We spent the Family Day long weekend in February meeting up with a bunch of other Australian exchange teachers from all over Canada. We stayed in Canmore together and it was great to catch up over a meal and hear some familiar accents and see how they have all been setting in.

The Rocky Mountains are breathtaking! We were in awe of how immense and magical they were, a vision which cannot be captured in a photo, no matter how hard I tried!

We were lucky to meet up with the Canadian teachers and their kids who inspired us to apply for this teacher exchange experience. They were also visiting Banff that weekend with a Kadina Memorial School teacher! It was the best feeling to see some familiar faces and to have some Canadians to take us around to some awesome touristy spots!

Tubing at Norquay was the first activity of the weekend! The nerves were building as the escalator slowly made its way to the top of the hill, but once the first descent was made the adrenalin kicked in and we couldn’t wait for our next turn!

The descents on the tubes could be made singular, in pairs or in small groups. Imogen wasn’t quite tall enough for the tubing but there was plenty for her to do with a small playground area that included a motorized tube merry go round!

After our adrenaline pumped tubing experience our next stop was a relaxing soak at the Upper Banff Hot Springs. This experience takes first place for all 3 kids favourite thing they did over the long weekend in Banff! The hot springs sit at a temperature of between 37 and 40 degrees. The evening we went it was -15 so it was entertaining to see everyone’s hair and eyelashes becoming icy and frosted!

Lake Louise has been on our top 10 Canada bucket list things to do! And it did not disappoint! It was a winter wonderland with snow frosted mountains and trees on glittering white ground and an impressive collection of ice sculptures. Being winter the lake was frozen and open for ice skating! Imogen had her first ice skating experience here which I hope will become one of her first memories she can recall. Luke and I drew on our child of the 90’s roller skating/blading experience and managed to impress the kids with our ice-skating skills! The kids picked it up fairly quickly and were managing to do laps staying upright in no time!

We couldn’t leave without exploring the town centre of Banff. It is a gorgeous town that looks like it is from the set of a Christmas movie! While wandering the streets we found a store that sold beavertails, a must try Canadian dessert treat!

Here are some links for anyone interested in checking out more:

Upper Banff Hot Springs: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/voyage-travel/promotion/sources-springs/banff

Norquay tubing: https://banffnorquay.com/winter-2/tubing/

Banff National Parks pass: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/banff/visit/pass

Thanks for Checking in!

Elyse

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