Saturday, June 11 Day 1
Aren't family vacations great? 9 solid days of insomnia because my brother snores really really really really really loudly. My dad doesn't drive straight, he drives in zigzags. He states every obvious thing he can see out loud and asks fifty questions before doing anything. Nothing comes out of my brother's mouth but bad comments about how much he hates Canadians and hot springs or when his next meal will be. My dad is in love with the air conditioner so I have a thick sweatshirt on and two more blankets over my legs. Can't even feel my toes anymore. After 3 solid hours of listening to Nine Inch Nails and spasmatic downpours we're finally at the border. Another few hours and we're in Radium. We check into our hotel and go to the hot springs for a couple hours which brings us HERE.
Sunday, June 12 Day 2
I'm sick again. Sore throat and coughing. We're on our way to Banff and going through a national forest. We just stopped and saw a baby black bear in a tree and took a bunch of pictures.
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Now we're staying in a little cabin thingy in downtown Banff and watching Harry Potter and the PHILOSOPHER'S stone. That's what it's called in Canada. hahahaha. We walked around a mountain for a couple hours and I got blisters all over my feet. they just don't go in shoes very well. I in pain and tired and sick but I can't sleep because no one will SHUT UP!
Monday, June 13 Day 3
Day 2 in Banff, and today is the halfway mark for my ear! Six more weeks! the satanic angels sing! We went to Banff cave and basin, it's a national park. Caves with hot pools and streams with weird stuff growing in it, kinda like Yellowstone. Highlight of the day: We saw a squirrel run into the cafe, and a couple minutes later came out with a package of crackers.we had nothing better to do so we followed it. It opened it and ate crackers and screamed at us for awhile, then it took the crackers into a tree. Later... We saw the package of crackers fall out of the tree. The squirrel cursed again and angrily went to retrieve them. Back to the important stuff... we went on a boat tour at lake Minnewanka. We also went to Canadian Safeway where we bought the famous Canadian pop without high fructose corn syrup! OMG! They have two rows of everything, one in English and one in French. French grape soda is raisin! nasty. Every fat man's dream is to find a chocolate bar with no nutrition facts on the back, and I found just that...and ironically it's called Dream. It's Cadbury white chocolate and it's goooood! I wore three pairs of socks today so I wouldn't get any more blisters, but I think I did. Still sick...
Tuesday, June 14 Day 4
Today we took the scenic route to Lake Louise. Tried to go hiking at the lake but 20 minutes into it I could feel every passageway through my head throbbing from too much pressure change (you know how I get those barometer and wind headaches). I had to go back down because it got worse the higher I got. Then we went to Johnston Falls on the way back. On the scenic route we saw: two bighorn sheep, lots of elk and chipmunks, two deer, a wolf eating something, and a grizzly bear. Then at 8 we went to the Balkan greek restaurant where we saw live belly dancing and drunken plate busting. Woo yeah! Boy am I sick as hell. We went to some gift shops for awhile too, to buy people crap. And Nick got a royal mounty shirt. Now it's 11:30 and my legs are burning and bleeding uncontrollably! (extreme razor burn)
Wednesday, June 15 Day 5
Okay, so we are heading out of Banff national park into Jasper national park. My head still hurts really really horribly so I slept the first four hours. My dad said I slept through several snowstorms. Right now we're in the Colombia Icefields. Just think of really huge mountains submerged in really huge glaciers and little Chinese people and you're there. They have monster tour buses that drive on the closest glacier.
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then we saw some mountain goats and another black bear and I fell asleep for another three hours, woke up at the place we're staying tonight (in someone's basement) went for ANOTHER walk...you know the gig. After this I'm never going for another walk. And I like the bathroom (washroom, eh!) because it's the only place I can be alone.
Thursday, June 16 Day 6
I feel better today. We took a gondola to the top of a mountain and down again. then we walked downtown and hiked around a canyon. On the way back we stopped because my mom thought she saw a moose. Everyone else went down to the river to look for it, and when they were gone I looked across the street and there was a wolf right next to the road! It ran over the hill before they got back so I was the only person who got to see it. My mom never found the moose. We got subway for dinner! Oh wow!
Friday, June 17 Day 7
We decided to drive to Radium instead of staying in Golden so that we'll get home a day earlier. Went back to Radium hot springs again, it was raining just like it was last time. That's the best time to go. If you put your ears underwater you can hear the rain hitting the surface. It's so strange and fun.
Saturday, June 18 Day 8
Back to mah homelahnd.