A motor coach picked me up at the Rimrock for our drive to Lake Louise. The scenery was quite beautiful, but I wasn’t able to get a lot of high quality pictures because of the glare from the bus window.
There is some interesting information about the Spiral Tunnels, if you want to read about it below, or maybe not. Prime Minister John. A. McDonald asked British Columbia to join the rest of Canada (as the U.S.A wanted B.C. to themselves). B.C. agreed to join Canada, but only if their province was connected to the rest of Canada via Rail. MacDonald promised them this, but he had a huge problem when tackling this particular mountain grade where the spiral tunnels reside. Many trains derailed because it was so steep when they first tried to build it. None of the locomotive engineers wanted that route because they were afraid impending disasters (it was suppose to be a 2 grade and it was a 4). Then the railway got an idea (from I think Switzerland) to make a kind of figure 8 inside the mountain so that the grade would be gradual. Can you spot the two places the train comes out of at different levels? It worked.
Later we went to a lovely lake called Emerald Lake. It was so pretty and tranquil there.
Our next stop was Kicking Horse Pass. From what I remember from the train ride, a few men went on a gold mining expedition. One guy’s horse got away so he went after it from behind…which is apparently a big no no. The horse reared and kicked him hard right in the chest. By the way, he was the expeditions doctor. The rest of the men, thinking he was dead, dug a hole to bury his body. After they put him in the hold and started burying him, the guy woke up. Probably scared the hell out of them, wouldn’t you say? And that is the story of why it’s called Kicking Horse Pass!
Couldn’t believe my eyes when I finally got to Lake Louise…a real piece of heaven on earth.
This was our hotel…The Fairmont Lake Louise. I swear I got the best room in the house! What a view!
Took a stroll near the lobby and wondered if that dentist from the States had been here (Cecil’s hunter).
I was finally here! The place I oh so wanted to visit on my bucket list! I was not disappointed. Decided when I booked this trip that I was going to go to the best restaurant there called the Fairview for dinner…good thing I made reservations in advance because they were fully booked.
I had lunch in the Oak Room and then went walking around the lake. It was such a beautiful blue colour. I think it gets that turquoise colour because it is run off water from the glaciers, whereas spring run off gives a different bluey colour. Hope I got that right. May be the reverse!
I decided I was going to go outside and explore my new surroundings.
There were people canoeing on the Lake. I really wanted to go out and row to the mountains, but I knew that would put way too much strain on my back because my bones were still mushy from the radiation treatment I just had. I was sad. I thought about asking someone to row the boat for me, but I didn’t want to be an interloper. So then I just went for a walk. I saw a sign that said, “Paradise Look-Out”. That sounds like a beautiful place to see. I’ll do that instead. Where’s Bobo when you need him?
Little did I realize how long and how steep the hill was to the look-out. I can’t begin to tell you how difficult and how painful it was to get there. I prayed to Claire’s mother (who told her to go to Lake Louise with her sister) to make it to the look-out because I didn’t think I was going to make it. It took a very, very long time, but eventually I made it and believe me I needed an oxycocet when I got to the top…but I was glad I reached my destination.
That’s when I wanted to sing the song, “I’m on Top Of The World” by One Republic!
I then walked to the other side of the Lake, to gather some rocks for Bobo (I collect them from wherever I go). Apparently you can walk up to Six Glaciers from there, but I think it takes several hours to do so and I was not in good enough shape to attempt that and didn’t have enough time (dinner reservation at 6:45). However, I did manage to get pretty far down the other side of the lake when I decided to get back to the hotel for my evening soiree dinner! Here are some of the scenery from the north side of Lake Louise.
Finally time for dinner. I couldn’t wait. For the first time in my life I was going to buy the best thing I could find on the menu and I wasn’t going to care how much it was going to cost me because I was Finally in Lake Louise (which was on my bucket list) and I was going to make the most of it.
I chose a 3 course meal which consisted of a cold Heirloom Tomato Soup, Lamb with Vegetables, and Raspberry and Dark Belgian Chocolate Sorbet for dessert. And it was DIVINE.
The soup was utterly fantastic. The waiter came and decorated my plate with different droplets of oils and pesto, and little herbs with round leaves. Each section of my plate was filled with scrumptious tasty little morsels of fun! Then when you picked up a spoonful of soup and put it into your mouth, you got a glorious different taste every time. It was fabulous. Loved it.
The waiter recommended I get the lamb cooked medium. I agreed as I figured he knew best and it too was absolutely delicious. And I know I really shouldn’t have had the dessert as it was full of sugar, but for today, I was just going to forget about feeding the cancer sugar and I just wanted to feel like a normal human begin who could eat whatever they wanted. And I ate it. And it was ohhhh soooo goooood! Went to bed very happy. Tomorrow, Banff and a crazy helicopter tour I signed up for, then Calgary.
If The Cancer Doesn't Kill You, The Nurses Will 