Wow. What a first day. The combination of getting up early, being 2 hours behind our body clocks and the extra-long days up here is making it hard to stay awake, so I’ll have to be brief.

Our flight was really good, actually. The lady who checked our bags was great, our flight was smooth and on time, and two movies kept me entertained until suddenly we were on the ground. There was also a member of the flight crew who liked my music snob t-shirt, so I gave her the website address and chatted a bit. She went on tour with the Rolling Stones a while back, so she had some good stories.

The rental car pickup and drive out of Calgary wasn’t problematic, it was just…slow. Lineups, traffic, etc. so we hit Canmore later than expected. Some groceries later we tried to find Crazyweed for lunch, but they’d moved and we couldn’t be arsed, so we skipped lunch altogether. We drove through construction and slow traffic past Banff, past Lake Louise and into Yoho, where we pulled into our lodge…and it hit me. I was on vacation. I didn’t feel like I was on vacation until I pulled in there, put it in park and cut the engine. Now…now the fun could start.

Check-in was quick and friendly, and we checked out our cabin…zowie. Beautiful! Bigger than Moraine Lake Lodge, nice big porch/veranda, couch, table…very nice indeed. A great added touch was the gift basket in our room…we were amazed at how well they treated their guests! Then Nellie read the card…it wasn’t from the staff, it was a gift basket from my mom and dad! “Happy Hiking” was the message, and it included wine and chocolate and candles and an art puzzle and a huge platter of cheese & crackers (which we found much later) so were blown away! Thanks mom & dad!! What a fantastic way to start the adventure.

We didn’t linger long in the cabin, just changed and jumped back in the car. The lodge is on the same road as Takkekaw Falls, which we missed last time, so we were on a mission. A few minutes later we were walking right up to it…I mean right up to it. It’s a huge waterfall, but I could climb nearly up to the bottom of the cascade. Got a little wet mind you; Nellie stayed farther back and shot.

Back to the cabin to get changed and have a glass of wine (and chocolate!) before dinner at the lodge. Dinner was amazing! Caramelized scallops and orange pickerel for Nellie; a ridiculously good goat cheese dish and peppery barley risotto for me. No dessert necessary; we had a ton of cheese at home. We did finish off our bottle of wine on the patio though, staring out at the the river and mountains, before retiring to our cabin for more wine and staring at nature.

A pretty amazing first day, all in all. We both feel like we’re in mountainous heaven, and can’t wait for tomorrow. Now…for sleep!!

[tags]calgary, canmore, cathedral mountain lodge, takkekaw falls[/tags]