Banff-Lake Louise and Moraine Lake

So this probably wasn’t my best planning.  We had to get up for a 9:00 shuttle to Lake Louise.  Which doesn’t sound bad.  And really didn’t expect it to be a problem.  But since we got in after 11 and had to unpack the car and get settled it was after midnight before we went to bed.  After the long day, the next morning came really early.  But we got up and drove to the Park and Ride in Banff for the shuttle to Lake Louise.  What was really disappointing was we made the shuttle on time, and then sat on the bus in the lot for 20 minutes while they waited for people.  WTF?

Anyway, we made it to Lake Louise, which is the most famous attraction around Banff.  It is really beautiful, but like a lot of national parks, was VERY crowded.  Had to work our way through the Instagram crowd to get a decent picture of the lake, which again, is really nice.  We decide to hike around to the back of the lake and then we saw a sign for a hike up to the tea house. For the record, this hike was not my idea.  I even pointed out it was 1,400 feet up and 3.4 km long. Uphill all way, this hike is pretty tough on the feet and body. Waited in 2 really slow lines, Deb for the bathroom and me to order some food.  The snack at the tea house was good though. 

We then walked back down (hard on the toes) and boarded the shuttle to Moraine Lake.  Moraine Lake is also very beautiful. This was probably partially because of how tired we were to start the day and also because of the hike to the tea house, but we were too tired to hike anymore. So we relaxed on the patio, did some people watching and shared a sausage roll. 

We then took the shuttle back to Banff for dinner, ate at Tooloulos. We got kinda lucky as it started to rain just as we found the restaurant.  About a minute after we sat down at the table in the front window, it started pouring really hard.  So we were dry and had the fun of watching other people scramble around in the rain.   Food just OK, Deb had cajun shrimp, I had scallops. The most memorable part of the meal was we discovered that a Thai chili pepper is REALLY hot.  It was on her plate, apparently just as a decoration, and we both took a bite, which we will never do again!  

After dinner we walked around Banff a bit, it’s a nice tourist town with a lot of the standard gift shops and lots of restaurants.  We saw a sign for beaver tails, which I had heard we had to get.  These things are freshly fried dough with sweet toppings.  Since we were on vacation we got ours with ice cream on them. Very, very good.  Perfect way to end the day before heading home for some much needed rest.