Yay!  Just this one and then one more to go and you don't have to see anymore pictures of the Canadian Rockies...until the next time we go back, because we seriously love us some Canada!  In fact, I'm actually traveling to Montreal in May for work, which I am super stoked about.

Anyway, back to our anniversary trip...  The last place we stayed at during our trip (besides the awesome Hotel Clique near the airport, seriously so nice that I wish there were more of these hotels throughout Canada and the US!) was the Emerald Lake Lodge in Yoho National Park.  I really wanted to stay in a lodge within one of the parks, and I was especially drawn to Emerald Lake Lodge because it kind of reminded me of Lake Crescent Lodge in Olympic National Park (which Antoine and I loved and you can read more about here).   When I was reading reviews from Emerald Lake Lodge I was surprised that they were very mixed.  People raved about the surrounding area and the beauty of the lake, but said that everything else was kind of lack luster.  Antoine and I decided to give it a shot and see what we thought...

To say that the lake was gorgeous would be a gigantic understatement!  A pristine, tranquil lake, surrounded by mountains, what's not to like?  We had absolutely no complaints about the lake itself.  The lodge on the other hand did leave a little to be desired.

The fact that the lodge and cabins sit on a little piece of land in the middle of the lake that isn't really even accessible by car, except for the lodge's shuttle?  Cool as hell!  The run-down nature of the cabins themselves and the fact that none of the cabins had tv or wifi...not as cool.  I get the idea that when you're surrounded by nature you should enjoy it and not need a tv.  But Antoine and I are the type of people, who after a long day of hiking and exploring like to veg out and take load off (in front of a tv)...especially near the end of our trip.  But that was poor planning on my part.

Our cabin was on the left and upstairs and overlooked the more secluded side of the lake.  A little run down, but not horrible.  It did have a nice little balcony to sit on and enjoy the lake, however the bugs were pretty horrendous, so we didn't use it to its full potential!

The side of the lake that our cabin looked out on, though this is not our view.

There were canoe rentals, but they weren't available just yet as it was too early in the season.

Would I recommend the lodge/cabins to people?  Eh.  The cabins were definitely run down, the food was ok (though expensive, just like all park lodges like that), and the no tv/no wifi was kind of a killjoy for us.  But the lake itself...beautiful and totally worth a visit and a little hike around it (or canoe rental, if it's in season)!

Anniversary Trip: The Road to Jasper and Our Rental Cabin

Hi there!  I hope everyone had a great weekend?  Man, three day weekends are awesome, but boy, oh, boy do they suck too!  They are so bittersweet.  I know, I should stop complaining before someone who didn't have yesterday off (like my husband) throws something at my head.  Anyway, I spent my extra day off tidying up a bit, watching The Wind Rises (snuggled up on the couch with the dogs) and editing photos, which means I have several more anniversary trip blog posts lined up.

Last time I left off we had just left Peyto Lake and we were continuing up the Icefields Parkway toward Jasper.  We stopped a couple more times along the way, mostly just at little turn-offs, before we made it to the cabin where we'd be spending the next 3 nights (one of which was our anniversary)...

I don't know what made us stop here.  It was just a little pull-off that had a little trail leading off of it, so we hiked down a bit to a stream with a pretty view of the mountains.  And I was of course paranoid of running into a bear the whole time!

The little trail.

More pull-offs with pretty views!

Another pull-off just before we made it to the cabin.

We finally made it to our cabin and we were both blown away!  It was definitely our most extravagant lodging of our trip, though we definitely went a little bit crazier than our usual trips!  But it was our anniversary, so we thought it was warranted...

We found this beauty on HomeAway and it was so beautiful and secluded, tucked in the woods just north of Jasper.  

The front door.

The livingroom, aren't the windows insane?!

You can kind of see the fireplace off to the right, it was beautiful and toasty.  The stairs in the center led up to the two loft bedrooms and the master bathroom.

The downstairs bathroom.

The dining room, and the door to the right held the washer and dryer.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the kitchen, which was large and had a big island in the middle with additional seating.  We spent a fair amount of the time in the kitchen, cooking all our meals, including our anniversary dinner/desert of pizza and bananas foster (what we had in Hawaii after we got hitched)!

We really enjoyed staying in this cabin!  It was so peaceful and serene that we actually spent our whole anniversary day indoors, relaxing.  It was wonderful.  Next time (and the time after that too) I'll share some more from our anniversary trip and our explorations in and around Jasper National Park.  Until then, have a great rest of your Tuesday!

Conkle's Hollow State Nature Preserve

After our little visit to the farm my parents went back to the cabin because it was just too cold outside.  But us "kids" decided to head over to Conkle's Hollow for a very small hike, basically until we couldn't stand the cold anymore.  Michelle and I had been to Conkle's Hollow for the first time this past March when we had our girls weekend in Hocking Hills, but neither Christian or Antoine had been so it was an obvious choice!  On the way we stopped by the visitor center to use the restroom and check out the Pencil Sharpener Museum; seriously, it's a thing!  Just to give you an idea of how cold it was that November weekend in Ohio...

This was a small mill wheel outside the visitor's center that froze.  But at least it made for a pretty picture.

A tree outside the visitor's center.  Look at that crazy blue sky!

After our short little stop we headed toward Conkle's Hollow, which was just 15 minutes or so down the road.  The nice thing about Conkle's Hollow is, as a hiker, you have options.  You can either take the easy, paved 1 mile trail (wheelchair accessible) to the waterfall or the more complex, 2 1/2 mile rim trail.  Since it was so chilly we decided to stick with the easy trail, though I really really want to go back and do the rim trail sometime, the photos of it online look incredible (especially in the fall).

We had a nice little hike, but we were certainly happy to get out of the cold and back into the car.

On the Farm

Snowmageddon, it's coming!  Apparently.  I was kind of hoping UC would close today so I could stay home and read all day, but it did not.  Still, here's hoping I get to go home early...before it gets too bad.  If it even gets that bad, you can never trust the forecast!

Anyway, back to Hocking Hills.  While my family was celebrating our early Thanksgiving there, my lovely sister sweet talked the friendly proprietor of the cabin we were renting into letting us come by his farm and moon over the animals.  My sis is like me and will take any opportunity to pet some cute farm animals!  So after filling up on a big breakfast we bundled up and headed over to the farm.  Lucky for us it was beautiful outside, well, minus the fact that it was freezing...

The goats came right over to us, but were disappointed when they realized that we didn't have any food for them.

On of the newest additions to the proprietor's farm was a group of eight alpacas.  They were still a little skittish around people, but made some pretty adorable/comical faces!

This one is my favorite...it cracks me up!

Of course there were some horses, though they didn't want to have too much to do with us for some reason.

By far the best part of the farm?  All the cats!  He had nine super affectionate cats that were following us around and were either being adorable/hysterical. 

These were some of my favorites, Snowball (top right), Fuzz (bottom right), and their mom (left), whose name I can't remember.  Fuzz was definitely Antoine and my favorite, though Snowball was pretty hilarious!

Oh, Fuzz!  I would have taken him home in a second if I could have.  He was so sweet!

Snowball was such a clown!  He was going around attacking the other cats' tails, and then he started chasing his own.  So cute!

Cuteness overload!

Alright, I think that's enough cute for one day!  I hope everyone has a killer Friday and a wonderful weekend!  Stay warm.

Family Cabin Weekend in Instagram

This weekend my parents, sister, brother-in-law, Antoine, and I went to Hocking Hills for our annual Thanksgiving cabin weekend.  It's a weekend of fun, food and wii dance battles.  Good times!

Before I woke up Antoine on Saturday to get ready and hit the road, I snapped this photo of Gui being adorable!

What's the first thing we did when we got to the cabin, after putting the turkey in the oven, Antoine and I whipped up a batch of potent margaritas!  Delicious.

My sis was very happy that it started snowing, though it was only a dusting.

After our early Thanksgiving feast and more margaritas we had a wii dance battle and I took a picture of the ceiling...that's where the rest of the night was headed.  But it was good times.

Surprisingly I woke up Sunday without a hangover, by some miracle.  Antoine and I whipped up some breakfast and then we headed over to the cabin owners farm to play with his barn cats and check out his assortment of animals, which was tons of fun.  Then the kids all went for a little hike in Hocking Hills State Park while my parents took it easy.  For dinner we had leftover Thanksgiving sandwiches...

...followed by some more margaritas.  Antoine and I then decided to do a couple shots of tequila because I never head before.  I'm a fan!  Love the combination of the salt and lime with the tequila.

We finished off the night with more Just Dance and bowling on the wii.  Then Monday morning we packed up and all headed home.

I spent the last bit of my day off making scones for a work party. (Made with jams that I've made and canned myself!)

And of course I had to snuggle up on the couch with Cheese, while enjoying my favorite ginger ale!

That was my weekend!  How was your weekend?