Although our time skiing was done, we still had 4 more days to explore Banff! But the first morning was a lazy one. Our bodies surprisingly tired.

By the afternoon we were ready to venture out. The beauty of Banff is the views… from every street you can see the snow covered mountains. The town itself is quaint with a lot of shops selling tourist mementos. But for us the walk along the almost frozen river bed was better.

The boys particularly enjoyed sliding down the snow cover stairs which are probably better described as ice slides.

A couple of kilometres later we came to a frozen cascade, the shapes along with the gurgling noises coming from within made it an interesting sight. I was less enthusiastic by the boys desire to walk on the ice to get a closet look. Daddy took them after promising me he would go first. Not really sure how that made it better but hey.

That evening we booked a combination ticket for Banff highlights…

Therefore the next morning we rose earlyish for a horse sleigh ride. Unfortunately miss judging the walking distance it became a bit of a sprint to get there on time. But we did, and the sleigh ride was pleasant enough, beautiful views and a pleasant way to travel. The boys particularly enjoyed the marshmallow and fire afterwards. Ezra even decided to set his glove on fire, which was quickly put out by a fellow passenger dunking it in the snow.

The walk back was much more pleasurable than the sprint there. We took out time, the boys explored play areas covered in over a feet of snow.

We had a pit stop at the museum which had artificates and some interactive exhibitions on North American Indian cultures. The boys did not want to be separated from the VR that allowed you to sore like and eagle or charge like a buffalo. This time the river was frozen all the way across meaning we didn’t need the bridge!

Later in the afternoon we got the bus up to the hot springs… I wasn’t expecting much but it was in the list of things you should do (and included in combination ticket). It was busy when we arrived… the que took us about 40mins but I actually really enjoyed bathing in the water. It was the perfect temperature and did not stink of rotten eggs like the one in Borneo 🙂 I could have lazed there for hours but my boys are not good at relaxing and kept getting whistled at by the lifeguards for being boisterous.

The following day was New Year’s Eve and I was keen to hike Johnston’s Canyon… but no tours would take under 8 unless we booked a private trip at over $900!!! After a little research, we decided to hire a taxi and some crampons and go for it solo! And it was beautiful! Once the boys picked up their feet properly and stopped pulling of the crampons every 100m it was a pleasant walk!

Gently up hill most of the way you wind along steep canyon edges, each waterfall or cascade offer different ice sulcuputures.

And the final act was a stunning 30m high frozen waterfall decorated in ice climbers. I took all our skills of cohersion to stop middle man climbing over the barrier to have a go. I’m not sure my heart will cope when he is old enough to make his own life choices!

Banff had shut off the Main Street for festivities, offering free activities. Such as more marshmallows and fires, a cute train ride which Lego boy tried to pretend he was to old for and a wobble on some ice skates. It’s safe to say the boys are not natural skaters. After about 30mins Middle man and Lego boy could travel about 8m between falls and boy blue had given up! After such and active day none of us saw in the new year.

But the first day of 2020 and out last day in Banff turned out to be pretty darn ace. We spent a few exhilarating hours sliding rediculasly fast down slopes on rubber rings!

On our last day in Banff we got a special delivery from the ski lodge! Lego boys missing baby lion was returned 🙂 A massive shout out to all the staff at Sunshine, you went above and beyond to make this happen!

We had one more full day left in Canada and it was raining. But we wanted to explore Granville island, Vancouver… so wrapped up we braved the drisel… it was worth it, again I was pleasantly surprised by Vancouver ability to not feel like a massive city. From The art of port to the quaint little ferry and free parks everywhere even in the rain Vancouver made exploring on foot worthwhile.

A for a final meal we enjoyed amazing fish and chips. Although Lego Boy was not so thrilled about the oyster!

Despite the jet lag… Canada we will be back!