Day 9: A Day in Banff

Art Nature Walk along the Bow River
Banff Gondola
Farewell dinner

We had bought timed tickets online for the Banff Gondola a couple of days before, and figured out the best way to use our free day to see some of the town as well as get to the gondola on time.

There are free tourist buses that bring you into town, but we opted for the less than a mile walk along the Bow River.

The beautiful rushing waters of this large river made a gorgeous and somewhat loud backdrop to the “Artists Nature Trail” exhibit that was set along both sides of the trail.

Each piece of artwork ( maybe 25-35 in all) was unique, and we finally got to see lots of “ animals”—deer, foxes, bears, etc. as well as large and small exhibits along this busy trail.





Even saw a real nature exhibit—an interesting bumpy tree that probably has a specific name, but was not identified.


Arriving into town, Patti and Bob went off to a wonderful museum, but Jim and I opted to do some browsing and shopping, our first ( and last) opportunity on this trip.


Although we had hoped to stop at the famous “ Cows” Ice Cream Shop, when we checked the Gondola bus schedule, we didn’t have time, so we waited for the bus and headed up the mountain to the shuttle.

People - watching the hoards waiting to get onto the gondola, we were entertained by an adorable two year old. Finally, time to ride up.

The eight minute ride in the 4 person gondola has beautiful views, but the best pictures we got were on the top.

We even saw our impressive hotel, in all its glory down below.

After a quick snack with the largest cookie ever, we headed back down.

The ride back might not have warranted a mention except for a shout out to two considerate Banff public bus drivers. We had to do a transfer to get to the hotel bus. Our first bus driver called us out, stopped the bus and gave us specific directions of where to get the second bus across the street. He also had called the other bus driver and had him wait for us. These buses don’t run that often, so we were so gratified that both of them went well beyond to help us tourists. Thank you SO much!

Coming back into the hotel, we ran into the artist in residence from the Mountain Arts gallery. We spent over 45 minutes talking to her, seeing her unique chemically- based work from the glaciers, and helping Patti and Bob pick out a piece to take home.

The Farewell Dinner was held at a different hotel up the mountain called the Rimrock. We had cocktails and hors d’oeuvres in the “Divas” room with pictures on all the walls of classic female stars and starlets from the 1940’s on. Well, not too many of today.

Since the women were advised to stop into the ladies room to check it out, we were pleasantly surprised to see the other sex represented as well!

Our surprise for this part of the reception, besides delicious drinks and oeur d’oeuvres, was a uniformed retired Canadian Royal Mounted Police sergeant in full dress.

Besides posing for pictures, he gave an interesting talk on the history as well as his own experiences working for this organization. He compared it to our FBI, not just a police force, and shared mesmerizing stories.

Onto our meal — a four course dinner was one of the most creative and delicious of the whole trip. We called out the chef for a bow! First course was a lentil coconut soup,

second was a another soup where you broke up a seasoned hard piece of pasta into the cheesy broth and it kind of made a unique pizza flavor,

the third, either beef tenderloin or a sablefish dish,


and lastly, a dessert with a little bit of everything from blackberry sorbet to white chocolate with different nuts. Quite gourmet and quite delicious.

Sadly, back to our hotel to pack for our trip home very early tomorrow.